Take a look at these historic copper charts.
I was especially intrigued by the five-year chart of warehouse stock levels and the five-year price chart.
Current levels of warehouse stock are very, very high compared to any point over the last few years. Prices have not followed stock too closely since 2009 -- due, primarily, I would guess to Federal Reserve money-pumping. In fact, during late 2010 and most of 2011, copper prices were at the high point even as warehouses had an abundance of stock.
Now we see prices moderating, even threatening to plunge, while warehouses are sitting on a lot of metal. Being no expert, I have no idea what this portends. It just looks ominous.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Charges Considered Against "Unarmed" Teen
I wonder why this homicide has not been in the news? Should we outlaw goalies or fists? I'm okay with outlawing soccer.
In a way, I feel bad for the kid. He was wrong to strike the referee and should have been charged with battery, but I am certain he did not mean to kill Mr. Portillo. Now, because of an outburst of uncontrolled anger, a family is grieving and a young man's life is in ruins.
In a way, it's very reminiscent of the Zimmerman case, two lives destroyed by a culture of violence. George Zimmerman's life is being wrecked by a judicial system poisoned by politics and racism. If Trayvon Martin had been white, Zimmerman would never have been charged.
I'm glad the prosecutor in the referee's case is being reasonable and not seriously considering a murder charge. "Homicide by assault" -- which is will likely carry a penalty similar to manslaughter -- sounds appropriate. One wonders what the charge would have been against Trayvon Martin had his intended victim been "unarmed".
Mike Huckabee, Prophet?
Huckabee predicts that Obama will be removed from office over Benghazi.
I think Governor Huckabee is right about the nature of the cover-up but very, very wrong about the consequences. If this were a Republican president, he could have started writing his resignation speech on 9/12. As it is, Obama is a black Democrat. He is going nowhere, and the odious Hillary Clinton is still the best bet to be elected in 2016. The people who vote for these parasites simply do not care about things like Benghazi. Obama and Clinton are cool, and they give them stuff.
There is no question in my mind that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty would be alive today if Clinton and Obama had made the right decision and authorized military action. Stevens and Sean Smith might have died anyway. The point, however, is that it was clear early on this was not a protest. The Obama Administration and the State Department had been advised of a need for increased security. They ignored these warnings. They neglected to up security on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks -- a day of celebration in the Islamic Middle East.
In the wake of the loss of four American lives and a diplomatic disaster tied to Obama's support for militant Islamic groups with ties to Al Qaeda, the Administration attempted to cover up the incident by making a big deal out of a YouTube trailer. No doubt local law enforcement was encouraged to arrest the maker of this "anti-Islamic" video, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian, for allegedly violating his probation on a check-kiting charge.
Still, even if there is testimony that counters and invalidates everything Obama and Clinton have said regarding Benghazi, about the worst thing that will happen is that they will be regarded as uncaring and incompetent. It is highly unlikely that sufficient proof of intent, malfeasance, or dereliction of duty will come to light for any kind of impeachment or even a public demand for accountability.
To me, this is sad and sickening, but it is the real world of politics. The media is simply the propaganda ministry of those who support ever-bigger government.
I think Governor Huckabee is right about the nature of the cover-up but very, very wrong about the consequences. If this were a Republican president, he could have started writing his resignation speech on 9/12. As it is, Obama is a black Democrat. He is going nowhere, and the odious Hillary Clinton is still the best bet to be elected in 2016. The people who vote for these parasites simply do not care about things like Benghazi. Obama and Clinton are cool, and they give them stuff.
There is no question in my mind that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty would be alive today if Clinton and Obama had made the right decision and authorized military action. Stevens and Sean Smith might have died anyway. The point, however, is that it was clear early on this was not a protest. The Obama Administration and the State Department had been advised of a need for increased security. They ignored these warnings. They neglected to up security on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks -- a day of celebration in the Islamic Middle East.
In the wake of the loss of four American lives and a diplomatic disaster tied to Obama's support for militant Islamic groups with ties to Al Qaeda, the Administration attempted to cover up the incident by making a big deal out of a YouTube trailer. No doubt local law enforcement was encouraged to arrest the maker of this "anti-Islamic" video, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian, for allegedly violating his probation on a check-kiting charge.
Still, even if there is testimony that counters and invalidates everything Obama and Clinton have said regarding Benghazi, about the worst thing that will happen is that they will be regarded as uncaring and incompetent. It is highly unlikely that sufficient proof of intent, malfeasance, or dereliction of duty will come to light for any kind of impeachment or even a public demand for accountability.
To me, this is sad and sickening, but it is the real world of politics. The media is simply the propaganda ministry of those who support ever-bigger government.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Know Your Enemy
I don't know much about Angry White Dude. I followed the link from Gerard.
AWD says: Liberal whites are our enemy. Period. Everything else is a mop-up job.
I disagree. My enemy is anyone who seeks to sustain government and certainly anyone who seeks to expand government. This includes many, many conservatives, including Christians and social conservatives. If one cannot understand that government is anathema to personal and individual liberty, one is at best not too bright. At worst, such a person is evil.
I think the system will destroy itself. It is unsustainable. I would suggest that a better approach would be to focus on low-level, local community-building. The central powers have limited resources. It looks big when it is concentrated, but if there are thousands of Concords and Lexingtons across this nation, the central forces will be overwhelmed. Get your pastor involved. Or, if you are a pastor, get your congregation involved. Give up your tax-exempt status if you have to. Pull in the VFW or the Knights of Columbus, the Lions Club or the board of aldermen or your county commissioners, and especially your county sheriff. If we can get upstanding citizens in a community to back one another, the Feds can go pound sand in places like Boston where they seem to like being slaves.
It is not wrong to lie to protect the innocent -- as people may have lied to the Nazis to Jews. Nobody needs to learn to lie -- it usually comes pretty naturally. Most of all, we don't need to encourage "our" politicians to lie in order to be elected. People who lie for selfish gain cannot be trusted. I don't care which side of the political spectrum they are on.
I understand the point AWD is making, and I'm not unsympathetic. I just think we have to be careful. Becoming the enemy is not a particularly good tactic.
AWD says: Liberal whites are our enemy. Period. Everything else is a mop-up job.
I disagree. My enemy is anyone who seeks to sustain government and certainly anyone who seeks to expand government. This includes many, many conservatives, including Christians and social conservatives. If one cannot understand that government is anathema to personal and individual liberty, one is at best not too bright. At worst, such a person is evil.
I am not an anarchist. I understand some government is necessary, but it is much, much less than we have today. I also know that good, moral Christian people need almost no government. The more genuinely Christian one is, the less government one needs. Most laws become superfluous to Christians because we are trying to please God. Man should have no complaint about us at all.
He goes on to say:
We must learn to lie. We must learn to deceive. We must learn to hate. We must learn to destroy.
We must improve our finances. We must get better educated. We must relentlessly pursue power.
This comes awfully close to being -- to use a hillbilly term-of-art, bullshit. I don't want power over anyone except myself. I have no trouble destroying something that needs to be destroyed, whether it's a rabid skunk or a revenoor -- but I repeat myself.
I think the system will destroy itself. It is unsustainable. I would suggest that a better approach would be to focus on low-level, local community-building. The central powers have limited resources. It looks big when it is concentrated, but if there are thousands of Concords and Lexingtons across this nation, the central forces will be overwhelmed. Get your pastor involved. Or, if you are a pastor, get your congregation involved. Give up your tax-exempt status if you have to. Pull in the VFW or the Knights of Columbus, the Lions Club or the board of aldermen or your county commissioners, and especially your county sheriff. If we can get upstanding citizens in a community to back one another, the Feds can go pound sand in places like Boston where they seem to like being slaves.
It is not wrong to lie to protect the innocent -- as people may have lied to the Nazis to Jews. Nobody needs to learn to lie -- it usually comes pretty naturally. Most of all, we don't need to encourage "our" politicians to lie in order to be elected. People who lie for selfish gain cannot be trusted. I don't care which side of the political spectrum they are on.
I understand the point AWD is making, and I'm not unsympathetic. I just think we have to be careful. Becoming the enemy is not a particularly good tactic.
Late to the Party
Governor Nixon stated repeatedly that no sensitive information was being given by Revenue to the federal government. When his own department heads admitted they were providing names and data on MO CCW holders, Nixon stuck to his denial.
As Dana Loesch explained last week, Nixon was commended by Janet Napolitano for compliance with REAL ID requirements as far back as March 2010.
Now I don't know that REAL ID compliance violates the Missouri law against information-sharing which Nixon himself signed, but it is certainly an indication that Missouri bureaucrats were indeed sending data to that "magic database" up in Washington. Nixon was fully aware of that and made a mockery of himself and his office by his refusal to acknowledge so much as the legitimacy of Missourians expressing concerns about this.
Nixon needs to be forced to testify under oath before a joint session of the Missouri House and Senate. If he lies or has lied and covered up his involvement in an illegal activity, he should be impeached and removed from office, bereft of all the benefits his overly long political career has given him. This SOB was Missouri Attorney General for years and years. He knows the law, and he likely knows he was breaking it. His plan is to run against Roy Blunt for the U.S. Senate when he is term-limited out of the Governor's Mansion in 2016.
We cannot allow this to happen.
As Dana Loesch explained last week, Nixon was commended by Janet Napolitano for compliance with REAL ID requirements as far back as March 2010.
Now I don't know that REAL ID compliance violates the Missouri law against information-sharing which Nixon himself signed, but it is certainly an indication that Missouri bureaucrats were indeed sending data to that "magic database" up in Washington. Nixon was fully aware of that and made a mockery of himself and his office by his refusal to acknowledge so much as the legitimacy of Missourians expressing concerns about this.
Nixon needs to be forced to testify under oath before a joint session of the Missouri House and Senate. If he lies or has lied and covered up his involvement in an illegal activity, he should be impeached and removed from office, bereft of all the benefits his overly long political career has given him. This SOB was Missouri Attorney General for years and years. He knows the law, and he likely knows he was breaking it. His plan is to run against Roy Blunt for the U.S. Senate when he is term-limited out of the Governor's Mansion in 2016.
We cannot allow this to happen.
Friday, May 3, 2013
The Third Day of May
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| Fahrenheit 451 (Photo credit: Witer) |
Now I understand that the climate change advocates will say that global warming can result in more snow. Really cold air doesn't hold much moisture. The Antarctic is a frozen desert. But I don't think global warming is going to make it frost in May.
The old folks had a saying, "Thunder in February; frost in May." Things out of the ordinary happen. Sometimes they happen -- for various reasons, several years running. The average for 20 years is not the average for 100 years -- not usually. Temperatures fluctuate in relation to solar activity.
Does man effect the climate? Of course. So do fire ants and armadillos, plankton and whales, beavers and elephants, wildfires, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Anything, including floods and storms, that can modify a portion of the planet's surface or that exhales or inhales carbon dioxide or oxygen is naturally going to change the world. If flora and fauna had not altered the atmosphere and conditions here on Earth, humans as we are now could never have survived and prospered. Every living thing upon this globe is product and producer.
For an idea of what I am talking about, Stephen Bodio has a couple of recent posts on passenger pigeons -- Passenger Pigeons #1 and the equally sensibly-named Passenger Pigeons #2.
Man or passenger pigeon -- both modified the environment by their existence and habits. Things change.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Schlichter Reveiws The Great Deformation
h/t to The Circle Bastiat
Detlev Schlichter reviews the new book by former Reagan OMB-head, David Stockman, called The Great Deformation. While I usually avoid books like this, I may have to make an exception for Stockman, who has been getting some attention with his promotion of this book via opinion pieces around the internet. Since I almost never watch television and listen to talk-radio less and less, I don't know if he has been making the rounds of the various shows or popping up on Fox.
From Schlichter's review, it appears that Stockman demolishes several systemic falsehoods (I love "myths" too much to have it sullied here) about the free market, the Federal Reserve, the gold standard, and sound money. Stockman documents and highlights what some of us sense and perhaps have trouble articulating. We are not operating in a "free market" system. The financial markets and the Federal Reserve are joined at the hip. Since the Fed is essentially funding and enabling the growth of government, we operate under a Frankenstein-like government-corporate amalgam which really does allow the gap between rich and poor to widen while decimating the productive middle and working class.
Giving "more control" to the government is simply moving the cattle prod from the right hand to the left.
Anyway, read the review. If I can pick up a copy of The Great Deformation, I may post some thoughts on it here. No promises, though, my free time is rapidly dissipating as the weather finally warms up.
Detlev Schlichter reviews the new book by former Reagan OMB-head, David Stockman, called The Great Deformation. While I usually avoid books like this, I may have to make an exception for Stockman, who has been getting some attention with his promotion of this book via opinion pieces around the internet. Since I almost never watch television and listen to talk-radio less and less, I don't know if he has been making the rounds of the various shows or popping up on Fox.
From Schlichter's review, it appears that Stockman demolishes several systemic falsehoods (I love "myths" too much to have it sullied here) about the free market, the Federal Reserve, the gold standard, and sound money. Stockman documents and highlights what some of us sense and perhaps have trouble articulating. We are not operating in a "free market" system. The financial markets and the Federal Reserve are joined at the hip. Since the Fed is essentially funding and enabling the growth of government, we operate under a Frankenstein-like government-corporate amalgam which really does allow the gap between rich and poor to widen while decimating the productive middle and working class.
Giving "more control" to the government is simply moving the cattle prod from the right hand to the left.
Anyway, read the review. If I can pick up a copy of The Great Deformation, I may post some thoughts on it here. No promises, though, my free time is rapidly dissipating as the weather finally warms up.
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