Globalism and War

I haven't posted in a while, but I had a curious thought yesterday.

With globalization slowly encompassing the entire world, and transportation being global in nature, the economies of the world are becoming more and more entwined with one another.  Every nation is becoming more and more dependent on every other nation in the world.  Although this peculiarity has two edges to it, I am going to focus on the more positive one.

A side effect of the interdependency of globalization arises when you consider the reasons for nations going to war with one another.  Typically there are several reasons why nations go to war, one being for resources to ensure survival of the nation, one being for proactive self-defense, or for other nefarious reasons.

However, between the developing and industrialized nations of the world, there is a strong deterrence for going to war now: the interdependence of nations.  A nation is not going to attack another sovereign nation, if their economies are tied together.  Thus, I imagine that any future warfare will be between nations who are not part of the global economy and those who are.  Perhaps, this will help to prevent wars, at least on the worldwide scale, but people will still scuffle over resources as long as humanity exists.

Language and Meaning

There is a curious trend that I have been observing for a while now.  Back in the 'old' days (when my parents were kids) words that were considered dirty and filthy were rarely ever spoken.  They were relegated to a list of words that should not be said and simply avoided. 

As time progresses and these words are used more frequently, they are slowly being decontextualized.  These words are being used so frequently and in such non-related situations that they begin to lose whatever meaning that they had originally been imparted with and empowered by social stigmas.

I imagine that as the social stigmas surrounding these words slowly dissipates, the words themselves will come to be simply words that we say without any relevant meaning to them.

Merry Christmas!

I want to take a moment and step back from all of the intellectual studies and wrestling to stop and say:


MERRY CHRISTMAS!



At the end of the day, what really matters is loving your family and friends and enjoying their company, whether they are in your house or ten thousand miles away, the internet makes the world a smaller and sometimes more friendly place.

Have a very merry Christmas and enjoy the time with friends and family.

Music and life

Music is a somewhat fundamental part of life.  A long time ago (about 10 years.. yea, long time for me), I had zero interest in music; and, in fact, I even considered it to be non-productive and a waste of time and resources.

Since then, I have altered my view on it some, and continue to change as I consider it.

The sky is falling! Interactions between DXY and the stock market

In my studies of the stock market behavior and other various macro-economic trends, I found a fascinating correlation between the US dollar index, DXY and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The US dollar index is a measure of the US dollar in comparison with a basket of currencies as defined by the group that dismantled the Bretton Woods Standard in 1971.  It effectively measures the value of the US dollar relative to other large free market economies in the world.  It is often construed as a measure of the relative confidence in the US in the world as a whole, because when people change their money to hold US dollars, then this index will increase in value, and visa versa.

Pressure run-ups

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear

One Iranian nuclear scientists was assassinated today, in a show of overt consequences for the Iranian nuclear program.

Based on the fact that the US has banned itself from conducting in assassinations, I would expect the Israelis to be behind such an attack.  They stand to bear the brunt of a nuclear Iran and are not going to stand idly by while Iran develops nuclear weapons.  The Israelis want to avoid nuclear war as much as any other nation, and I imagine, like many others in the world, are severely distrustful of Iranian restraint in utilizing the weapons that would have horrific consequences for everyone in the world.  I hope that the Israelis continue to ramp up pressure on the Iranian scientists and do whatever is necessary to hamper their efforts.

I would expect the Arab nations to publicly condemn Isreal and the US for this act, but I imagine that behind the scenes they are cheering.  A nuclear Iran would destabilize not only the Persian-Arab region of the world, but every corner of the globe.

We cannot allow Iran to achieve their goal of nuclear armament.  This would result in global chaos on an unparalleled scale.

Environmentalism and Me

People come to me occasionally and say, "You're a conservative, Republican capitalist, you must want all living things on this planet to die."

I kind of have to laugh at that, because the answer is "obviously not".  If I were really possessed of that kind of demon, I would be running around with a flame-thrower lambasting every green (or olive, since we don't have many truly green things here in New Mexico) thing I could find.

The Great Lottery

I am going to vent here some.  My distaste for our government is pretty strong.

A War of Graffiti

This is an interesting look at the war in Afghanistan.

The top set are American graffiti, and the bottom are Taliban graffiti.  The very first image reads: "THE FEW THE PROUD".

Diplomacy, Technology and Warfare

I found this curious article and another similar article while reading the news today.

Everyone is worried about the economy, and justifiably so, but even if our economy dissolves, it will be the military and our advanced technology that maintain peace for our nation in a time of future crisis.  As long as we possess nuclear weapons and the potential to throw them anywhere in the world, people will respect our borders.  Obviously, nuking people is not the best strategy when it comes to war; but when all other options expire, we need to possess the ability to annihilate our opponents.

But there are other technologies that other countries desire, and therefore, are willing to barter for.  These technologies offer us some leverage in negotiating with friends and allies, as well as the power to subdue overt enemies.  This type of negotiating is exceedingly powerful and effective, because other countries see how we utilize the weapons at our disposal to prosecute those who seek to do harm to our country.  However, we need to exercise restraint in how we use this method though.  The stipulation is that we must be cognizant of is who our friends in the world are and who our enemies are.

Responsibility and Deception

I think I have found the source of the Great American Recession.

A380 Engine Blowout

A few days ago, one of Airbus' A380 superjumbo jets had yet another technical issue with their monstrous aircraft.  This time the engine failed, spewing debris across the wing and damaging the aircraft to the extent that it was forced to make an emergency landing.

Airbus A380 wing ripped apart by engine pieces