It looks obvious

This is almost as good as the claim that paying taxes is voluntary:

“I’m not here to say that the government is always right, but when the government tells you to do something, I’m sure you would all agree that I think you all recognize that is something you need to do.”

I guess we really did something bad to deserve these representatives…

One approach to look at the soaring price of Oil is to blame it on speculators. Following the footsteps of Lenin both McCain and Obama using very harsh language toward the “speculators”. The reality, as usual, is slightly different:

To a large extent, this theory, if it is anything more than just populist capitalism-bashing, is a result of extreme ignorance. There are an incredible number of people involved in the oil markets every day in numerous countries with numerous different incentives, such a large number that it is impossible to imagine a conspiracy. There have been a couple of cases of proven petroleum commodity price manipulation in these trading markets - most of these have involved manipulation of prices at the end of the day on certain futures expiration and/or Platt’s pricing windows. The time frame for these manipulations have been on the order of 1-2 minutes.

But here is the best argument against this manipulation for higher prices, and it is amazing to me that no one ever thinks of it. Sure, there are a bunch of really savvy people in the commodity trading business who are long on oil and want the price to be higher. But for every seller, there is a buyer on the other side, someone who is at least as savvy and is desireous of lower prices. Yes, I know it is a complicated concept, but for every trader selling there is one buying. If there is an extended conspiracy to push up oil prices by speculators, do you really think the buyers are just going to sit on their hands and take it? And do you really think the exchanges are going to be happy with this behavior, threatening the integrity of their trading system (really their only asset)? Just ask the Hunt family, which attempted to corner the market and drive prices up in silver, only to have major buyers and the exchanges stop them cold, driving the Hunts in the process into bankrupcy.

Obviously this populistic rhetoric is being used largely because of the election, however it is being fed on existing notions and is feeding unfavor public opinion. It is convenient to blame the bankers (it used to be even more convinient when the “bankers” was code name for jews) - it distract the attention from the real issues, it provides common enemy and a great excuse to add more power for those who will “protect” us. Will it solve the problem? of course not, but who cares we can always blame the evil corporations.

How dare those CEO’s spreading disinformation (and it has to be disinformation) that oppose James Hansen opinion? Obviously, they should put on trial and than burn on the stake for crimes against humanity, which casting doubt on the great truth coming from Hansen’s mouth apparently is:

James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

And the answer to the modern inquisitors, Hansen and his like, that try to eradicate any sign of heresy is: “E pur si muove!”

I usually pretty strict about the use of language on my blog. But the sad news about the death of the great comedian George Carlin are good reason to break, temporarily, this rule. Here is what George Carlin had to say about those seven words we are not allowed to say on TV

May he rest in peace.

Why should my tax money fund something that is very offensive for me? something like this for example:

American taxpayers are paying for a Middle Eastern television network that broadcast an anti-Israeli diatribe as recently as last month, a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and ProPublica reveals. This, despite the fact that Al Hurra management promised Congress nearly two years ago that they would take measures to prevent such mistakes, which had occurred repeatedly before.

One might argue that using the taxpayers money for propaganda is bound to offend someone, to which I can only say - exactly!

The weather outside today is quit bad - the heavy rain prevents us from going to the swimming pool or, although I foolishly promised, for horseback riding. So the girls are at home. Here is Ronie making her first attempts with the piano:

And here Tseela telling us some of her anticipations from the summer vacation:

Few more pictures can be found here.

They will need to work much harder in order to “grab” my vote. Unfortunately this election aren’t going to be close election, and the potential appeal of swing votes in states like Georgia or the mountain west states will not have the desired effect.

With iconoclast Ron Paul having ended his quixotic bid for the Republican presidential nomination — his platform had called for, among other things, ending the Iraq War, repealing the PATRIOT Act, returning to the gold standard and eliminating taxes on tips — his many dedicated supporters are up for grabs.

[...]

It’s a support base that could make the difference in a close election, and while there’s no guarantee that his supporters will turn out at the polls for GOP standard-bearer John McCain, one thing seems clear: Despite their overlapping anti-Iraq war positions, Barack Obama will not make major inroads among them.

I do not question the need of a country to prepare military options for different scenarios. However, I question the wisdom behind publishing the latest Israeli air-force maneuver. Knowing the effect on the global oil market of every statement suggesting attack on Iran, mostly after the Israeli transportation minister cause a price increase because of his political aspirations, such preparations should be considered very carefully. The price for this method of communication is very high, and I don’t think that Israel will enjoy the support of the Americans who start loosing their jobs if it continue with it much longer.

The residence of Voinesti, a Romanian village, got it right:

Neculai Ivascu, 57, who had run the village of Voinesti since 1990, died from liver disease just after voting began on Sunday - but still won the election by a margin of 23 votes.

I think we should adopt this idea and make it a prerequisite to be dead before running for any public office. It would, the least, reduce the damage created by live officials…

Oh, no! Obama might not be so bad as those who try to convince conservatives that McCain is “the lesser evil” :

Demonstrating that this is no mere spring fling, he has appointed 37-year-old Jason Furman to head his economic policy team. Furman is one of Wal-Mart’s most prominent defenders, anointing the company a “progressive success story.” On the campaign trail, Obama blasted Clinton for sitting on the Wal-Mart board and pledged, “I won’t shop there.” For Furman, however, it’s Wal-Mart’s critics who are the real threat: the “efforts to get Wal-Mart to raise its wages and benefits” are creating “collateral damage” that is “way too enormous and damaging to working people and the economy more broadly for me to sit by idly and sing ‘Kum-Ba-Ya’ in the interests of progressive harmony.”

Obama’s love of markets and his desire for “change” are not inherently incompatible. “The market has gotten out of balance,” he says, and it most certainly has. Many trace this profound imbalance back to the ideas of Milton Friedman, who launched a counterrevolution against the New Deal from his perch at the University of Chicago economics department. And here there are more problems, because Obama -who taught law at the University of Chicago for a decade - is thoroughly embedded in the mind-set known as the Chicago School.

The explanation can be also that this is part of the obvious break toward the center that the candidates have to do after the Primaries and before the general election, or that Obama was never that extreme left as his opponents try to portray him. Nevertheless, this is just confirming my arguments that He is less offensive than McCain.

Via LRC