Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.
Well, it was bound to happen one day. In fact, it was bound to happen TODAY - since 'it' is a function of the calendar.
'It' is the beginning of my 42nd year of post-partum existence; some time 41 years ago, the doctor said "It's a boy"...
so all the stories you might have heard about me being carved out of a piece of granite and breathed to life by Crom are false... I admit it.
I react oddly to birthdays; my 18th and 21st - often viewed as rites of passage - both came and went with little fanfare (a jam doughnut after the gym, and an early night). Conversely, on the morning of the beginning of my 26th year I felt really, really old.
Likewise, my 40th birthday was a non-event; I think we might have gone to Oscar W's in Echuca (a very nice restaurant), but on reflection I think probably not.
And now I'm turning 41 in one of the world's great metropolises, which is fitting - and yet for some reason I am highly conscious of the passing years today.
As a result of a really good dose of the 'flu, I was waylaid for almost ten days; this prevented a timely re-entry into the SPI (on the short side, of course), but that can't be helped - I'll be looking to short the next bounce as well (the next bounce will result in a lower daily and weekly high - with much the same shape as the S&P500 has made recently).
I read some interesting stuff about the fact that de Gaulle rejected the plans that the Yanks had for France (as part of the American post-war development plan for Western Europe). Basically, de Gaulle knew that the Yanks wanted to impose American culture on everything they touched. De Gaulle told them to piss off, and kicked out all of their military bases at the same time (and withdrew from NATO). Not bad for a big-nosed wanker. he also managed to manufacture the myth that the French were staunchly resisting the Krauts, when in fac tthe battle for France lasted a little over two weeks and Petain took to running his sectors of Occupied France like a duck to water.
Of course the Yanks also wrote their version of events - like claiming the plupart of the glory for D-Day, when most of the planning, manpower and materiel were provided by the Poms and the Canadians. The Yanks also claim to have beaten the Krauts, when in fact the Krauts were already buggered thanks to the arrival of a few million Russkies. And finally, we have the recent film in which the Yanks claimed credit for cracking the German codes by capturing a boat with its ENIGMA machine intact... when in fact that happened in 1941 before the Yanks were even involved in WWII, and the capture was performed by the British.
Just goes to show - when politicians get their court jesters to write the history of an event, the resultant 'history' is 90% bullshit and 10% propaganda. Doubtless the hacks like Tom Friedman are already beavering away like good media whores, writing the historical equivalent of a $20 blowjob to try and put a gloss on Bush's Iraq misadventure. Wait until the final misjudgement is undertaken (with the bombing of Iran).
Folks like Friedman ought to take a walk around Bath (UK), Paris (France) and Rome (Italy), where they will see loads of Roman ruins... abundant evidence of what happens when a country decides that it's model is a 'one thought fits all' way to human perfection. The world is full of ruins left over from Empires who thought that their view of the world was fit to be imposed on everyone else at the point of a sword... and history forgets every one of the dills i ncharge who think (or at least claim that they think) that they're doing the world a favour.
For the Cheneys of the world, that's not really the point, is it? The point is to funnel as much of the taxpayer's loot into the pockets of themselves and their cronies - when they tried to be businessmen, Bush and Cheney required tax-funded bailouts (with Bush it was the use of eminent domain to seize land for his cabal to build a baseball stadium... for Cheney it was defence contracts to save Halliburton from the disastrous results of Cheney's empire-ambitions as Halliburton's CEO). That's why these people think that 'government' is just a process by which they and their pals are indemified from the downside risk of their bets - at public expense.
There should be a little bounce on Monday (early in the session) in the SPI; at this stage 10:30-11 a.m. appears to be the prime shorting window. Remember, everything is now predicated on a 2-3 day holding period rather than explicit targets.
More later...
Oh... one more thing:
Why is everyone making such a frisson about HAMAS' vistory in the recent Palestinian elections if democracy is so all-fired good (it isn't - it's a stupid system that gives every idiot's view the same weight... permitting the systematic fleecing of the herd by the most parasitic amongst its members). Sure, they have often resorted to 'asymmetric response' methods to try and expel their occupiers - but just about every resistance movement does likewise. It is rank hypocrisy For the current Israeli political class to moan about the use of 'terror' when their entire country was brought into existence thanks largely to actions of Irgun Zvai Leumi (who bombed hotels and assassinated a couple of diplomats), and for the US to moan about violent methods that result in civilian casualties is staggering in its bare-faced gall. the US has killed more Iraqis in three years, than Saddam killed in 30... tell me again who is the "Force for Evil"..
