Yeah-man!

 It sure seems convenient that we have another bomb scare within a week of the election.  Hmmmmm.

"Yemen officials arrested a suspect Saturday in the alleged plot to mail bombs to two synagogues in Chicago, but clues also lead to a bombmaker for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), reports say."
Source: The Christian Science Monitor

Yemen somehow comes to the forefront again.

"How con-VEEN-ient!"
The Church Lady - Saturday Night Live

Chaotic Collisions

"Instead of unfolding in a nice, linear, straightforward manner, these colliding events will happen quite rapidly and chaotically.  By mentally accepting that this proposition is not only possible, but probable, we are free to make different choices and take actions that can preserve and protect our wealth and mitigate our risks."
Chris Martenson

Boobus Americanus

James Quinn may have come up with one better than "sheeple".  Boobus Americanus...why didn't I think of that one?
"Today’s Keynesian economists have convinced boobus Americanus that the Great Depression was caused by the Federal Reserve being too tight with monetary policy and the Hoover administration not providing enough fiscal stimulus. Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama used this line of reasoning to ram through an $850 billion pork-laden stimulus package, as well as the purchase of $1.2 trillion of toxic mortgages by the Federal Reserve.  The only trouble is that this storyline is a complete sham.  The fact that colossal stimulus spending, zero interest rates, the purchase of over a trillion in toxic assets by the Fed, and the loosest monetary policy in history have done absolutely nothing to revitalize the economy, has proven that Keynesian policies have been a wretched failure. This is not a surprise to Austrian school economists.  Keynesian policies failed during the Great Depression, and they are failing today. An economic catastrophe caused by loose monetary policies, crushing levels of debt, and appalling lending practices cannot be solved by looser monetary policies, issuance of twice as much debt, and government commanding banks (or, in the case of Fannie and Freddie, “commandeering”) to make more bad loans.  The Great Depression was caused by Federal Reserve expansion of the money supply in the 1920s that led to an unsustainable credit-driven boom. When the Federal Reserve belatedly tightened in 1928, it was too late to avoid financial collapse. According to Murray Rothbard, in his book America’s Great Depression, the artificial interference in the economy was a disaster prior to the depression, and government efforts to prop up the economy after the crash of 1929 only made things worse. Government intervention delayed the market’s adjustment and made the road to complete recovery more difficult."
James Quinn, The Burning Platform

the entire article:
http://www.theburningplatform.com/

Korean Games In The DMZ

Rekindle, reignite...it's all the same thing. My prediction on this one was that when the tide lowers, it's easy to pick a fight with an old foe. It usually takes a small spark."
Random Roving, March 8, 2009

"Tensions escalated along the North Korea-South Korea border on Friday after the North fired two rounds at its southern neighbour. South Korean troops immediately fired back, an official told The Associated Press. The shots from North Korea were fired towards a South Korean guard post in the Demilitarized Zone between the two countries, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul told AP. No one was injured and it wasn't clear whether the shots represented a military action or were an accident. However the shots came just hours after the North vowed to retaliate after the South rejected a Pyongyang proposal for military talks. It's the latest escalation in an ongoing game of military brinksmanship that hit a high point when North Korea sunk the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors. Earlier this week Pyongyang demanded that Seoul resume large-scale food aid shipments despite the current tensions. The demand came after the North seized a South Korean fishing vessel earlier in the month. And in August, tensions were once again high after the North fired 110 rounds near the disputed border. All the shells landed harmlessly in the water within the North's territory. Earlier that month, South Korea held five days of naval drills off the west coast of the divided peninsula, that the south called a rehearsal for invasion."
Source: CTV Calgary

Misleading Beliefs

"The most important part of this story is getting our minds to accept reality without our passionate beliefs interfering. By ‘beliefs’ I mean statements like these:
•“Things always get better and are never as bad as they seem.”
•“If Peak Oil were ‘real,’ I would be hearing about it from my trusted sources.”
•“Dwelling on the negative is self-fulfilling.”
While each of these things might be true, they also might be false and therefore misleading, especially during periods of transition. Our job is to remain as dispassionate and logical as possible."
Chris Martenson

Boudreaux & Mbah Maridjan

When I read this story, I couldn't help but think of my friend Boudreaux.  Why is it that we refuse to listen to the alerts?  Is it like the car alarm in the mall parking lot?  Is it the boy that cried wolf?

"Even after an eruption alert was issued and most villagers on the slopes of Java's Mount Merapi had been evacuated, 83-year old Mbah (grandfather) Maridjan stayed put. The spiritual guardian of the mountain, his battle to tame one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes ended on Wednesday when he was buried by the mountain's thick ash.  He was reportedly found dead in a prayer position in his house, as rescuers also dug out more than two dozen more victims in the area - many who had also refused to leave.  In the wake of the eruption, houses and fields were left blanketed in thick, white ash, while leaves had been singed off trees.  Villagers say they will mourn the loss of a respected elder who was as important to them as the mountain itself."

Source: BBC

Eruption alerts are everywhere and the sheeple continue to graze with no concern.

The Fourth Turning Cleansing

"People often talk of the Fourth Turning as this cataclysm and it's horrible and so on. It begins the world again.  It tears down institutions that don't work and rebuilds it successfully.  It replaces them with institutions that do work.  It starts our community and social life fresh again."
Neil Howe, Author, "The Fourth Turning" (Interview with Jim Puplava)

Sooner Or Later

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought on by credit and fiat monetary expansion. The only question is whether the crisis should come sooner in the form of a recession or later as a final and total catastrophe of depression as the currency systems crumble.”
Ludwig von Mises

I Pity The Fool

Could this be the ultimate sign of a market top in gold?  I don't think so. Sell when Drago starts doing commercials for Russian gold!

The Challenge Of The Weatherman

"So often people make the observation that we can't tell what the weather is going to be tomorrow so how can you possibly say anything about what the weather is going to be like in three months. Well obviously you can't.  Seasons change.  So it's not a question of having a rainy day today and a sunny day tomorrow.  It's the broader shift.  You can't predict the breaking of each wave on the seashore.  You can't predict the tides. You see what I mean.  This is looking more broadly at changes.  When you refocus your field of vision, not on the breaking events today and tomorrow, but on a longer term field of view, these changes become pretty clear."
Neil Howe, Author, "The Fourth Turning" (Interview with Jim Puplava)

Tis The Season To Be......

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Book of Ecclesiastes

C'est La France

Les jeunes français prennent en charge.

The Delusional Election

"If you think all the game-changing decisions to be made on November 2 will be by voters at the ballot boxes, think again! In his latest online presentation, Monty Agarwal reminds us that, on that very same Tuesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will ... corral together the other voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee ...send any dissenters off to the shearing shed, and ...before the following day, close the deal on QE2 — the next major round of mass money printing.  How ironic the twists and turns of history can be!  while millions of voters will likely vote to transform Capitol Hill into a new stable of fiscal conservatives ...Just 12 men — meeting two and a half miles away — will be voting to transform America into a field of money trees.  Strangely ...The vote at the polls will put the padlock on America's fiscal stimulus. But ...The vote at the Fed will unleash a whole new round of monetary stimulus, potentially driving more liquidity into gold, commodities, foreign currencies, and emerging markets.  End result: One of the greatest disconnects of all time between ...A sinking economy on the one side, and ...The real possibility of roaring bull markets in certain asset classes on the other side."
Martin Weiss, Weiss Research

Weather & Wind

"You don't have to be a weatherman to know which direction the wind is blowing."
Unknown

The French Join The Trend

Last month it was the Spaniards, now the French rise up.

"After days of rail disruption, unions are putting on the pressure before Wednesday’s Senate vote on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s unpopular pension reforms. He is refusing to back down over a two-year retirement age hike, but so too are the unions.  Didier Le Reste of the CGT union warned of more strike action.  The start of the week will see a widening of the strike, with more sustained action in sectors such as road transport, energy, postal and telecommunications and public service and commerce,” he said.  Fears that the two major airports in Paris could run out of fuel in the next 48 hours have been dispelled by the government despite blockades at France’s 12 refineries. However supply shortages could hit elsewhere by mid-week with depots in the south west already depleted by an unrelated stoppage."
Source: Euronews
 
"In a downward trending mass social mood, it's very likely that labor strikes will become very popular again. We might even see a professional sports strike in the next few years. An angry mob loves a strike and a picket line. The cycle will likely bring unions back to strength as fear and anger 'drives the herd closer together'."

Random Roving, November 24, 2009, "Three Strikes You're Out"