This and That

This post is brought to you by the strength and determination to spend hours per day, year after year trying to make your paralyzed body walk. Rob Summers, hat’s off to you my friend. Every news account I have seen on this acts like they electrocuted him and he walked. Uh ... no. Try six years of daily intensive physical therapy that began with four years of having people move his feet on a tread mill while he was held up in a harness, followed by the implant and then two more years of therapy ... Rob’s refusal to surrender inspires me. I pray that his dream of running is fulfilled.
Ok, on to the stuff that we have to really talk about. Harold Camping has predicted that the world will end tomorrow. And in 1994. I think that next time he will predict it for after his own death because this has to be getting embarrassing. Harold Camping is an idiot and I am glad that people are having fun laughing at him, still it reminds me that we all need to be sure that we are right with God because we do not know when the end will come ... that said I’ll talk to you all on Sunday.
Borders. Borders change. I promise, they change all the time, and depending on where you are, they aren’t always that clear. Usually borders change following a violent conflict, look at a map of Europe before and after WWI for a good example. Apparently the President of the United States thinks that borders change because he wants them to ... they do not. Let me preface this by saying that I pray every day that the Israelis and the Palestinians will come to a peaceful agreement and that they can live in harmony, whether that be cohabitation or in two separate states, I just pray for peace. I want nothing more than for the Palestinian people to not live in fear of assaults by the IDF, not to live in the poverty created by the embargo, to be an unoccupied, free people. I understand why they lash out and attack the Israelis. I want nothing more than for the Israeli people not to live in constant fear of rocket attacks, or invasion, or of suicide bombers blowing up women and children at the market. I would love for Israel to be a nation of peace. I understand why Israel uses retaliation as a deterrent, in understand why the election to power of an organization that is sworn to destroy them has led to an embargo. Facing the violence of the other they are both right to defend themselves. It gives me hope when they agree to meet and discuss peace, even if it goes no where, both sides are showing that they want peace. I pray that it comes, that they can agree, but as far as the border goes, that is not for an American president to dictate. You have to understand, in the mid 60's Syria and Lebanon tried to cut off Israel’s water supply, In 1967 they fought a war against Egypt, Syria and Lebanon (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Algeria sent troops) and they gained large amounts of land in the process. In 1973 they were attacked and held the borders where they were. And on and on and on. Israeli men and women have fought and died for those borders, for that land ... does President Obama mean to suggest to their families that the fight was for nothing, that the sacrifices were meaningless? It seems that he does. And it must be said that if the President feels that it is somehow wrong to move to a new place, push the natives off the land that they live on and then violently defend that land from their desire to regain it he need not look to Israel to right a wrong. He can call for a return of the 1619 borders here in the United States, return the country to the Native Americans who occupied it before being brutally forced off of it and into the reservations that they still occupy. Just a thought.
RIP Macho Man.
Wasn’t it President Obama who repeatedly said that President Bush was a buffoon and could not possibly be any worse when it came to international relations? That the world hated us because of Bush? That the wars were Bush’s fault? Can someone please explain to me why we are fighting a war in Lybia, why Egypt gets billions to continue repression, why our ally Bahrain is killing its own people, Syria has become an absolute slaughter (much worse than Lybia but with out the oil) our relationship with Pakistan has about completely collapsed (Pakistan just got 50 fighter jets from China, oh goodie) our pals in Yemen are fighting two different civil wars, and Mexico has become the “killing fields” of our generation? Where’s all the great diplomacy we were promised? Honestly I didn’t vote for Obama, we greatly differ on the role of the federal government, but even I thought the wars would really end, that he would build relationships with other nations, not ignore and destroy them. This is out of control.
In investment news, ladies and gentlemen, if a company earns $0.17 per share and shows no signs of building revenue ... that company is not worth $97 per share. Have we learned nothing from Red Hat? Please stop being stupid and allowing your greed to control our economy.
Happy Friday!