February’s bonus Leap Day was sunny albeit a bit chilly, but not enough so to discourage a walk in the woods.
That walk was a brief escape from the world’s daily dose of insanity. But now I’m back inside and it’s time to wade into the craziness.
NEWS: A gold web site I frequent posted a clip yesterday of a news article headlined “U.N. Predicts Disaster If Global Warming Not Checked.” The body of the story led with the possibility that global warming would cause rising ocean levels and wipe entire nations from the face of the Earth in little more than decade.
VIEWS: Pretty standard climate crazy alarmism, I grant you. I found it interesting, however, that the Associated Press story was dated June 29, 1989, and predicted the carnage occurring by 2000! I will concede that our area tends to have milder winters than those I recall from my youth. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Witness that I was able to break out my Mustang convertible and go for a top-down cruise Monday, Feb. 26. Great periods in history have coincided with warmer climate. On the flip side, we’ve had cold periods long before human created carbon emissions were a thing. The Little Ice Age (1440-1920) is blamed by some in part on a drop in solar activity known as the Maunder minimum. The point is, climate is fluid and dynamic, but it’s a reach to think humans are affecting it greatly. And going back to eating bugs and living in caves, as elites suggest for us serfs, is unlikely to change climate’s trajectory.
NEWS: Aaron Bushnell, a member of the U.S. Air Force, doused himself with flammable liquid Sunday and set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., shouting, according to reports, “Free Palestine.” Now come followup reports from various news operations that Bushnell was outraged that the U.S. supposedly has soldiers fighting alongside Israeli counterparts in Gaza.
VIEWS: First, I’m glad Bushnell didn’t fly a multi-million dollar fighter jet or other bit of costly weaponry into oblivion to make his point. Second, it’s a bit disturbing that Bushnell was working in Air Force intelligence, yet displayed what most rational individuals would concede was irrational behavior including supposedly sharing that classified information with friends, not to mention committing suicide in showy fashion. Third, some social media types apparently used the term “rest in power” to commend Bushnell’s act and were instantly chastised that the phrase cannot be used to salute a white guy, but is reserved for blacks. And there you have in one bizarre incident and its aftermath a microcosm of what is wrong with this country.
NEWS: Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick went on CNBC earlier this week to offer advice to cash-strapped consumers – eat cereal for dinner.
VIEWS: Holy Marie Antoinette. This comes as U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that in 2022 (it’s government data, hence the lag) the average American family spent 11.3 percent of disposable income on food, the highest figure in more than 33 years. Worse, those in the lowest quintile of income spent 31.2 percent of their income on food. But Bidenomics is great, just ask Joe.
NEWS: Wendy’s is walking back plans to introduce so-called surge pricing, charging customers more at peak demand periods.
VIEWS: To even consider trying to gouge customers a bit extra to buy fast food smacks of terminal tone-deafness. To retrench after the plan became public is an admission of same.
NEWS: The government’s statistic dispensers were out with another revision of Gross Domestic Product for the fourth quarter of 2023, pegging it at an increase of 3.2 percent — $334.5 billion give or take.
VIEWS: The never-ending massaging of government numbers is a joke, as are the unemployment and inflation reports. But the most telling number is that U.S. debt increased by $834.2 billion in the same quarter. That means the government spent about $2.50 to get every $1 of economic growth. This reminds me of the company losing money on every unit it sold, but planning to make it up on volume.
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