Creep.
- Aggie
Archive for Aunt Agatha
PIGS
Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain
Much has been written about the EU debt bomb, cleverly called PIGS.
The inevitable “sovereign debt panic” finally struck last week, causing severe one-day drops in stock markets from New York to London to Toronto on Thursday.
Ostensibly, the epicentre of the crisis is Greece, in danger of defaulting on its debt payments to worldwide holders of its government bonds, or sovereign debt.
But the fear about state defaults quickly spread to Spain, Portugal and Ireland, fiscal train wrecks that together with Greece now go by the unfortunate acronym PIGS.
Even then, the scope of a potential second global financial crisis so soon after the credit crisis of 2008-09 goes far beyond the euro zone, the 16 nations sharing a common currency, the euro.
Last week’s dramatics could have been far worse. And they may yet manifest themselves in an ugly fashion in weeks to come if the euro-zone countries don’t rescue what Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou described last week as “the weakest link in the euro zone.”
Greece accounts for just 3 per cent of the euro-zone economy. The crisis in the cradle of Western civilization serves merely as proxy for government over-indebtedness everywhere.
Only a few months ago, a Dubai on the edge of default had to be bailed out by oil-rich neighbour Abu Dhabi. [hard to keep these guys straight, isn’t it? - Aggie] A debt-strapped Argentina recently tried and failed to pay debts by raiding its central-bank treasury.
Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio is an eye-popping 95 per cent. But then, the U.S. isn’t far behind at 84 per cent. (The Canadian ratio is estimated at 35.5 per cent in the current fiscal year.) Greece’s deficit-to-GDP ratio is an alarming 13 per cent. But then, Britain isn’t far behind at 12.6 per cent.
And so on. Any thoughts? Maybe this is the End Of The Western World that the Iranians are drooling about? Then again, maybe it is just the usual nonsense.
Elections have consequences:
The U.S. looms largest. President Barack Obama just tabled a budget that projects a doubling in America’s national debt, to $28 trillion (U.S.), by decade’s end. That’s twice the size of the U.S. economy.
- Aggie
Achmadinijead Is Out Of Control
He is threatening the West with an unspecified attack on February 11th.
How coy.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the nation will deliver a harsh blow to the “global arrogance” on this year’s anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
“The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race, which was trapped in the dead ends of materialism,” Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“If the Islamic Revolution had not occurred, liberalism and Marxism would have crushed all human dignity in their power-seeking and money-grubbing claws. Nothing would have remained of human and spiritual principles,” he added.
Interesting that he equates Liberalism with Marxism in opposition to the liberty conferred by Sha’aria. Shows to go you what a different planet he inhabits. 
BBC Monitoring Middle East, Ahmadinejad spoke on official Iranian television, saying that this year’s “Ten Days of Dawn” celebration, marking the anniversary of the country’s Islamic Revolution, would see the “demise” of the American system.
“I believe that 22 Bahman [ February 11 in the Persian calendar] this year marks the demise of the liberal capitalist system.” Ahmadinejad said.
…
Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran was an “inspiring” and “justice-seeking” country, which was just being “introduced to the world.”
“On the other hand, the Iranian nation is being introduced around the world as an inspiring, idealistic, revolutionary, God-seeking, justice-seeking, pure and humane nation.”
Ahmadinejad continued the narrative of America’s impending doom in a speech Saturday, Jan. 30, claiming that the Iranian revolution was the final step in God’s plan for the world.
“God created mankind … to reach a point that it could have control over the world of creation and days and nights,” Ahmadinejad said. “It is clear to all of us that the Islamic Revolution today is a giant stride toward the implementation of this great goal. The Islamic Revolution is in the direction, and of the same nature of, the great prophet’s move. It is guided by God.”
Well, I certainly look forward to the all the excitement on Thursday!
- Aggie
The Wedding Gown That Made History
[Written by Helen Zegerman Schwimmer]
Lilly Friedman doesn’t remember the last name of the woman who designed and sewed the wedding gown she wore when she walked down the aisle over 60 years ago. But the grandmother of seven does recall that when she first told her fiancé Ludwig that she had always dreamed of being married in a white gown he realized he had his work cut out for him.
For the tall, lanky 21-year-old who had survived hunger, disease and torture this was a different kind of challenge. How was he ever going to find such a dress in the Bergen Belsen Displaced Person’s camp where they felt grateful for the clothes on their backs?
Fate would intervene in the guise of a former German pilot who walked into the food distribution center where Ludwig worked, eager to make a trade for his worthless parachute. In exchange for two pounds of coffee beans and a couple of packs of cigarettes Lilly would have her wedding gown.
For two weeks Miriam the seamstress worked under the curious eyes of her fellow DPs, carefully fashioning the six parachute panels into a simple, long sleeved gown with a rolled collar and a fitted waist that tied in the back with a bow. When the dress was completed she sewed the leftover material into a matching shirt for the groom.
A white wedding gown may have seemed like a frivolous request in the surreal environment of the camps, but for Lilly the dress symbolized the innocent, normal life she and her family had once led before the world descended into madness. Lilly and her siblings were raised in a Torah observant home in the small town of Zarica, Czechoslovakia where her father was a melamed, respected and well liked by the young yeshiva students he taught in nearby Irsheva.
He and his two sons were marked for extermination immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. For Lilly and her sisters it was only their first stop on their long journey of persecution, which included Plashof, Neustadt, Gross Rosen and finally Bergen Belsen.Four hundred people marched 15 miles in the snow to the town of Celle on January 27, 1946 to attend Lilly and Ludwig’s wedding. The town synagogue, damaged and desecrated, had been lovingly renovated by the DPs with the meager materials available to them. When a Sefer Torah arrived from England they converted an old kitchen cabinet into a makeshift Aron Kodesh.
“My sisters and I lost everything - our parents, our two brothers, our homes. The most important thing was to build a new home.” Six months later, Lilly’s sister Ilona wore the dress when she married Max Traeger. After that came Cousin Rosie. How many brides wore Lilly’s dress? “I stopped counting after 17.” With the camps experiencing the highest marriage rate in the world, Lilly’s gown was in great demand.
In 1948 when President Harry Truman finally permitted the 100,000 Jews who had been languishing in DP camps since the end of the war to emigrate, the gown accompanied Lilly across the ocean to America. Unable to part with her dress, it lay at the bottom of her bedroom closet for the next 50 years, “not even good enough for a garage sale. I was happy when it found such a good home.”
Home was the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. When Lily’s niece, a volunteer, told museum officials about her aunt’s dress, they immediately recognized its historical significance and displayed the gown in a specially designed showcase, guaranteed to preserve it for 500 years.
But Lilly Friedman’s dress had one more journey to make. Bergen Belsen, the museum, opened its doors on October 28, 2007. The German government invited Lilly and her sisters to be their guests for the grand opening. They initially declined, but finally traveled to Hanover the following year with their children, their grandchildren and extended families to view the extraordinary exhibit created for the wedding dress made from a parachute.
Lilly Friedman and her parachute dress on display in the Bergen Belsen Museum
There’s more at the link, if you’re interested.
- Aggie
Representative Murtha Has Died
A spokesman says Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine Corps officer who became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 77.
He had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery.
In 1974, Murtha became the first combat veteran of the Vietnam War elected to Congress. He wielded considerable clout for two decades as a leader of the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending. But frustration over the Iraq war led him to call for an immediate pullout of U.S. troops in 2005.
Murtha’s congressional career was clouded by questions about his ethics—from the Abscam corruption probe in 1980 to more recent investigations into the special-interest spending known as earmarks and the raising of cash for election campaigns.
He served his country for years, both in the military and in Congress. Perhaps the biggest stain on his record was the 2006 comment that the US military intentionally kills civilians in cold blood
I’m sorry to have to report that because we all say things that we wish we hadn’t. May he rest in peace.
- Aggie
Bankers, Bailout, Obama
First, let’s take a moment to congratulate The New Orleans Saints and the city of New Orleans. That was thrilling to watch.
Ok, on to the perplexing state of our nation. Did you know that the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase is a good buddy of Barack Obama? Isn’t that fascinating?
If the Democratic Party has a stronghold on Wall Street, it is JPMorgan Chase.
Its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, is a friend of President Obama’s from Chicago, a frequent White House guest and a big Democratic donor. Its vice chairman, William M. Daley, a former Clinton administration cabinet official and Obama transition adviser, comes from Chicago’s Democratic dynasty.
But this year Chase’s political action committee is sending the Democrats a pointed message. While it has contributed to some individual Democrats and state organizations, it has rebuffed solicitations from the national Democratic House and Senate campaign committees. Instead, it gave $30,000 to their Republican counterparts.
I am flabbergasted. I thought he didn’t like bankers?
No wait!
Just two years after Mr. Obama helped his party pull in record Wall Street contributions — $89 million from the securities and investment business, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics — some of his biggest supporters, like Mr. Dimon, have become the industry’s chief lobbyists against his regulatory agenda.
Republicans are rushing to capitalize on what they call Wall Street’s “buyer’s remorse” with the Democrats. And industry executives and lobbyists are warning Democrats that if Mr. Obama keeps attacking Wall Street “fat cats,” they may fight back by withholding their cash.
Let me assure the bankers and the democrats that Mr. Obama will stop attacking Wall Street “fat cats”. They need the money. It will stop. Take a chill.
But this article in the NY Times today is the intellectual equivalent of finding out that John Edwards had a love child. Instead of the sex tapes with the mistress, we get hanky-panky with the bankers. Sure, I imagine this was all part of the public record, but how odd that a President who has spent considerable energy bashing business leaders and bankers, hangs out with them in his free time.
Wall Street fund-raisers for the Democrats say they are feeling under attack from all sides. The president is lashing out at their “arrogance and greed.” Republican friends are saying “I told you so.” And contributors are wishing they had their money back.
Huh. To tell you the truth, I’m not opinionated about this mess. I don’t understand finance at all and know what I don’t know. But, to a casual observers of the Obama campaign and first year in office, it is astonishing to me that the financial people didn’t perceive his hostility. It wasn’t a secret. I wonder what they were thinking?
- Aggie
Is It Safe To Be Jewish In Britain?
2009 had the highest reported incidences of Antisemitism since they began checking
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday called the record number of anti-Semitic incidents across the United Kingdom last year “deeply troubling”, urging Britons to exercise greater vigilance.
Brown’s comments come as the Community Security Trust reported that 2009 was the worst year for anti-Semitic incidents in Britain since the Jewish group first began tracking them in 1984.
Brits attack British Jews because they don’t like Israel. That makes sense, doesn’t it? You see, Jews can’t be British, they must be Israeli, and therefore, since Israel is a the world’s only Jewish country, it is ok to attack Jews in Britain. Because, in their twisted little minds, it is ok to attack Jews and the justification for it comes along as needed, later.
- Aggie
Israeli Device Helping Paraplegics To Walk Again
The impossible dream of being able to walk is coming true for some wheelchair-bound paraplegics who thought they would never again take another step.
ReWalk, a cutting-edge robotic device that lets a partially paralyzed person stand, walk and even climb stairs is being tested at a Philadelphia rehab hospital.
It consists of a backpack, an upper body harness and leg supports that are fitted with motorized knees and hips.
The wearer, who must have the use of his upper body, controls the movement of the leg supports with crutches, while motion sensors that are connected to a backpack computer let the device know when a step should be taken.
At MossRehab in Elkins Park, Pa., the upright device, the first of its kind, will be tested on 14 people who are enrolled in a clinical trial.
ReWalk was designed by Argo Medical Technologies in Haifa, Israel. Though it’s not yet known how much ReWalk will cost if approved, researchers are hopeful that it will be available by the end of this year. It can help those with spinal cord injury-related conditions that result in severe impairments.
Dr. Alberto Esquenazi, chair of MossRehab’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, who was instrumental in ReWalk’s development, said he’s hopeful that the device will soon be widely sold.
“ReWalk should become available in the near future and will be able to be applied widely to people with spinal cord injuries that have preserved the use of the arms,” he says.
“You need to have your arms, both for balance control and sensory feedback. The tip of the crutches provides sensory feedback about where your body is in space.”
ReWalk has what Esquenazi calls “smart software” in that it “understands what the patient is intending to do, and translates that into taking a step or climbing a stair,” he says.
So far, six people have been enrolled in the trial, and they range from 22 to 64, Esquenazi says.
“So far we have had no problems,” he says. “The system has worked appropriately and patients have been thrilled at being able to use the device. Many years after the injury, they had forgotten how to stand and take steps.”
The device is easy to get into, says Esquenazi, and is worn over clothing. The battery lasts for three hours and the backup lasts for another 20 minutes. “The system alerts you that the battery is running low,” Esquenazi says. “It tells you that you either need to get to a chair or to a plug.”
Alysse Einbender, now 50, suffered a spinal stroke in 2004. She’s now enrolled in the trial, and she received about 24 hours of training in the suit.
Einbender told “Good Morning America” that being able to take steps again has changed her life.
“Looking into somebody’s eyes for the first time at that height was … really incredible,” she said.
Alysse Einbender, 50, of Wyncote, Pa., has been paralyzed since 2004. She was the first patient in the ReWalk trial
Can you even imagine what it would feel like to be able to walk again, after confinement to a wheel chair for a number of years?
- Aggie
Timing Is Everything
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch
An explosive device was detonated near a Red Cross convoy in the Gaza Strip, Army Radio reported on Thursday, adding that it had not yet been made clear whether the explosion was a premeditated attack.
No injuries were reported in the Gaza blast, the Army Radio report said and one of the armored vehicles was damaged.
The Hamas-ruled coastal enclave had been sealed off by both Israel and Egypt since Israel’s invasion of the Strip during Operation Cast Lead early last year, although Israel has allowed the Red Cross to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The explosion occurred just as the United States reportedly suggested to Israel that easing the Gaza blockade could help counter the fallout from the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes during Operation Cast Lead a year ago.
The Obama administration is having a real tough time, aren’t they? They can’t get anything right. It is almost as if “the gods” are aligned against them, heh.
- Aggie
Suprise! Social Security Bailout Is Next.
When not enough people are employed to generate the taxes, the government thinks “Bailout”.
Don’t look now. But even as the bank bailout is winding down, another huge bailout is starting, this time for the Social Security system.
A report from the Congressional Budget Office shows that for the first time in 25 years, Social Security is taking in less in taxes than it is spending on benefits.
Instead of helping to finance the rest of the government, as it has done for decades, our nation’s biggest social program needs help from the Treasury to keep benefit checks from bouncing — in other words, a taxpayer bailout.
No one has officially announced that Social Security will be cash-negative this year. But you can figure it out for yourself, as I did, by comparing two numbers in the recent federal budget update that the nonpartisan CBO issued last week.
The first number is $120 billion, the interest that Social Security will earn on its trust fund in fiscal 2010 (see page 74 of the CBO report). The second is $92 billion, the overall Social Security surplus for fiscal 2010 (see page 116).
This means that without the interest income, Social Security will be $28 billion in the hole this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Why disregard the interest? Because as people like me have said repeatedly over the years, the interest, which consists of Treasury IOUs that the Social Security trust fund gets on its holdings of government securities, doesn’t provide Social Security with any cash that it can use to pay its bills. The interest is merely an accounting entry with no economic significance.
Social Security hasn’t been cash-negative since the early 1980s, when it came so close to running out of money that it was making plans to stop sending out benefit checks. That led to the famous Greenspan Commission report, which recommended trimming benefits and raising taxes, which Congress did. Those actions produced hefty cash surpluses, which until this year have helped finance the rest of the government.
But even then, it was clear the surpluses would be temporary. Now, years earlier than projected, Social Security is adding to the government’s borrowing needs, even though the program still shows a surplus on paper.
Hey, BTL! Can I blame this on Obama too?
- Aggie