Ascending and Descending
Islamists in the Sahel have vowed to drag France into a “long war”. Reuters reports that “Al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels launched a counteroffensive in Mali on Monday after four days of French air strikes on their northern strongholds, seizing the central town of Diabaly and promising to drag France into a brutal Afghanistan-style war.”
To add insult to injury the Shebab group posted a picture of a dead French commando. “The picture showed the body of the alleged commander, dressed in a black button-up shirt, and khaki pants, lying face up on an orange surface next to presumably his combat gear. A small crucifix showed from his neck.”
Meanwhile tensions rose in the subcontinent after a Pakistani unit slipped across the border to behead Indian soldiers. Gen. Bikram Singh, the Indian Army Chief of Staff was not amused:
“The attack on Jan. 8 was premeditated, a pre-planned activity. Such an operation requires planning, detailed reconnaissance,” Singh told reporters. He said India reserved the right to retaliate at a “time and place of its choice.”
Singh urged his troops to be “aggressive and offensive in the face of provocation and fire” from Pakistan. He said the alleged beheading of the Indian soldier was “unacceptable and unpardonable” and accused Pakistan of violating the “ethics of warfare.”
You’d think the world is in trouble. But is it? To the question of whether any of this matters the answer is that it depends whether you believe you can live in a dream. Let us for a moment forget the Shebab and Pakistan and fly on the wings of fancy to the world of dollars and cents, which is stranger than even Somalia. Don’t worry, we’ll come back to Shebab in due time.
Chris Cole, a volatility trader at Artemis Capital says that the Western economy has for some time been running on “impossible objects”. The economy has now become entirely about the market and the market has become entirely dependent on its perception of itself. It’s self referential. Cole likens it to other impossible objects in the history of philosophy and art:
In the 1985 work “Simulacra and Simulation” French philosopher Jean Baudrillard recalls the Borges fable about the cartographers of a great Empire who drew a map of its territories so detailed it was as vast as the Empire itself. According to Baudrillard as the actual Empire collapses the inhabitants begin to live their lives within the abstraction believing the map to be real (his work inspired the classic film “The Matrix” and the book is prominently displayed in one scene). The map is accepted as truth and people ignorantly live within a mechanism of their own design and the reality of the Empire is forgotten. This fable is a fitting allegory for our modern financial markets.
In his view, we no longer live entirely in the real economy of loaves of bread and tons of steel. We live in the representation of it. We make more paper profits, even though in this strange economy people seem to get poorer. Cole writes:
Despite higher asset prices experimental monetary policy seems to be doing very little to support the middle and lower class. Following QE2 GDP growth actually slowed down from +2.4% to +1.6% and unemployment adjusted for discouraged workers went from 22.5% to 22.7% according to shadow government statistics. The middle and lower class do not own stocks and they cannot buy homes because they remain overleveraged. Raising bank profits has not helped the economy because credit cannot be extended to households that are in debt. For example less than 1% of all mortgages originated in the past 18 months went to borrowers with an impaired credit history, and 1 out of every 5 homes sold was purchased in an all cash deal by an investor rather than a live-in homeowner. Every $1 increase in equity prices raises consumer spending by just 3 to 5 cents so a 10% increase in stocks will add, at best, 45 basis points of GDP growth to the US economy. In addition by keeping interest rates artificially low the Fed is creating a large funding gap for pension systems and other programs leading up to what could be a demographic time bomb.
But never fear. Without the Matrix we would die. Everything Too Big to Fail perishes without it. Cole describes the contradictory effects.
The defense of quantitative easing rests largely on an assessment of what would have happened to the economy absent its support. Nonetheless we should fear the law of unintended consequences because it takes a very small shift in perception to result in uncontrollable socio-economic change. We may get higher asset prices today but at the expense of inflation, class warfare, social unrest or something even worse tomorrow.
And when tomorrow comes there’ll be some other distraction to beguile the low information denizens of the Matrix. Some new celebrity scandal; another dance craze. Another hit movie. And meanwhile the Fed will be printing money. Our commenter Josh has often called this “Bernanke magic” but Cole says that Bernanke is one of its modest practicioners. Cole believes Bernanke is well aware he is treading on absurdity. So he warns all and sundry to heed Wile E. Coyote’s advice: don’t look down.
Bernanke is more modest than his counterparts in Europe and does not publicly challenge the “Gods of Risk” to a throw down. Bernanke states more humbly regarding the threat of accommodative policy, “Whether we have the credibility to persuade markets that we’ll follow through is an empirical question… we will have created (by following through) a reserve of credibility that we can use in any subsequent episodes that occur”. … either way the fate of markets rests largely on the psychological fight between the credibility of global central banks to defend an optical illusion against the will of risk markets to test the fragile boundaries of human perception.
Because maybe if we don’t gaze at the arroyo floor then we’ll get all the way to the next limestone tower by sheer momentum alone. Perhaps the most imporant calculation in Cole’s paper is his demonstration than in our world risk-free assets have now become, properly considered, as risky as risky assets. He proposes an experimental investment, and I leave the reader to examine the calculations for himself. He concludes:
When the “bull market in fear” meets a “bubble in safety” a collateralized short volatility position and “risk-free’ UST bond have shockingly similar risk-to-reward payoffs. Of course you would rather own the UST bond in deflation or the volatility bond in inflation but we are assuming a riskneutral world. To this effect both investments suffer comparable losses to their worst case scenarios. Without endorsing either investment, when evaluated on a pure risk-to-reward framework the volatility bond (with embedded short optionality) is superior to UST bonds at current prices. What kind of world do we live in where the risk-return pay-off of short selling equity volatility is equal or better to that of a supposedly “risk-free” government bond?
His next insight is the most interesting. In a Wile E. Coyote world you also get Wile E. Coyote risks. Trains can come out of painted doors in rocks. You can fall faster than rock so that the rock lands on you.
When the market is an impossible object the price of risk can change radically as perception shifts. Hence what may be sound judgment one minute may be completely foolish the next. If two contradictory ideas can exist simultaneously then there is no such thing as “simple perception” anymore. How is it possible for safety to be risky and for otherwise calm markets to be rich in fear? Paradox is now fundamental. The investor who can adapt to shifting perspectives will endure the volatility of an impossible object. Common sense says do not trust your common sense anymore. Don’t live in a box or walk a flight of stairs that leads back from whence you came. We cannot assume that the paradigm of the last three decades of lower interest rates and debt expansion will be relevant going forward nor can we find shelter in the consensus rules formed around that standard.
By opting to live in MC Escher’s or the Matrix’s world we’ve also opted to risk encountering the impossible perils of that universe. Live in fantasy, die in fantasy.
What has this got to do with Shebab in Somalia or terrorists in Pakistan? The parallel is that for a similarly long time the political system has been constructing the equivalent of Bernanke’s Impossible Universe. It is a place where objects like Global Warming, nuclear disarmament, the need to produce more ethanol and the imperative to clamp down on jumbo soft drinks looms larger than say, the War on Terror, which is about to be declared over.
It’s worked so far because everyone has gone along with the con. Why won’t it work forever. Maybe it will. Perhaps all we really need to do is buy the world a Coke. But a word from the wise. Don’t look down. Don’t look down.
MC Escher as interpreted by B Bernanke from Artemis
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
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http://www.opex360.com/2013/01/14/les-shebabs-diffusent-des-photographies-dun-des-deux-commandos-tues-en-somalie/
please don’t rely the Shebabs game in displaying the pic of the dead soldier
thank you
I will say though that the newspapers gleefully printed the pictures of the Blackwater contractors hung up on the bridge and they were far less decorous.
In later days I came to the conclusion that in a way they did us all a favor. For on reflection I did not want to forget. Not the men on the bridge, nor those who fell to their deaths from the World Trade Center.
And though it’s not for me to say I think every Frenchman should take a good look at that soldier of France. And remember him. His face, his expression. Why he was there and what it will cost to go on. Just now I received a message from YouTube saying that the video of people being dragged through the streets of Gaza on motorcycles was inappropriate. Maybe so. But I think we are better served knowing we are in a serious business; and not to listen to the fake blandishments of the politicians.
yes, but these people are using us as their tool for their propaganda on the net, why would they care to post the pics on Twitter otherwise?
This is what happens when you live in a bubble where you think reality consists of whatever the consensus of opinion of the beautiful people determines it to be. I think the major cause of our current problems was the qualitative transition of the elites. In essence, the only thing that seems to matter now is your ability to network with other members of the elite. Knowing anything about the real world is totally unnecessary to rise to power. Once upon a time most of our leaders had at least minimal connections to the real world. Those people are dying out.
Its easy to buy the world a coke when you’re not the one to foot the bill. And when the folks who do pay complain its no problem–just order the people who sell them to give them away. And then when no more cokes are available its still easy to solve. Just mandate that more grocery stores be built immediately. After all, that’s where cokes comes from –right?
You mean the market is in the Fuhrerbunker waiting for Steiner to come to the rescue? Or perhaps it is more like this Escher illustration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawing_Hands
I’m pretty economically illiterate, but it’s almost like all of the normal signals which provide the required negative feedback to keep the system in balance have been short-circuited.
Dworkin,
Yes, precisely. The Fed’s essential purpose is to short-circuit certain feedbacks to the financial system, to prevent a positive feedback loop from developing. Unfortunately, over time the actions required to break those loops have accumulated into monstrous “too-big-to-fail” instutions, which are bankrupt all the same. Bankrupt, but politically too powerful to touch.
Like I said in the previous thread. We of the West have a cargo-cult mentality about economic and monetary matters.
http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2013/01/13/expired-guarantees/#comment-234001
Wretchard quoted:
“When the market is an impossible object the price of risk can change radically as perception shifts. Hence what may be sound judgment one minute may be completely foolish the next.”
In an honest, efficient market, one can evaluate risk with parameters like unemployment rates, GDP, Price-versus-Earnings ratio, quarterly statements, etc. In the crooked Bernanke market, all of that stuff means nothing.
It makes me smile to read these articles over at Zero Hedge where they show a plot of DJIA versus time and indicate that such-and-such a pattern indicates a crash is just about to happen. What that pattern really means is that Bernanke has manipulated the market to form a “bear trap”, suck you into a short position, goose the markets through the PPT and then leave you looking stupid with your pants pulled down.
An honest casino is based upon the laws of probability. A crooked casino uses marked cards and loaded dice. You can’t win in a crooked casino because you can never accurately estimate the odds. The markets under Bernanke are crooked. Only a fool gambles in a crooked casino.
Neil @ 7 said:
“The Fed’s essential purpose is to short-circuit certain feedbacks to the financial system, to prevent a positive feedback loop from developing. Unfortunately, over time the actions required to break those loops have accumulated into monstrous “too-big-to-fail” instutions, which are bankrupt all the same.”
This is the fundamental problem with a centrally planned economy. The whole rotten system was on the verge of crashing in early 2009. The insolvent banks and financial institutions should have gone through orderly bankruptcy. Bad debts and financial paper should have gone up for auction where price discovery could have taken place. Corrupt corporate executive officers, politicians and regulators should have been forced to explain their behavior before federal judges and sent to prison if found guilty of criminal conduct. The system should have been allowed to cleanse itself and reset to zero. That whole process was defeated by Bernanke. The economy will never heal until all the bad debt and dishonesty has been cleared.
Noam Chomsky has just informed the world that he believes Obama has “no moral center”.
Maybe he should form a club with Ed Koch and Alan Dershowitz. They can sit around all day and explain to each other why and how they were taken to the cleaners when they knew, even before they were swindled, that they were about to be swindled. The conversation might go like this:
In defense of the offending object, it was what it was. The madness, in connection with this thread, was in situating it in a context where it was something other than it was. Any fool can see a mountain where it is. It takes real genius to see it somewhere else. Maybe the moral to this story is that intelligence is not always a proper substitute for common sense.
“In his view, we no longer live entirely in the real economy of loaves of bread and tons of steel. We live in the representation of it.”
This brings to mind an old Vaudeville joke. I think I heard Orson Bean or someone tell it on some TV talk show.
A train wrecks and a boxcar full of canned tuna gets smashed up. An Italian buys the tuna at an auction. He then sells it to a Greek. The Greek sells it to Armenian. The Armenian then sells it to an Irishman. The Irishman opens a can of tuna and finds that it is spoiled. He says to the Armenian, “This tuna is no good to eat!” The Armenian replies “Idiot! This tuna is not for eating! It is for buying and selling!”
Who gets stuck with the spoiled tuna we have today? Sooner or later, everybody.
RWE, it’s how a corn harvest is sold on the markets, its owners can chnge several times in a day, without that the merchandise had been delivered
4. Marie Claude
In the 20 September 1943 issue of Life magazine there appeared a photograph, taken by George Strock, of three dead American GIs on the beach of Buna. The soldiers were killed in February 1943 and it had taken the better part of seven months for the Office of War Information, after much deliberation, to approve the release of the photo to the general public. As noted in the linked article (see below), “it was the first time an image of dead American troops appeared in media during World War II without their bodies being draped, in coffins, or otherwise covered up.” The American public was shocked. The Washington Post editorialized that this and similar photos should be published because they “can help us to understand something of what has been sacrificed for the victories we have won.” See also the the Life editorial at the link:
http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/three-dead-americans-lie-on-the-beach-at-buna/
Photographs of Confederate dead at Gettysburg were published for much the same reason, and to similar effect.
I say publish them all, and let all take a good hard look at them. “Pour encourager les autres.” Meaning, us.
The question I keep asking to myself over-and-over again: How does it end?
1) Slow death, with the dollar slowly losing its purchasing power, the DJIA goes to 30,000 and we find ourselves in a situation like the one in Greece.
2) Hyperinflation. The Fed looses control and within three months, $10,000 will buy a can of Coke. (It took the Weimar Republic about three months for its economy to inflate away to zero).
3) The states become tired of Obama’s socialism and succeed from the Union (replay of the Soviet Union’s breakup).
4) Civil war (Obama makes a power grab but bungles it, e.g. gun confiscation).
5) False flag (the Iranians do something or made to appear to have done something).
6) Obama throws Bernanke and the Fed under the bus, crashes the economy, declares martial law and becomes President for Life.
7) …
Wretchard: That “Cheech and Chong” record was funny.
Eggplant #15:
But note that while the reality of the markets or the quality of the tuna is in doubt, there is one thing in which there is no doubt: Taxes.
By pumping the markets they have also pumped taxes. As I have described previously, in 2007 and 2008 I theoretically made over $80K in capital gains from mutual funds only to have it disappear in the crash – but I still paid taxes on it. In subsequent years I paid taxes each year as the funds made small gains back and this year I will have to pay taxes on $11K worth of gains, even thought the funds are still well below their highest point of 2007. At best, I have paid taxes on that $80K at least twice. At worst I paid taxes twice on “income” that still is really not there and may disappear in a flash.
Your No. 3: I was going to point out that you misspelled “secede” but on 2nd thought you may be right. As LIII has indicated, the path to secession may be to succeed. The best revenge is living well. So is the best defense.
13. SBW (aka Roughcoat)
but it was a american decision to publish them, not your enemy’s,
the message was then constructive
also, thre wasn’t any mise-en-scene of the bodies
wretchard
I got a good chuckle over the timing of this post as I had just clicked in a couple minutes after finishing the paperwork converting the last remaining bit of my modest investments in the “impossible object” oriented
marketracket into cash; which will in turn be converted posthaste into useful stuff I can hold in my hands.After the last long while of wandering the cars watching this sociopolitical and economic train-wreck a’coming in “bullet time” (ala the Matrix) -trying to find some way to safely distrust my lying eyes- I’ve reached a limit. I can’t quite put my finger on any one particular deciding thing or event that did it, but today it finally resolved in my mind that it’s time I put the last of my [virtual] money where my mouth is and jump out the caboose window before the derailment snaps the rest of the passengers back into real time.
16. Marie Claude
Point taken, Marie Claude. But I’m after making a different point.
RWE@15, I stand corrected.
Marie Claude @ 12 – Corn is sold when the futures contract are liquidated. Up to that point, the contracts are being traded. You can tell the difference by the margin requirements. Farmers who grow corn and General Mills which makes breakfast cereal, have different margin requirements than speculators who trade in and out. General Mills has a way to convert the corn into hard cash for cereal. They have credibility.
Low bank capitalization is a big part of the financial crisis. The actual cash the banks have on hand is quite small compared to the value of the deposits in that bank. Low capitalization leaves the bank vulnerable to a “bank run”, where depositors demand their deposits back in hard currency.
Low or negative bank capitalization was the proximate cause of the crisis. Because having a low asset base brings the credibility of the bank’s promise to eventually repay into serious question. The credibility of the financial system is the key.
Lying about the bank’s capital, or having worthless “liar loan” mortgages or having so opaque a valuation system that you do not know what the capital situation really is, creates the existential threat to the whole system. It was the inability to determine the value of AIG’s assets that put it on the government bailout list. It was real underlying value emerging over time that has allowed them to repay the government loans with interest.
P.S. Don Rodrigo @ – See my reply to your comment at 51 on the previous thread.
Yes, it is an unbelievable illusion out there! Most of the (regular stable) Restaurants are packed every Friday and Saturday nights and some every week night, fast food is busy too at Breakfast, Lunch and Supper, I see many vacant house with those little notices taped inside the windows directing interested peeping toms to call a number if there is any emergencies, many have been vacant for many, many, many months now (Shadow Inventory) but if you read the Real-estate rags they boost of a turn around and there are a few New Homes being built even with all the “Shadow” stuff… If OBL were to strike a blow like they did on 9/11 today they would achieved on a grander scale what they originally wanted and not just because of the illusionary world the global financial markets are in but because of the leadership in political offices here and abroad. I wonder if Argentina was reading the news report this morning on Cameron boasting about UK help for their French cousins when one half of the air armada being dispensed to ferry French forces to Africa ended before it took off with equipment failure…. Will 0bama help murders of his father’s homeland if Argentina does a Falklands II? Seems like rogue Paki units are sneaking into India to beheading Indian Soldiers, China moves unknown numbers Troops to the boarder of a small insignificant country between India and China or what about that Japan and China Island flare up… So many internal and external sparks, yet 0bama’s 2nd term hasn’t even officially started!
Instead of buying the world a coke we should give everyone in the world a trillion dollar coin. Then they can buy their own coke — which will cost two trillion by that time.
I think Mr. Cole should get out more. Basically he is discussing what I called “The Ruling Class False Consciousness.” They con themselves before they con the rest of us. It makes for a rich fantasy life.
What we are seeing is a big power grab by a bunch of cliques in Washington D.C. and its suburbs in New York City, Chicago and LA. Right now the cliques are cooperating because the grab is on. The Cliques are like one United Claque, at least until the the fake money runs out (the real stuff already has). Then they will eat their young (they will have already eaten yours).
This includes the Journalist and analyst, too. They want to be important. In the center of the action. And so they repeat and believe the most ridiculous things. Good Lord, making Jack Lew Secretary of the Treasury. The people who gave us the asset bubble are blowing up the government bubble — I mean, we are taking a regular bubble bath. Go long on Clueless.
But for the Medicines of the Quacks we’d be in worse shape.
Speaking about bank capital reserves, I have a friend who worked at a bank that had 40% of its capital “invested” in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae stock. “Freddie” being the FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE CORPORATION because it was a part of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Therefore, it was hypothetically backed by the FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Look at what happened to Freddie’s stock price in 2008. http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/fmcc
So that bank went belly up.
And which Clinton crony was among those in charge of oversight of Freddie Mac?
The Rahmfather.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel#Career_in_finance
Evidently the "Paper of Record" did not rate that information among "All the News That's Fit to Print".
Now Glenn Greenwald is calling Obama names. E tu Glenn? All right. Get in line: right there behind Noam, Ed and Alan. Here’s Mr. Greenwald in full fig.
You don’t say? What happened to Hope and Change? The seas falling? What happened to the Obamaphones? Don’t they count for something?
But here’s the $64,000,000 question Glenn. Would you have voted for Romney? Knowing what you know now? Of coure not, right. How could you? Do you think the French shouldn’t have voted in a socialist? What a ridiculous question, right.
Okay, Glenn. Here’s what I think. You have been had. Somebody sold you a bridge in Brooklyn. You’ve been took. Made a fool of. Taken for a ride. And guess what: it will happen again. Time after time … and still you won’t know why.
It’s only just begun … white lace and promises … a kiss for luck and you’re on your way. It’s only just begun.
Time does not exist. Reality does not exist. All is illusion. – Hanane Aghmati.
A thousand years, a blink of eye
Is all the same in dreams
In deepest night, in darkest sky
The stars but flick’ring gleams
We walk through life, our path defined
Set in our bidden ways
Not knowing that the path is lined
With sudden yesterdays
Glenn Greenwald is like a cell block bitch who hates giving it up every night to Big Daddy, but who still stays with his abuser because he “needs the protection.”
Greenwald will never leave Obama…because he’s got nowhere else to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiIZLDeMOg0
22. hdgreene “This includes the Journalist and analyst, too. They want to be important. In the center of the action. And so they repeat and believe the most ridiculous things.”
You say that, but Aaron Swartz died for our internet freedom to repeat and believe what we want. This Harvard Center for Ethics fellow is who you are thoughtlessly criticizing for being “ridiculous” and important. Please let his family grieve.
“By opting to live in MC Escher’s or the Matrix’s world we’ve also opted to risk encountering the impossible perils of that universe. Live in fantasy, die in fantasy…..for a similarly long time the political system has been constructing the equivalent of Bernanke’s Impossible Universe.”
My translation of all this dream world Matrix Algebra is “Democratic Socialism”. At this moment Democratic Socialism is in the full flower of its historic victory. We are watching the consequences of that victory unfold. Our lefty elite shows us every day that what we now call “education” has corrupted their innocence and adulterated their common sense. These smart sophisticated minds have become vast repositories of elaborate nonsense.
In the matrix algebra that I learned, latent roots and vectors bore a decent relationship to common sense when applied to the population dynamics of rabbits and beetles. By contrast, this Dream Matrix algebra invented by the lefty elites and applied to dollars, foreign policy and to all humanity, is total stinky bullcrap.
Obama can dump only so much elaborate nonsense into a dream matrix before it clogs up and becomes uninhabitable. As bad as this is now and as it gets “progressively” worse in future, this great victory of Democratic Socialism will inevitably turn into a stinking pile of ruins. After the ruin comes the rebuild.
Now that’s optimism for you.
Marie-Claude: in what way are they propaganda? A week ago good men were kissing their wives and holding their children, now some are dead. Bad decisions, poorly planned, not adequately equipped. The islamists are betting that the images will cause problems, create fear and hesitation.
The question is whether they are right. Your reaction tells me that they may be right.
Algeria is the key-they do not want AQ of the Maghreb back in Algeria.
Today Algeria agreed to France using Algerian airspace to attack the terrorists in Mali.
An important positive step.
Cole believes Bernanke is well aware he is treading on absurdity.
I think Bernanke knows what he is doing, even if nobody else on the planet knows, or agrees – or dares. It is rather more mechanical than Cole seems to think. Not counting however the PPT has been manipulating the Dow.
The absurdity came earlier, in the derivatives explosion from 2000 through 2008, which I assert (at the top of my lungs) is mathematically unsound, little more than greed and fraud wrapped up in pretty paper. The absurdity has not gone away. AIG, the clown princes of the absurd (another prominent jester is apparently Jack Lew, who was head of illegal and immoral investments at Citibank, and now our putative new Treasury Czar) is advertising like mad that they’ve repaid all the money the USA lent to them, plus a $20b profit. Yeah, and all we had to do to make it possible is deflate a $77t economy by five percent. Thanks, AIG.
–
As to France in Mali – an interesting contest, let’s just see how it goes. I’m rather curious at exactly what impelled them unto the involvement in the first place.
MC:
…because that’s what enemies do.
Apologies to your very French sensibilities.
oh. politics
29. Derek
you don’t understand, if you use the images that the terrorists purposely for drowning the NET, you’re their collaborator.
It would have been different, if it was images made by the French forces, which, in any case, wouldn’t have been scenarised for a agenda, degrading a western christian !
You haven’t the experience of Algeria war, the FLN acted the same way, they used degrading images of mutilated French for exacerbing their “rightful” cause, among the muslim populations, and more grave, among the western populations, it’s how they gained voices for their independance, in france, in the world…
Now, I know that a journalist point of vew is to show all the pics, or in your case, by watching such pics, it’s telling the terrorists that you don’t fear them !
A journalist though has the moral duty to choose what message he wants to deliver, the french journalists chose to not show the pics, precisely, that is what want the terrorists, we aren’t giving them the joy to lament in public.
and it isn’t coward to not make what they expect.
There’s too many images that are gratuitously displayed on the net, it’s such a confusion for us, that are overfed by them, that we can’t decipher what is important or not
But you’re free to watch them, I’m sure that they are available on Google.
32. Enscout
idem, you don’t understand, it’s not my French sensibility that is in question, but the attitude that one can have toward a vicious enemy
31. Josh: “I’m rather curious at exactly what impelled them unto the involvement in the first place.”
Quite possibly they felt that, in the circumstances, it was the right thing to do.
But I like France and the French, overall. So, there’s that to consider.
27. Baobo
You say that, but Aaron Swartz died for our internet freedom to repeat and believe what we want. This Harvard Center for Ethics fellow is who you are thoughtlessly criticizing for being “ridiculous” and important. Please let his family grieve.
I didn’t realize I was such an influence on Aron Swartz that he would kill himself last week on account of something I wrote today. In the past I have drawn a distinction between reporters and journalists. Reporters report and Journalist are part of a self aggrandizing political movement. I do respect reporters.
I hope Mr. Cole will not kill himself on account of what I said. I said he should get more. In fact, I should get out more.
27. Baobo
You say that, but Aaron Swartz died for our internet freedom to repeat and believe what we want. This Harvard Center for Ethics fellow is who you are thoughtlessly criticizing for being “ridiculous” and important. Please let his family grieve.
I didn’t realize I was such an influence on Aron Swartz that he would kill himself last week on account of something I wrote today. I will let his family grieve. I don’t know what I could do to stop them. Actually, I didn’t drag them into this.
In the past I have drawn a distinction between reporters and journalists. Reporters report and Journalist are part of a self aggrandizing political movement. I do respect reporters.
I hope Mr. Cole will not kill himself on account of what I said. I said he should “get out more.” But if he wants to stay in its OK, too. If he wants to, he can stand in the doorway. Really. It’s OK.
“A journalist though has the moral duty to choose what message he wants to deliver, the french journalists chose to not show the pics, precisely, that is what want the terrorists, we aren’t giving them the joy to lament in public.”
Just like the gangsters who killed Aaron Swartz, who must be furious at his closed-casket funeral. Yes the world needs to see what was done, but we must not give them the satisfaction: Swartz Funeral Tuesday
Sad that the Westboro Baptists are protesting. Luckily Anonymous will counter them!
The Big Picture from the Uncyclopedia, “Two Cows Capitalism”.
Fantasy as an iterative process demands that at least two parties participate over time in the game. In theory you can play with yourself but that is meaningless or disgusting or gets your palms hairy. If one does not agree to treat the fantasy as real then the game stops. Islamists and Alinskyites both depend on their targets acquiescing to having their that is the targets beliefs and standards defined by the aggressor, during the game. This is like playing poker with someone who can claim you always agreed to the Kangaroo Straight Rule and then asserts that their is only one such event allowed per game.
The Socialists Islamists and other Totalitarians or parasites have grown in a permissive environment. Partly they were tolerated because tolerance is not only a Good in its own sake but has some normative value. It enables creativity and error correction. The West has also tolerated its enemies as a sign of vanity. It was an indulgence and a sign of wealth to host barbarians. Think of Leonard Bernstein throwing a party for the Black Panthers. That was a sign of his security and his ability to to conspicuously consume not just wealth but respect. However the tolerance that has enabled the growth of the threat is also a weakness for the enemy. They are flabby and weak intellectually and morally. They are bullies and when challenged they will fold.
Just how secure and wealthy do the French elites feel? When threatened I suspect that they will take off the gloves and draw a curtain between the PC theorizing that insulates the threat in their suburbs and the combat conditions outside of the Metropole. The idea of the Foreign Legion was just that, it is Foreign and different rules apply. They may just adopt Abbot Amalric’s Rule “Kill them all. God will know his own” to an extent the US would not.
sbw @ 35: Quite possibly they felt that, in the circumstances, it was the right thing to do.
That’s not enough detail for me to bottle it and sell it at the county fair, prior to a humongous secret government contract to add it to the water supply.
40. Josh
One can only speculate, for now. I do not think it improbable that the French are as concerned as anyone about the Islamist threat and that intervention in Mali might be the right thing to do to counter it. I’m sure more details will be forthcoming.
Josh, each time a European wanted to trip in Sahara, he had a chance to be taken as a valuable ransoming hostage, several French are, some Germans, portugese, spanish… we have to stop that lucrativ commerce aimed at buying arms for the jihaders. Apart of that, Mali was asking for a help as the islamists were gaining and threatened to take over the capital Bamako, and its government. Also Mali is a proxy francophone african country that has many ties with France, with its community of expats, with culture some of the african pop singers are well known among us, they represent the african tradition of griots
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griot
Selif Keita, a albinos, that without his career in france would have been ostracised, as abnormal in Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwTLLpsf-Xw
Amadou and Mariam (who is blind), idem without their career in france, no possible life for them
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iju1_DhH2Qs
Also because Malians are seen as pacific and intelligent and beautiful people, victims of the integrists.
And Tombouctou made us dream since our prime youth, with the novels, movies, with its architecture…
If one african country deserves our help, it’s Mali, there isn’t any particular richnesses outside its culture that motivatd us.
Wretchard (24),
I rush to the partial defense of Mr. Greenwald. While I find his politics perfectly detestable, he has been one of the few who didn’t really change their tune after Inauguration Day 2009. So at least he’s consistently, if ideologically, wrong, rather than just a partisan.
BFtP (39),
There are only two words to be added to your closing paragraph: “Rainbow Warrior”.
43. Kirk Parker
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/video-worlds-fastest-eco-boat-loses-nose-whaler-collision
#24
Okay, Glenn. Here’s what I think. You have been had. Somebody sold you a bridge in Brooklyn. You’ve been took.
Somebody??? Um, no. Glenn himself sold that bridge. Sold it to millions. Sold it to himself. (How do you spell “hysteria”?) And now he’s complaining…. Well sure, why not?….
The man is the cutting edge of perversity. And he’s not alone, not by a long shot.
File under: Perversity loves company.
#31
I’m rather curious at exactly what impelled them unto the involvement in the first place.
Well one of the main reasons is that the bad guys in Mali were not shooting missiles and rockets and mortars into France and its cities. (At least not yet.)
If the bad ‘uns had been doing that, there would have been absolutely no way, no way France could have gotten “involved” or would have been allowed to get “involved”. (And if they had dared get “involved” in such a situation, they would have been mercilessly castigated—ripped apart—by, by, um, by themselves?…together with the usual suspects).
Call it the “Glenn Greenwald” syndrome. (Epidemic, more likely.)
(Of course, it’s entirely possible that I’m wrong here, and it’s only certain select countries that aren’t allowed to defend themselves…)
45. Barry Meislin
you really are obsessed with your own definition of a conflict
BTW, Could Israel give us a hand (some armed drones) ? you know our bad guis in Mali, also are Israel bad guis
Try to positive France for once, sorry we aren’t always at your service, but contrary to the dicton that says “the enemis of my enemis are my friends” it’s ” aren’t my friends too”
Try to be positive….
I’d love to! In fact, “Go France Go!” “Aux barricades, camarades!” “Sock it to ‘em!” (“Let’s go Metz”?)
Problem is that reality gets in the way. That and the seemingly incorrigible dishonesty that seems to emanate from your beautiful (and that’s no joke) country. (You see, I somehow can’t forget the fiercely unapologetic Enderlin’s tour-de-force in Gaza. Or the French media’s role in propagating blood libels on a remarkably frequent basis, in general. Or the “helpful” role of those gallants in the Quai d’Orsay—yes, I know: totally unfair of me! Nor is it only a problem the French media, though as in so many realms, they seem to be able to do it with remarkable style, elan and esprit!…)
The problem (a problem?) is that no one seems to know what the truth is over there. Or wants to know. And if they do know, they’re afraid to say it—perhaps with good reason. (Or maybe they decamp to Russia; but that’s a whole ‘nuther can of worms…)
All of which makes the 30s look like a reasonably honest decade (with apologies)….
So, yeah, call it an obsession if you must.
But it’s the inability to be honest that led to the destruction of Europe (as well as European Jewry—might there be a connection?) in the 30s; and the extraordinary level of prevarication has now metastasized to global proportions.
And I would suggest that such an incredible and widespread level of gross dishonesty is the main reason why the West is in the hole it is, just as it explains a lot about other cultures where “honesty” and “truth” are all relative and sliding terms.
I wish I could find any sign that this is changing. (Kindly let me know if you notice anything.)
But here’s a prediction: I’ll be you dollars to doughnuts (American expression) that in order to take some of the heat off their operations against the bad guys in North Africa—in order to show the usual suspects that France’s heart is really in the right place—that France is going to double down on its (public) criticism of Israel in the days and weeks ahead.
It’s a no-brainer, actually….
Enderlin is a Jew living in Israel
Watch for your own lefties !
With absolutely no connection to France!!?
Oh, MC, MC, surely you can do better than that…
Marie Claude @ 42 – A piece of wisdom from a female Chicago police detective lieutenant,
“It is easier to make friends than to make enemies.”
Take that to heart.
Or if you are more into fictional portrayals…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmg86CRBBtw
Thanks, Barry.
I’m resting this week, so it’s nice to see others are willing to pick up MC’s slack here.
It gives me no pleasure to see French soldiers dying in Mali, but I must confess to enjoying the sight of MC struggling to rider her velot now that the shoe’s on the other foot.
Jacques Chirac should be executed after a quick trial in an American court, just for his perfidy in the nineties and early ‘oughts. His victims weren’t just water-utility customers in Paris (conned into paying more for drinking water by Chirac’s officious collusion), the blood of every American Soldier killed in Iraq is on his hands, too.
And if he ever lands on US territory, we ought to arrest him on the spot and put him on trial, if only to enjoy the wailings of France’s Euro-Left about due-process, how Chirac was one of France’s best Presidents ever, and all the rest.
A chaplain’s prayer, a blind-fold, one bullet and a shallow grave: those’re the only dues the guy deserves from Americans.
“22. hdgreene: What we are seeing is a big power grab by a bunch of cliques in Washington D.C. and its suburbs in New York City, Chicago and LA. Right now the cliques are cooperating because the grab is on. The Cliques are like one United Claque, at least until the the fake money runs out (the real stuff already has). Then they will eat their young (they will have already eaten yours).”
Cliques and Claque, brilliant!
Wow, too many powerful novel-in-their-time or eyes-wide-shut themes running in this essay and comments. Not well bound by poetic, essayist or philosophic bridge-ings either. I’ll take TCobbs run at it, over most. Yet even that is short.
Money is all fiat, no backing, power is in connections to the elite, and the parts of establishment and functionment held under sway of that elite. And the elite are maudlin and flighty. No assets safe from a econ system operating in a chaos regime, nor are any holdings of any class risk free — more: risk and reward level categorizations from any venture or holding real or virtual are no no longer knowable. That is, no longer able to say what will risk, what will reward, in any part of the system. Chaos! There are only local and fleeting places of stability.
BFTp/39: Thanks for the quote, I’d forgotten who said it, but it’s so appropriate:
‘They may just adopt Abbot Amalric’s Rule “Kill them all. God will know his own” to an extent the US would not.’
I agree that the French will try to keep the journalists back and that it will take off the gloves, but I worry that underneath the gloves are flabby and tender appendages. MC is begging us for drones? They can’t field an adequate force without US, German and UK logistics support? They don’t have enough intel or planning to nail these clowns hard and decisively? And, of course, we can be certain that the “youths” in the banlieus will be burning a bunch of Renaults to protest the inhumanity. France will be lucky if that’s all that happens back home.
So, while I think the Islamists need to be checked, I think this effort is not nearly enough. If France still has the “Force De Frappe,” a nuclear strike capability established by De Gaulle, that would be more like it. It’s the only language that will be understood.
Barry, Steveaz,
Don’t forget this priceless photo of the former President.
Thanks, Kirk.
I’ll never forget that period in recent history as long as I live. America’s Democrat(ic) Party picked up Chirac’s ball and ran with it, too. All the anti-war talking points including Dick Durban’s “Bush’s Gulag” comment, were recycled from Chirac’s pals in Europe and Middle Eastern capitals.
Can you say “Marc Rich!”
Having spent my youth in the Middle East, I have seen Arabic propaganda -lots of it! And it has a shrill, pepperdite flavor to it that isn’t fashionable in the West’s Enlightenment-derived, democracy-tempered discourses. So, when “Hate Bush,” and “BushMcHitler” and “Abu Ghriab Bad!” started popping on my TV screen, I knew our nation’s media was mirroring foreign combatants’ propaganda back at America’s citizens.
This, during a War! No wonder the Democrats worked so hard to undermine the cassus bellus in Iraq. It had to NOT be a war (Bush Lied!!), lest their treason be made obvious to the citizens.
Sadly, since no heads have rolled, literally, I think they succeeded on that one.
14. Eggplant: “The question I keep asking to myself over-and-over again: How does it end?”
I tend to ask the same question. But the correct answer is that the “end” is unknowable. A couple of the core characteristics of Black Swans is that their timing and specific nature is unknowable prior to their appearance. Hyperinflation tomorrow? Deflation next October? Zombie Apocalypse in 2014? Unknowable!
Wish I could give you better advice beyond preparing yourself mentally (Everyone who hangs out at BC is already light years ahead of most regarding mental preparation.) (Are light years enough?) and stocking up on some of the basics, like 550 cord and duct tape*.
*Shambling zombies never look down because they are totally focused on the human flesh in front of them. Therefore, they are easily tripped with 550 cord strung at ankle height. Once on the ground, they are stunned and disoriented for at least 30 seconds. This is enough time to secure their mouths with duct tape, rendering them harmless.
49. Barry Meislin
yes but then again most of the Tel Aviv inhabitants have a connection with France too. You haven’t to worry about them, lots are elders in retirement
Anyways, this Enderlin, you could get rid of him if you wanted to,
Are you building him a Judas legend that will last millenariums?
51. steveaz
you really are insane, thanks God, in your Arizona desert, you can’t make much waves
50. MachiasPrivateer
hey, you are a vivid video libray
Back to the Escher illusion metaphor: I’m sure you all have seen the photos of real-world constructions (http://www.cns.nyu.edu/~david/courses/perception/lecturenotes/recognition/recognition-slides/Slide41.jpg) that look exactly like the “falling water” or other impossible objects. Then, another photo from a different viewpoint reveals the trickery; it’s all in the point of view and the framing.
The correspondence is obvious: the illusion only works from a carefully constructed and framed single point of view, and there is a great deal of effort being made to ensure that that is all anyone sees.
From where most of us are standing, the lie is very plain. Others, not so much.
54. oMan
‘They may just adopt Abbot Amalric’s Rule “Kill them all. God will know his own” to an extent the US would not.’
yes that’s what Hollande told in a discourse that he made from Dubai
http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/video/2013/01/15/hollande-que-faire-des-terroristes-au-mali-les-detruire_1817311_3212.html (video)
“I agree that the French will try to keep the journalists back”
yes, they aren’t allowed on the ground, first because they would be potential AQ hostages, second, they will not report the ground forces positions, nor of the collateral dammages, that would undermine the mission. We have seen how the journalists messed the Irak and Afghanistan wars. Its the french army in its tradition “la Muette”
“MC is begging us for drones? They can’t field an adequate force without US, German and UK logistics support?”
of course they can, how do you think that their operations are programmed without errors? They were planified since a while, though put in execution ealier, because of the moves of the terrorists threatening Bamako last week
oh Germany’s help? it’s mere words, the Germans are more attentive to protect their markets with Saudi Arabia. Sure They’ll come in Mali, when it will be “cleaned”, and for selling their merchandises !
-http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130114/DEFREG01/301140027/Germany-Might-Scuttle-French-Vehicle-Deal?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE
The Banlieues problem is more drugs and gangs problems than “jihadism”, of course there’s still some possibility that a young become a terrorist, but it could also be a french national, as AQ recruits from the NET now.
So, if we have to believe Hollande, France isn’t leaving until the job is done
And any international help is welcome, it’s our western duty to make the world safer
MC,
Did you think American patriots would just oublier Chirac’s betrayal?
And those that didn’t forget, and are still upset about it are “insane?”
Ah, the Frankfurt Technique is strong in you.
Either way,’looks like America’s getting dragged into another war, with Hollandaise Sauce all over it. We’ll probably find out what it’s all really about after it’s over.
steveaz
didn’t notice that you were a American patriot but a mouthy nerd
Are you building him a Judas legend that will last millenariums?
Sigh…. Just the facts, ma’am; just the facts….
Alas, it seems like a little bit of, um, reminding is in order (since you strike me as a person who is fond of history):
1.
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/al-durah-affair-the-dossier/guide-to-al-durah-recent-posts-till-september-21-2006/
2.
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/al-durah-affair-the-dossier/
3.
etc.
4.
etc.
File under: Fond of history…as long as it’s the right history…
yet, one guy, bi-national, living in Israel, isn’t significant to us, it’s your business to deal with him. Why didn’t you jail him?
and sorry it’s not our history, you can’t put your bad sheep on our lawns
…and sorry it’s not our history…
Actually, you’re almost right about that; it’s not just your history; it’s your current (and future) predicament. (But how does one say, “What? Me Worry?” in French?…)
The urge, the motivation, the need to deny is perfectuly understandable. However, if you’re truly interested…
from:
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/al-durah-affair-the-dossier/guide-to-al-durah-recent-posts-till-september-21-2006/ :
Richard Landes posts,
“For a discussion of the toxic effect of al Durah on French (and by extension, European) society in the early 21st century (including the advent of the Arab/Muslim “street” in Europe, see:
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/essays-on-france/paris-notes-fall-2o05/
…and now en français au site d’Alain Jean-Mairet: Les coûts cachés des erreurs des médias: Mohammed al Dura et l’intifada française:
http://www.ajm.ch/wordpress/?p=223 “(end quote)
For those who don’t have the time or the energy (or the inclination), here’s the story in a nutshell:
Charles Enderlin (Jew with French and Israeli citizenship), and the French media organization for which he worked (France2), have perpetrated a hoax, which has become a global blood libel against the State of Israel (AKA the Jewish State), as follows:
* They have fabricated and covered up the background of the episode surrounding Mohamed al-Durah’s purported killing by Israeli soldiers towards the start of the second intifada.
* They are proud of their reportage, i.e., of their fabrications and lies (though of course they deny the latter two); and insist that they have kept to the highest journalistic standards.
* The cover up continues despite several court cases.
File under: OK, so what? It’s not our history. Yawn. (But what might Zola say?)