Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 6:00AM This is one of my favorite songs. There is a bad Nancy Sinatra cover of "On Broadway" after Bang Bang, please for the sake of humanity do not watch it. But there is a fun Frank and Nancy father and daughter duet that is worth watching at the end.
Music Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 6:01AM “Gloom, despair, and agony on me, deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If twern’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom, despair, and agony on me.” Many of you will not be old enough to have watched Hee Haw on Television. This was a recurring song for a recurring skit. The song would be followed by very bad jokes about bad situations, such as “My wife left me and ran away with my best friend. I sure miss him.”
Here is the song from YouTube.
This brings me to my topic for today. We are in a tough economic situation, but I do not expect riots in the streets—not big enough riots to cause societal disruption anyway. I admit that there is a nonzero chance of these kind of troubles happening. The problem with preparation for this unlikely but not impossible event is that there is no way to prepare for it. Unless you are prepared to move away, right now, to a rural area and become self-sufficient, you cannot prepare for this. No matter how big your gun is, the other guy’s gun is bigger. One of my oldest blog posts was on this subject.
I suggest that you avoid the scam of the modern survival movement. Here is a quote from a blog post by the Prophecy Podcast editor, Pam Dewey, in one of her blogs-Prophecy Panic Button. She is discussing the mania that surrounded the Cold War. In particular the "training" that was given to the young-Bert the turtle!
Bert was part of an effort by the Federal Government to provide “emergency preparedness” information to the public as part of the Civil Defense program spawned by the post-World War 2 “nuclear arms race” between the US and Russia. Under this program, the average American, from Kindergartener to Senior Citizen, was encouraged to take an active part in dealing with the Threat of Nuclear War. Kids were taught that their main responsibility for preparation was to learn to duck and cover. If they were at school when an attack came, they were to Duck under their desks, and Cover their heads.
If you think things are bad now, think a little about the 50's, the potential for disaster was much greater.
Have a look at the whole post, as usual, Pam’s blog posts are interesting.
While one cannot prepare for the Apocalypse, we can prepare for the tough times I am suggesting are 3 to 7 years away. I hope we have this long. Get out of debt, become more self-sufficient, and have a cash reserve.
While I do not expect “Doom, Despair, and Agony on Me,” I do expect that we may wish that new 60-inch TV hanging above the fireplace was a little smaller and our debt was a lot smaller. As Jean-Luc Picard might have said, “Make it so.”
False Prophets, Survival Monday, May 7, 2012 at 6:00AM The Ron Paul vs Paul Krugman "debate" was interesting. I had just finished the eBook about the two and their predictions over the last ten years. The book points out that both Pauls predicted the various booms we seem to be cascading from one to another. The difference is that Ron Paul thought the bubbles were bad, and Krugman was calling for them. I cannot recommend the book unless you are very deep in the weeds with these kind of issues.
Will People Believe Ron Paul?
Krugman has an interesting advantage in such predictions. When he calls for qualitative easing of a certain size, and the easing is only 80% of that number, Krugman can claim that the easing, the printing of computer money, was a failure because it was not big enough.
If you missed it, here is the video of the exchange:
One final interesting point: despite the breaking of the rules by various Republican party mucky mucks, Paul is continuing to pick up delegates at a surprising clip. You remember Romney winning Iowa, and then later it was decided that Santorum actually won? Well, do you care to guess who actually got the most delegates? That is right, Ron Paul did. Is it being reported that Paul now controls the Massachusetts delegation? He controls the Louisiana delegation. He just won the Nevada delegation. There are a lot of Paul supporters who are required to vote for someone else, but only on the first ballot.
If you the type to notice this kind of thing, and the Nevada delegation is not seated, then you will know that the powers that be are worried. I am not predicting a Paul nomination, but it may not be the coronation of Romney that one might expect.
Romney might get a wedgie—and his special underwear may not save him.
Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 6:00AM This is really awful. The height of her career was being Wierd Al's love interest in UHF, the greatest movie of all time!
Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 6:00AM 
Recently I suggested that Obama had cut a deal with Israel to postpone the attack on Iran until after the election. Click here if interested. If this is so, why is the following build up taking place? From Wired:
The U.S. Air Force is quietly assembling the world’s most powerful air-to-air fighting team at bases near Iran. Stealthy F-22 Raptors on their first front-line deployment have joined a potent mix of active-duty and Air National Guard F-15 Eagles, including some fitted with the latest advanced radars. The Raptor-Eagle team has been honing special tactics for clearing the air of Iranian fighters in the event of war.
Read the whole article if you have an interest in military tactics. I found it boring. However, it seems obvious that the US Air force is ready to attack with very little extra preparation needed. Everything is in place for an "October Surprise" before the November elections. Will there be one? My guess is that Obama himself does not even know. It will depend on the polls in October, and what effect such an attack might have on the election. He may not attack at all. If he does attack, those who approve might not vote for him anyway. Most people are too smart to be fooled by this tactic again. Err, umm, Nevermind.
I have heard it said that Obama will not attack Iran. Could be. It is also suggested that he will not because he is a wimp. Maybe. Personally I think he will attack because he is a wimp, but does not want to be perceived as one. I wish that decisions would be made on some other basis than testosterone. The potential side effects of such an attack in our crumbling economy are dire.
