If Washington could refrain from causing the worst it would be a good start.

Four really, really bad scenarios - Eamon Javers - Politico.com

His lecture comes as part of an annual “Rethinking Seminar” produced by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Rickards argues that government is not doing nearly enough to prepare for the worst. “Here’s the policy problem for the United States,” he said in an interview. “We have experts in defense and intelligence, and huge depth in capital markets experience at the Fed and at Treasury. But they’re separated by the Potomac River. And they’re not talking to each other.”

Next we'll find out that Jamie Gorelick -- who put "the wall" between Justice and the National Security agencies before 9/11 -- put the Potomac River between the Pentagon and the Fed and then stoked the subprime mortgage mess over at Fannie and Freddie.

But there are work-arounds to get around the "Potomac problem" which actually go across it. Get two tin cans and a long string. Put one tin can in the Pentagon and the other in the Fed and connect them with the string. But remember, you got to keep the string taut or it won't work. Then experts at the Pentagon could talk into one can and the experts at the Fed could listen out of the other. It works the other way around, too. We'll call it the can/can system. Or The Canned "Can" system. Or the "yes we can, can-can" system. This set up will work when the cell phones go down, the Internet goes down, even when there is no more electric power. In lieu of fax machines, they can use pneumatic tubes and carbon paper. Congress "can" provide the air -- but only when it is in session.

Also, I'd like to point out the hidden resource our nation has in overly fertilized and watered suburban lawns. These lawns could provide at least four bumper crops of carrots, sweet potatoes and corn, with no need of additional fertilizer. The three car garages could hold a milk cow, several pigs and a pony -- useful beasts that will provide sufficient manure for the fifth and sixth years. Basements can easily become root cellars. In addition, household chemicals can be turned into pipe bombs and nerve gas.

I hope this has been of help.

This is the end, again.

This explains a lot.

Who Is at Fault for the Decline of the Big Three? - Michael Barone (usnews.com)

The UAW also created a constituency within itself of retirees who have voting rights in union elections just as actual workers do, and there are now something like three times as many GM retirees as GM employees as voting members of the UAW. Retiree benefits account for the lion's share of the difference between GM's labor costs and the labor costs of foreign automakers in the United States.

Meet the New Revolution. Same as the Old Revolution.

SPIEGEL sets the scene:

The violent unrest that followed the shooting of a 15-year-old boy has driven Greece to the brink of a political crisis. The rioting marks an explosion of rage by the country's young people who have few prospects of carving out a place in a society where all initiative is stifled.

The mood in the jam-packed auditorium was reminiscent of the student protest movements of 1968. Hundreds of young people thronged their way into the dark room, sat on the steps or stood on tables. They shouted "murderers" and "pigs" -- and thunderously applauded calls for revenge. Cigarette smoke and the smell of sweat hung heavily in the air.

I see the Speaker and his throng and I think, "Greek Throngs still smoke cigarettes? And smell of sweat? No wonder the world thinks they're revolting." I watch. I listen.

He's a thirty-five year old student leader wearing Trotsky glasses. He told the reporters he's twenty-nine which is OK because they think he's ageless. He claims to know and like computers -- and some people as well. His friends call him "The Brute" despite his slight stature. He is confident his enemies will some day become refugees -- if they survive to flee the country. The same applies to those "friends" who call him Brute.

BRUTE: We have to hold out until the government steps down!

THRONG: (Cheers. Applause.)

BRUTE: We have to transform the protests into a political movement.

THRONG:(Cheers. Applause. Howls. The Throng is in Thrall -- that's a suburb of Athens.)

BRUTE: We have to formulate political objectives!

THRONG:(Cheers. Applause. Howls. Foot Stomping in Thunderous Ovation--that's the rented hall in Thrall.)

I want to encourage the young mob and almost shout "Kill the pigs!" and "Keep the Cycle of Violence going!" But the better angles of my nature intercede. I decide to move the throng towards peace.

ME: Oh, Throng! I say, Throng! Calm down Throng and please listen to reason. What you need to do is think this thing through.

THRONG: (Irritably) Who is this guy? (Malevolently) Capitalist tool. (Creatively) Let's play "get the Fascist." (Delightedly) Cut out his entrails!

I run to the Bastille for safety. Throng storms it! I run to the winter Palace. Throng burns it! I fly to Guantanamo Bay. Throng closes it!

Desperate, I swim to Florida and ask for Asylum. The border agents are Mexican illegals doing a job Americans will no longer do. They don't believe I'm a Cuban entering illegally and refuse me permission to stay (I speak halting Spanish with a heavy Ohio accent). I tell them I will not show them my identity papers because they are all wet. I'm thrown into jail, but only for the customary two hours. Then I am given a court date and a bus ticket to Akron (they said they'd send me wherever I wanted to go but I didn't believe them and said Akron).

The moral: don't try to reason people out of a revolution they were not reasoned into. And if anyone asks you where you want to go, don't say Akron.

The End

More of that Spengler style commentary.

Financial crises, like epidemics, kill the unhealthy first. The present crisis is painful for most of the world but deadly for many Muslim countries, and especially so for the most populous ones. Policy makers have not begun to assess the damage...

Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad controls Iran through a kleptocracy of Central African proportions, dissipating the country's oil windfall into payoffs to an "entire class of hangers-on of the Islamic revolution"...

Pakistan has one of the world's youngest populations and an enormous capital requirement. Young people borrow from old people, and countries with young populations should import capital from countries with aging populations. That is out of the question, for the world markets have turned Pakistan into a pariah. The cost of credit protection on Pakistani sovereign debt is now more than 3,000 points (or 30%) above the benchmark London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), reflecting a complete shutout from capital markets...

Turkey has been able to keep afloat through the crisis, but barely so. The Turkish currency has fallen by a third, its stock market has fallen by nearly 80% in dollar terms, and the central bank must keep interest rates at a punishing 20% to prevent money from fleeing the country. Turkey has a real economy with a few first-rate manufacturing companies, unlike Iran and Pakistan, so the comparison is not quite fair. Nonetheless, Turkey relied heavily on short-term interbank borrowings to finance its balance of trade deficit, and the crisis has pulled the carpet out from under its economy. In August, before the crisis erupted in force, Turkey had 10% unemployment. It will get much worse.

---

Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs

Those who objected to America's role as world policeman will get what they wanted, but they won't like it: a religious war reaching from Lebanon to Pakistan, and Colombian-style narco-war spreading to Mexico and Brazil...

The financial crisis will push Pakistan further towards radical Islam. Now this proclamation will be preached from every mosque from Tyre to Lahore: "The corrupt West tried to seduce you with consumerism. Now the poisoned gifts of the West are shown to be an illusion, and those of you who lusted after them are left only with your humiliation..."

Mexico in some ways is the most worrying place in the Western hemisphere. A low-level civil war between the drug cartels and the federal government has been fought over the past two years, and the cartels are winning. Senior Mexican officials charged with suppression of the cartels have been moving their families quietly out of the country. The collapse of the oil price and the likely collapse of remittances from Mexicans in the United States threaten the stability of the financial system, and the Mexican peso has lost nearly 40% of its value during the past several weeks. With the collapse of the American construction industry, a major source of employment for illegal Mexican immigrants to the US, the economic safety valve has broken, and the cartels have in inexhaustible supply of young men willing to risk their lives for a living.

---

Global Analysis - J. R. Nyquist "Hitting Bottom" 10/31/2008

But sometimes, even the insanity of war carries a cold logic of its own. This column has previously discussed the statements of Chinese Gen. Chi Haotian, known to Chinese dissidents. In recent years China’s leaders have been quietly talking to party cadres about a future war with America. It is true that Chinese dissidents see this as a political tactic for derailing the democracy movement. It is more than a tactic, however, to tell the political elite of a country that war is coming. The Chinese leadership has not been blind to the financial problem inherent in the U.S. economy and, therefore, the related problem of the Chinese economy. It is time to revisit Gen. Chi’s speech titled “War is not far from us and is the midwife of the Chinese century.”

Do we have time to consider the problems facing the Congo? Oh hell, let's just revisit Vietnam.

Intro Apocalypse Now

They see. They just don't inform.

Will 'feditis' spread to Obama and Daley? -- chicagotribune.com

After stubbornly refusing to see Chicago politics as it really is, the national media are finally paying attention. That's great news for most everybody, except for our politicians.

The election's over so I guess it is not too early. As for those politicians, something tells me they will be alright.

Investor f-off

Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud hits other investors - Yahoo! Finance

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors scrambled to assess potential losses from an alleged $50 billion fraud by Bernard Madoff, a day after the arrest of the prominent Wall Street trader.

Prosecutors and regulators accused the 70-year-old, who was chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market in the early 1990s, of masterminding a fraud of epic proportions through his investment advisory business, which managed at least one hedge fund.

Hundreds of people, investing with him through the firm's clients, entrusted Madoff with billions of dollars, industry experts said.

They should put this guy in charge of Carbon Credits: such talent should not be allowed to languish the Federal Pen. Make him the "Federal Car Tar" too. Combine the positions. There. Progress being made.

If they can show "The Valley of Elah" in the Middle East, why not?

Instapundit:

IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? The makers of the new movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” have arranged for it to be beamed into space on Friday.

Hollywood is constantly making movies that are basically anti-American to sell on foreign shores. Having made an anti-humanity movie, why not make sure Space Aliens get to see it? In fact, if the Space Invaders in the remake had been watching I Love Lucy it would be an interesting plot twist. Lucy gets them coming here. But on the way here they watch All in the Family and Married with Children. Then when they get here they watch CNN. No wonder they send in the exterminator.

Maybe if we had all said “Klaatu barada nikto” to the Producers the movie would not have opened.

Take your IGCC and shove it where the sun don't shine. Put Solar Cells where the sun does shine.

Can Coal Come Clean? | Alternative Energy | DISCOVER Magazine

The technology behind the Polk plant is called an integrated gasification combined cycle—a mouthful usually shortened to IGCC. Unlike conventional coal-fired generators, IGCC plants don't actually burn the coal itself; they convert it into gas and burn the gas. This highly efficient process makes it possible to selectively pull out the resulting emissions, including carbon dioxide, which could then be collected and buried rather than released into the air.

Let's see: Go to all that trouble and Coal is still cheaper. What more do we have to require to Bankrupt them? Are the Democrats up to the challenge? Stay tunned.

Thinking Outside the Pizza Box

Belmont Club » Thinking the no longer unthinkable

Fox News reports that Barack Obama is offering Israel an nuclear guaranty against Iranian attack, signaling that a nuclear Iran is inevitable.

Wretchard thinks Obama's offer through for him.

I've a notion the Obama folks are up to this: Make the Israelis an offer they have to refuse and then when they refuse it, walk away from our other guarantees.

Which implies that Obama's folks have thought that far ahead. They likely came up with this over late night pizza while trying to figure out a foreign policy without a poll to guide them. "We three National Security Advisors disoriented are, ah, lah-tee-dah: Moor. Mountain. Field. Fountain. More Moors. Where are we? Who got the latest poll from Bethlehem?"

Or perhaps they are so far ahead in their circular reasoning that they are now behind themselves. They are so good at Mirroring each other that Mirrors have become redundant. Wait. Mirrors could never be redundant in Washington.

What's this? Youth respecting tradition?

Clashes outside parliament as strike grips Greece | U.S. | Reuters

Many shops in central Athens stayed shut, boarding up their windows to prevent further damage. Bus stops and litter bins were blackened by fire, public telephone booths smashed and some buildings gutted by blazes.

Greece has a tradition of violence at student rallies and fire bomb attacks by anarchist groups, which have heightened tensions with police. Amnesty International, in a report on Tuesday, accused police of brutality in handling the riots.

Well, the police have their own traditions. The world wide Leftist hissy fit proceeds.

And then the Youths became middle aged.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Fresh riots erupt in Greek cities

However, our correspondent says that nothing the politicians or authorities can say or do is likely to reduce the anger that is building.

A similar shooting incident in 1985 led to a lengthy vendetta between the youths and police, with violence continuing for years.

It is so hard to figure out what the news is telling us. If the riots were in France we would be safe in assuming the "youths" in question were Muslims. Even in the Mumbai attack the terrorists were described as "youthful" -- as if blowing off heads was their way of blowing off steam. But in Greece, who are these youths? Apparently, the rioters are leftists and the government there is Conservative, which should be enough of an explanation, I suppose (though the left and Muslim extremists will often make common cause).

What do the police say in their defense? According to the BBC, "In a statement, the police said their patrol car had been attacked by about 30 youths and responded, with one officer firing a stun grenade and another shooting and fatally wounding the boy."

And this tidbit in the list of riots and riots to commemorate earlier riots (how else would you do it?): 1999 - Police clash with protesters opposing a visit by US President Bill Clinton to Athens.

What did he do to them?

A Belly Full of Bailout

It's forced feeding time for the Auto Industry. And Otto Von Carmaker is not just going to get it in the tank, but up the tail pipe and in the trunk.

Detroit revs up its bailout begging | Salon News

On bended knee, and with promises to retool their operations, the Big Three ask Congress for billions to save the auto industry. They might get it this time.

Oh, there going to get it. It's what they are going to do with it and what the rest of us are going to do about it that is the mystery. Can we buy Cars in Canada? You know, like prescription drugs?

Do Terrorists ever experience unintended consequences?

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US 'warned India' about Mumbai

Mumbai police chief Hassan Gafoor told a news conference on Tuesday that security authorities had "had an alert that hotels like Taj could be exposed to such danger".

ABC News quoted Indian officials as saying that after receiving the US warning, they also intercepted a satellite phone message on 18 November warning of a seaborne attack on Mumbai.

The city had been on high alert but security measures at the attacked hotels had recently been relaxed, the network reported.

ABC also reported that the Indian authorities had seized a mobile phone SIM card belonging to the attackers, which they said had led to a "treasure trove" of contacts and information.

We were told this was a well organized and planned operation. Why would the well trained terrorist bring along a "treasure trove" of contacts and information?

I'm reminded that the 9/11 attackers did not bother to conceal their identity. In fact, AQ hoped to get the US bogged down in that sand trap known as Afghanistan. Instead, we fought AQ in Iraq -- which at least has an outlet to the sea and the prize of vast amounts of oil. The idea that we should isolate a large US army in Afghanistan (in the midst of hostile neighbors) never appealed to me. If Barack Obama puts a large army in there, he better hope there are no Barack Obamas around to undermine him when the going gets tough -- as it likely will.

Clearly the idea behind this attack is to provoke conflict between India and the new Civilian government in Pakistan. If the terrorists deposited evidence of the involvement in this atrocity of Pakistan's security forces, then the Civilian government will find itself in a hard place indeed. But it might be possible to rally the rest of the nation against the "Pashtun-Arab alliance" that is trying to drag Pakistan into a disastrous war with India -- and perhaps the US as well.

The High Cost Alternative

Pajamas Media » Green Policies Mean Less Green in Our Wallets

At first glance, one wouldn’t see a connection between a rash of stolen copper pipes from vacant buildings and sky-high prices for food items — say the $70 that a local St. Louis grocer was charging for a single holiday goose — but those connections are there, and they ultimately stem from environmentalist-driven land use policy imposed by the government. It’s difficult to imagine that restrictions in ANWR may be responsible for copper theft, but responsible it is! Ditto food; why would we pay more for our holiday feast because the price of natural gas has risen?

The extreme Global Warmist are about concentrating power in Washington and turning the USA into the Soviet Union that works -- only it won't.