Arkady's Thoughts

This is the picture on the main page of CNN.com and the caption reads "A Palestinian brings his wounded daughters to a hospital in Gaza City today. ( AFP /Getty Images)" Meanwhile FoxNews .com is showing a story about the son of one of Hamas's founders and how he turned against not only his family and Hamas , but also Islam. Which story do you think is more important? What is more relevant to the education and overall information of Americans? Everyone knows that there are dead civilians, war is such an ugly thing - especially considering that Hamas is using civilians as human shields (won't hear that from CNN). CNN is just flooding us with emotional images to turn the minds and opinions of Americans against Israel. I find this to be rather off-putting.

As I watch the war versus Hamas develop and the ground invasion roll out I am thinking to myself, what is the purpose of all this? Some of the effects are quite clear, others are a bit muddied. Clear effects are the easily tangible and observable ones. A most striking and obvious phenomenon is that everyone has an opinion. The blogosphere is rife with opinions; some angry and passionate, some muted and somber. Coverage is non-stop and the pundits offer a bouquet of insight and opinions. What is clear to me at least, is that this particular war that started in the hay days of 2008 is a very polarizing war. People have for the most part scurried into two major camps; First camp is of the opinion that Hamas must be wiped out at all costs, the second camp believes without equivocation that Israel is in the midst of genocide and performing atrocities every day. Naturally there are some (minority) that find themselves in the middle, sympathetic to the plight of Israel's security and...

No, not what you think folks. This is not a traditional physical offensive, but rather a psychological front. The Israeli army has started to upload certain exclusive videos to their channel on You Tube showing certain actions they find important. Not to be outdone, Hamas and their supporters have started uploading counter videos and images. In fact, there were so many Hamas supporters that certain videos from IDF were flagged as objectionable. YouTube pulled the video, but restored it a few hours later due to clamoring from Israeli supporters. Here is the YouTube channel from Israel: IDF on YouTube I am unable to locate the Hamas website, if anyone knows of one please let me know. It would be interesting to see the point of views from the two difference forces. Happy New Years!

How can this be? We have a conflict that is so decisively clear to our current administration, Canada and even the leader of the West Bank (M. Abbas). Yet, our president-elect cannot formulate an opinion? There is video footage showing Hamas hiding rocket launchers smack in the middle of residential neighborhoods and specifically force Israeli air strikes to potentially kill civilians. Yet, this is not enough information to persuade the president-elect to voice his thoughts on something that can be described as a war crime? People should be demanding leadership, yet everyone is comfortably numb with the deafening silence. You know why he cannot? Because his true opinion, is that he does not have one. He sympathizes with the dead Palestinian civilians as does everyone else and he sympathizes with the Israeli civilians, as do some people. His bleeding heart is rendering him useless, for he cannot see the distinction between right and wrong. To Obama: Firing rockets for the purpose of k...

According to this story a violent series of air strikes has left the Gaza strip in utter destruction, with 200 people dead and another 200+ injured. It is unclear as to what prompted such a backlash, but apparently Hamas fired longer ranging rockets this time. UPDATE: I recognize that Hamas has been firing rockets for years and has launched thousands in that time. I was unclear as to why this last firing served as the catalyst for this war. What is disturbing about this development is the timing. Anti- semitism appears to be on the rise and with US continuing to defend Israel the anti-Jew crowd will have more to scream and shout about. My observations, and they may be purely coincidental is that a growing number of people are holding the Jews responsible for our financial crisis. I am seeing this on YouTube, specific websites and forums. There are circles that are known for hate - like the white nationalists or Nation of Islam Muslims , but now a group of disenfranchised Ron Paul s...

Obama selects Revered Rick Warren for the invocation and immediately gets blasted by the gay community. Joe Solemnese writes Obama a scathing letter . Here is a little blurb... Let me get right to the point. Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans. Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years. And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table. Genuine blow to the gay community? Hmm ...I thought that was a good thing? :) But seriously, this situation puts me in a very uncomfortable position of defending Obama here. Why is picking a somewhat socially conservative individual a reason to write nasty letters filled with poorly phrased cliches? Fra...

Just doing a little followup on my first Treasury Bubble post . So far things appear to be moving in the direction predicted and of particular interest are mortgages. Because the 30-year fixed rate is primarily tied to the 10 year bond yield, it is reasonable to assume that mortgage rates across the country fell dramatically. As we speak the 10 year yield is flirting with all time lows. When I saw all time lows, I am sort of shooting in the dark because I can't even find data that goes back that far. At some point in the 1950s the yield on the 10 year note was in the low 2s. In fact as of this writing it is at 20.85, threatening to fall below 2. Could be a strong psychological number, but somehow I doubt it. (See chart below) What does this mean? Means a few things. 1) Investors have no faith in our economy. The bond market is SCREAMING deflation. People are willing to tie in their money for a paltry 2% for 10 years? Madness... 2) Someone at the government level is printing money. ...