Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Thanks musings readers - 3000 hits
I was pleased to see when I signed on tonight (necessary to get into posting mode) that we were still just short of 3000 since I prefer that a reader have the honor. No doubt, this post will attract click 3000 and that's kind of neat considering we have done little to publicize this blog, don't take advertising, etc. We have also maintained a degree of anonymity, a necessity considering my lobbying activities, but regular readers know the identity of the author of course. You might wonder about the propriety of offering our URL to your friends and those you enjoy debating with on economics, politics, sports, music, etc.
The answer is, that would be fine, we are anxious to spread the redwavemusings gospel of free people, free markets, and expensive (quality) music and sports. That said, lets just say the blog is written by "redwave" and leave it at that for now. But feel free to recruit new readers within that limitation and we will get to 4000 hits in no time. More importantly, we'll get the conversation going about our favorite topics, hopefully both with folks who agree with us and those who don't. Your comments are welcome. So would be some advice about how to set blogger so that comments could come up more easily in a pop up window. After all this time, I still haven't quite got that technology figured out.
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Sunday at the Meadowlands was great fun, starting with hero sandwich and beer at the tailgate, and an entertaining Jets win (if not especially artistic). Watching Saints - Patriots on the tube last night was quite a contrast. The speed of the teams, particularly the Saints, seemed otherworldly compared to the plodding, turnover ridden squads we saw Sunday. For so many years, elite NFL teams were characterized by dominant defenses, but with the rule changes of the past few years designed to give QB's better protection and receivers an easier start on their patterns, aerial offensive displays are now the mark of the best teams. It does make for a more entertaining game, that's for sure. Somehow, the rulers of pro hockey and soccer have got to figure out how to inject more scoring into their games, as football has done. For hockey, I suggest reducing the size of the goal crease, for soccer, eliminate offside already.
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A great victory for democracy has been won in Honduras, with the successful election and recognition of the winner by the U.S., which belatedly figured out who the good guys were (if Obama and friends read our blog, they would have known a long time ago). The administration seems to have jettisoned the source of some of the bad advice it was getting on Latin America, and the "all's well that ends well" result means another tip of the cap to Hillary Clinton in her mission to actually run the State Department (instead of vice versa) and to provide adult supervision for a very green (in the sense of inexperienced) administration. The big losers, of course are Chavez, Ortega, Castro, the OAS - and they really deserved it.
Another winner, who in my opinion should get a Pulitzer, is WSJ columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady, whose brilliant, courageous writing on this subject alerted us all to the administration's misguided policy and undoubtedly played a role in getting things on track. Even in the internet age, the power of the pen is awesome in skilled hands backed by clear thinking.
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The Obama administration has such bad instincts on foreign policy that it is heartening at least to see that they have the capacity to change course when they realize that what they are doing is clearly not working. So in addition to the happy ending in Honduras, we now see that they realize they blew Iranian policy completely, that engagement with the regime was a stupid unproductive idea, and that the bad guys only respect strength. Of course, this administration thinks sanctions are the answer, and to their credit, it now appears that Russia and perhaps even China are lined up to vote for economic sanctions. In the end, the prediction here is that only a military strike against the Iranian nuclear facilities will curtail Iranian weapons development. The sooner the better, it says here.
I wonder if anyone in the Administration realizes that a real opportunity for regime change was missed by not getting on the anti-government protesters' bandwagon when they had some momentum. Instead, our failed policy of engagement gave the mullahs credibility at a critical time and it was exactly the wrong answer. This was reminiscent of Bush 41's missed opportunity to support Iraqi's in overthrowing Saddam immediately following the first Gulf War.
As for Afghanistan, Obama applied his usual analytical (i.e. tortuously slow) decision making process before announcing a troop surge tonight - one that was recommended to him from the start of his administration. I could easily quibble that he has not committed enough new troops, that the arbitrary time limit is a mistake, that he is giving too much credit to our NATO allies who are contributing only token support, etc. etc., but let's instead be grateful that he has arrived at a reasonable answer and try to forgive the dithering. As for his call for unity behind our troops, my response is that we conservatives always support our troops in harm's way unconditionally - something the left can't say, that's for sure. If there is any disunity with respect to this war effort, Mr. President, it's coming from your own party, not from Republicans nor from Conservatives.
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I'll have plenty more in future posts to say about Climategate of course, but for tonight, I'll simply refer you to today's excellent WSJ op ed piece by Richard S. Lindzen, "The Climate Science Isn't Settled." And tonight, word that the leader of the effort to scuttle dissent at East Anglia's Climate Research Unit has resigned in disgrace, bracing for those of us who have fought the good fight against CO2 regulation at many a drunken barroom debate with environmental types, who proudly pronounce the debate over, never in doubt about the certainty of their flawed data. It almost never gets any better than this.
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Last Wednesday, we sold 100 shares of TMO at 47.61 (purchased 11/23/98 at 17) from our IRA. On Monday, we bought 800 shares of Newpark Resources (NR) at 2.62.
The answer is, that would be fine, we are anxious to spread the redwavemusings gospel of free people, free markets, and expensive (quality) music and sports. That said, lets just say the blog is written by "redwave" and leave it at that for now. But feel free to recruit new readers within that limitation and we will get to 4000 hits in no time. More importantly, we'll get the conversation going about our favorite topics, hopefully both with folks who agree with us and those who don't. Your comments are welcome. So would be some advice about how to set blogger so that comments could come up more easily in a pop up window. After all this time, I still haven't quite got that technology figured out.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday at the Meadowlands was great fun, starting with hero sandwich and beer at the tailgate, and an entertaining Jets win (if not especially artistic). Watching Saints - Patriots on the tube last night was quite a contrast. The speed of the teams, particularly the Saints, seemed otherworldly compared to the plodding, turnover ridden squads we saw Sunday. For so many years, elite NFL teams were characterized by dominant defenses, but with the rule changes of the past few years designed to give QB's better protection and receivers an easier start on their patterns, aerial offensive displays are now the mark of the best teams. It does make for a more entertaining game, that's for sure. Somehow, the rulers of pro hockey and soccer have got to figure out how to inject more scoring into their games, as football has done. For hockey, I suggest reducing the size of the goal crease, for soccer, eliminate offside already.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A great victory for democracy has been won in Honduras, with the successful election and recognition of the winner by the U.S., which belatedly figured out who the good guys were (if Obama and friends read our blog, they would have known a long time ago). The administration seems to have jettisoned the source of some of the bad advice it was getting on Latin America, and the "all's well that ends well" result means another tip of the cap to Hillary Clinton in her mission to actually run the State Department (instead of vice versa) and to provide adult supervision for a very green (in the sense of inexperienced) administration. The big losers, of course are Chavez, Ortega, Castro, the OAS - and they really deserved it.
Another winner, who in my opinion should get a Pulitzer, is WSJ columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady, whose brilliant, courageous writing on this subject alerted us all to the administration's misguided policy and undoubtedly played a role in getting things on track. Even in the internet age, the power of the pen is awesome in skilled hands backed by clear thinking.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Obama administration has such bad instincts on foreign policy that it is heartening at least to see that they have the capacity to change course when they realize that what they are doing is clearly not working. So in addition to the happy ending in Honduras, we now see that they realize they blew Iranian policy completely, that engagement with the regime was a stupid unproductive idea, and that the bad guys only respect strength. Of course, this administration thinks sanctions are the answer, and to their credit, it now appears that Russia and perhaps even China are lined up to vote for economic sanctions. In the end, the prediction here is that only a military strike against the Iranian nuclear facilities will curtail Iranian weapons development. The sooner the better, it says here.
I wonder if anyone in the Administration realizes that a real opportunity for regime change was missed by not getting on the anti-government protesters' bandwagon when they had some momentum. Instead, our failed policy of engagement gave the mullahs credibility at a critical time and it was exactly the wrong answer. This was reminiscent of Bush 41's missed opportunity to support Iraqi's in overthrowing Saddam immediately following the first Gulf War.
As for Afghanistan, Obama applied his usual analytical (i.e. tortuously slow) decision making process before announcing a troop surge tonight - one that was recommended to him from the start of his administration. I could easily quibble that he has not committed enough new troops, that the arbitrary time limit is a mistake, that he is giving too much credit to our NATO allies who are contributing only token support, etc. etc., but let's instead be grateful that he has arrived at a reasonable answer and try to forgive the dithering. As for his call for unity behind our troops, my response is that we conservatives always support our troops in harm's way unconditionally - something the left can't say, that's for sure. If there is any disunity with respect to this war effort, Mr. President, it's coming from your own party, not from Republicans nor from Conservatives.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll have plenty more in future posts to say about Climategate of course, but for tonight, I'll simply refer you to today's excellent WSJ op ed piece by Richard S. Lindzen, "The Climate Science Isn't Settled." And tonight, word that the leader of the effort to scuttle dissent at East Anglia's Climate Research Unit has resigned in disgrace, bracing for those of us who have fought the good fight against CO2 regulation at many a drunken barroom debate with environmental types, who proudly pronounce the debate over, never in doubt about the certainty of their flawed data. It almost never gets any better than this.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Wednesday, we sold 100 shares of TMO at 47.61 (purchased 11/23/98 at 17) from our IRA. On Monday, we bought 800 shares of Newpark Resources (NR) at 2.62.
