Lots of things, of course – but our current problems (higher food and energy prices, insolvent banks continuing to exist and drag down the whole financial system, etc) really go back to one thing. Nick Sorrentino gets it in just one sentence:

…because the Fed is seeking to force inflation into the system (by weakening the dollar deliberately) to save a tenuous economic system built to benefit those who have first access to the newly printed money (the large banks), life for most people is likely to get more difficult in the short term…

Why force inflation? Because Keynesian theory says that if you have inflation you’ll get economic growth – how anyone ever thought that taking money from one person (by devaluing his money) and giving it to another leads to net growth is beyond me. I can’t think like that – I’m either not that smart, or not that stupid. But it is what Bernanke is trying to do – and it is what the rest of the central banks around the world have tried to do (China managed to do it “successfully” in the sense that they got “growth” in 2010…but inflation is galloping ahead and China’s problem now is how to stop inflation from throwing them in to recession without the inflation cure crashing them in to recession; lotsa luck on that, China).

We’re in a bad way and we’re going to have to spend more and more of our already reduced incomes on the basics – food and energy. Meanwhile, our housing prices continue to drop and while our 401ks look better, it is all paper profits created by Fed-induced asset inflation…which can be wiped out in a week if people start to see a new recession coming in (and monetary outflows from equity markets in 2010 indicate that a lot of people see a new recession coming). I don’t see a way out of this – that is, I don’t see any way out which doesn’t involve words like “pain” and “sacrifice”.

Hopefully the new GOP Congress will be able to reign in Bernanke before he destroys everything. But the bad news is that reigning in Bernanke will also be painful because that will cause a resumption in the financial crash of 2008 – allowing it to complete itself, to be sure, and thus set us on a path to genuine recovery, but it means at least a year of really bad economics as things are sorted out. Trouble is that reigning in Bernanke will probably take cooperation from Obama, who seems perfectly ok with rising prices for energy and food because that makes Americans poorer, and thus more likely to “go green” and become more government dependent.

Just one heck of a lousy situation, set upon us by idiots. But there is good news – this, too, will pass. It’ll just suck a bit getting through it.

Nothing like laying down the marker:

The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Sunday that Republicans will bring up a healthcare repeal measure before President Obama even delivers his annual address to Congress this month.

“As part of our pledge, we said that we would bring up a vote to repeal healthcare early,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “That will happen before the president’s State of the Union address.”…

The repeal will pass the House and probably go nowhere in the Senate – though there is a chance that the Senate GOP can get enough “2012 Democrat” support to bring it to a vote there. But, even if it gets through the Senate, Obama will veto it. This is a symbolic act – until we get a Republican President, “repeal and replace” will be impossible…though much good work can still be done to get rid of the worst aspects of ObamaCare by refusing to fund it in the budget process.

But, still, symbolic: so, why do it? Because the people demand it. The law should never have been passed – and but for legislative tricks and bribery, it never would have been passed. It was unpopular as proposed, unpopular as debated, unpopular as enacted – and it, along with the border security issue, drove the GOP to victory in 2010. We must vote to repeal.

Also, we will see how many Democrats, desperately worried about 2012, will jump ship in the House and join in the repeal effort. We shall see how many Democrats understand how unpopular leftist policy is. And we’ll also see how many are determined to work against the people, no matter what.

So says Chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers:

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, said if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, the “impact on the economy would be catastrophic.”

“I don’t see why anybody’s playing chicken with the debt ceiling,” Goolsbee said today on ABC’s “This Week” program. “If we get to the point where we damage the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.”…

Uh, Goolsbee, old buddy, the default has been caused by insanity – such as running $1 trillion+ deficits for two years. That is insane – that is what is causing us to risk default. The only thing more insane would be to allow the government to shove us even further in to debt.

It is time to call a halt to this. If we were just reduce spending to 2008 levels, we’d have a good handle on it…if we showed some real courage and reduced spending to 2004 levels, we could swiftly balance the budget. And its not like we weren’t over spending in 2004 – remember, Democrats, how you all were complaining about how profligate and wasteful we Republicans were being? Well, here’s your chance to live up to your words and show you have at least a shred of honor…go along with returning spending to just that profligate level and our fiscal crisis is solved.

But, we won’t get that, now will we? Because all the complaints about GOP spending were just campaign rhetoric. That’s ok. We’re used to that, from Democrats…we know the Democrat leadership is relentlessly dishonest and only concerned with power and wealth. But, remember, they were lying back then and they are just as certainly lying today…so, when they talk about “catastrophe”, what they mean is “catastrophe to us“; catastrophe to Democrats, and their waste, big government spending plans. They might not be able to steal taxpayer’s money and use it to buy votes – that is the catastrophe they’re worried about.

Shove them back – don’t raise the debt limit until we’ve got rock solid and certain spending cuts of a major nature. Then, and only then, start talking debt increase.

MSMer warns GOP not to repeal ObamaCare:

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=hd6UkUqG2G

Krauthammer observes the meaning of returning a US ambassador to Damascus:

…what does the administration do? It sends an ambassador in return for absolutely nothing. Returning an ambassador after withdrawal is a sign of conciliation and, in this case, appeasement. There is nothing, there is no reason to do it. Obama had a dream that if he sweet-talked Assad he would get Syria to break its relations with Iran and Hezbollah and become an ally of the United States. It [the Obama administration] gave all kind of inducements. It was humiliated by Assad’s response. He expressed contempt for these inducements — [and] the United States offered it in return, the return of an ambassador! It’s appeasement of the first order.

One could call it cowardice, but it doesn’t rise to that honorable an action – this is just plain and simple stupid. This is the action of a President with a completely academic background – a man who does not understand how the world works. And its worse than that – given the way Obama’s actions have been going, we can only presume that what he got out of college, the world view he has, is a combination of John Lennon’s Imagine and warmed over Saul Alinsky. A “lets join hands and sing” mentality coupled with a rote hatred of all things American.

Syria is a minor power – something we could, if we wanted to, overthrow in a week or two. In the grand scheme of things the contemptible regime in Damascus is worth only secondary American attention. But here we are, treating Syria as if they should have any other attitude towards us other than supplicant – Syria should only be worried about one thing: that we’ll decide to destroy the regime tomorrow. But Obama treats Syria as if it is Great Power…and ties our policy to what Syria desires and that, in turn, means that Iran is calling the tune in that area of the world.

Great job, Barry – Bush had Iran boxed in and Syria on the ropes…you’ve now given them a new lease on life. This is the “smart diplomacy”, I guess…

Terrible attack in Egypt:

A powerful bomb, possibly from a homicide attacker, exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as a crowd of worshippers emerged from a New Years Mass early Saturday, killing at least 21 people and wounding nearly 80 in an attack that raised suspicions of an Al Qaeda role.

The attack came in the wake of repeated threats by Al Qaeda militants in Iraq to attack Egypt’s Christians…

I am fully aware of my Christian duty to love my enemies – including those who did this. I am fully aware of my duty to pray for the attackers. I am fully aware of the prohibition against my wanting to take revenge for this and other savage attacks on my brothers and sisters. But I still ask: how long are we Christians to endure this?

While I am commanded to turn the other cheek, that responsibility is laid up me, as an individual, if another individual strikes me. I can’t hold that it means I’m to stand aside while the innocent are murdered. The barbarians who carried out this attack must be prevented, if at all possible, from doing it again.

These are not brave men we contend with; these are not even religious men. They are wicked men, bent on winning for themselves power and wealth and their chosen instrument to achieve their design is insane violence. And so we see attack after attack on un-armed, peaceful and quite defenseless Christians. And they will keep on doing it until brave men take the field and pursue the wicked to death.

But our will is frozen – our leaders don’t act. Tied up in moral knots by liberal sophisticates who on one hand find excuse for every Moslem outrage while on the other hand condemning outright any attempt to answer fire with fire. Even while our best and bravest fight the enemy in Afghanistan we have liberal leaders here in America arguing in favor of a mosque at Ground Zero; who repeat every anti-American slander issued by groups like CAIR; who do everything they can to ensure our response is muted, short lived and pointless.

With the confusion between right and wrong, we have grown to doubt ourselves – the descendants of Christian knights; of men who stood firm at Tours, who fought like lions at Lepanto and scattered a raping and pillaging foe outside Vienna act now as if afraid of their own shadows. Unwilling to fight, unwilling to die; do we then consign ourselves to slaver?

We once had the spirit to do what is necessary:

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! – Patrick Henry, 1775

Will we ever find it, again?

Over at Zero Hedge, Tyler Durden notes that economists for Goldman Sachs and BofA are asserting a 4% GDP growth for 2011. Durden also goes in to some of the reasons why he thinks the economists have got it wrong – singling out the massive US debt as a big problem. I agree with that analysis – out debt load is crushing us and if it doesn’t usher in a collapse and Great Depression in 2011 its because it will happen in 2012 or 2013 (2015 or so at the latest, unless we swiftly get control of the debt). But what strikes me about the whole exercise is just how anyone can look at things and come forth with a happy prediction.

If you put the brightest face on it, unemployment is just as bad as it was on January 1, 2010. Since that date at least a million homes have been foreclosed on. Long term unemployment has become so bad over the past year that the government is having to develope new ways to track it. Businesses still aren’t hiring, for the most part, and when they do its all too often a temporary job.

Meanwhile, energy and food costs rose all year long. Gasoline was $2.65 a gallon on 1/1/10, now its $3.05. We’re supposed to get some stimulus out of the payroll tax cut, but my bet is that whatever boost we get from that (and its only for a year, anyway) will be absorbed by higher food and gas prices. People are having to use more of their disposable income for the basics, thus less demand for those things which are likely to really drive us out of recession – new homes, new appliances, new autos. I know that the “experts” are lauding the holiday shopping season, but please note that it was clothing which led the way while appliances and electronics were flat or down…and it took huge discounting to get people to shop, at all.

Maybe I’m wrong – maybe I’m too doom and gloom about the economy – but with our debt rising, China starting to feel the inflation pinch, Europe on the verge of sovereign default and our own debt, unemployment and hollowed-out manufacturing sector, I just don’t see much room for optimism. No way, that is, where I see us getting 4% growth – in other words, the sort of growth we need to really get out of this mess.

Here’s to a bit of hope for 2011…but I’m not confident of the result.

California is bankrupt – can’t do a dratted thing right; the richest State in the richest nation in human history is a political and economic basket case. But, as a consolation, they’ve got 725 new laws taking effect as of today. 725 laws! There isn’t even a tenth of that number, if you broke it down piece by piece, in the entire United States Constitution. If you’ve got that many laws, you’ve got enough, already…but not in liberal California! 725? That’s just for starters.

Now, what absolutely vital, everyone-will-die-if-we-don’t-do-it laws are taking effect in California today? Well, you can’t use trans-fats and it is now illegal to impersonate someone at a social networking site. I’m telling you, that is cutting edge – how on earth did human civilization ever live and grow without a ban on trans-fats? Thanks goodness for California liberals: I was worried that someone would impersonate me in a social networking site…

Just utter feces – but, the Californians wanted it. People get the government they deserve, and they usually get it good and hard. California is America’s Greece and when the collapse hits, hopefully a majority will wake up to the fact that liberalism is a failure.

Goodness, it is great to get past 2010 – I hope that 2011 will be better, though I’m fearful that it will be even worse than 2010. But regardless of how it comes out, we are given by God what we need to have…and if it is time for us to suffer a bit, then it is just for our good that we do so.

I do hope that all had a joyful holiday season and my wish is for peace and love for everyone in this coming year.

Brothers and sisters:

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,

born of a woman, born under the law,

to ransom those under the law,

so that we might receive adoption as sons.

As proof that you are sons,

God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,

crying out, “Abba, Father!”

So you are no longer a slave but a son,

and if a son then also an heir, through God. – Galatians 4:4-7

(Never suspected the song was that long!)

…or would the Ivy League poison the military? Colman McCarthy, a professor of absurd “peace studies” (there’s a course requiring intellectual rigor, I’ll bet…) has written an article claiming that having ROTC on campus would wreck “the intellectual purity of a school”. Victor Davis Hanson notes:

…What does “the intellectual purity of a school” mean in 2010? That was tragically lost a long time ago in the 1960s when “relevant” courses (particularly -studies courses) became deductive, with preconceived ends that justified biased means of teaching. Examine questions of free speech, intellectual diversity, and tolerance for minority opinion on an average campus, and the notion of “intellectual purity” is rendered Orwellian.

A reader over at Instapundit noted yesterday that our military force has been led magnificently by officers who come out of State colleges. Why risk leavening this with the sort of people who would even want to go to the Ivy League? And, think about it: if the kids of the Ivy League go in to the military, we’ll have junior officers just like President Obama (Columbia, ’83). Thanks, but if I’m to go to war, I’d like Lt. Col. Allen West (Univ. of Tennessee, ’83).

The sad fact of life is that our prestige universities – outside of some of the hard science disciplines – are just breeding grounds for the Ruling Class. People aren’t taught to think at places like Harvard and Yale; they are indoctrinated to believe in a certain way, and believe themselves to be an intellectual and moral elite. One wonders if any random Ivy League graduate of the past 20 years could give a quick sketch of the Battle of Lepanto and its effects; or if such a person would have any notion of who Cavour was, or what Polk did.

McCarthy is worried about the intellectual purity of the schools – and he’s probably right do to so, but for the wrong reason. The purity of Ivy League intellect is that it is completely wiped clean of anything smacking of thought or independence. Putting someone in there who is of the caliber of an army officer would disturb the sublime void which is elite education – and we can’t have any of that. Someone at Harvard starts thinking and the first thing you know, people might start questioning the liberal world view. Worse than that, however, having a crop of officers of Yale quality would mean a military lead by people who think they are inherently superior to the middle and lower class soldiers they command…”fragging” might become a reality in such a situation.

So, maybe we should just leave the elite schools alone – and let them eventually wither on the vine. Could be the best of both worlds here.