Interesting Question

Dave Duffy (the publisher of Backwoods Home Magazine, which is a very good mag) has an interesting question on his blog.

My answer is in the comments to Dave's post, although it's a bit circumspect, by choice.

It's an interesting question, though... feel free to comment here or at Dave's blog.

Did Iran just launch a nuclear strike at Israel?

I'm not sure this post is for real or not.

There are several reasons to doubt it:

1) If it were meant to be a "dirty bomb" to cover Israel's coast, why wouldn't it have had some security (just in case of this type of piracy)?

2) Why wouldn't Iran have waited until January, when there's a fair chance the new President Obama would be sympathetic to them?

3) Why would China sell Iran radioactive sand, when it's pretty plain this is what it would be used for, and the radioactive isotopes would be traced back to their reactors?

The original post is really short on supporting evidence. Although hijacked ships aren't known for "on the ground" reporting, I'll need some supporting evidence before I believe this.

I won't expect ANY supporting evidence, however, from America's mainstream media. This story, if true, would only bring national security back to the forefront of the presidential campaigns, and that's Golden Boy Obama's weakest area.

The real problem for America is: If this story IS true (and it's plausible, if not probable), there's really nothing stopping Iran (or a friendly subsidiary) from trying to do the same thing in one of OUR ports.

I'll be watching for more information on this story.

Boxes

Just a reminder... since our Founding Fathers, American Democratic Republic (I may have said that wrong, forgive me) has rested on a three-legged stool.

Soap Box... Have your say.

Ballot Box... Vote your say.

Cartridge Box... for when the first two are overrun by a government out of control.

70-90% of the populace told the House of Representatives NOT to vote for the MOAB (Mother Of All Bailouts). They voted for it anyway, once it was sufficiently pork-laden.

The Soap Box failed.

The Ballot Box is in a couple of weeks. GO VOTE!!! Vote AGAINST anybody, regardless of party, who voted against what their constituents said on this MOAB that isn't working. (Kay Granger, call your office; I'm talking about you).

Make sure your Cartridge Box is full.

Question

Is there anybody who doesn't love the last four minutes of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird"?

It's the part after the lyrics are all done. Wonderfully fun music. Or maybe I've had one too many beers tonight. Or maybe I'm just a Southern Redneck, and it's in my genes.

Just askin'.

Currency Issues

This may be a case of "I don't understand everything I know".

All evidence I've seen indicates that the US Dollar will be worth less soon than it is now.

But all this economic disruption, globally, may mean that the US Dollar loses less than other currencies.

This could be an opportunity to buy imports at an advantageous price.

I intended to link to www.ammoman.com for this post, specifically Wolf brand ammo (made in Russia), but I'm getting "Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)" when I try to bring the site up. Disturbing.

If other currencies are falling in relation to the US Dollar, this could be a good time to look at buying any goods imported to the US. Their prices should drop, at least for now. Anything on your shopping list, watch prices. But keep in mind, currency markets can and do turn on a dime, so don't wait TOO long.

Lots of work to do

I just noticed the "Labels" section on writing Blogger entries - maybe I'm unobservant, or maybe I haven't cared before, but I guess I should go put labels on previous entries... just in case some person with too much time on their hands wants to see what I've written on various topics.

Highly unlikely, but I'll probably do it anyway. After all, that's what all the cool kids do, right?

Update: after 20 minutes, I've finished back through June '08. And I didn't post much this summer. This may take a while.

Long Overdue

... a gun post.

Normally, rats in the attic and/or garage would be seen as a bad thing. I've got some, and I do, in fact, want them gone.

I've got an electronic noisemaker that's supposed to run them out... ineffective.

Glue traps? They've struggled out of them.

I've got the old-fashioned spring-loaded snap traps down; waiting to see if any of them fall for that.

Poison Baits? They carry them outside for the squirrels to kill themselves with, and for my dogs to get seriously ill. (Really happened.)

The thing that's killed the most rats so far? My Ruger .22/45 loaded with ratshot. 3 of the not-so-little vermin so far.

Good moving target practice, and I love the smell of burned gunpowder in the garage.

Scared the crap out of Lisa the first time I actually shot at one, and I had to tell her the story about my great-grandfather, who dealt with a rat infestation by nailing tin can lids over all ratholes but two. Then he ran a hose from the exhaust pipe of his car to one hole and sealed around it, and sat in front of the other rathole with his revolver and shot the vermin as they ran from the carbon monoxide. As the story goes, he was quite successful.

I need a .22 revolver - the ratshot won't cycle my .22/45, making followup shots (in case of a miss) slow enough that the rat usually gets away.

Smarter People than Me

...are saying that this $700 Billion Bailout was not necessarily a good idea.

I agree that SOMEthing needed to be done, but I don't think piling on dollars we don't have was the right answer.

Expect the cost to go much higher. I expect 2-3 Trillion dollars, and even that probably won't do much good.

Expect high inflation, and worse performance by the economy and the stock market. The Carter Era may look mild by comparison. Figure out what you'll do about it now, or your family will probably be suffering.

Does the "P" in P. Diddy stand for "Pansy"?

Famous (for serial name changes) rapper P. Diddy is apparently reduced to a terrified, incoherently whining child by a hockey mom. I mean, come on. Unless you're a game animal in Alaska, she's about as scary as my sock drawer.

I'm not sure whether to find that funny, or pathetic, but I'm leaning toward pathetic.

Okay.

Rivrdog makes a valid point.

My answer? I don't have one. I don't know what's going to happen if Congress doesn't fix this financial mess. But I'm pretty sure Congress CAN'T fix it.

The rhetoric from Capitol Hill (aka the Big Top) and the White House has mostly been "panic, do something NOW!". Good decisions are rarely made in a spirit of fear and haste. Plenty of political hay can be made in that environment, however, and I think that's mostly what's going on.

In addition, the numbers simply don't add up. From what I've been able to find, liabilities from sub-prime loans and the "toxic waste" paper that's been based on them comes up to somewhere between 50 and 100 TRILLION dollars. Congress can't spend our way out of a mess that big; I'd really prefer if they didn't try. They'd just waste a lot of money, put us further into debt, and the piper will still need to be paid. $700Billion is like putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound.

I've sent my congresscritters alternate ideas - mainly based on Dave Ramsey's proposals. Since I've been learning more about the depth and breadth of this problem, I'm not sure Ramsey's proposed fixes would be any more of a long-term solution than piling on borrowed money, as the White House and Congress want to do. But they'd cost us a lot less.

Honestly? I think we're headed for a crash one way or another. I think the bus has gone off the road, and now all we're trying to figure out is whether it ends up in a hay field, runs into a brick wall, or off a cliff. I don't know which one is most likely; I do know that piling borrowed money into the bus's tracks won't get it back on the road, it'll just waste a lot of money.

Anybody who claims (as the Administration and Congressional leaders have) to KNOW what's going to happen if this bailout doesn't happen is either fearmongering or guessing. He who lives by the crystal ball eventually eats glass. Or maybe gets re-elected for doing "something".

Pray for the best, prepare for the worst, and I do mean worst. Reality will probably fall somewhere in between.

This is probably going to be a rough ride, though.