I suppose this is true for just about everywhere there are a certain group of people who run their daily business based on the prevalent religious text in that area.

Now there is nothing wrong is basing your life on a book or whatever else you believe in.

But to subject other people to your religious beliefs is not nice or civilized.

For example, I am a Trekkie. I find that the entire collection of Star Trek has enough lessons for all of mankind on a wide variety of topics.

I would go so far as to say that I (personally) believe that all of life’s lessons and a generally good way to live life can be learned by watching Star Trek.

I also know that Star Trek is a work of fiction and treat it as such. That is, watching Star Trek is a voluntary activity.

And quoting passages from Star Trek is downright stupid.

This religious stupidity that is seen sometimes in real life and often in movies comes across as pretty obnoxious and weird.

One term almost everyone seems to agree upon is that the U.S. is in a Recession.

I somewhat disagree. While recession may be an accurate economic classification, perhaps what the U.S. economy is going through today can be more accurately classified as “Economic Re-Arrangement”. I believe what we are seeing today is actually the end-game of this “Economic Re-Arrangement” that actually started when manufacturing jobs started leaving U.S. shores.

Here are some facts:

• In the mid sixties, manufacturing accounted for 53 percent of the U.S. Economy
• In 1988, manufacturing accounted for about 39 percent
• In 2004, it accounted for 9 percent

With all the free trade agreements that the U.S. has signed, the country enjoyed 3 decades of rising purchasing power where people in the U.S. could buy more for every dollar because the products people purchased were made at cheaper manufacturing locations. People could shop everyday at Wal-Mart, Target and wherever else they chose for very low priced products.

But there does come a time when the service sector just cannot absorb a workforce that was previously employed in the manufacturing sector. And that’s when this “Economic Re-Arrangement” happens.

I think that the decade beginning 2010 is going be one with high unemployment, low paying service sector jobs for most and a general drop in benefits for the poor and the aged.

This process is not entirely bad. Britain saw a huge industrial decline after World War II. The British economy has also been pretty sluggish for most of 2000 – 2010 but from a high unemployment rate of 11.3% in 1986 the unemployment rate today is at: 7.6% in March 2011. But overall people in Britain do still enjoy a developed country’s lifestyle.

I think this process of stabilization will happen in the next few years and people will re-adjust to a new way of living and spending.

We now do not know if Iraq will become an Islamic state, a new type of rogue nation and the same is true for Libya without Gaddafi. Libya might very well be better off with Gaddafi than a future Libya that is economically unstable and where outfits like Al-Qaeda exploit social unrest and dissatisfaction with youths to further its own evil goals.

Democracy can only be successful if a country has reached a certain level of development both in terms of the economy and social development. Why do our leaders seem to miss this important point.

I also find it strangely disturbing that the international community sits around idle when Rwanda has a million dead due to genocide. But suddenly seems to send its missiles and war planes for Libya when nobody knows who these rebels are, who supplies them with arms and what exactly is their true agenda? Do we know for sure that all rebels are Libyans? The answer is “No”.

Libya has a lot of oil and the oil companies will benefit with access to Libyan oil and therefore one possible reason to attack Libya could be its natural resources. Another reason could be that the rebels are really not what they seem and helping them is a misguided effort. Either ways, I believe a non-aligned approach is probably the best approach in general. The rebels have every right to freedom but they should achieve it themselves.

Interfering in other countries businesses is generally a bad idea because you can only do so with under-developed nations. For example try messing with China. So essentially this is selective action by the developed countries and the U.N. against a much weaker nation.  The U.S.  has a lot of things that need fixing at home first before we try fixing other countries.

Various other sources such as Iraq Body Count place the documented civilian casualty at about 100,000.

The US and British mainstream media has been careful to not blatantly discuss the Iraqi civilian casualty for obvious reasons. But there are many lessons to be learned by Bush’s Iraq War.

Whatever Saddam may have been, Iraq under Saddam was a safe country for most Iraqis, and Islamic fundamentalists and terrorist groups had no place in the country.

I think the American people were fooled by the Right Wing Conservatives under Bush, and America made a great and very embarrassing blunder that cannot be erased from the history of the USA.

These conservatives are the same people who claim to follow the word of God. I do not see anything remotely godlike in the behavior of the right wing. If you speak with some of them today, they will talk about how bad Saddam was and how justified the war was for helping the Iraqis. These are the same people who hate generally anyone else not on board with their agenda.

Its supremely important for the USA to realize that war is not a solution for anything and the misery wrongly inflicted on the Iraqis over 9/11 is an indirect equivalent to genocide.

Now that US troops are finally coming home, we should all ask ourselves whether the Iraqi deaths, US troop deaths, coalition troop deaths, economic waste and destruction of a country – was it all worth it?

Is the behavior displayed by the US what the founding fathers intended for the country?

Does the average Iraqi like the USA? I doubt it. I think every home in Iraq probably knows someone who died due to the war and they all now collectively suffer due to an ill advised war. I think while leaving Iraq at this time is not a decent thing to do, it is however a logical move by President Obama as there is no short term solution for Iraq’s stability and there is also no more money to fight anymore wars.  Iraq will be a mess for a long time to come.

Iraqi Civilian Toll Rising:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-10-10-iraq-dead_x.htm

Iraq Body Count:
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

So between Continental and Emirates, I had to pick an airline.

Now, Emirates has an exceptional cabin crew who seem to come from all parts of the world and seem very nice. Their on-demand in-flight entertainment system is second to none.

Their aircraft look new. Upgrading to business class is easy if you have the points. Unlike other airlines who make a stop at some outdated airport, Dubai International is among the top airports with everything from free WiFi to great coffee conveniently located all over the airport. No wonder I flew with Emirates, and will continue to consider them where possible.

At Dubai, I was able to send a proposal out to a client from the airport while enjoying a Costa coffee (Everything from Starbucks to Panera is also available at the airport). After speaking to a few people on their way to South Africa for the Soccer World Cup, I realized that many people did not fly British Airways due to strike concerns and picked Emirates due to their reputation for punctuality.

I hope that for their own good, airlines crews around the world should realize that operators like Emirates will eat their lunch and dinner in a few years (right now it may just be lunch). But all striking unions seem to do is encourage the demise of organizations who already are unable to globally compete.

In situations where a company has to compete globally, unions have no place and serve no purpose because costs and in turn remuneration will be driven by market forces and not collective negotiation.

Emirates uses a global pool of people for its cabin crew and pilots. Its airport is maintained by Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Filipino labor (cheaper I assume). I doubt strikes are much of an issue for them.

Some more food for thought:
$1 US = $3.67 UAE Dirhams
$1 US at JFK International Airport will NOT get you a bottle of water ($1 will not get you a bottle of water outside the airport easily either, unless you find a vending machine).
At Dubai International Airport, you can get 3 bottles of water and .67 Dirhams in change is yours to keep.

Dubai is in a desert?

While anger towards BP is a localized and short term emotion and likely to dissipate in a few years just like anger towards Exxon, America should be angry at the government who collectively has done very little towards really creating a blueprint for the future of energy and transportation. Americans should also blame themselves as most people seem to think that everyone is entitled to cheap gas. With cheap gas comes a huge demand for it and along with that comes powerful lobbies who make sure that restrictions on oil companies are as weak as they can possibly get.

The latest Time magazine says, that Dick Cheney was responsible for diluting some regulations against the oil industry. With Dick’s record I tend to believe this statement. But let me not pick on Dick, if ultra stringent regulations on the oil industry are not in place today, then the entire political system is to blame. A few months ago President Obama did approve offshore drilling (this decision may already have been reversed). It’s kind of sad to see that politicians really do not have a track record of looking after people that inspires confidence in democracy.

It’s ridiculous to see the number of people who get onto US highways each day. It’s inefficient, costly, environmentally unfriendly and just plain stupid to not have a good nationwide mass travel system in place. How about getting the best of intercity travel technology from Europe or Japan into the US? I would love to see two or three competitors to Amtrak in the country with TGV or Shinkansen type high speed trains.

I once used the TGV from Paris to Brussels and the trip was superb. I got some reading done and I doubt I could have made the trip faster if I drove all the way. The price obviously can’t be beat. But I realize that moving away from highways that now feed a whole industry of automobiles, fast food, gas, toll collectors etc. is not going to happen in one decade or maybe even two. But it needs to start now. So slowly, people can get off the road and into nice clean trains whenever possible.

So let us take this disaster to think about:

• Whether we really need to put the environment or cheap gas ahead in our list of priorities.
• Whether offshore drilling is a bad idea overall
• Whether god intended for oil to remain where he/she put it (i.e. underground)
• Whether all offshore drilling facilities should be scrapped overall
• Can I be happy driving a 4 cylinder automobile instead of a 6 cylinder automobile? Do I need an automobile at all?

I also think that for any broadcast medium to become some sort of a political mouthpiece (in this case the Republican party), leads to a general lack of credibility.

But, there is a wonderful Sci-Fi show called “Fringe” on Fox, that I think is absolutely fantastic and I am somewhat intrigued as to why a TV network embedded with Republican conservative ideology, would air a show that appeals to Sci-Fi enthusiasts who would question even the most basic tenets of the conservative base of the Republican party (Mixing human and animal DNA, Infinite Universes with differences being examples of  such ideas) .

Well, I think the makers of Fringe did realize that, and sprinkled some references to “God” in Walter Bishop’s explanation of what happened to him after he brought back a living version of his dead son from an alternate universe.

My conclusion is that the makers of Fringe wanted an additional season of Fringe on Fox and made a few strategic adjustments. Whether this idea is true or not, Fringe is a welcome addition to Fox.

Peter Schilling’s English Version of Major Tom (The original was in Deutsch)

The Shiny Toy Guns version which is quite awesome

One caller asked him whether Economics is an Art or a Science?

Bruce’s answer (paraphrased) was: “Economics is more of an art than a science. When you peel away all the mathemetical and scientific analysis layered on top of economic concepts, what you get is essentially a lot of judgement calls.”

Now this explanation is possibly the most honest and clear explanation on the fundamental nature of economics that I have heard from a knowledgeable person in a long time.

It’s also the reason why people should not believe the pseudo economical evidence supporting financial actions such as bank bailouts, stimulus packages and whatever else politicians come out with. They probably know as much about the result of such actions as you and I.