Monday, August 6, 2012 at 9:15AM While this History Channel documentary suffers from perfect hindsight as it always examines the battles after the fact, it is an interesting examination of Sun Tsu's The Art of War.
Friday, July 27, 2012 at 5:00AM 
I have been reading from Currency Wars by James Rickards. It is an interesting history of the recent currency troubles of the last century. One of the worst episodes was in Germany in the 20's. Here is what he said about that crisis:
In one incredible five-year stretch from 1977 to 1981, cumulative inflation was over 50 percent; the value of the dollar was cut in half. U.S. citizens in this period made the same analytic mistake as their counterparts in Weimar Germany had in 1921. Their initial perception was that prices were going up; what was really happening was that the currency was collapsing. Higher prices are the symptom, not the cause, of currency collapse.
Is the United States headed for such a collapse? I doubt it. But it is not impossible. Obama may “get religion” and start cutting the deficit. Romney may be lying to us now for the election, but he actually has a plan to save us. Maybe Glinda, the good witch of the North, will cast a magic spell and give us ruby slippers to solve the transportation crisis. As my son Daniel used to say when I would tease someone outrageously, "Anything is possible."
I would not rely on Glinda or magical ruby slippers.
What do I expect?
I expect that inflation will be 10 to 20% and so will unemployment. At that point whoever is President will be forced to act like Reagan did and appoint someone like Paul Volker and we will have a few rough years but eventually come out of it a smarter nation, but no longer the only superpower in the world.
This makes me an optimist. God help us.
Monday, July 23, 2012 at 5:01AM I know that I promised a continuation of the “Jesus is angry” series, but I just saw this and it is not getting the press it deserves.
Here is what Pam Dewey, my beloved editor here at the prophecy podcast, said about this incident, after reading that the police claimed that the police dog “escaped from a police car” and dove into the crowd on its own before being “pulled back.”
“This is nuts. What kind of excuse do you make for a highly-trained police dog to just go off on a nut and attack civilians without "commands"?? If the dog is that volatile, why would he be in service?”
Indeed, why? Is it that such dogs cannot be trained as well as we have been led to believe?
Pam and I have been on other forums and we both defended good policing. This incident in Anaheim is not good policing.
The dog was attacking a baby and a man got in the way and saved the baby's life. He is a real hero.
I wonder if this kind of stupidity is actually the standard operating policy of some police departments, and it is only now that everyone carries a camera in their phone that we know about it?
Politics Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 5:00AM It is better to cut a lot now. If we don't, we will have to make Draconian cuts later. As is mentioned in this video, the market will force the cuts eventually.
If Greece had gotten its' financial house in order 3 years ago, the cost would have been much less–both for the creditors and the people of Greece. The United States is in the same situation.
Voters need to be told the truth. We are headed for a big crisis, but we are blind to it. This is an example of the meme I have been pushing here of “templates.” We all have ways we look at the world. If we are not careful, these ways of looking at the world make us blind to the obvious.
It does not matter that people need their social security checks; it does not matter that we need a national defense that is bigger than the rest of the world combined; it does not matter that Aunt Haddie needs a new hip. We cannot afford it. It is that simple.
Right now we are borrowing 43% of every dollar the federal government spends. Sooner or later the market will refuse to buy new bonds. At that point either the government cuts everything about 50%, or prints lots of money. This will involve a lot more printing than is realized as not only will the deficit be monetized, but all the deficits of the last 50 years will be monetized as the debt matures gradually over the next few years. No one will ever loan money to the United States–not for a generation.
It is that serious.
Get out of debt. Consider downsizing your living arraignments. Drive that car for a few years longer. Get Ready. We have 3 to 7 years.
