Highly Illogical

I had a discussion on Facebook last month about Israel. I was not satisfied with that discussion. It is difficult to put my thoughts down in writing, so I thought I would try again when I ran across an open letter by Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. He drew an interesting analogy from Star Trek, season 3 episode 14, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

The BBC summarizes the letter:  

 

"But the antagonists were keenly aware of their differences --one man was white on the right side, the other was black on the right side. And they were prepared to battle to the death to defend the memory of their people who died from the atrocities committed by the other."

The actor goes on that he does not mean "to belittle the very real issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians." However, he says, the fictitious scenario shows that "myth can be a snare... The two sides need our help to evade the snare and search for a way to compromise.”

Nimoy proposes compromise in the conflict with two states that share Jerusalem as the capital.  (The full text of his letter is here.)

While Nimoy has no more credibility than any other Jewish actor, what is interesting to me is what he did not say, but is strongly implied by the analogy "Spock" chose. Here is Wikipedia's description of the end of the episode.

Once the Ariannus mission is completed, Bele takes control of the Enterprise again, but this time he deactivates the auto-destruct in the process and sends the ship to Cheron. Once there, the two aliens find the planet's population completely wiped out by a global war fueled by insane racial hatred. Both Lokai and Bele stare silently at the destruction on the monitor and realize they are the only ones left of their race (or, as they see it, their races).

Instead of calling a truce, the two beings begin to blame each other for the destruction of the planet and a physical brawl ensues. As the two aliens fight, their innate powers radiate, cloaking them with an energy aura that threatens to damage the ship. With no other choice, Kirk sadly allows the two aliens to chase each other down to their obliterated world to decide their own fates, consumed by their now self-perpetuating mutual hate.

What Nimoy did not say is that the hatred the two races shared destroyed their world. This is why I have said on many forums that Israel is doomed. Those on the left blame Israel; those on the right the Palestinians. I see faults on both sides, but to be frank I see less fault on the Israeli side. But I see no reason to be like the crew of the Enterprise who, in the episode, chose sides. Many say that Israel cannot be defeated because God is on their side. But if you believe the prophets of the Bible, God destroyed Israel in 722 BC; God destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC; God destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. I see no reason that God will not allow, or even cause Israel to be destroyed today.

Two nuclear bombs and Israel is gone. Since Israel has 250 nuclear weapons with nuclear material provided by America, this would not be a happy outcome. Like Samson of old, who destroyed the Temple of Dagon and died with its many worshipers, so Israel would retaliate in like manner. If you wonder why America supports Israel, these nuclear weapons are enough reason all by themselves. While I do not believe the apocalyptic scenarios peddled by the survivalists, this one scenario gives me pause.  I wish that the Israelis and Palestinians would live long and prosper, together--unless they wish to live in a nuclear wasteland. Anything else is highly illogical.

Riots In Greece

There are riots all over the economically troubled areas of the Eurozone, but for some reason it is not being covered by the media. Here is Russia Today's Max Keiser's coverage:

For more videos click here. 

Because our financial system is highly leveraged with debt, a major default like Greece will hit the banks hard. If the defaults spread to other Eurozone countries like Portugal, or God forbid Spain, then most European banks will be broke. 

From Bloomberg: 

Greece could have a contagion effect,” ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said yesterday. “That’s the reason why we are against any sort of default with haircuts and any form of private-sector event that could lead to a credit event or a rating event.”

The euro has fallen more than 2 percent in the past two days, to $1.4090 at noon in Frankfurt, and the cost of protecting corporate bonds soared to the highest level since January, with credit-default swaps anticipating about a 74 percent chance that Greece won’t pay its debts.

There is a lack of an united front on the debt issue:

Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said yesterday that senior bondholders should share in the losses of Anglo Irish Bank Corp. and Irish Nationwide Building Society, reversing a policy of protecting owners of senior securities. The ECB is against imposing losses on investors. President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Feb. 7 that haircuts aren’t part of a plan to reduce Ireland’s debt load.

 Will the European Central Bank be able to stop the debt crisis? 

Update on Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 5:40PM by [Positive Dennis]

There is more discussion of the riots in Canada because the Canucks lost than about the riots in Greece. 

Update on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 5:43AM by [Positive Dennis]

Looks like the news is finally talking about Greece again, after weeks of rioting. 

The Times They Are A-Changing… for the Worse

I do not want to turn this blog into a Conrad Black fan site, but he had another excellent column this week. While the column was about Republican presidential candidates, this paragraph leaped off the page:

The entire world is gape-mouthed at how, as a sorbet after its brilliant and almost bloodless victory in the Cold War, the United States has run over and off the cliff of debt, been swindled by the Chinese, been played for an idiot by OPEC, carried the European and Japanese luxury-goods industries on its back like a bipartisan donkey, outsourced 40 million jobs while admitting 15 million illegal and vocationally unskilled immigrants, created the greatest financial bonfire in history by papering itself in trillions of dollars of worthless real-estate-backed debt (certified as investment grade by Wall Street and by the rating agencies that have now put the U.S. on credit watch), and immolated itself like a disgruntled Burmese monk or Tunisian dissident.

When you have gangrene, some form of surgery is needed. So the presidential race next year is important. But if neither party realizes that surgery is needed, the patient will die. Right now, no candidate but Ron Paul or maybe Gary Johnson realizes this, and neither will be the nominee. This whole situation reminds me of the lyrics to a Bob Dylan song: 

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

...

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'

Slave Labour

The Chinese are very innovative, even in slave labor:

As a prisoner at the Jixi labour camp, Liu Dali would slog through tough days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of north-east China. By night, he would slay demons, battle goblins and cast spells. Liu says he was one of scores of prisoners forced to play online games to build up credits that prison guards would then trade for real money. The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for "illegally petitioning" the central government about corruption in his hometown, reckons the operation was even more lucrative than the physical labour that prisoners were also forced to do.

In video game jargon this is called "farming." I think we need tariffs against virtual gold. We need to allow our young people to be competitive in video games! If we Americans can not be competitive in playing video games, how can we be competitive anywhere? 

Help!

Conrad Black has written an excellent piece that highlights a point from my last post. While things are in trouble in America, things are pretty bad everywhere:

The EU is in hot contention with the United States for title of Sick Man of the Great World Economic Powers, because less than 40% of Eurozone citizens work, and over 60% are on benefits of some sort. But not to be discounted in this gripping Olympic contest for total fiscal immolation is geriatric, debt-ridden, stagnating Japan, a great but terribly beleaguered and demoralized country.

So if you decide to immigrate, where do you go? Most European countries are in worse shape than America. While I see the desirability of a tropical paradise, unless you have millions to invest and live off the interest, it is not a practical choice. Will your employment transfer to your new country? This is doubtful. Of course if you are young enough, and talented enough, then it might make some degree of sense. There is a lot of buzz about emigrating to Chile. But unless you have a flair for language, you will always be an outsider. In the troubling times we have ahead, you do not want to be an outsider. I will blog more about this soon as it is a mostly overlooked aspect of the troubling times ahead.

Bill Clinton and Mitch McConnell (Republican Minority Leader)  agree about a major source of our problems. So does Conrad Black: 

The cost per capita of U.S. medical care is $7,000 compared to the average among Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, of $3,000; 70% of the people have immensely generous plans that they love with passionate attachment and don’t pay for, either as contributors or as taxable benefits, and the political class won’t touch this. Unfortunately, much of the other 30%, 100 million Americans, get what amounts to emergency health care only, and much of it is uninsured and is billed to the recipient until the patient is out of money, and only then provided gratis. Most of the largest states are bust; Social Security, student loans, Medicare (for the elderly in the U.S.) are all, also, in desperate need of an utterly cacophonous national conversation.

How can one prepare for these multiple crises? Getting out of debt seems a good start. I will also blog about this in the near future, as soon as I am out of debt!

When Mark Steyn read Conrad Black's article he had the following quip that deserves as much publicity as possible:

"The entire western world is approaching the point at which Wile E Coyote looks down and realizes there’s nothing under his feet."

I think the west believes that like the Roadrunner they are exempt from gravity.