Do you miss this guy?

 

It may still be too early to say “I told you so”., but with a continuing recession (unemployment now at “only” 10%), a problematic national health care bill being thrown at us, a national debt going ballistic due to bailouts, military spending, so called stimulus packages; and a foreign and military policy that’s becoming more and more absurd by the hour, many Americans may actually be thinking wistfully about a transplanted Texan and former US president named George Walker Bush.

 Yes, that guy who ram-rodded BAR-X-USA Ranch for no less than 8 years and who turned a budget surplus into a massive bucket of red ink quicker than many can say contempt-of-congress. But, with this guy named Obama, a former Muslim and master of spin at the helm; who appears to have no clue at how to guide the Ship of State he is supposedly leading; and who has to ask such questions to his advisors as “Gee, guys, how do I greet the Emperor of Japan?”, or “what should I do now regarding our little war in Afghanistan?”, maybe that stupid Texan who used to be in charge, should have stayed around a bit longer.

 OK, we do have a Constitutional Amendment that says a president can only serve two terms (they decided to do this after FDR died at the beginning of his 4^th term in office), and taking into consideration the Republicans couldn’t find a better candidate other than 72 year old John McCain and his moose hunting choice for VP (who now has a book she’s flogging at “special prices”). That’s why BHO was elected in the first place; and as the old saying goes: “you made the soup – now eat it!”

 Our new president is going to send 30,000 more hired guns to Afghanistan to take care of nasty varmints over there, and then bring them back again starting in 2011. That doesn’t make a lot of sense as the bad guys only have to lay low and smoke their hubbly bubblies until the last US and NATO troops leave. Then they (the Taliban, opium running war lords, and other “insurgents” will simply come down out of the hills and take over – like they did after the Russians pulled out in ’88. Then, it’ll be Déjà vu all over again, with women having to wear those funny costumes and getting shot in the head for not covering their face in public. But that’s “pure” Islam for you!

 I bet G.W. is having the last laugh, as well as saying “I told you so”. He doesn’t have to deal with the mess that now seems to be getting messier (even though he did create a hell of a lot of it during his 8 years at the helm). But what the hell – better to sit back, drink some Coors beer, watch some football on the tube, and blame somebody else. And why should he care? Hillary Clinton, wife of another former president is now running around the world doing BHO’s bidding ( I said bidding – not Biden!).

And I still bet a lot of folk miss that guy – especially talk show host Jay Leno, whose monologs these days just aren’t the same.

At Israel’s new Tamrur 4 Dead Sea oil well, will the environment suffer?

Dead Sea view at sunset: will oil ruin a truely natural wonder?

Yes there is oil in Israel, and with the drilling of a new well on the shores of the Dead Sea, there may be a lot more. It’s difficult, however,  to know what’s worse from an environmental standpoint; continuing mining of potash and other minerals at the Dead Sea, or drilling for oil. While the potash industry has been going on for years there, including a unique method of extracting the mineral from Dead Sea water, interest in drilling for both oil and natural gas has also been happening, with some measure of success. Following the discovery of natural gas back in the 1960′s, a sufficient quantity of oil was brought up from a well drilled by the Naphtha Israel Petroleum Company during the 1990′s.

The Dead Sea, or Salt Sea (Yam Hamelach) as it is known in Israel, is the lowest dry land point in the world, and has been steady receding since most of the flow of the Jordan River (the lake’s main water source) was diverted into Israel’s national water carrier. As a result, only a trickle of Jordan River water reaches the Dead Sea, and environmentalists fear the lake will be gone entirely by the year 2050.