La Santa Muerte

When I first began to work on high level Mexican narcotics trafficking matters, I learned that many of the most prominent drug kingpins and their attorneys had, "made a pact with death". The concept didn't surprise me because so many of them find themselves dead at an early age. However it went a lot deeper than my initial superficial understanding.

Shrines to La Santa Muerte or Senora de la Noche "Lady of the Night" can be found in the homes and offices of the attorneys who defend the narco-traffickers. This is the way they explained it to me. They have made a pact with death to extend their mortal lives and to give them power over others in the process. La Santa Muerte (the Saint of Death) is able to grant favors such as causing the death of others who are interested in killing you. Frequently the weapons wielded by both the police and the criminals in Mexico are blessed ritually by the Saint of Death. Worship of the Saint of Holy Death is said to bring fortune to her devotees and the narco-attorneys are all about fortune.

This cult worship of The Saint of Death has made this Mexican saint the de-facto patron saint of prostitutes, taxi drivers, police officers, soldiers, street vendors and people who work at night or "in darkness". Even though the ritual worship of this saint mirrors the rituals of the Catholic Church, the church condemns its practice as devil worship.

The Saint's Day is celebrated on November 1, August 15 (or both).

For more information about the rituals associated with La Santa Muerte, there is a forum where it is discussed (CLICK HERE ).

A serious religion, fantasy cult, dangerous black magic, or whatever it is, I found it very interesting that highly educated men and women put a lot of effort into worshiping this particular saint.

Snapshots from Paradise

I'm in Hawaii...spending time with my children. Here are two snapshots from today.

Heather

Emilie

Musings

Sometimes I have to resort to reading what the "best and brightest experts in some areas of life" said, in order to keep everything in its place. Academia (above) is clearly not the place to look for real answers.Neither is the mainstream media - depicted as the small dog. The larger dog (a metaphor only) is Barack Hussein Obama.

 

The MAINSTREAM MEDIA

"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State." (Dr. Joseph Goebbels)

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise." (Adolf Hitler)

The democratic process that brought the current US administration to power--

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! (Benjamin Franklin)

“Civility in the face of evil is no virtue; rage in the face of nihilism is no vice.”(Lindsay Perigo)

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Political Correctness Defined - A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical socialist minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous non-enquiring media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

RIGHTS

"If you will not fight for your rights when you can easily win without bloodshed -- if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly -- then you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." (Winston Churchill)

AN ARMED SOCIETY

"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes....Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." (Thomas Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in Chapter 40 of "On Crimes and Punishment", 1764.)

The US Dollar

I've been following doomsayer's comments for about a year now. They uniformly report the demise of the US Dollar. So I've been watching reports carefully and quietly, not blogging about them - but not slacking in my attention to the issue.

I don't see any evidence in a massive loss of confidence internationally in the US Dollar. The International Monetary Fund shows that 64% of all foreign exchange holdings are in Dollars. That's down 2 % from 66% before the financial crisis that swept the planet. (China doesn't report its holdings to the IMF).

There has been a shift in which dollar instruments foreign central banks are buying. They are currently accumulating US Treasury obligations (bonds) rather than securities of government agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They also favor short-term bonds over long term notes, displaying caution - but still buying Dollars.

Why?

Many countries still trade and settle trading debts in Dollars (the rise of the Euro notwithstanding). It makes sense for those countries to hold the same currency they use to denominate their foreign debt. 

86 % of all foreign exchange transactions since 2007 has been in Dollars. The Euro accounts for 38%. (the total is 200% since there are two currencies for each potential transaction)

US Treasury Bonds are the single most liquid for trading on government bond markets in the world. This is reflected in the high turnover rate and narrow spread between buy/sell. The liquidity is a function of the size of the American economy. Foreign investors place their holdings in the US markets because those markets are liquid and high trading activity in turn makes them still more liquid.

Brief Comparison

The Swiss Franc accounts for less than 1% of foreign reserves. The Pound Sterling is about 3%. This has mainly to do with the small economies so they serve as a subsidiary reserve currency (a hedge). The Japanese economy is much larger (second largest in the world) but the Japanese government discourages use of the Yen internationally because doing so would undermine its ability to maintain a low/competitive exchange rate. I read an interesting piece on WAX LIPS' blog (CLICK HERE TO VISIT) today, "Is Japan a Dying Nation?" The very thing she discusses makes Japan a less attractive option to play an expanding role in world currency.

The Euro was instituted to offer a European alternative to the Dollar. Financial markets in Europe will naturally hold Euros. The Russian energy consumers, primarily Europeans, pay in Euros, so that will naturally expand Russia's holdings in that currency. Russia has expanded its Euro holdings from 42% to 46% of its foreign currency reserves.

China is trapped

China holds $2,000 for every Chinese person. 87% of all Chinese holdings are in Dollars. They have a tiger by the tail. Selling US Treasury securities in the quantities needed to significantly alter the composition of its reserve portfolio would make those securities tank. If the Chinese divested themselves of Dollars, the value of the Dollar would depreciate, causing further losses to Chinese financial holdings.

Special Drawing Rights

Last March, Zhou Kiaochuan (Bank of China) argued that the dollar should be replaced as a reserve currency by IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDR's). The SDR is composed of a basket of four currencies: US Dollar, Pound Sterling, Euro and Yen. Russia immediately announced it would trade $10 billion for SDR's. The problem with the SDR is that they can only be used by governments to settle debts with other governments and the IMF. Previous efforts in the 1970's to commercialize SDR's never got off the ground. 

In order for SDR's to become any sort of international currency, the IMF would need to be able to issue additional SDR's in times of shortfall the same way as the US Federal Reserve issued Dollar swaps to insure liquidity in the second half of 2008.  Under present regulations, 85% of participating countries would have to agree in order for the IMF to act in that manner. IMF would have to act as a global central bank and that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Back to China

China would like to make Shanghai a world financial center by 2020, but it's unlikely to happen that quickly. The Chinese GDP is not large enough to support their currency, the Renminbi (RMB) a reserve financial currency. Even with optimistic growth rates that are largely unrealistic, by 2020, the Chinese GDP will still be less than half as large as the United States. The RMB is unlikely to be able to serve as more than a subsidiary reserve currency or regional reserve currency in the foreseeable future. Its prospects as a world currency are remote and distant.

Treat?

Halloween is coming and the weather is changing with the fall equinox. The question here is, "what are you doing for Halloween?" I'll stay home and hand out candy to legions of ghosts and goblins. I have neighbors who decorate elaborately. Their yards are turned into faux graveyards complete with faux spider webs and giant plastic spiders. I don't do that. I just hand out candy. 

I know people who condemn me for handing out candy to kids - claiming I am celebrating SATAN'S HOLIDAY. To those people, I say, "get a life".

Fox

There's only one place to get news anymore, and it's not CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS or MSNBC, who have essentially caved to pressure from the White House and refuse to hold the Obama Administration accountable for their formidable list of serious blunders. If they really are blunders.  The principal American newspapers are just as much to blame.

Barack Hussein Obama has not been shy about pronouncing his intent to replace the America we know and love with a utopian socialist state. The lay-abouts and parasites love the idea that everything will be "free". And those of us who work will no longer find value in work, so maybe we'll go on the dole too.

Anyway, here's a clip from FOX News, the only reliable source of information remaining in America outside of the Internet.

What can be done to stop Global Cooling?

I'm not asking former US Vice President to give his Nobel Peace Prize for alerting us to Global Warming back.

But will the Cap and Trade Legislation currently before Congress speed up the crisis that is Global Cooling? Will this legislation turn North America in to one big ice box?

It seems that ice at both poles haven't been paying attention to the computer models. The National Snow and Ice Data Center released its summary of summer sea-ice conditions in the Arctic last week and reported a substantial expansion of "second-year ice" — ice thick enough to have persisted through two summers of seasonal melting.

According to the NSIDC, second-year ice this summer made up 32% of the total ice cover on the Arctic Ocean, compared with 21% in 2007 and 9% in 2008. Clearly, Arctic sea ice is not following the consensus touted by Gore and the warm-mongers. (Investors Business Daily)

____________

The journal, Geophysical Research Letters published an article last month by Marco Tedesco, a research scientist at the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology. He reported that "ice melt on Antarctica was the lowest in three decades during the ice-melt season."

Each year, millions of square miles of sea ice melt and refreeze. The amount varies from season to season. Despite pictures taken in summer of floating polar bears, data reported by the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center at the beginning of this year showed global sea ice levels the same as they were in 1979, when satellite observations began. At the other end of the earth, we are told the Larsen B ice shelf on the western side of Antarctica is collapsing. That part is warming and has been for decades. But it comprises just 2% of the continent. The rest of the continent is cooling.

They start work early now

My grandson, Griffin (8 1/2 months), applied for a job at In-N-Out Burgers today. It looks like they put him on as crew chief... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

To live and die in Mexico

Exponential Growth

Future Shock

Do the Right Thing!

My grandson GRIFFIN (CLICK HERE) has been entered in the Baby Gap contest.

Please visit the website and as they say in Chicago.

VOTE EARLY

VOTE OFTEN

OK IF YOU VOTE DEAD

Yes, I realize that it's a pain in the neck to register at the site, however it would make my daughter happy if you do.

Who Should Manage Education?

To make myself clear on the matter, I don't feel the Federal Government has any Constitutional role in Education. It is a matter for the States or Counties to decide as they will.

I am not gay baiting, however I do want to take a shot at the current administration's choice for Director of the Department of Education's Safe and Drug Free Schools Bureau. Kevin Jennings is a very poor choice for that position. Jennings is simply one more in a long line of inappropriate choices -- put into a decision making role at the national level.

Let's outline who Jennings is and what he has done and you decide for yourself whether or not you want this self-admitted narcotics user in charge of Drug Free Schools.

• Failed to report a statutory rape of a student. (when Jennings was a teacher in Massachusetts)
• "Radical homosexual druggie" (WorldNetDaily - Erick Rush)
• "Jennings has made extremely radical statements promoting homosexuality in schools." (Washington Times - Editorial)
• Michelle Malkin said that Jennings is a controversial homosexual rights advocate who founded a controversial organization that aggressively pushes sexually explicit books. (Malkin refers to GLSEN - Gay and Lesbian and Straight Education Network)

Is this the kind of guy we want making policy for the education of our children. His appointment is typical of the sort of skewed values the current administration has. Change You can Believe In...