Bush Economics and the Laws of Gravity, New Churches in the Gulf, The Covenant of Abraham and Old Politics
Mr. Bush's take on a faltering economy.
Bernanke and GOP politicos get some "thanks for nothing".
I knew FDR, FDR was a friend of mine.....etc.
Churches, circumcision and American missions in Kuwait and the (Persian) Gulf.
Security services, the law, and Stalinesque semantics in the Gulf: no profiles in courage.
Bush Economics
You're riding high in April,
Shot down in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune,
When I'm back on top, back on top in June.
This morning I watched President Bush opine on the economy:
We waited for a solution, he gave us an ideological and largely political speech, and almost a primer on "The Wealth of Nations For Dummies".
He said that whenever the conomy declines it eventually will go up, sort of like a baseball, but backwards. That is reassuring, if you happen not to have any immediate worries and prefer a long-term view of things.
He seemed to rely somewhat on the rebate checks in May, his own roundabout flat mini tax cut.
He trusts Ben Bernanke, the man long behind the economic curve: "doing a heck of a good job, Brownie?" But never fear: it looks like Bernanke and Co. are learning on the job, which bodes well for the future, the long-term future.
He is more concerned with some next 'recession' sometime in the future than the current downturn: he would not take drastic action to end the current downturn, for fear of someday in the future causing another one. No such silly thing as a "There is nothing to fear but fear itself" sound bite for him. Maybe he meant the 'moral hazard' issue. He did warn against rash actions that we would regret later. Oh, and Bear Stearns, or is it JP Morgan, is being bailed out- no apparent moral hazard there.
He said something to the effect that the market will correct itself, that delaying its correction will only make things worse. He lost me there, but that's OK, I felt like getting lost by then.
He praised Republican politicos like Rep Boehner and Sen Mitch McConnell for sometinmg or another that they had done, or was it something they had not done. He forgot to mention John McCain.
He even managed to insert 9/11 in there somewhere, somehow tying it to free trade- maybe the word "World Trade" triggered it. And we are eight long months away from the election!
By the end of the speech and Q/A session the market indices had remained steady, down. Maybe it takes some time to digest all that stuff.
He also forgot the name of the King of Saudi Arabia near the end. He forgot, even with all that handholding and kissing at the ranch in Crawford.
Executive Summary: the US economy will eventually rebound- what goes down always comes up again just like Frank Sinatra between May and June. The laws of gravity, and Newton's Laws of Motion, especially the First Law, be damned. I fully agree that it will rebound- eventually.
Perennial head cheerleader Larry Kudlow will cheerlead later today. I can't wait. I just hope they are both right, the cheerleader and the cheerleaded, or is it the 'cheerled'- maybe it is the cheerfully led.
Old American Hospital in Kuwait
Photo from: intlxpatr.wordpress.com
A Christian 'Procedure' in the Gulf:
The first Catholic Church has just opened in Qatar, with five more slated to open later. I guess all those Indian Goans, Keralans and Philippinos needed it. Let's not forget the Brazilians. The media reports that this is the first Christian (are there any other kinds?) church to open in the country which is nominally Wahhabi, but only nominally. Now all the smaller (Persian) Gulf GCC states have churches. Historically tolerant and liberal Kuwait and Bahrain have had them for many decades.
That leaves Saudi Arabia as the only country overlooking either shore of the Gulf that does not allow churches. In fairness they do not allow gambling casinos either, which makes them rather 'fair and balanced'. There are no known plans for the Saudis to start opening churches in Riyadh any time soon- maybe some other time, like when a cetain hot place freezes over.
American missionaries opened the first hospital in Kuwait City sometime early in the 20th centuries- it was established in 1910 when we were really wild. It was called affectionately, what else, Mostashfa Amrikani- The American Hospital: I recall having a 'certain procedure' performed on me when I was a toddler- it is a mandatory procedure done to all males, except that nowadays they do it in infancy without fanfare. That procedure is related to a reputed Covenant of Abraham. And I had to be dragged to it, kicking very hard.
Imagine, a Muslim kid operated on by a kaffir heathen doctor in a Christian missionary hospital. What will they think of next, a rabbi teaching madrassas?
Now if only we still had Bar Mitzvahs...
That hospital on the seafront has been closed for years now, it distinctive classic building left overlooking the Gulf.
Happy Days (and Odd Semantics) Are Here Again?
"Semantics:
1: the study of meanings: a: the historical and psychological study and the classification of changes in the signification of words or forms viewed as factors in linguistic development b (1): semiotic (2): a branch of semiotic dealing with the relations between signs and what they refer to and including theories of denotation, extension, naming, and truth
2: the language used (as in advertising or political propaganda) to achieve a desired effect on an audience especially through the use of words with novel or dual meanings"
Merriam-Webster Online
Security forces in Kuwait have been cracking down on Shi'a politicians and some religious activists who are suspected of sympathy with dead Hizbullah commander 'Imad Mughniya. Most of those are Shi'a fundamentalists and a couple of them are professors at the local university. I guess all security services have one thing in common: they all dislike academic types as much as the old Oakland Police Force (R.I.P) disliked long-haired students in the Bay Area.
Some have compared the current tensions to the fearful and divisive atmosphere of the 1980s. That was a dangerous period for the Gulf, a period of twin menacing forces looming over the Gulf: an aggressive Saddam in Iraq and an aggressive Islamic Revolution in Iran. Two extremist rightwing newspapers, al-watan and alseyassah, both more royalist than the king of "you know where", have been agitating incessantly, calling for punishing these people. They have managed to strike fear into the hearts of most politicians and some journalists, who are suddenly, curiously, tremblingly and 'deafeningly' silent. They did the same about 20 years ago. No, they haven't openly called for instituting public beheadings yet. Not openly, not yet.
Current and former members of parliament were questioned, some held for days and accused of serious charges like "plotting to overthrow the state", and one silly Stalin-esque charge: "making false statements to foreign media". The first charge is serious, but the second one? Whoever heard of a politician ever lying or making false statements? Not me.
It is possible that the man, being a politician, did make some "false statements to the media"- but probably no perjury was involved, nothing like "I did not have sex with that woman". Still, I am especially intrigued by the charge, it is a cute one, almost a classic, straight from the book of Old Uncle Joe in old Mockba: and what is considered a "false statement to the foreign media" in this day and age of Satellite TV, globalization and blogging? Does a blog come under that category? Oh oh.
BTW: is "making false statements" one of the famous "thou shalt not..." original Biblical sins, the ones we were admonished by Charlton Heston to avoid? Is it OK to make a false statement to a 'local' media as opposed to a 'foreign' media?
Things are so confusing these days on the shores of the Gulf, almost as confusing as they were in the 1980s- but not quite, not yet.
Still, the fact is that one is much less likely to be detained and prosecuted in Kuwait for expressing his opinion than in any other country in the Gulf Region, on either shore of the Gulf- so far. That especially includes Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Cheers
mhg
m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com
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