Real Thought

has become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Well, not in a kilt, but a Scotsman none the less. Gordon Brown took office as Tony Blair’s successor as PM and leader of the Labour Party. In his remarks this morning Brown stated that Britons wanted change and that he would try his utmost to bring change to the UK. After ten years of Blair’s leadership the UK has gone from “Cool Britannia” to “I will try my utmost”? Brown has to be kidding, right? Really, who would vote for a candidate here in the US who came out and said, “I don’t know if I will accomplish anything, but I’ll give it the good old college try”? Very few. Very,very few. Add to this Brown’s typically dour Scottish expression so brilliantly parodied by Peter Mullan in “The Trial of Tony Blair” and I foresee more malaise and muddling through for the Sceptered Isle. For crying out loud, Gordon, “I will do my utmost”? Good Grief! You could have at least tried, “I dinna know where ye bin but I see ye won first prize.”

The Senate has voted to resume debate on the so-called “Immigration Reform Bill” which is backed by the President.   Most Americans are not in favor of this bill despite the results of a recent New York Times poll which alleges that the bill has broad support.  In fact, most poll that allege support for the bill do not even ask questions about the bill itself but rather ask questions about general concepts contained in the bill as did the example above.  In fact, if you ask most Americans directly they want illegal immigration stopped, they want illegal immigrants deported and they want stiff fines for businesses which hire illegal immigrants.  Most Americans are smart enough to realize that illegal immigrants pose a huge security risk to the United States, are a drain on the social welfare, health and education systems and simply have broken the law and need to be punished.  Yet, there is a huge segment in the media and among politicians who believe that unregulated immigration is a boon for the country, despite it’s obvious negative impact.  Certainly, there are millions of people who wish to come to the United States and create a better life for themselves, yet if the United States is to survive there needs to be controlled immigration and this bill is not the answer.

He has this habit of wanting to lay next to me on the sofa.

That giving the so-called Palestinians their own chunk of land would lead to peace in the Middle East.  After all, I was told that my entire life.  You know, the evil Israelis had illegally stolen the Palestinian’s land, humiliated them and reduced them to abject poverty.  To set things right the Israelis needed to surrender the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and the Palestinians would become again the proud and noble people that they once were.  Boy, was I ever duped.  It appears that now the Palestinians are too busy killing each other off to be bothered with their ultimate goal of driving the Jews into the sea and wiping Israel off the face of the map.  While we are at it, let’s not forget poor Lebanon; a country so completely destroyed after years of civil war and Syrian, Israeli, UN and United States intervention that there really is little left of the place.  The minute the Lebanese rally behind a leader who wants to try to rebuild and bring peace to his shattered country, that leader seems to get himself assassinated.  This time it appears the Syrians are behind it all.

That isn’t to say that we are without our own problems.  Gasoline and diesel prices continue to climb and the proponents of “bio-fuels” just took a hit.  It now appears that diverting sugar and grains and soy beans into production of biofuel could lead to a world wide famine.  Really, diverting farmland from food production to cash crops for fuel production could lead to a food shortage?  Who would have thought that?  There is also a new report out that claims that nuclear power can’t curb global warming.  I guess that is true since global warming has been a continuing trend since the end of the last ice age and the waste heat generated has to be released somewhere.

Finally, Al Gore, the vice-president who won’t go away, is calling the latest G8 agreement on climate change a “disgrace disguised as an achievement“.  Of course, Al won’t be satisfied until he forces us all to live without central heat, air conditioning, electricity, automobiles or any modern technology.  Then he will probably complain that the candle makers guild candles are emitting too much soot and wasteful of beeswax.  Perhaps Al ought to buy the Foxfire books and go build himself a cabin somewhere in the backwoods of Tennessee.  Of course that would entail actually practicing what he preaches and it would definitely cut into he and Tipper’s jet setting and extremely energy inefficient lifestyle.  Oh to be so full of hubris that one doesn’t even see the irony in one’s own life.

Your dog looks like this:

That is the beginning phrase of an Associated Press story reporting that the conservatives are leading in the French elections.  Fitting, don’t you think?  After all, the French have swayed to the left following the years of Jacques Chirac and Valery Giscard d’Estang.  During the last leftist administration there were riots by disaffected Muslim youth which rocked France and the French economy has become stagnant.  Is it mere coincidence that the French people have decided to shift to the right?

The Kiwis swept the America’s Cup challenger series finals defeating Team Luna Rossa five races to nil. Emirates Team New Zealand are the winners of the Louis Vuitton Cup and will challenge the Swiss Team Alinghi for the America’s Cup. I hope that the Kiwis can win the “Auld Mug” and at least bring the America’s Cup to a country that is not landlocked.

Congratulations to Dean Barker and crew for a well sailed race series!

Right now the Louis Vuitton Cup finals are underway off of Valencia, Spain. Emirates Team New Zealand are currently holding a 3-0 advantage in the best of nine series to over Luna Rossa to see who will challenge the Swiss for the America’s Cup. It looks as though the Kiwis will win the series and challenge Team Alinghi for yachting’s greatest prize. One may well ask, “Where are the Americans?” I’ll tell you, Larry Ellison and BMW Oracle Racing were eliminated in the semi-finals by the Italian team Luna Rossa.

For those of you who couldn’t care less, try to think back to when the Australians defeated the Americans and took the Cup to the antipodes. Until then America had a 132 year unbeaten streak. We had never lost the Cup. The nation was shocked. We went on an all out effort to bring the Cup back. Hell, Jimmy Buffett even wrote a theme song for the American team. But, that was in the days when we still raced yachts for the America’s Cup. Sure, the 12 meters which were raced were stripped out and had all sorts of high tech components which no normal yacht had but they still were yachts. Many of the 12 meters raced in the America’s Cup went on to become cruising and charter yachts. Quite nice ones at that. Also the syndicates which raced had names like “Stars and Stripes”, “Young America”, “Team New Zealand”, “Australia” or “America True”. This was in the days before corporate sponsorship completely took over.

Today, the IACC boats are purpose built racing machines. The are simply composite canoes with a mast stuck in them. They no more resemble a yacht than a Formula One car resembles a Toyota Corolla. Now it isn’t Team America versus the world, it is BMW Oracle Racing versus some other corporate sponsored and named boat. Perhaps the America’s Cup needs to return to it’s roots and become a race series between ocean going yachts sponsored by a yacht club instead of fragile, corporate owned and sponsored racing toys.

While there are riots in Germany over the upcoming G8 summit with “anti-globalization” protesters turning violent, I thought now would be a good tome to examine the darker side of globalization. Forget the “outsourcing” of jobs, forget the loss of productivity, what I am talking about is the very real danger of poisoning. First contaminated pet food, using an ingredient from China cause a number of deaths in pet animals and led to a massive pet food recall and now the FDA has issued a warning for American consumers not to use toothpaste manufactured in China due to possible contamination with diethylene glycol, a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze. Perhaps it is time for the United States to reexamine its free trade policies.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not some nutjob who wants to return to the days of protective tariffs and trade wars. I am a committed free trade libertarian, but I believe that we all have to realize that free trade only works in an ideal in which all countries have the same standards when it comes to product safety.  Clearly this is not the case now.One could even make the argument that China really doesn’t care about product safety. It is clear that the Chinese have no regard for the consumers of products that are produced in China as long as those producers are overseas. At least fifty people have died in Panama in the last year because of the contaminated toothpaste.

As we here in the United States buy more and more products made in countries where labor costs are low and we search for ever and ever lower prices on consumer goods, we should remember that other countries do not have the same product standard what we enjoy and that many of these products can be dangerous, if not deadly.

Perhaps we should restrict our free trade with others until we know that the American public will remain safe.