Engagement

President Obama campaigned on a policy of engagement with hostile countries, most notably Iran. Since his inauguration, he has tried to make nice with Iran and, as predicted by yours truly, it has come to naught. Oh, but since we showed that Iran was unwilling to engage when we offered the carrot, it makes us all that much stronger now that we must resort to the stick. Actually, no. The Chinese will not allow meaningful sanctions. Nor, in all likelihood, will Russia. The skeptics of Obama's strategy said that he was simply giving them a year or more to pursue nuclear weapons with no threat of action. Now we will seek toothless sanctions that will do virtually nothing to curb Iran's thirst for nuclear weaponry. Look what our sanctions have achieved against Cuba. As the Obama Administration will not use military force against Iran to prevent that nation from going nuclear and will strenuously urge Israel not to do so, it is now fairly certain that Iran will join the nuclear club. Won't MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) contain Iranian belligerence like it did with the USSR, especially since there is nothing Mutual about the Assured Destruction? Maybe. I'd rather not put it to the test.

Ahmadinejad has said that Israel must be "wiped off" the map. That will be much easier if he has some nukes. Is he just bluffing or should Israel take him at his word? The stakes could hardly be higher?

Peace Talks will never Succeed

I have long grown weary of all the talk on the Mideast Peace Process and how Israel is always making it more difficult to have peace. This is nonsense. The Palestinians will never agree to co-exist with Israel. They have stated their goal of the destruction of Israel many, many times. If Israel surrendered 99% of its territory, the Palestinians would blame Israel for ruining the peace process by not surrendering that last percent. There can be no peace when one party can only be satisfied by the destruction of the other party. This state of affairs is common knowledge and yet everyone claims to want the peace process to continue. Thus, I am always amazed when people I respect talk of the peace process as if it weren't a chimera. There is no peace process. There has never been a peace process. It is the Israeli Surrender Process. Those who desire the destruction of Israel are content to accept small gains (withdrawal from Gaza, withdrawal from Lebanon, etc.) while surrendering nothing themselves. I have seen the process for 25 years and, through various reading, discovered it has been ongoing since the creation of Modern Israel in 1948. Right now, the Palestinians may lose every battle but they are winning the war. If Israel still exists in 20 years, there will still be no peace.

Peace is easy. All you have to do is surrender.

Where is the Line?

If the Feds can mandate that every American must buy health insurance, then I ask what can they not mandate citizens to buy? If every American went to the gym every week, we would surely be healthier. That would cut health care costs. We all know that obesity is a problem. So, what is to stop the Feds from mandating gym membership in the name of reducing health care costs? Many Americans would just pay for the membership and never go to the gym so there would have to be some enforcement measure. The gym might be required to report the number of hours a member has spent in the gym each week. Hey, it's for the best. I could certainly use the exercise. The Feds recently acquired a couple of car companies. Wouldn't it be nice if Americans purchased cars from those companies? It would make those companies solvent again and help pay back the money the taxpayer spent. Let's mandate that every family must have 1 GM or Chrysler. Where is the line? What prevents the government from mandating that we buy an apple a day to keep the doctor away? If requiring everyone to buy an apple a day is over the line, why isn't requiring us to buy a far more expensive product?

When the People control the government, that's democracy. When the government controls the People, that's tyranny.

Health Care Fiasco

I am amazed and distressed that the health care reform bill is now law. All the talk of it cutting the deficit is nonsense as anyone with any sense of history must know. Social Security and Medicare have both far exceeded their 'projected' costs but this time we should trust that the government has accurately estimated the future costs of this new entitlement. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. This must be like the 45th fooling.

Let us ponder some of the 'great' things about this law. Insurance companies can't deny for pre-existing conditions. So, Bob shows up at Blue Shield and says he needs a heart transplant which will cost more than Bob will ever pay in premiums, even if he lives to 100, but Blue Shield can't deny him coverage. Well, that's not so bad. Surely, they have a cost limit? Nope, Blue Shield can't cut off coverage when a certain dollar figure it reached. Okay, well, that's only fair now that everyone is MANDATED to have coverage. The insurance companies will be rolling in cash thanks to that provision. Well, maybe not. Failure to buy insurance only incurs a $750 penalty, payable to the government, not the insurance company. So, unless the insurance companies are offering coverage for less than $750, many people - particularly the young and healthy - will opt to pay the fine. That means the sick will be draining the insurance coffers while the healthy are enriching the government through fines. Gee, where does that lead? Insurance is all about actuaries and the Feds have just made it illegal to make decisions based on the actuaries. This will not end well for insurance companies, which is the plan. When they start failing in a few years, government will have to save the day with a Public Option.

That aside, now was not the time to add another expensive entitlement to the federal budget. This year, Social Security is paying out more than it brings in. That is 6 to 8 years earlier than predicted. The debt stands at $12.7 trillion and is projected to add a trillion more a year for the next decade. Unfunded liabilities (Social Security, Medicare, and Prescription Drugs) stand at $108 trillion. Upon this already ruinous debt, Congress and the President have added a new entitlement. The numbers are dire:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html

It doesn't take a genius to see economic catastrophe in these numbers. The spending will eventually stop. How it stops is the question: Bankruptcy or a return to fiscal responsibility?

The First Musing

Ever since Yahoo 360 closed, my blogging has fallen off the map. However, I find I have much to say. Therefore, I'm going to give this blog site a try and see how it flies.