Okay now, am I crazy or simply mentally ill ... just a bit ... maybe?

Rosie and the old man!
They say that Doberman Pinschers only weigh 132 lbs at full size, so a "miniature" Pinscher (more or less) probably will weigh 13.2 lbs ... right?

While the World Sleeps ... is Armageddon spelled Y-e-o-n-g-p-y-e-o-n-g ???

Yeongpyeong after attack earlier this week

Earlier today, North Korea warned the world that U.S.-South Korean plans for military maneuvers put the peninsula on the brink of war, and appeared to launch its own artillery drills for a second time yesterday within sight of an island (Yeongpyeong) that it showered with a deadly barrage earlier this week. Four persons died in the earlier attack.

The fresh artillery blasts yesterday were especially defiant because they came as the U.S. commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter Sharp--a previous colleague of mine when he was a company grade officer--toured the South Korean island to survey damage from Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed the four people mentioned above.

None of the latest rounds hit the South's territory, and U.S. military officials said Sharp did not even hear the concussions, though residents on other parts of the island panicked and ran back to the air raid shelters where they huddled earlier in the week as white smoke rose from North Korean territory.

Tensions have soared between the Koreas since the North's strike Tuesday destroyed large parts of this island, killing two civilians as well as two marines in a major escalation of their sporadic skirmishes along the sea border.

What most Americans are unaware of vis-à-vis these latest attacks is that (1) North Korea is run by a man who is certifiably insane, (2) North Korea has somewhere between six and nine (eight is the official number) nuclear weapons, and (3) Seoul, the capital of South Korea--and my family’s home for more than five years while I was a scientific advisor to the United Nations Command--is less than thirty miles from the DMZ … so that launching a nuke at three million innocent civilians is not outside of the military equation.

Another “Korean War” (killed 30,000+ American soldiers last time) is perhaps only one artillery round away.

Where that would lead—with both China and the U.S. nervous as hell—is anyone’s guess.
A nuclear missile aimed at Seoul is beyond Mediawingnuts’ imagination … would we nuke Pyongyang (North Korea’s capital city)? in retaliation? … Would China enter the fray against its better interests? … What date is being bandied around by the “Armageddon crowd” … December 21, 2012? … Will our globe make it till then?

This is a great test for both the Chinese negotiators (talking to Kim Jong Il) and our State Department (Hillary Clinton) talking assurances and calm to/with the South Korean leadership. I have some confidence, but when it only might take an errant (or deliberate) single missile falling on Yongsan (my old workplace atop a hill in Seoul) or who-know-where else, well … you get the idea!

Maybe Glenn Beck is right (see previous posting just below) and we should start stocking food and cyanide pills ... who knows? Nuttier guys than Beck have been right now and then through history ...

Fearmonging is Glenn Beck's most fine-tuned talent

Mr. Beck is the joker on the right highlighting the upcoming hyperinflation on everything from Cheerios to fresh fruits--as a result of Medical Health Reform and last year's reform of Wall Street regulations, of course!

For far more than only the past couple of weeks Glenn Beck has been telling his audience on Fox Cable News [sic] that not only should they consider Food Insurance (which costs between six and seven thousand dollars for a year's supply of food), but that they have a responsibility to purchase such insurance to prepare for the coming crisis. For most of the past year, his show’s commercials have also featured commercials for at least one firm that sells gold—coins, bricks and certificates of ownership while Beck has all the while been suggesting that we are not only headed for a time of high inflation, but of hyperinflation in which the dollar essentially becomes worthless.

My guess is that he will soon go into the Food Insurance business--or at least be endorsing it on TV commercials.

To support his claims Beck uses a peculiar twist of logic (though he has no college degree or specialized training in economics--look him up in Wikipedia!) and the study of the National Inflation Association (NIA). The National Inflation Association has itself come under scrutiny for their partisan leanings and questionable funding sources. It’s worth looking NIA up on the web (Google it!). My second Masters Degree was in Experimental Statistics and Econometrics and nothing I recall from all of the economics courses I took at North Carolina State University would have me come to the same conclusions as Glenn Beck’s gobbledygook.

Beck has gone as far as to claim that hyperinflation will cause the cost of a loaf of bread to rise above $20, and the cost of a Hershey candy bar to top $15. Note: The current rate of inflation is roughly 2% and has been hovering near zero for a couple of years. Unfortunately, my Social Security check reflects this and will be going up by exactly nada/zero/nothing for the coming year.

Anyway, the scare tactics employed by Beck on his show have even made me a little anxious—not that it will cost $400 per can for me to continue feeding my cats, but that people will actually begin to hoard food such that the inflation rate actually will go up by a few percentage points--but hardly hyperinflation unless we elect Glenn Beck president or something equally silly.

And incidentally, I concur with the Mormon faith’s general concern that we all have plenty of food in our homes; I only disagree with the scare tactics that GB is throwing in our faces at a time when there are far more serious concerns about which we should be taking almost immediate actions—spelled: Global Warming, START Treaty ratification, middle class tax cuts, etc.

One of Glenn Beck’s favorite closing lines is, “Don’t believe me! Check the facts for yourself.”

Well I did and I now know, as any commodities trader will tell you, it is entirely possible that food and gold prices will actually go down in the near future. This is why commodities trading is actually seen as a very risky venture.
Personally, I recommend diversifying—get a puppy to play with your kittens or get a kitten from the nearest shelter to keep your dogs exercised. It’s a proven fact that having a pet (or pets) will add far more to your life expectancy than an extra roomful of … food?

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's SUPER...

Super strange, that's for sure! The Pentagon's first take on this was "Beats the hell outta me!" before it rather sort of kind of said that it was "definitely" an aircraft approaching the camera aboard the KCBS television news helicopter over the water off the coast of Los Angeles and easily within fifty miles of LAX International Airport.

Even before reading what I have to say, I'd suggest visiting a far more analytical study of the "Mysterious Missile Launch" on a good friend's website.

Even before 24 hours had passed, both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy refused to take responsibility for that mysterious missile launch which woke up news rooms across the country this past Monday, November 8, 2010. And both the Pentagon and a spokesman for the FAA indicated that there was no radar pickup at that time.

Most curious of all (to me anyway) was the combination of a definite spiraling of the exhaust plume or contrail or whatever it was … and the definite edges on both sides of the … well, let’s call it a “contrail” although there are several reasons why that can’t be—at least not the contrail of an aircraft.

My buddy whose website I directed you to above has submitted FOIA (Freedom of Information Access) requests to the FAA and likely NASA, the Pentagon, the Coast Guard (separately) for radar data and other forensic evidence so that he can more clearly analyze the available data. First reports mentioned terrorists, North Korea and even the Boy Scouts of America after our Government threw its arms in the air with their obvious lack of knowledge as to what this was.

My best guess is that it was either an unconventional missile or rocket launch or, of course, an unconventional aircraft whose contrails don’t follow any of the patterns of what we’ve all come to know about such contrails.

And remember … the Pentagon’s first take was that it was a missile launched from 35 miles out to sea. That puts it in restricted air space—too close to Los Angeles and the International Airport there for a couple of reasons for there to have been some pre-warning. And no alerts were issued by ANYONE prior to the launch, unconventional aircraft passover flight … or whatever.

This wasn’t just noticed by the television cameras either; just visit Google.com and put in the keywords, “mysterious missile launch” before clicking on the “Images” button. Of course, you can watch the video (as taken by KCBS) on YouTube, if you wish.

Indeed video zoom shows a military helicopter whose orientation completely dismisses the Pentagon statements through the week that it was just some aircraft contrail. It WAS a missile, probably a large intercontinental missile "for show" similar to one launched during the Bush years in the Atlantic prior to his meeting with his Russian counterparts. That one was "for show," and this one has been QUITE a show for a full week.

Stay tuned to my buddy’s website for further details as they become known. I wouldn’t wait too long for our Pentagon or NORAD (also looking into it) to present anything more revealing than what we have today.

Sen. Patty Murray Wins fourth Term Here in the Wonderful State of Washington!!!

She's My Gal !!!

Not everything was as bad as my previous posting suggests.

Democrat Patty Murray has won a fourth term to the U.S. Senate. Only a couple of hours ago, her Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, finally conceded the race after new vote totals showed Murray widening her lead.

Frankly, I think she would make a marvelous candidate for President in 2012 should Barack decide to step aside. I truly want to see a new, stronger and feistier Barack Obama win in 2012, but Patty Murray has EVERYTHING it takes to be a great leader.

Say "Goodbye" to Compassion and Greener Energy ... Say "Hello" to Corporate Greed (Tax Cuts for Billionaires) and Future Unrest Worldwide ...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., left, and House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio joyously discussing likely increases in lobbyist dollars in their Republican fists in the next few years as a result of the the historic Republican victory on Tuesday

Republicans picked up at least a record 630-plus state legislative seats nationwide. That's even more than the 472 seat gain in 1994, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, and more than the previous record of 628 seats by Democrats in the Watergate election of 1974. Not since 1928 have Republicans held so many state legislative seats.

Not since 1928 ...

Need more be said?

But as unhappy as I am with the results, I recognize that the American people have spoken and, before, the second foot falls in 2012, we will have lost even the modest ObamaCare voted in by both houses and yes, the millionaires and billionaires will be rolling in money with stock market surges, deregulation of off-shore drilling and everything else that Republicans believe is necessary for America to be America.

President Obama deserves our applause for sticking to his "no-drama-Obama" guns and showing more concern for the country--and the world--than his personal or party politics over the past twenty months.

Hopefully, the inevitable "Tea Party" crash won't be as crushing as the Crash in '29.

And for that matter, we all have to remember all that Europe went through during the Nazi occupations to realize that Tuesday's Midterm Election isn't the worst that could happen to our beloved America! This classic photo of a Frenchman watching the Germans march into Paris is one of the most endearing memories of my childhood.