Sounds like an overture, doesn’t it? Yes, “Snowfall” not to be confused with “Skyfall” is a movement from my latest soon-to-be great classical music hit “Concerto in Market Flat.”
You see, last Friday, the Dow closed 16,478.41. Then Thursday, the market closed at 16,441.35. When I checked the futures earlier, it was looking pretty much flat.
With oil down under $96, and natural gas at $4.28 – is this as good as the energy complex can do in the face of a winter ass-kicking blizzard? Come on! – we can’t expect a rousing rally just yet. And sure, maybe the top is in, but I’m still guessing on a 4 down, then a 5 up to finish things off in the April/May period.
Meanwhile, Shock and Snow Shovels is the theme of the day in national headlines. Which is fine because the week has been hopelessly trashed by the mid-week holiday, anyway. Screw it, we should just take two weeks off next year and call it good.
The great-big economic whoopie today will be auto and truck sales this afternoon, but seriously? That’s about as exciting as eating a bowl of beans and going to a movie theater. The numbers are due to stink since everyone who could buy a new car has, and even a lot of those who shouldn’t have.
The larger question lingers about storm “ologists” as the big chill comes through. I’m perplexed by the DrudgeReport headline “Meteorologist: ‘Exposed skin could freeze in 15 minutes’”
I would have favored quoting a dermatologist on freezing skin, but to each their own, I suppose. One of these days, the government will pass laws restricting weatherpersons from practicing outside their area. In the meantime, I’m considering a complaint with the AMA naming weatherpersons for malpractice…
Meantime, down in the Antarctic, we can’t help but laugh at the NewsBuster’s story “Frozen Out: 98% of stories ignore that ice-bound ship was on Global Warming Mission.” We mentioned that, so maybe we’re part of the “2% solution, eh?”
Speaking of ships of fools, it’s now so cold down around the “warming” mission that the Chinese ice breaker which was trying to help rescue people fro the ship that got stuck, is now itself stuck.
Come…let’s go into Mr. Ure’s library and see what you missed reading, shall we?
Aha!!!
OR OR
There are, grasshopper, two sides to every story, yes, including government & Gore sanctified Global Warming. If that concern had been over the pure data, and not a rush to invent a new money-trading scam, carbon credits, it would have been nice. But, it is, what it is…
Which is why I’m in Texas. The Felix book came out in 1999 and care to guess who read it?
Still, the jury is out (if they can ever warm up, lol). Remember last month? Snow fell in the Australian Alps of New South Wales and that was totally out of character.
The good news for the Climateers (who persist in trying to turn climate into a growth industry): High tomorrow in Melbourne, Australia will be 68, only 2 degrees below normal, but a heat wave on Sunday with 76 expected. That’ll be just 27-degrees below the record 105…Maybe Al was right, huh? It’s summer down under.
Even down here in East Texas, our usual shirt-sleeves “Hamburger Dinner” at next week’s monthly ham club meeting is seeing the burgers replaced with Pizza. With temps around 40 expected at the club meeting time, pizza is a lot warmer choice. We ain’t stupid on this climate stuff.
One season doesn’t a climate make. But we are standing by for the first reports of penguins arriving at Galveston and Brownsville… Remind me to query Oilman2 on if there’s sheet ice out at his rig yet, 200 miles out in the Gulf.
A Little More Than Equal?
OK, you’re going to law school and you want to practice in California. The question is: Why bother? How about getting a law degree elsewhere, not being a citizen, and then coming here to practice?
The specifics of a case in California are not so clear, but go read how a fellow there who isn’t yet a citizen is apparently getting his license to practice law.
The really slippery part is yet to come: And that is whether a non-citizen lawyer could act as a prosecutor on behalf of a government court at any level? I’d love to hear lawyer comment on that…
And then there’s the who matter of whether a US person could be tried by a jury which included an illegal, since would that be a jury of peers? I don’t think so, but I’m not paid to think, fortunately.
Cambodian Goon Squad
Fine term for strike breakers who resort to violence to end strikes.
Fits well the headline that “Cambodian police open fire on protesters, 3 dead”. Not in the headline is the fact these were striking garment workers.
Don’t want to make this a “the Man” beats on people story, do we?
The Wasted War
So the US pisses how much money down the Iraq rat hole? All so US oil companies can get a shot at oil, only be bought out by China? And with that background, al Qaeda is said to be launching attacks in western Iraq.
Betting Window Open:
Will there have been a point to the Afghanistan money pit, viewed 10-20 years out? Inconvenient of me to ask, sorry.
Moreover, with Egypt about to roll into the crapper in domestic uprisings, any chance Washington can just reimburse us poor tax slaves for the money pissed away there over the years? I’m not seeing a return on investment, know what I mean? Ditto all the falling apart countries elsewhere…Mostly the aid goes for arms to more people can kill…more people!
And then we’re somehow shocked when the world looks at us with untrusting eyes. Any chance we earned it? Still, it did keep the defense industry from shutting down when the wall came down in Berlin, I suppose. An d we do have to get ready for the next war rather than learn to place nicely, right?
(Can you tell it’s almost time to mail in a quarterly tax payment that I’m not too pleased with what I’m getting for my dough?)
Sharon: Checking Out/The Slow Go
Word is making it around the world that former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s body is shutting down. He’s been in a coma since 2006. Stroke.
OK, so no biggie, you’re thinking? Wrongo.
You need to read up about what was said by Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri before he died. He said that after the passing of Sharon, the Jewish Messiah would reveal himself in Jerusalem.
But not until after Ariel Sharon passes. Check out this Wiki entry:
Before his death, Kaduri had said that he expected the Jewish Messiah to arrive soon, and that he had met him a year earlier.[6][7] It has been alleged that he left a hand-written note to his followers and they were reportedly instructed to only open the note after Rabbi Kaduri had been dead for one year. After this time period had passed, the note was opened by these followers and was found to read, “???? ??? ?????? ????? ?????? ??????” (translated as “he will raise the people and confirm that his word and law are standing”), which by acronym, suggested the name “Yehoshua.”[8][9][10] Yehoshua being Hebrew for Joshua. This is also the Hebrew name of Jesus whom followers of Christianity, Messianic Judaism believe to be the Jewish Messiah.
Between Corexit and Fukushima, one might argue that a third of the world’s oceans are now bittered….so what do you think comes next? We have lots of people on both sides of the Middle East waiting for messiahs to show up and this could be not so pretty….
No, I’m not an apocalyptic kind of guy. Those flash goggles around my neck are just a hedge. Something bigger than Fukuwormwood.
Lessons in Life
While the world spins hopelessly toward the abyss, we are pleased to note that one time Bond Girl Jane Seymour is now sporting a “Bikini body at 62.”
When it comes to sex and aging, I can assure you, there are new wrinkles to be discovered…