Obama v. Hyperion

In ancient Greece the Sun god was known as Helios or Hyperion and later associated with light and so called Apollo. The Anchoress (hat tip Larwyn)provides evidence that Hyperion is a Republican for, alas, he does not believe in global warming. According to Anchoress:

"Some scientists think the “warming trend” which (despite the fact that we’re having our usual early-June heatwaves) has stalled out over the past few years was helped along by sunspots. And lately, there aren’t any...It continues to be dead,” said Saku Tsuneta with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, program manager for the Hinode solar mission...Today’s sun, however, is as inactive as it was two years ago, and scientists aren’t sure why...In the past, they observed that the sun once went 50 years without producing sunspots. That period, from approximately 1650 to 1700, occurred during the middle of a little ice age on Earth that lasted from as early as the mid-15th century to as late as the mid-19th century."

The Anchoress wonders: "It’s not like we can do anything about it. Either old Sol will spot and flare or he won’t."

But the Democrats know what to do. Sue. Send the Trial Lawyers Association to civilly enforce global warming. I can see it now, Obama v. Hyperion, with Ron Kuby representing Obama.

Obama and Newsweek

Mark Hemingway has written an excellent article on NRO Online. Hemingway notes:

"Obama didn’t vote on an amendment sponsored by Lieberman and Arizona Republican Jon Kyl last fall that would have classified the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization for training and funding Hezbollah and otherwise contributing to the killing of Israelis...that didn’t stop him from pillorying Hillary for voting for it, and thereby contributing to the Bush administration’s “saber-rattling” with Iran...Anti-Israel sentiments are all around Obama (Zbigniew Brzezinski, Anthony Lake, Susan Rice, Robert Malley, Joseph Cirincione …). Nevermind that his pastor of 20 years has an affection for Louis “Judaism-is-a-gutter-religion” Farrakhan…"

but

"two big Obama supporters blame Clinton — without citing any evidence other than hearsay — for disinformation among Jewish voters. And that meets Newsweek’s publication standards?"

Let's face it: Newsweek is to news as Star Trek is to news, and Obama is to McCain as Newsweek is to news.

America Winning the War in Iraq

Hugh Hewitt blogs a NY Post article by Arthur Herman (hat tip Larwyn) that states:

>"AMERICA has won, or is about to win, the Iraq war.

"The latest proof came last month, as the Iraqi army - just a few months ago the target of scorn and abuse from Democratic politicians and journalists - forcefully reoccupied three cities that had served as key insurgency bases (Basra, Sadr City and Mosul).

"Sunnis and Shias alike applauded as their nation's army compelled insurgent militias to lay down their arms. The country's leading opposition newspaper, Azzaman, led the applause for the move into Mosul - a sign that national reconciliation in Iraq is under way and probably irreversible..."

Hewitt points out that Obama has been receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support despite his eagerness to prove Herman wrong and to prove that America has lost. Obama does not express a pro-America game plan, but rather views defeat in Iraq as a way to prove America is a "nice" country so that terrorists will understand how nice the US is and stop being terrorists. Obama's and the left's position is foolish. General Petraeus has demonstrated that a fourth generation warfare strategy will work. The war will wind down soon without the left's and Obama's anti-American posturing.

Bernanke Discovers the Dollar

The valiant New York Sun has printed my letter in its June 10th edition and online here:

'Bernanke Discovers the Dollar'

Thank you for your editorial about the Fed's role in creating inflation ["Bernanke Discovers the Dollar," June 5, 2008].

In the late 19th century the Mugwumps, the educated New Yorkers and Bostonians who opposed the spoils system and big government, were concerned about currency depreciation and inflation that Civil War greenbacks had caused.

In particular, the Mugwumps were concerned that inflation led to the re-distribution of wealth from wage earners and those on fixed incomes to financial speculators like Jay Gould.

Ever since President Nixon jettisoned the international gold standard in 1971, Americans' average real hourly wage has declined. There has been no previous 38-year decline in the real hourly wage.

Modern economists, lacking the Mugwumps' courage, have averted their gaze from link between income inequality and monetary expansion.

But the link is obvious, and it is becoming more severe. In 1884 the Mugwumps bolted the Republican Party to vote for a Democrat, Grover Cleveland, a gold standard proponent.

Let us hope that John McCain offers greater integrity than did Cleveland's 1884 opponent, James Blaine.

MITCHELL LANGBERT
Associate Professor of Business and Economics
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn, N.Y.