"Well - - What Did You Expect, Anyway?"

I had Ron Paul on C-Span and he told tales of government waste and employee laziness.  Apparently closing down the World War II memorial and Mt Rushmore actually COST the government money but according to Ron we had to do it, otherwise no one would notice the government had been shut down.  And he says two-thirds of it runs on auto pilot anyhow He said the two worst disasters of the past six years were passage of the Dodd Frank bill- - and Bengazi.  According to him, President Obama was going all around raving about what a military success Libya was.  And then we put weapons restrictions on the security staff at the embassy, which of course we didn’t use to have.  So we sent various contingences of troops home.   But it was a busy weekend what with the 21 beheadings of Coptic Christians in Libya.  Sean played the English translated tape saying that this act of brutal death was a demonstration of God’s grace to the world- - or something.  Then there were the two terrorist incidents in Denmark and that guy was already taken out by authorities.  Both of the venues were the shootings occurred were Jewish activities.  One was a seminar on "Free Speech" and what it means.  When I heard the tape on the radio it sounded like someone hammering on a table. The other was a Bat Mitzva.  Now a Norman Goldman called comes along and claims that all ISIS is- - is nothing to do with Islam but it’s “Soldiers of Fortune” or mercenary troops by the Saudis, and he said something about Dick Chaney wanting to build an oil pipeline in the Golan Heights.  But the phrase of the day is a good one - - “What did you expect?”   I “expect” I’d have been doing more blog postings over the weekend if I wasn’t so sick, and still am.   Like I say- - I expect I’ll be seeing Dr Saran tomorrow, but as far as I’m concerned- - one day is too long to wait.   “What did we expect” with the dismanteling of Libya in 2011?

This weekend was (or is) known for a lot of things.  Of course they don’t show the NBA all star game any more, and there was no game at all on KABC.  There was some skiing thing on KNBC till three.  They were doing qualifying times for the Daytona 500 differently this time in heats of five cars each, which the drivers don’t like, because before they went individually, I guess.  Fifty Shades of gray had record grow profits at the Box Office for any President’s Day weekend.   The Writers Guild hat their academy awards last weekend.  The Ukrainian cease fire went into effect yesterday and we should all pray for the success of that one.  Whichever side breaks the agreement will be the side that is guilty.   And the FAA is proposing new regularion for drones that are a little strange.  This is because you can fly them up to 55 pounds, which is pretty major.  You can fly them when you turn seventeen, but nobody is checking to see how old you are.  Like radio planes of old- - pretty much you are limited to line of sight.  If you can’t see it, you’ve gone too far.  The businesses that want to do deliveries don’t like this provision.  And you are limited to an altitude of five hundred feet.  I disagree with this only in that it seems so restrictive that all of these new drones will be compressed into a really tiny area of the sky.   Stephanie Miller was of course talking about her Valentine’s Day activities.   Her album is doing well in sales.   Of course I wish I didn’t have this marathon illness- - but really just Saturday and Sunday were the really horrific days.

This idea about a CEO buying up stock shares and doubling the stock price - - -seems just a little exagurated.  Yes having a strong buyer will increase the overall demand for the stock.  But it’s the stock which benefits from the fresh money more than the person buying it.  Besides- - if I knew for a fact that the price of my stock would double the minute after I sold it- - I wouldn’t sell it.  You see for every buyer- - someone has to be there to SELL it to him.  So if a CEO comes to me and offers me money for my stock I would tell him “Well you see, the thing is this.  There’s a rumor that a really rich person is going to buy up a bunch of stock in this company, and I want to wait till ten minutes AFTER he buys that stock, rather than ten minutes BEFORE he does it.  It’s kind of along the same principle of “A rising tide lifts all boats”.  Capish?

By now you know that ISIS executed a bunch of Coptic (Egyptian) Christians along the Libyan shore.  Allarently all 21 were construction workers.  Now ISIS has two Mideast countries mad at them- - Egypt and Jordan.  To that list you can add what’s left of Syria, and of course Iran.  There must be some way for the US to come to some accord with Iran to - - if not to be best buddies- - at least be civil to each other enough to mutually cooperate to bring down ISIS.  I see no need for the sort of bluster Netenyahoo does against Iran.   Hopefully Iran is sticking to their anti Nuke treaty.  Otherwise all bête are off.  But if Iran can prove itself worthy or our trust- - this would indeed be a good thing.

I had C-Span on next and there was a chorus of endless whining about Islamic terrorism of all kinds, it didn’t matter what sect of Islam, it was all bad, and they’re all out to get us.  Again the theme was picked up that “And if any nation isn’t as stalwart in their resolute disdain of Islam as we are, then we should break off diplomatic relations with them”.   This is their version of “weeding out the disloyal ones”.   Only one speaker says we should cultivate relations with governments of a more moderate nature, that are also Islamic.  It was a pretty robust chorus of doom and gloom, however.   Stan Chambers died.  He was famous as channel 5 news director for years and years.  I thought he was already dead.  Gary Owens also just died.  That’s another one I thought died decades ago.  Now they are talking about the absurdly warm weather on the news.  Paul said the weather was hot but “the water hasn’t gotten the message yet”.   I had the Norman Goldman program on for the hour. They had an electoral map of Ukraine that is a sea of colors by district as to who got what percentage of the vote.  It would seem a partition line could be drawn right down the middle from the south-west to the north-east.  Obviously Ukraine is a much more polarized country than I had thought up to less than a year ago.  Stephen Hawking posed the question to the internet whether mankind could survive for another hundred years.  He fears either a nuclear war or a genetically engineered virus.  He says contact with Space Aliens should be avoided – even if we should come across any.  This would not be an appropriate spot to inject any of my remarks.

This is Sunday February 15, 2015, which is Luprical if you read Julius Caesar.  Yesterday I got only sicker as the afternoon and evening progressed, and was in no shape to type anything.  I swallowed mouthwash to try and ease the fever that was spiking.  I drank water, but not all that much at one time, and I repeatedly doused my head with cold water.  I was breathing heavily, continually short of breath.  I went to dinner and it was a long wait.  We got pieces of pork and rice and a green salad.  I ate most of the pork pieces and consumed the green salad, but then I was feeling too sick to continue, no matter what dessert was.  It was of course the usual ABC news.   I got needed medication from Donnie at five thirty.  The Mc Laughlin group doesn’t merit any particular commentary.  I did not attempt to get coffee from Glen.  I borrowed exactly one cigarette- - from Zach, a little after seven when Jeopardy was on.  It was Wheel of Fortune and then “Burn Notice” till nine.  I began feeling better but still didn’t sleep that soundly.