There’s a late session tonight (with James Lileks, Andew Klavan, and S. E. Cupp), but I’m frankly worn out by the steady roll of the ship (due to steady 30+ knot winds blowing from the east) and we’ve got an 8:30 snorkling excursion in the morning (we arrive at Grand Turk around 7 am). I may yet run down to listen a bit, but I’m whipped. ..bruce..

Springtime in New Zealand

ITEM: I reported earlier one possible end-run by the Senate to pass the increasingly unpopular “public option” in healthcare reform.  Here’s another one:

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is weighing a plan to bring the final health care bill to the floor without a public option — making it much easier to get the 60 votes needed to prevent a Republican filibuster — and then adding the provision later as an amendment.

The public option amendment would be there waiting, but the 60-vote test would technically be on a bill without the government plan. Then moderate Democrats could drop out for the vote on the public option, which requires just 51 votes for passage.

“It’s brilliant,” said a top Senate Republican aide. “It gets you your votes on cloture for a package that does not include a public option.”

Yeah, brilliant. I think the Democrats are seriously underestimating the growing public backlash over healthcare reform; a trick such as this will just make things worse.

ITEM: Speaking of backlash, the Anchoress has a thoughtful and spot-on analysis of the arrogance that seems to be driving the Obama Administration (and, I might add, the Democratic leadership in Congress):

The American mind is a duality of sorts. A country founded by displaced nobles and built by the strongest and most resourceful commoners from around the globe, America’s can-do attitude is one that doesn’t mind looking out for the little guy, as long as his own share is a fair one, and his options are open. The American mind is constantly dreaming; even her most newly-arrived immigrants dream, because until very recently all dreams were pronounced “welcome,” and the greatest restrictions were the ones you put upon yourself, or allowed others to put upon you. The dreaming made us exceptional; the dreams made us indispensable.

But does Obama understand those dreams? If he does not, then in truth he does not understand the people he undertook to govern. He appears to have decided that “governing” could be accomplished with an endless campaign, meant to entertain a nation enthralled with hucksterism and side-shows; that notion betrays, in meaningful measure, a disdain for the people who placed their trust in him, with their vote.

You really need to read the whole thing.

ITEM: Meanwhile, the Onion assures us that under Obamacare, seniors would have a right to choose how they are killed:

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama held a nationally televised address Tuesday to “clarify any misunderstandings” about his health care proposal, assuring Americans that under the new bill senior citizens—and not the federal government—will have the right to choose how they are executed.

“Let me dispel these ridiculous rumors once and for all and set the record straight: Under my plan, seniors are going to be killed the way they want to be killed, end of story,” said the president, who acknowledged that “wiping out” the nation’s elderly population has always been his No. 1 priority. “If your grandmother would rather be euthanized in the privacy of her own home than be gutted and hanged on a high school soccer field, she is entitled to that right.”

“Once again, let me be perfectly clear,” Obama continued. “Seniors, rest easy knowing that I will never, under any circumstance, sign a bill that doesn’t give you the option of being murdered by my administration in a manner of your choosing. I promise you that.”

ITEM: Because of Obama’s refusal to see the Dalai Lama, human rights groups are now questioning his commitment to, well, human rights:

Human rights groups are beginning to question President Obama’s commitment to their issue as the administration engages authoritarian regimes, retains the option of sending terrorist suspects abroad to places where they might be tortured and puts off a presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Mr. Obama’s decision to wait until after he visits China in November to meet with the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists – who was on Capitol Hill Tuesday receiving an award – comes after a series of decisions that have underlined a classic tension in U.S. foreign policy between the head and the heart.

I would think that Obama’s warming up to Venezuela, Russia, Cuba, and other countries would have given them a clue. Nothing to see here. Move along.

ITEM: Remember back in 2006 how Nancy Pelosi said that the House would work five days a week now that the Democrats were back in control?

After taking control of the House in 2006 — and again when President Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 — Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) boasted that lawmakers would work four or five days a week to bring change to America.

But midway through Obama’s first year in office, Hoyer’s House has settled into a more leisurely routine. Members usually arrive for the first vote of the week as the sun sets on Tuesdays, and they’re usually headed back home before it goes down again on Thursdays.

Since the House returned for its fall session on Sept. 8, it has stuck around to vote on a Friday just once: to approve a 5.8 percent increase in Congress’s own budget.

A Democratic leadership aide vehemently defended the schedule, saying members shouldn’t be kept in Washington for four or five days when work can be completed in fewer.

On the other hand, given the track record of the House to date, I’m happy to have them gone as much as possible. Primum non nocere and all that.  ..bruce w..

More paper! More paper on the fire!

MID-MORNING LINKS [updated as I run across them]

ITEM: It turns out there’s at least one thing that the Communist Chinese government and I agree upon:

China alarmed by US money printing

The US Federal Reserve’s policy of printing money to buy Treasury debt threatens to set off a serious decline of the dollar and compel China to redesign its foreign reserve policy, according to a top member of the Communist hierarchy.

Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and now head of China’s green energy drive, said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed’s recourse to “credit easing”.

“We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again,” he said at the Ambrosetti Workshop, a policy gathering on Lake Como.

“If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies,” he said.

I don’t know about you, but I find it a bit embarrassing to be lectured by the ChiComs about fundamental government economic policy and have them be right.

ITEM: As I note below in the morning links and in my “cult of personality” post last week, my objection to Obama’s address to schoolchildren isn’t the talk per se, it’s the “lesson plan” distributed ahead of time to the teachers, particularly for the preK-6th grade age group.  However, Ken over at Popehat lists some additional cogent, rational reasons for objecting to the President’s speech.  The most telling one is that the kids are just a prop and the speech is really a political speech aimed at adults:

Here’s why. The speech, as I understand it, is for grades K-12. No speech aimed at that wide range can be age-appropriate. Either you leave behind the younger kids to say something worthwhile to the older ones, or you dumb it down to the point that the older kids are bored, or most likely you manage to do both. You can’t aim a speech of any real substance to the range K-12. You can, however, aim the speech to the other audiences listening — the press and the public that will view the speech via the press.

Any speech by a partisan elected politician aimed at those audiences is political — even if the speech is kept so inoffensive that the only political message is the implied one “look how much I care about kids and education.”

Read the whole thing.

MORNING LINKS

Since Sandra and I are marching on Congress this Saturday, it’s probably time for me to resurrect my daily links. Note that Sandra and I will arrive in DC on Wednesday (9/9) and will be there through Monday afternoon (9/14); if you’re going to be in town as well, let me know. And it’s not too late to sign up for the 9/12 March on Washington.

ITEM: There are some interesting signs of division within the Obama White House itself. Politico reports that sources within the White House are distancing themselves from Jones and are pointing some interesting fingers (emphasis mine):

And it was a fresh reminder that the White House’s vetting process didn’t fall down only on high-profile nominees like Tom Daschle. It barely touched the lower reaches of the administration – a White House official conceded Sunday that Jones’ past statements weren’t as thoroughly scrubbed due to his relatively low rank. Jones’ selection also was propelled by powerful patrons, who included the first lady and the vice president.

Wowza. I can see someone pointing fingers at Joe Biden, but at Michelle Obama? Hope that person is under deep cover and has fireproof underwear. Unless, of course, that “White House official” is speaking on behalf of the President. And perhaps even then.

Here more evidence of White House distancing (Stay under the bus, dammit!) from Jones:

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod said he did not believe the president knew about all of Mr. Jones’ previous associations and was unfamiliar with his remarks, which included calls for an investigation of whether the George W. Bush administration had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but let them happen in order to provide a pretext for war.

Oh, really? Isn’t this the same Van Jones about whom Valarie Jarrett said just a few weeks ago:

Oooh. Van Jones, alright! So, Van Jones. We were so delighted to be able to recruit him into the White House. We were watching him, uh, really, he’s not that old, for as long as he’s been active out in Oakland. And all the creative ideas he has. And so now, we have captured that. And we have all that energy in the White House.

I guess Obama didn’t really know him.

ITEM: In the meantime, Obama is losing economists. Actually, he probably lost a majority of non-Keynesian economists months ago, but the current batch includes a Nobel Laureate (emphasis mine):

Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan. . . .

There are “troubling similarities” between the US President’s actions since taking office and those which in the 1930s sent the US and much of the world spiralling into the worst economic collapse in recorded history, says the new pamphlet, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.

In particular, the authors, economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House’s plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years. . . .

The paper, which recommends that the US return to a more laissez-faire economic system rather than intervening further in activity, has been endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan, who said: “We have learned some things from comparable experiences of the 1930s’ Great Depression, perhaps enough to reduce the severity of the current contraction. But we have made no progress toward putting limits on political leaders, who act out their natural proclivities without any basic understanding of what makes capitalism work.“

Here’s the place to insert another plug for The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, a book that really should have gotten the Pulitzer Prize.

ITEM: Speaking of fiscal disasters, here’s another assessment, this time from Larry Kudrow:

Veep Joe Biden is out there saying the Obama stimulus plan has saved or created 150,000 jobs in the administration’s first 100 days and another 600,000 in its second 100 days. But he sure isn’t talking about small-business jobs.

In fact, it’s hard to know what he’s talking about. Uncle Sam has borrowed $388 billion in the second quarter and is scheduled to borrow $406 billion in the third quarter and nearly $500 billion in the fourth. In order to provide $152 billion in so-called fiscal stimulus, the government is draining close to $800 billion from the private-sector savings supply — $800 billion that will not be invested in new-business enterprises, including small businesses.

Borrowing from Peter to redistribute to Paul is not fiscal stimulus. It’s a fiscal depressant. Small businesses are having enough trouble getting their hands on credit. And now they can’t find enough capital for new start-ups. The government prospers, but the small-business sector sinks.

And from David Walker, former head of the Government Accountability Office, as interviewed by John Fund of the WSJ:

David Walker sounds like a modern-day Paul Revere as he warns about the country’s perilous future. “We suffer from a fiscal cancer,” he tells a meeting of the National Taxpayers Union, the nation’s oldest anti-tax lobby. “Our off balance sheet obligations associated with Social Security and Medicare put us in a $56 trillion financial hole—and that’s before the recession was officially declared last year. America now owes more than Americans are worth—and the gap is growing!” . . .

One way the Peterson Foundation wants to change that is to bring big numbers down to earth so people can comprehend them. “Our $56 trillion in unfunded obligations amount to $483,000 per household. That’s 10 times the median household income—so it’s as if everyone had a second or third mortgage on a house equal to 10 times their income but no house they can lay claim to.” As for this year’s likely deficit of $1.8 trillion, Mr. Walker suggests its size be conveyed thusly: “A deficit that large is $3.4 million a minute, $200 million an hour, $5 billion a day,” he says. That does indeed put things into perspective.

Finally, Robert Samuelson — one of the most intellectually honest and even-handed economic commentators out there — paints a bleak picture of his own (emphasis mine):

What’s most ominous is not today’s job market; it’s the outlook. After the 1981-82 recession, unemployment dropped steadily from an annual average of 9.7 percent in 1982 to 7.5 percent in 1984 and 5.5 percent in 1988. The descent this time is expected to be much slower. In 2014, the unemployment rate will still average 7.6 percent, forecasts IHS Global Insight, which predicts a peak of 10 percent early next year. Reducing unemployment requires an economic expansion fast enough to absorb today’s jobless plus the natural growth of the labor force. Most forecasters expect a tepid recovery will only gradually dent unemployment, despite slowing labor force growth.

Ouch.

ITEM:  I like Willie Brown. Though he’s a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, and one who likely enriched himself during his tenures as Speaker of the California State Assembly and mayor of San Francisco, he’s refreshingly honest (he likes Sarah Palin, for example). So when he tells us to lighten up on Obama, I listen — and, as it turns out, his “defense” of Obama is reasonable and not at all in line with those worshiping the One:

The media seem to have forgotten that nearly 60 million people voted against Obama in November. Of course they’re going to show up at these town halls and bash him.

Conventional wisdom has it that his numbers are sliding because he’s not being decisive enough on the health care issue. Often this assessment comes from the same folks who slammed Hillary Rodham Clinton for putting together her ill-fated health care plan without public input a few years back.

Obama was determined not to have a repeat performance. So, rather than hand Congress a full-blown plan put together by his experts, he told lawmakers to put something together and he would react to it.

Then he went around the country laying out the broad parameters of what a health care plan should contain without getting specific.

As a result, Obama wound up defending or explaining proposals that were never fully vetted, never fully understood and probably not even fully read by anyone but their own authors. . . .

When Obama finally lays it out before Congress on Wednesday, critics on both sides are promptly going to slam him for having supposedly changed his positions. They’ll say he’s giving up on this, he’s giving up on that.

I say, “So what?”

A good leader never imposes his will on his followers. A good leader tries to blend his vision into something that his followers can adopt as their own.

The real challenge for Obama is not to present an ideal plan, but to present a plan that can pass with the minimum political risk to the politicians who have to vote for it.

As for his slip in popularity, his exalted status was never anything but a myth anyway. The idea that Obama was a Hercules who would right the world Jan. 21 was way overblown.

Heresy! Heresy! And has someone explained this to Obama himself? Or to the idiots on the Left who worship him?

ITEM: Calling the public “silly” about concerns over the Obama-to-schoolkids talks will not calm the troubled waters. EdSec’s Arne Duncan’s comments are almost as tone-deaf as the original questionnaire:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Sunday decried as “silly” the public “hoopla” over White House plans to air a message for the nation’s schoolchildren and said students would not be forced to watch it. . . .

He did acknowledge, however, that “there is one [assignment] that wasn’t worded quite correctly,” adding that the intended reference was “about helping the president hit his goal of having the highest percent of college graduates by 2020.”

Really? Go judge for yourself what the original lesson plan for pre-Kindergarten through 6th grade says. There’s nothing there about “having the highest percentage of college graduates”. There is, however, an almost overwhelming focus on the President himself. That’s what got people upset, not the idea of having the President talk to schoolkids.

ITEM: Speaking of tone-deaf and burying news on the Labor Day weekend — are you aware that Pres. Obama last Thursday (9/3) declared this past Labor Day weekend (9/4-9/6) as the “National Days of Prayer and Remembrance” for the 9/11 attacks? (hat tip to Say Anything):

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Friday, September 4, through Sunday, September 6, as National Days of Prayer and Remembrance. I ask that the people of the United States, each in their own way, honor the victims of September 11, 2001, and their families through prayer, memorial services, the ringing of bells, and evening candlelight remembrance vigils. I invite the people of the world to share in this solemn commemoration.

You all got the memo, didn’t you?

So, why didn’t Obama declare 9/11/09 as the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the 9/11 attacks? Because he already declared it to be a National Day of Service via legislation passed by Congress.

ITEM: Back to the Obamacare disaster. With Rahm “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste” Emanuel as Obama’s chief-of-staff, why am I not surprised to see this crop up just a few days before Obama’s health-care address:

Obama May Need Sense of Crisis to Revive Health-Care Overhaul

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama returns to Washington next week in search of one thing that can revive his health-care overhaul: a sense of crisis.

Facing polls showing a drop in his approval, diminished support from independents, factions within his Democratic Party and a united Republican opposition, Obama must recapture the sense of urgency that led to passage of the economic rescue package in February, analysts said. . . .

I’d say there’s a sense of crisis all right, but probably not the one that will benefit Obama.

That’s it for now; maybe more as the day goes along.  ..bruce w..

News overnight that North Korea conducted it’s second nuclear test at it’s test site near Kilju, in the north eastern part of their country. Early indications are that the shot was between 2 Kilotons and 6 Kilotons, a larger yield than their first attempt where the result was a fizzled 500 Tons.

There are conflicting stories that this was a test of refinements to their 4 Kt design that they tried in the first shot, or a test of 20 Kt device similar to one used by the United States in World War 2. If it is a 4 Kt yield from a 20 Kt device, they are still a long way from having a workable weapon. If it was a second try at the 4 Kt Pakistani design, it shows that they got it right.

Neither option means that the North has the means to deliver such a weapon to the battlefield or use it. These tests serve two purposes for North Korea; a political saber rattling against what it rightfully perceives as a weakened and disorganized international community, and to prove to it’s sponsors that they are making progress on nuclear weapons. These weapons may have customers waiting for it in several countries and non-state groups who hope to have a nuclear weapon as a tool.

The test was carried out in the same area as the previous failed test, but it seems they dug a second shot tunnel into the north face of the mountain, as opposed to the south face used in the first test.

Imagery of the test area from a previous post to this site are here: Imagery Of North Korean Test Site.

As we have been stating since the 2006 test, the biggest danger here is that the belligerent posture of North Korea will nudge Japan away from it’s pacifist veneer installed after WWII. If Japan decides that there is no defense for Japan forthcoming from the United Nations or the USA, look for it to re-embrace the bushido culture and begin to re-arm. This would be a disaster for the world.

I honestly don’t blame the administration for talking up the economy over the past few months. I am sure they wanted to see if they could nudge Americans into coming out of the bunkers and buying again. It worked for George Bush after 9-11, maybe they can give it one more go?

Sadly, Sally and Joe Sixpack are tapped out. Any spare money they have is either going to pay off their debt or being salted away, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

While talk in the press as of late has been that some have seen “green shoots” of a nascient recovery, the larger indicators are showing a different story; a story of a prolonged and deepening crash around the world. Consider this story from the New York Times, Cargo Ships Treading Water Off Singapore, Waiting for Work:

One of the largest fleets of ships ever gathered idles here just outside one of the world’s busiest ports, marooned by the receding tide of global trade. There may be tentative signs of economic recovery in spots around the globe, but few here.

So many ships have congregated here — 735, according to AIS Live ship tracking service of Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay in Redhill, Britain — that shipping lines are becoming concerned about near misses and collisions in one of the world’s most congested waterways, the straits that separate Malaysia and Singapore from Indonesia.

The root of the problem lies in an unusually steep slump in global trade, confirmed by trade statistics announced on Tuesday.

The gathering of so many freighters “is extraordinary,” said Christopher Pålsson, a senior consultant at Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay Research, the consulting division of Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay. “We have probably not witnessed anything like this since the early 1980s,” during the last big bust in the global shipping industry.

The global shipping fleet lies rusting at anchor in the Malacca Straights, hoping one day to have cargo to cary. Many of these ships were built in the last 10 years by conglomerates and global funds hoping to cash in on the global trade boom they thought would never stop. Those ships were financed through large banks in Europe and the US. What do you think happens whey they can’t make the payments because there are no work for the ships? Subprime super tankers anyone?

No matter how much anyone tries to talk the economy out of the slump, the fundamentals are still showing the worst is yet to come. As we cored out whole industries and sent them over seas, we lost the ability to manufacture our way out of it. All we produce now is debt and crazy derivatives on debt. The market for them disappeared well over a year ago and won’t likely ever come back.

That other shoe? It’s still waiting to drop.

This is the reason for the season.

MORNING LINKS

ITEM: Wondering where all those Tea Parties are taking place? Have a look. Hat tip to Instapundit.

ITEM: Creeping socialism/fascism alert — A Greenville, Texas City Council member is arrested and removed from a City Council meeting for talking about a subject that the Mayor didn’t like. Pretty amazing video, including the attempt by the Mayor after the arrest to explain what he did. Hat tip to the Drunk Report.

ITEM: Creeping socialism/fascism alert (part 2) — Students disrupt and eventually shut down a talk by former Congressman Tom Tancredo on illegal immigration (hat tip to the Drudge Report.):

Dozens of protesters turned out to oppose a speech given by a former Colorado congressman, who was on campus to speak against illegal immigration.

Tom Tancredo didn’t make it through his talk. In fact, he left campus early after protesters interrupted his speech and broke a window.

Protesters who weren’t allowed into the room where the speech was being given gathered outside the door and chanted, “There’s no debate, no space for hate.”

ITEM: You know, you would think that OPEC would have learned by now: “OPEC sees ‘devastating contraction’ in oil demand“. This has happened before when OPEC has tried to keep prices high.  Of course, it’s currently exacerbated by the worldwide recession going on.

OVERNIGHT LINKS

ITEM: It is getting downright comical watching the Left hyperventilate about the Tea Parties scheduled for today. Sandra noted that Keith Olberman devoted two full segments of Tuesday’s show in an attempt to debunk/dismiss them. I suspect the Left is not just terrified at seeing the Right adopt a practice (mass demonstrations) they felt they owned, but also at the thought that today’s turnouts nationwide may exceed anything the Left has put together in decades.

And, in case you’re wondering, Sandra and I are heading to the one here in Denver (at noon MDT on the steps of the State Capitol). I’ll try to post photos and video later.

ADMIN: By the way, I’ve introduced two new categories: “Sea of Deficits” and “You Say You Want a Revolution?”  Both, I assume, are self-explanatory.

ITEM: First the Tea Parties and now this: “Gov. Perry Backs Resolution Affirming Texas’ Sovereignty Under 10th Amendment” (original hat tip to the Drudge Report):

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry joined state Rep. Brandon Creighton and sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 50 in support of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”

Perry continued: “Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, DC trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas.”

You say you want a revolution?

ITEM: Shocking details of the CIA’s rendition program against al Queda — during the Clinton Administration! Funny how the Democrats in Congress tend to forget about that.

ITEM: Flipper and the Pirates — “Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates”. No, really.

ITEM: So, how has that scolding of North Korea worked out?

North Korea said it has abandoned aid-for-disarmament talks and ordered international monitors out of the country, leaving the U.S. and others to figure out a new way to deal with Pyongyang’s pursuit of dangerous weapons.

Coming on the heels of North Korea’s latest weapons-related test — the April 5 firing of a missile-like rocket — the moves show that Pyongyang can resist international pressure despite its poverty.

North Korea ordered International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors out of the country, ending global monitoring of a research reactor at Yongbyon and in theory allowing reprocessing of fuel rods to make plutonium.

The five other nations in the disarmament talks — China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. — must decide whether to try to restart the process or take a new approach to the North.

ITEM: In the meantime, Obama is losing the Onion, which takes its own shots at the lapdog mainstream media:

More than a week after President Barack Obama’s cold-blooded killing of a local couple, members of the American news media admitted Tuesday that they were still trying to find the best angle for covering the gruesome crime.

“I know there’s a story in there somewhere,” said Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, referring to Obama’s home invasion and execution-style slaying of Jeff and Sue Finowicz on Apr. 8. “Right now though, it’s probably best to just sit back and wait for more information to come in. After all, the only thing we know for sure is that our president senselessly murdered two unsuspecting Americans without emotion or hesitation.”

Added Meacham, “It’s not so cut and dried.”

ITEM: This is neither news nor a surprise: “Russia and China get cozy”. But what’s really silly is the subhead: “But neither is ready to act like a responsible power.” What does that mean, exactly? I mean, for all the Left’s mocking of Bush’s hopes that countries would move toward democracy, who in their right mind think that Russia or China will ever act in anything but their own perceived interests?

Maybe some links in the morning.  In the meantime, if you missed them, here are Tuesday’s links.  ..bruce w..

Into the deep blue...

OVERNIGHT LINKS

ITEM: Why newspapers are dying — note the lead headline for the online version of the Denver Post:

And in other breaking news....

ITEM: Speaking of animals, this story of a dead whale on the beach at Del Mar brings up memories of one of Dave Barry’s funniest columns and the video that inspired it.

ITEM: Y’know, articles like this one — from the Washington Post on Bush’s post-Presidency life — should be clearly marked “analysis” rather than “news” (that is, rather than just filed in the “Politics” section). The snark is so thick you can cut it with a knife:

The presidency that is remembered on Daria Place bears little resemblance to the one that most of the country continues to blame for its problems. Bush left Washington on Jan. 20 with two-thirds of Americans disapproving of his job performance — one of the worst ratings ever for an outgoing U.S. president. In his return to private life, he has maintained tranquility by adhering to a basic philosophy:

He lives squarely in the remaining 33 percent.

Yeah, that’s real journalism.

ITEM: Two years ago, the US Federal deficit for the entire year of 2007 was $162 billion. Note carefully that 2007 was the last year for which the US Federal budget was set by a Republican-controlled Congress; the Democrats took over starting with the 2008 budget.  Now the US Federal deficit just for the month of March 2009 is $192 billion. Yeah, blame that on Bush.

ITEM: And speaking of deficits, be prepared to have your state and local governments find new ways to squeeze money from you.

ITEM: Alan Reynolds points out what the mainstream media — and the G20 leaders — conveniently ignore: the rest of the world was already in deep financial trouble before the subprime crisis hit the US. In fact, the rest of the world has been counting on the US to prop up the global economy for several years now.

ITEM: Eric Alterman, recognizing that a government bailout of newspapers isn’t likely going to happen, suggests they become non-profit institutions instead (i.e., exempt from taxes). I would say that most newspapers are so far from making a profiit right now that this may be too large a step up.

ITEM: OK, it’s hard to get through this over-the-top paean to Michelle Obama with a straight face.But I will grant one thing: right now, I think that Michelle would do a more competent job as President than her husband. In all honesty, I felt the same way from time to time about Laura Bush, on occasion I felt that way about Hillary Clinton, and I definitely felt that way about Barbara Bush. Nancy Reagan, no.

ITEM: Speaking of Hillary Clinton — Iran boasts of its increased ability to enrich uranium; Clinton responds, “We don’t know what to believe about the Iranian program.” Well, Secretary Clinton, a good place to start would be: Iran is building a nuclear bomb and wants to use it on Israel.

ITEM: So, how’s that wind power working out?

There is no evidence that industrial wind power is likely to have a significant impact on carbon emissions. The European experience is instructive. Denmark, the world’s most wind-intensive nation, with more than 6,000 turbines generating 19% of its electricity, has yet to close a single fossil-fuel plant. It requires 50% more coal-generated electricity to cover wind power’s unpredictability, and pollution and carbon dioxide emissions have risen (by 36% in 2006 alone).

Flemming Nissen, the head of development at West Danish generating company ELSAM (one of Denmark’s largest energy utilities) tells us that “wind turbines do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions.” The German experience is no different. Der Spiegel reports that “Germany’s CO2 emissions haven’t been reduced by even a single gram,” and additional coal- and gas-fired plants have been constructed to ensure reliable delivery.

ITEM: OK, the title was so obvious — at least for anyone of a certain age — that I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it first: Barry and the Pirates.

ITEM: Why the US Marines are the world’s most effective fighting force (hat tip to the Daily Brief; emphasis mine):

“On July 21 Gustafson was manning the turret of the lead vehicle, a mine resistant ambush protected vehicle, or MRAP, during a four-vehicle mounted patrol riding through the streets of Shewan, Afghanistan…

The patrol came under heavy fire from machine guns as well as rocket-propelled grenades from hidden insurgent positions.

One of the RPGs hit Gustafson’s MRAP, piercing its armor, rendering the driver unconscious and partially amputating Gustafson’s right leg.

Despite his injuries, Gustafson remained vigilant on his M240B machine gun, locating and accurately firing on several insurgent positions, some as close as 20 meters from the vehicle.

He remained in the turret, reloading twice and firing over 600 rounds, while Lance Cpl. Cody Comstock, an Anderson, Ind. native, applied a tourniquet to his leg.

After regaining consciousness, the driver, Cpl. Geoffrey Kamp, an Indianapolis native, put the vehicle in reverse and pushed the disabled vehicle behind them out of the kill zone.

Not until both vehicles were safe from the heavy insurgent fire and all the Marines had evacuated the burning vehicle did he allow himself to be removed from the turret for medical treatment.”

Hoorah, indeed. Full disclosure: my son Jon and my nephew Darren are both Marines; Jon’s already done a tour in Iraq; Darren’s on his way to Afghanistan, and Jon may be there by year’s end.

ITEM: Courtesy of Blue Crab Boulevard comes this video of the first GM car produced under US government ownership:

Barring some major development, this is for the weekend — a peaceful Easter to all and sundry. ..bruce w..

The new face of America!

MORNING LINKS

[Welcome to AoS readers, and thanks to Genghis for the links and the kind words! Feel free to bookmark ASIP! Also, my Saturday links are posted here, my Monday links are here, my Tuesday links are here, and my Wednesday links are here.]

ITEM: Remember me quoting Machiavelli (“It is better to be feared than loved.”)  a few days ago with regards to the Obama World Tour? Well, the Economist just did the same thing. Great minds think alike, and all that.

ITEM: Speaking of being feared, here’s more advice, all of it sensible, on how to deal with ongoing piracy on the high seas. Y’know, if Obama were wise (as opposed to being merely smart or clever), he would follow these steps. It would make a lot of our enemies (and allies) nervous and would win him great approval here in the US.

ITEM: Creeping socialism/fascism alert: Yet another reason why I will probably never move back to my home state of California — now they want to regulate how big your TV can be, all in the name of “global warming.” Talk about fiddling while Rome burns….

ITEM: Ouch, ouch and ouch. Vanity Fair weighs in the on the question of whether Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. should be running the New York Times, but the real knife-between-the-ribs is the photo at the start of the article:

Yep, that's him on the right.

That’s gotta leave a mark.

OVERNIGHT LINKS

ITEM: My laptop isn’t dead. Yet.

ITEM: As per the photo above, Charles Krauthammer takes Obama to task for his recent swing through Europe:

Our president came bearing a basketful of mea culpas. With varying degrees of directness or obliqueness, Obama indicted his own people for arrogance, for dismissiveness and derisiveness, for genocide, for torture, for Hiroshima, for Guantanamo and for insufficient respect for the Muslim world.

And what did he get for this obsessive denigration of his own country? He wanted more NATO combat troops in Afghanistan to match the surge of 17,000 Americans. He was rudely rebuffed.

Read the whole thing.

ITEM: Another comedy of errors from the White House. Hat tip to TOTUS; be sure to read his version of events. Also, TOTUS has the real scoop on Joe Biden calling President Bush to task.

ITEM: A call to bring US troops home from Europe. I’ve been arguing for this since the fall of the USSR 20 years ago, particularly given the rampant anti-Americanism in (western) Europe. Yeah, the Russian Bear has been growling a bit lately, but I think it’s time for the EU to cowboy up and take care of their own borders.

ITEM: Speaking of anti-Americanism – “I think the fact that Canada continues to exist is proof of the kindness of America as a nation”:

ITEM: The current Somali pirate hostage situation should remind us that there are tried and true methods for dealing with pirates that actually work quite well (as opposed to, say, holding hearings in Congress). Which is not to say that there haven’t been effective steps taken already.

ITEM: Good news! The economy could recover sooner than expected! Bad news! No, it won’t! Worst news: even if it does, we’ll probably make all the same mistakes all over again. Related news: China, who owns just about 25% of the total US debt, is having economic troubles of its own.

ITEM: Speaking of make the same mistakes over and over again, Congress is still in session:

Self-proclaimed victims of global warming or those who “expect to suffer” from it – from beachfront property owners to asthmatics – for the first time would be able to sue the federal government or private businesses over greenhouse gas emissions under a little-noticed provision slipped into the House climate bill.

Environmentalists say the measure was narrowly crafted to give citizens the unusual standing to sue the U.S. government as a way to force action on curbing emissions. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sees a new cottage industry for lawyers.

“You could be spawning lawsuits at almost any place [climate-change modeling] computers place at harm’s risk,” said Bill Kovacs, energy lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

I’m not sure which is worse: whether this was deliberately intended, or if it’s just a byproduct of the increasingly disfunctional legislative process.

ITEM: Creeping socialism/fascism alert: Congress also wants to take control of the Federal Reserve Board. That is a truly terrifying thought. I may not always agree with the Fed’s course of action, but giving Congress any hint of control or oversight would be a disaster.

ITEM: Speaking of disaster (and I’m referring to the subject, not the author), Woman On Fire Megan McArdle starts her latest article with:  “America’s public sector pensions have been a scandal for years.” They sure have, but the mainstream media has studiously ignored this problem because, as McArdle notes, “Politicians had gotten into the habit of promising generous pensions as a ‘cheap’ giveaway to powerful unions.” And unions can do no wrong as far as the MSM is concerned.

By the way, guess where a lot of those pension funds were invested?

With the holes laid bare, public pension funds scrambled to find some way to fill them without making politicians do something ridiculous, like raise taxes to pay for all the promises they’d made.  Many of them seem to have hit on the notion of pulling the money out of boring old bonds and putting them in something that paid a nice, high return–not just equities, but hedge funds and exotic securities. . . .

. . . the current underfunding in public plans, which cover about 22 million workers, seems to be something north of a trillion dollars.  And they’re not insured.

Read the whole thing.

ITEM: In the meantime, the PPIP plan for helping banks rid themselves of toxic assets fails some very elementary game theory analysis:

Game theory tells us that a risk neutral gambler would pay $50 dollars for a coin flip that paid $0 for Heads and $100 for Tails. Game theorists would call $50 the value of the bet.

Suppose someone is willing to fund your gambling problem, and lend you $80 at zero interest. Better still, if you lose the bet you don’t have to pay him back. Under that scenario, the same gambler would pay $90 for the bet, giving him an even chance of winning or losing $10.

This is a microcosm of what the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) is intended to do: create an incentive for investors to pay $90 for a bet that is only worth $50. It is bad economics and bad public policy and it is probably fraudulent. Congress should act pre-emptively to halt Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s latest scheme.

ITEM: Take it from the father of nine chidren (plus a few semi-adopted daughters) — if you think having children is going to make your marriage easier or more pleasant, think again. But what this article — and the study behind it — does not touch upon is that there are (or can be) deep joys from your children not found anywhere else in life. But the commitment is for a lifetime.

ITEM: For the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone would be surprised that the US trade deficit keeps dropping. If people lose net worth and/or are unemployed or at risk of losing their jobs, they’re not going to spend as much (assuming they have money to spend). And since vast amounts of what we buy are manufactured (or grown) outside the US (read: China), it only stands to reason that we’d import less.

ITEM: Speaking of China, this photo shows the world’s tallest statue, located in eastern China. Here’s the Google Maps view. (Hat tip to the Drunk Report.)

ITEM: The Daily Bayonet is back from being under the knife and has his Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up posted.

More in the morning, I believe.  ..bruce w..

Ah, such a melange of symbolism in one image!

MORNING LINKS — a few updates of interest.

MAJOR ITEM (bumped from overnight links): My co-blogger Bruce Henderson applies his intelligence background to the forthcoming North Korean launch and whether Japan will intercept it. Go read the article.

ITEM: Hope and No Change: there’s a group that wants to repeal the 22nd Amendment so that Obama can run for President in 2016. (Hat tip to Ryan Cole over at the AmSpec Blog.) Of course, he’s got to win in 2012 first. . . .

ITEM: Dumb criminal alert — let’s play, “Who’s more clueless?” Is it the teenager who ‘tags’ police cruisers in a police station parking lot with police watching? Or is it the  27-year-old college student who placed false bids on BLM drilling parcels in order to disrupt the auction with an expectation that President Obama would get him out of trouble?

DeChristopher said he didn’t regret bidding on 13 drilling parcels near Arches and Canyonlands with no intention of paying the $1.8 million for them. But he did believe the Obama administration might see the seriousness and morality of his mission to protect the future against global climate disruption.

“Those hopes were misplaced,” he said. “Now my hopes rest on a jury of my peers.”

DeChristopher faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines under charges he organized and participated in a scheme to “defeat” federal law and made a fraudulent statement when he registered as a bidder at the BLM’s Dec. 19 lease sale in Salt Lake City.

ITEM: China’s political leaders, choosing between economic stimulus and environmental protection, opt for the economy. What’s amusing in this article is that the author seems to have really thought that the Chinese might go for the environment; the tone of disappointment is palpable.

ITEM: Remember Encarta? Microsoft’s run at the encyclopedia companies (World Book and Britannica)? It’s dead, done in not by the traditional encyclopedias but by (you guessed it) Wikipedia.

OVERNIGHT LINKS — and no, I’m not sure what the post’s title means, either. Just go with it.

ITEM: “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.” The Hope-and-Changers blithely overlook Obama’s Chicago roots.

ITEM: By the way, Obama’s in Europe. How’s that working out?

ITEM: I was going to pass on the Obama-gives-the Queen-an-iPod story, but Ace of Spades has some details that makes me cringe:

But here’s what’s on the iPod, among pictures of the queen’s previous visits (as if she doesn’t have an entire staff of court photographers for that purpose):

* Photos from President Obama’s Inauguration

* Audio of then-state senator Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and

* Audio of President Obama 2009 Inauguration Address

And in case you’re wondering what the Bushes gave Queen Elizabeth when she visited the US, here’s a list:

President and Mrs. Bush gave Her Majesty a bronze statuette “High Desert Princess” with a personal inscription on the bottom of the base. It is a replica of the original life size statue that is located in front of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth, Texas.

President and Mrs. Bush gave The Prince Philip an exclusive sterling silver eagle box by Tiffany & Co. with personal inscription on the inside lid.

President and Mrs. Bush gave Their Majesties a leather presentation box filled with a collection of documents from the National Archives. One of the items was a copy of an original letter from President Roosevelt to her father, King George, written in 1938. There were also photos from previous royal visits and a DVD of the footage from the Queen’s visit to the United States when she was Princess Elizabeth in 1951.

But the glorious President Obama gave her an iPod. (“Made in China by exploited female workers“, as Legal Insurrection points out.)  With his own speeches on it. I am embarrassed. Has this man’s ego any bounds?

ITEM: Meanwhile, Rachel Lucas (our Redneck in England) reports another Obama gaffe that was definitely noticed in the UK but not mentioned at all back here in the Colonies (at least not in the Mainstream Media). Also, Obama’s teleprompter weighs in on the same gaffe.

ITEM: Creeping socialism/fascism alert: Geither says more CEOs could go. This raises an interesting question: just where the US government get the power to replace corporate CEOs at will? Is there fine print in the bailout agreements? And this article is hardly comforting.

ITEM: In the meantime, check your paystubs for that extra $10/week. Feel stimulated yet? Frankly, the “economic stimulus” strikes me as being a lot like those class-action lawsuits, where the attorneys walk off with millions (or even billions), while the actual injured parties get coupons worth $7.95 towards their next purchase of whatever it was that went bad in the first place.

ITEM: Meanwhile, Penn Jillette tries to figure out if Obama is skidding or crashing. (Hat tip to Instapundit.)

ITEM: As much as the Left/Media tries to obscure or deny the problem, most “feel good” environmental measures end up hurting the poor more than anyone else.

ITEM: And speaking of the media, while Richard Scott’s background is fair game, I’m still waiting for the NY Times to do some serious coverage about ACORN and voter fraud. Oh, wait — that could be a “game changer“! On the other hand, the Times may be feeling just a touch of buyer’s remorse themselves (another tip o’ the hat to Glenn for the last item).

ITEM: And speaking of Glenn, he has been wondering for some time if college admissions are a bubble waiting to pop.  Maybe so.

ITEM: My wife listens to Ed Schultz on Air American on a regular basis. She says that he’s actually a nice, intelligent guy, but he’s also an avowed socialist (as in, “Yes, I think we need more socialism in America!”). So it’s no surprise as to which cable channel picked him up.

ITEM: After dealing with economic idiocy idealism for a while, it’s easy to forget just how loony it really is (hat tip to Samizdata):

So when people – archbishops, G20 demonstrators, the preposterous psychologist Oliver James – attack consumerism, and as the credit crunch brings them bigger audiences and more credibility, I think they are really attacking something far more banal. I think they are dressing up their assault in fancy language – like undergraduates who get involved in college politics and start calling themselves student unionists – to make a prosaic idea sound impressive.

I think that they have looked back at 5,000 years of human history – at pestilence and famine and disease and degradation, at genocide and civil war, at fear and loathing, at bigotry and ignorance, chauvinism and dictatorship – and concluded that our biggest problem is… shopping.

ITEM: Movie recommendation of the week: “Peter Pan” (2003). Far outstrips the old Disney version.

More links in the morning, maybe.  ..bruce w..

Remind you of Washington?

MORNING LINKS –first two are bumped from overnight links

Item: (April Fool’s joke): The 2010 All New Omobile!

ITEM (ah, if only it weren’t a joke): Obama forces GM chief out, puts Reid, Pelosi on leave

ITEM (not a joke, but wouldn’t it be ironic?): Penn State researchers have discovered how to use microbes to make natural gas from . . . (wait for it) . . . CO2! (Hat tip to Tim Taylor; many thanks for the link!) Key graf:

The team learned that the Archaea microbe, using about the same electrical input, could use the current to convert carbon dioxide and water to methane without any organic material, bacteria or hydrogen usually found in microbial electrolysis cells. . . . The result – Logan puts it plainly, “We have a microbe that is self perpetuating that can accept electrons directly, and use them to create methane.” It’s almost unnerving in its simplicity.

As far as I can tell, not an April Fool’s joke; follow the links here and here.

ITEM (the man may be funny, but he’s not joking): Meanwhile, P. J. O’Rourke explains how all this stimulus is going to work:

The good news is that, according to the Obama administration, the rich will pay for everything. The bad news is that, according to the Obama administration, you’re rich.

You may be surprised to discover you’re rich, especially if you’re broke. How do you know you are a member of the penurious plutocracy? Take this simple test: See if you pay double for everything.

The financial bailout, for example. Pay for it once with your IRA and 401(k) plan investments. Now pay for it again with your tax dollars.

Ditto with the economic stimulus. Write checks to cover your mortgage payment, utilities, insurance premiums, car loan, basic cable, high-speed Internet access, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express bills, and turn your teens loose in the Old Navy store. Think you’re done stimulating the economy? I think not. You’ve also lent President Obama a godzillion dollars to go on an economically stimulational shopping spree of his own. For collateral the Bank of Obama is using a mortgage on that home of yours called America and a lien on all the future earnings of your children.

As they say, read the whole thing.

ITEM (Santayana wasn’t joking): There was a key moment in the Carter Administration when Pres. Jimmy, who had been doing his best to make nice with the Soviet Bear, was shocked — shocked! — to find that that the USSR wasn’t interested in making nice with him, his first clue being the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Carter’s stern and bold response was . . . to keep the US Olympic Team home from the 1980 Moscow Olympics. That, as history records, was such a powerful rebuke that the USSR pulled out of Afghanistan some nine years later.

That, of course, was 30 years ago. So why do I get a feeling that history may be about to repeat itself?

The Obama administration has given Russia small assurances in order to move forward with U.S. interests. Washington has assured Moscow that it will return to the table on START, has allowed Russia to mediate U.S. use of Central Asia for military transport and has appeared to abandon its plans for NATO expansion into Ukraine and Georgia. In return, Moscow has allowed a small shipment of NATO military supplies to pass through Russia and Central Asia, and it is trying to demonstrate some wavering in its support for Iran (though Russia’s position on Iran typically has been characterized by ambiguity).

Going into the Obama-Medvedev meeting, it seems clear that Russia plans to push the United States until the rest of its demands are met: abandon plans for BMD in Poland, cease assistance for the Polish military and essentially stop providing security for the Baltic states — though they are NATO members.

[OK, for those wondering about the Santayana reference: "Progress, far from consisting in change, depends upon retentiveness. . . . Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." -- George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1906.]

ITEM (the taxpayers weren’t joking, either): “Hundreds of Iowans thrown out of public hearing”. Those Iowans were taxpayers and voters unhappy that the Iowa State Legislature was voting to raise taxes. They’ll be back.

ITEM (does holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” count as a joke?): “Obama tries to rally world to cope with downturn”

ITEM (is the Justice Department becoming a joke?): To channel Glenn Reynolds here, they said if we voted for McCain, we’d end up with a Justice Department where politically inconvenient legal opinions would be suppressed and overturned. And they were right!

Justice Department lawyers concluded in an unpublished opinion earlier this year that the historic D.C. voting rights bill pending in Congress is unconstitutional, according to sources briefed on the issue. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who supports the measure, ordered up a second opinion from other lawyers in his department and determined that the legislation would pass muster.

OVERNIGHT LINKS — yeah, I took Tuesday off. Wanna make something of it?

ITEM (not a joke, sadly): Creeping socialism/fascism alert: Rep. Barney Frank (D-FM) wants to set all salaries for firms receiving gov’t bailout funds. Remember the camel’s nose in the tent? Patterico points out the close tie between freedom and capitalism.

ITEM (not a joke, except maybe in an unintentional way): Yet another major Obama nominee has tax troubles.

ITEM: (sort of a joke; I know how he feels):  “Obama Depressed, Distant Since ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Series Finale”:

“The president seems to be someplace else lately,” said one high-level official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Yesterday we were all being briefed on the encroachment of Iranian drone planes into Iraq, when he just looked up from the table and blurted out, ‘What am I supposed to watch on Fridays at 10 p.m. now? Numb3rs?’”

ITEM (actually true, but still quite funny): The White House occupants and staff prefer non-American cars.

ITEM (no joke, except the threat itself):  Henderson debunks the “China carrier killer” story.

ITEM (allowing the US to be part of a pathetic joke): “U.S. to Join U.N. Human Rights Council, Reversing Bush Policy”

ITEM (either really funny or really scary; I was living in DC on 9/11, so I tend to take this seriously): “Taliban threatens attack in D.C.”

ITEM (oh, how I wish this were a joke): Parents practicing “consensual living” with their kids. This reads like an Onion article.

ITEM (no joke: Richard Cohen and I agree on something): GM and Crysler are bankrupt, kaput, fini. David Brooks, in the meantime, thinks Obama may have rushed in where wise men never go.

ITEM (and I wish these were all jokes): James Hudnall calls into serious question Obama’s alleged brilliance.

ITEM (I also wish this were a joke instead of a nightmare in the making): House Democrats unveil sweeping plan to reshape energy in America. [link corrected -- thanks, trtaylor!]

ITEM (all too often, the Left’s idea of rational argument is a joke): The Left’s principal answer to criticism: “Shut up.” (Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds.)

ITEM (the joke is on the neo-Nazis in Lebanon): I may disagree with Christopher Hitchens about certain things, but as far as I’m concerned, he gets a permanent pass and an irrevocable attaboy for having the cojones to do this in downtown Beirut:

Well, call me old-fashioned if you will, but I have always taken the view that swastika symbols exist for one purpose only—to be defaced. Telling my two companions to hold on for a second, I flourish my trusty felt-tip and begin to write some offensive words on the offending poster. I say “begin” because I have barely gotten to the letter k in a well-known transitive verb when I am grabbed by my shirt collar by a venomous little thug, his face glittering with hysterical malice. With his other hand, he is speed-dialing for backup on his cell phone. As always with episodes of violence, things seem to slow down and quicken up at the same time: the eruption of mayhem in broad daylight happening with the speed of lightning yet somehow held in freeze-frame. It becomes evident, as the backup arrives, that this gang wants to take me away.

I’ve been to Beirut and know enough to know that men have died for less.

That’s it for now, unless something great pops up.  ..bruce w..