George Rebane
Lady Margaret Thatcher’s funeral, I keep coming back to it. The occasion was one of those rare opportunities to recognize a giant in the pantheon of modern world leaders, and nations sent their most distinguished there to honor her achievements for her country and for demonstrating to the world the art of the possible. President Obama had the good sense to send former Secs State Kissinger, Shultz, and Baker, instead of selecting some subset from the current diplomatic dwarves that form the leading echelons of his own administration. Kudos to the President.
In the aftermath of the Boston bombing, Bostonians celebrated their police cadres’ service to the city – perhaps too prematurely. Upon reflection, of which there is a lot going on now, in the 26apr13 WSJ Dr Judith Miller of the Manhattan Institute draws a distinction between what the NYPD has been doing since 9/11 and the dropped balls of Boston’s finest (and, of course, the feds). In essence, the city fathers and mothers of Boston – the birthplace of 9/11 – decided not to do anything serious about tracking domestic jihadists. Therefore, the contribution of their constabulary was strictly reactionary wherein, as from a Keystone Cops movie, we saw combat armed cadres trundle hither and yon while shutting down an entire city. After all is said and done, it was the private citizens who fingered the terrorists, Muslim jihadists that weren’t even on the Boston PD’s radar before they set off the tragic explosions. The police action ended with an entire platoon of Boston’s finest heroically pouring automatic rifle fire into a boat in which the surviving terrorist was already bleeding to death.
Helicopter Ben of the Fed is looking to raise interest rates because he has to. No matter his promise to keep them low until our hoaky unemployment rate drops below 6.5%, or at least until 2015. He is quietly checking with the big banks as to how/whether they might survive if their lending portfolios would suddenly be ‘marked to market’, and consequently plummet as interest rates took off. Right now QE3 at $80B+ per month of Treasurys buying is keeping rates low. That new money is actually not doing the economy much good (witness today’s disappointing 2.5% GDP growth update) since banks don’t want to lend the stuff at current low rates while anticipating the return of sanity when the markets actually start setting interest rates again. Have seatbelts handy.
Econuts and divers sorts of animal activists are the leading phalanx of 21st century luddites. Two recent reports of their insanities highlight the cadre of terrorists that uniquely derive from the far Left. One report – ‘Animal-rights activists launch a rodent rescue and set back research that might help cure Alzheimer’s or autism’ – details of how these western moral equivalents of ragheads trashed years of research at the University of Milan, research that was heading to broadly benefit humankind. Another reports on how American econuts have isolated King Cove, a remote Alaskan town, from its medical life line with the fiat-emplaced Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The administration’s wildlife idiots will not even allow a gravel road through the ‘refuge’ (already laced with such roads) on which an ambulance or EMT vehicle can be used in medical emergencies. The result, “A dozen residents have died attempting to reach medical attention since the preserve’s creation.” Details here of yet another chapter from the record of our fundamental transformation to socialism.
[update] RL ‘Bob’ Crabb’s cartoon in the 27apr13 issue of The Union draws our attention once again to the scumbags in Sacramento.
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