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Syria’s War Plans Against Israel
DEBKAfile reports that it looks like Syria’s intentions for a Summer war against Israel has been delayed until November. Olmert first tipped this off when he commented this past Tuesday (7/31) that he believed this Summer and Fall would be less “hot” than expected. According to military sources this evaluation reached Jerusalem via Washington last week.
The belief is that the scope of the initial thrust will be to test Israel’s military response to a series of cross-border raids. According to DEBKA, President Assad and his inner circle (including his brother-in-law) have designed this plan and it hasn’t been widely disseminated throughout Syrian offices. Of course Syria has denied any intentions of going to war against Israel. I sure hope Olmert’s administration is up to this challenge, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in this particular crowd.
E-85 “How Gore Turned the Gulf of Mexico Green”
I have summarized below some things you need to know if someone would ask you if you support the use of E-85 Ethanol for your car so that you wouldn’t embarrass yourself because you didn’t know the facts.
E-85 is an auto fuel made up of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline
In the United States corn is used in the manufacture of Ethanol
A gallon of E-85 has only 72% of the energy of regular gasoline, so a car that gets 21 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway will only now achieve 16 mpg and 23 mpg respectively.
The cost of Ethanol nationwide averaged about 25 cents more per gallon than regular gasoline, so if you spend $3.00 (Illustrative cost per gallon) and drive in the city it will cost you $4.26 to drive the same distance with E-85 and $4.38 on the highway.
Planting, plowing, cultivating, harvesting and transporting the corn to make 1 gallon of ethanol utilizes about 1.6 gallons of gasoline and/or diesel
The E-85 “dry mill” operations use natural gas or coal to operate. Most have switched to coal because of the sky-high prices of Natural Gas.
These coal-fired plants produce twice the carbon emissions and essentially cancel the beneficial effects on the environment for Global Warming.
To make this E-85 program work and make us energy independent we would have to convert 675 million acres of farmland just to produce this E-85. That is 71% of our tillable farmland in the United States. In this case the effort to become “energy independent” has now caused us to become “food dependent.” We would have to import most our food and feed. Would you rather be energy or food dependent?
Not only would the cost of travel go up to $4.38 to buy enough of E-85 to take you the same distance as a gallon of gas, but also the cost of food would skyrocket. If you think this is bad for you, take a minute to think of the famine it would cause in the 3rd world countries because of the increased cost of food acquisition.
So far the limited increased production of corn for the production of E-85 has caused a major Algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico in an area the size of New Jersey.
But Al Gore bragged in 1994 that he cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate against Bill Bradley’s (D-New Jersey) legislation to cut tax incentives for Ethanol. So all this is the direct result of Gore’s uniquely individual action.
So in Summary: If this program were successful you would be paying the equivalent of 46% more per gallon for fuel resulting in no beneficial effect on Global Warming, while using at least as much gasoline as we would otherwise, resulting in making us food dependent and destroying the environment all at extra cost to the U.S. Taxpayer. And “conveniently” speaking you would have Al Gore to thank.
A Good Man is Gone
It is with great sadness that I must pass along that my Brother-In-Law Gayle died yesterday morning (7/25/07) while playing with his son in the water behind their Summer home on Lake Leelanau near Traverse City, Michigan. He had a sudden and unexpected heart attack and never really resuscitated at all. He turned 57 last month.
Gayle with Owen (Baby Zabs) 2006
Gayle was the founder and head of the law firm Arnold, Todaro & Welch in Columbus, Ohio. He was his high school class Valedictorian. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Taylor University, a Master of Arts in Education from Ball State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Notre Dame Law School. He was arguably the best medical malpractice defense lawyer in a multi-state area. I really don’t think there would be much argument about that however. Gayle leaves his wife Susie (my sister) and six children (including three step-children).
Gale & Susie, Lake Leelanau 2006
Gayle was a terrific guy and Christian father and will be sorely missed by all those that know and love him. The first pic above was taken when we had dinner together this past Thursday night 7/19/2007. It was taken with my new cell phone as I was updating the caller ID with photos. [since it is easier to look at pictures to see who is calling rather than read the fine print with my aging eyes.] God’s speed Gayle……………
Forecasters Cut 2007 Hurricane Forecast
We had a couple of years of increased Hurricane activity. Last year we had a prediction of another year of strong hurricane activity………..Not. This year we had more predictions of increased activity and already forecasters are standing down on that claim because of (get this) cooler than anticipated Atlantic Ocean waters. Increased Hurricane activity has been one of the lead pipe cinch arguments tendered by Al Gore and his sympathizers for proof of Global Warming. Does it mean that if we have reduced activity in this area we have evidence of Global Cooling?
Global Warming or not, I am finding increasingly humorous the direction that the debate has turned with Politically Correct arguments. For further information on this turn of events in Hurricane forecasting read the REUTERS article “Forecaster cuts 2007 Hurricane Outlook” I am actually pretty happy about this since we are headed back to South Florida in late September.
ChickenHawk Fervor
With much amusement I have been reading some blogs and articles about the ChickenHawks in the Bush administration, Bush Supporters or Neocons in general. Here they mean Bush, Crystal, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, etc. This general slur refers to leaders that are in favor of deploying the military in war but never served themselves. They never reference the unending list of Democrats (including most of the current Presidential Candidates) that are ChickenHawks. And need I remind you of the biggest ChickenHawk of all Mr. William Jefferson Read more
You 24 TV Series Fans (Season Seven)
The 7th season returns this coming January with Cherry Jones playing Allison Taylor as the President of the United States. And if that isn’t news enough, they have announced that 24 is going carbon neutral. But if everyone goes carbon neutral, who’ll be around to sell their credits to the Hollywood bunch……oh never mind.
Rumors have it that the 7th season plot concerns Quebec Separatists featured in a negative way. I guess Quebec’s Bloc Quebecois political party whose prime mandate is to have Quebec separate from Canada is not too happy about being depicted as terrorists or in a bad light. Well anyway, I love 24 just the same. They can expose all the terrorists in the world as far as I am concerned. After all that is how the White House is learning to deal with them. They could take a page from Jack Bauer.
Come Let Us Reason Together on Financing Retirement
This has been an interesting week in the stock market if not for any other reason but that the Stock Market closed over 14,000 for the first time ever [Note the long-term Dow Jones Industrial Averages Chart pictured above]. One of the first posts that I made to this blog (my third to be exact) was on April 23, 2007 and it was titled “Are you Pro-Choice? (on Retirement Planning).” HERE I remember in the wake of 911 after the stock market resumed activity (with a strong downward bias) the Democratic leadership trotted out in front of the U.S. Capitol and explained how this “collapse” of the stock market is the reason that allowing private equity accounts within the Social Security system was a risky idea put forth by the evil Republicans so their friends on Wall Street could get rich. These timely comments by the esteemed Democratic Senators turned out to not only be wrong, but if you were listening to them it may have caused you to miss one of the best stock BUYING opportunities in quite some time. You see, once again (like on taxes) they were not only mistaken, but exactly 180 degrees out of phase with the truth. Hope your family’s security wasn’t damaged because you followed their “timely” advice then.
As I said in my April 23rd post that there isn’t one day since the institution of the Social Security System where dollars from the fund could have been invested in the US Stock Market and preformed worse to date than the so called “risk free” investments of the plan as it exists. Read more
Cheney Pushes Bush to Act on Iran
A well-placed source in Washington said: “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo,” right out of the mouth of the Guardian HERE and I guess that Administration reports suggest that Iran will continue the negotiations dance and it will be still in process with no end in view in January, 2009. They are obviously playing out the clock looking for a more fertile administration to intimidate. Bush doesn’t trust any of the candidates in either party to deal with them. So we may well see if Iran has those 600 missiles actually aimed at Israel or if Israel has 5 aimed at Iran. You got to appreciate the fact that Bush is not making decisions based on their latest internal polls like a few of the candidates are (at least one). But I suppose most grown-ups really do understand that Iran cannot be left to continue with this pursuit of nuclear arms and festering a war in the Middle East with Israel and their surrogates Hezbollah, and now Hamas as well as Syria. If the Iranians really want to head this thing off I’d say now is the time for “Regime Change.” Now don’t get too excited, it looks like no action will be taken till 2008.
This is really going to PO the leadership party in Congress. I guess it was Clinton, Pelosi and Reed that said that Bush shouldn’t attack Iran before he gets permission from Congress. Now that is one bet you can make and win if you put your money on the “I don’t think so” side of the wager. We’ll just have to stay tuned.
Fifteen Million Iranians Should Do It
According to Haaretz.com HERE The Qatari Newspaper Al Watan is reporting today that Iran has “locked on” 600 targets in Israel. Accordingly they are threatening to hit the Jewish state with a massive missile strike if either Israel or the US attack the Islamic Republic or its’ ally Syria. I assume this is a large list of buildings that represent commercial and military interests in Israel along with some populated neighborhoods. Israeli military experts are predicting a full scale war with Syria in the next six months set off by cross border military action precipitated by Hezbollah. Apparently Iran believes it can equip and finance Syria to support Hezbollah and Hamas in its constant attacks on Israel and should be free from expectation of retaliation. Makes sense in the “Radical Islamic” manner of reasoning doesn’t it?
I think It’s Israel’s turn and they should publish the following:
“Israel has ‘locked on’ five Iranian targets as follows: Tehran 8.6 million, Mashad 2.3 million, Isfahan 1.5 million, Tabriz 1.4 million, Shiraz 1.3 million.” I wonder if 15 million Iranians would get the message?
Train a Child in the Way He Should Go …. (Prov 22:6)
I was given the high privilege this past weekend of participating in my Grandchildren’s (Ian & Kathleen) first lesson on Finances. We went to the bank with their mother and set up a savings account in each of their names with the money that they have accumulated in savings lately (about 40 to 50 dollars each). We are going to be talking with them about savings versus spending and certain incentives such as matching funds for a period of time and some of the fundamentals of money and banking. I noticed today an article in the local paper that I am going to insert in whole (until they tell me to take it down) from MarketWatch that I think has some very good points about starting kids out with learning about money. Read more