Open Thread
January 15th, 2009Although the global situation has become very precarious, and downright grim in many regards, there are pockets of joy to be found. For example, my Sister-in-Law is getting married the day after tomorrow. Becky is one of the bridesmaids, and in addition to fielding Owen, I’ve been tapped to provide some backup candid photography at the event. Don’t ask me how I’ll accomplish both of these tasks simultaneously, but we will figure something out. (I’ll probably wear Owen on my back for some amount of time, and then play pass the parcel with aunties/uncles/friends/other rellies/etc.)
I’m not sure how many people will be present at the event, but it will be something like 120, and some of them have come from as far away as the UK.
Four each bridesmaids and groomsmen. Flower girls. A jazz band… At last count, I heard that there were going to be 27 small children present. This is a major international incident for the very slow and quiet Far North of New Zealand!
You wouldn’t believe the “feeds” (New Zealandese for “meals”) the girls have been preparing for friends and family. All order of creatures from the land and sea have nourished us. Becky’s dad and I have been running the BBQs (yes, multiple BBQs), but I don’t really consider that to be work. It has been one feast after another for the last few days. There’s going to be a catered feast on the day of the wedding, and then there’s going to be a day-after-party with a spit roast lamb.
Needless to say, I’m going to need to sign off here for a couple of days.
I’ll manage to sneak some Internet time, but I won’t be able to concentrate much on the horrors-du-jour. I will, however, be trying to keep at least one eye on Obama’s inauguration/state of emergency.
So, I’m sure you guys know what to do on open threads. Also, the Cryptogon subreddit has been pretty active lately.
See you again soon.
UPDATE: The Wedding Was a Great Success
The wedding went very well. This image pretty much sums it up:
We have the spit roast after party tomorrow. If I don’t gorge myself too severely on the delicious, succulent and tender beast flesh, I’m planning to resume normal updates that night (NZ local time).
Here’s to hoping Kevin turns off comment moderation before leaving this “open thread” to wither 🙂
Dude, you’re going to come back and there’s going to be a huge middle-eastern throwdown, Obama is going to be grandstanding as president of the world, and Oil/Gold are going to be over $60/$1000. But I think you’ll be feeling fine about not seeing that go down in real-time. Or maybe you’ll get back just in time for the show. Have fun! Be sure to harass some of the UK visitors about their currency/surveillance state, I don’t know about you but I love to bring up that kind of stuff with Yanqui tourists.
Well, I’m very pleased to hear that you have this opportunity to have some fun and do something other than monitor “teh d00m” and your daily farmlet work for a few days! 🙂
It’s nice to have time for focusing on the important things in life. Enjoy!
Ahhh…what young couple doesn’t dream of a January wedding….
My sister-in-law, who lives in Perth, emailed us last night just to let us know that it was 108F in Perth and -25F here in the Midwest (where she grew up and where we live now).
We visited there for Christmas in 2000, and it was well above 100F on Christmas day. Lawn bowling in shorts, wearing the mandatory sun-hat. Fa-la-la-la-la…
Ok, I’ll try to kick things off with a topic.
Gaza. Israel.
For decades it seems the modus operandi of the Israeli administration has been to invade Gaza, take out as much of the Hamas military infrastructure as possible, then quickly declare a truce, bring in some US big-wig and allow them to “broker the peace” and boost their reputation at home, then they’ll sit on their hands until another day when Hamas has patched things up enough to present a problem, and they repeat the process….
But this latest incursion is clearly different. Israel seems downright desperate, and determined to break the spirit of the Palestinians themselves, regardless of the consequences. They don’t seem interested in a cease fire, or at least they don’t seem to have accomplished their objectives yet. Also (perhaps the strangest thing of all), world opinion (& importantly the mainstream media) actually seems to give a shit this time. The outrage has become the story.
So my question is, is this perhaps really the beginning of some kind of endgame for the Israeli leaders? Are they purposely trying to provoke a wider Mid-East response, perhaps because they sense a sea-change in US policy? Or will they simply back-off, apologize, wait ’til the world has moved on to the next news-item du jour, and continue to laugh at the plight of the Gazan prisoners?
Does anyone have a good response?
@lagavulin: I think they’re nuts if they really think there’s really going to be a sea-change in US policy. Nothing about Obama’s actions and/or words since winning the White House (or before, other than vague stuff and stuff he’s since gone back on) indicate a sea-change in any way, on any front. (This of course is old news.)
I think the Israelis are practicing 3 steps forward, 1 step back, as they have for a long time, and this latest “3 steps forward” is just especially brutal. And what better time to take those steps than when their staunchest supporter in decades is still in office? At some point, though, the violence in that region will boil over — really boil over, as in full scale war between nations — but I think we’re still a ways off (a few years?). The reason I think so is because as desperate as things are economically, they’re still not as bad as they could be, and competition for oil isn’t as fierce as it could be. In financial terms, I think we’ve had a long-term uptrend in the power and destruction of Globalism, and now it’s retracing a bit. Look out for that next wave, tho.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_wave_principle
I love that someone threw in Elliot Waves. I mentioned this before, but both gold’s and oil’s Elliot Waves are looking to coincide with this false flag op’s timeframe. It’s cool to hear it applied to a more abstract trend though.
Here’s the thing, as far as I know Isreal has never had a Hamas problem and a Hezbollah problem at the same time. So what happens if the northern border gets “compromised” next week? I’d say Iran would be implicated the week after, which is all you’d need for a crisis spiral and an oil shock. You don’t even need a terrorist attack in the States to set this thing off.
Funny story, whenever I had to mow the lawn as a kid my dad referred to the strip between our driveway and the neighbor’s property as the “Gaza strip”, which I thought was the technical term for such a parcel until I was in my teens. Then it was like, “oh, they escaped the Nazis to become Nazis.”
Beautiful picture.
Omigod. To see a sleeveless dress, water beckoning for a swim in the background.
Keerist! It was minus 10 F here this a.m.
Sounds like a great party! So glad for all of you for you celebration.
I sent my Uncle in Florida a dozen roses for his 80th birthday Friday. My cousin told me he cried and said “No one ever sent me flowers before.” They had a big party for him too. He’s retired now, and sleeps til 11 every day. Oh my gosh. What a life!
Ten minutes ago, my Mom turned 92 – Ninety Two!
That song by Billy Joel, Only the Good Die Young, just isn’t true. There is something very humbling for me to see my Mom, living well beyond when all the “experts” kept saying she was going to croak at any minute. How many years now they keep saying the same thing.
I don’t what to feel about my life. I’ve seen two of my siblings pass on, my father too. But then there is Mom. She isn’t exactly always the happiest camper on the planet, but she has a will to live – or a karma that says she will live til – well her time is up.
I say this because I guess I have many examples in my life that prove you just don’t know why’s and wherefores about all lot of things in life, and so, I’m not about to despair about what’s going down in our world.
Also, even though I cannot portend what Obama will do, I will party like it’s 1999. Goodbye Bush. Don’t let the door slam you on the ass on your way out. PAAARRTY.