TWO EATHQUAKES AND A HURRICANE

Two earthquakes (one in Virginia, the other in Colorado) and a hurricane hit the United States in the same week; that’s weird isn’t it? From what I understand, Virginia’s never been hit by both a hurricane and an earthquake in the same week. In that same week NYC Mayor Bloomberg announced that he was not going to allow religious leaders to speak at the September 11th tenth anniversary memorial. That’s not only weird, it ain’t right. But he is going to allow politicians to speak at the event … isn’t that special.

Let’s not forget about the earthquake that rocked Alaska in June, or the wild fires, floods, and drought that have hit the USA. And never mind all of the other natural and manmade disasters that have happened everywhere else in the world this year.

The strangeness never seem to end. In the very week that the US was experiencing earthquakes and a hurricane, the rebels in Libya captured Muammar Gaddafi’s son, and now Colonel Gaddafi is seemingly out of power. While in other regional news, Israel launched missiles into Egypt in retaliation to suicide bombings and missile attacks that have been carried out against them on the Israeli / Egyptian border. Security on the border has weakened since Hosni Mubarak was removed from power in Egypt. The Arab uprisings that have been taking place everywhere in the region are all unsettled and will be for the foreseeable future. In a nut shell, no one knows how the Arab uprisings this year will effect global and regional peace, or the world economy, and what Israel is going to have to do in order to survive as a nation.

But that’s not all of the weirdness we should be thinking about. London burned as riots and flash mobs ran rampant through the streets. Destroying property, neighborhoods, and lives … mostly out of class envy, jealousy, and evilness. The riots were not to protest political or religious oppression, or to remove a tyrannical dictatorship, or to establish democracy. They already have democracy in England as well as political and religious freedom. No, it was mob lawlessness that caused the violence. Some will say it was due to the police killing of Mark Duggan, a known drug dealer, that caused the riots … I don’t agree. I would say that his killing was used as a convenient excuse by the rioters, just as was the case with Rodney King and the LA riots. But it doesn’t take much to move a mob to violence … a riot could have easily erupted after a soccer match.

On the economic front, Standard and Poor’s lowered the credit rating of the United States from AAA to AA+ as a direct result of how Congress and the White House have mishandled fiscal policy. However, Moody’s and other ratings institutions have not lowered the US rating … but that doesn’t mean that they won’t. Billionaire investor Warren Buffet has publicly criticized the downgrade, but that doesn’t change the fact that it happened nor does it mean that other rating companies will not follow suit. The United States has never before had its credit rating lowered. That means that our country is no longer considered good as gold. As a result of that, what has Congress and the White House done to correct this strange turn of events? … nothing. Sure there’s been a lot of talk, but talk is cheap … and the national debt and deficits aren’t.


What will happen next is anyone’s guess. So much has happened this year that I can’t recall all of it … from the Japanese spumoni and earthquakes, to the Arab uprisings, to the Arizona shootings. Here in the US we’ve had wild fires, storms, floods, tornadoes, and now hurricanes. Who will ever forget Joplin, Missouri, being destroyed by a massive tornado this year … or the millions of acres of land that has been burned in fires … or birds falling dead from the sky and dead fish washing up on or beaches and shore lines. I won’t … will you? Gas prices have soared this year and unemployment remains much too high. I have said that 2011 will be a year we would like to forget, but most likely never will.

There you have it.
Pass it along if you like or let me know if I don’t have a clue.

Eddie