Friday, March 4th

United States

Federal Government could potentially shut down.

Significance: With a funding bill set to expire, the Democrats and Republicans are going head to head trying to reach an agreement on how much of the budget to cut. Within days, if no agreement is reached, all non-essential government jobs will be closed. In theory, this is wonderful. In actuality, this closes museums, toxic waste plants, and national parks (how can a forest be closed?). Most likely, both parties will come to an agreement right before the bill expires.

President Obama meets with Mexican President Calderon.

Significance: The incompetent, shortsighted, and opinionated Mexican president has had a close relationship with Obama. After the death of a US agent in Mexico, President Obama continued to enforce the Mexican law that no US agent should be armed in Mexico. The dead agent shot beanbags instead of bullets at armed criminals because of the law; subsequently, he was killed. It is easy for President Obama to not allow weapons for US agents, since he is safe behind a wall of Secret Service.

International

Libyan violence leads to soaring gas prices.

Significance: Unless you ride a bike, you probably saw the 23 cent increase in one week at the pumps, closer to half a dollar overall. Libya produces only about 2% of the world’s oil, but they are home to some of the highest quality oil around. Furthermore, they are the closest exporter in terms of proximity to Europe. Italy, Germany, and Ireland benefit the most from Gadhafi. Some of the oil fields in the former Roman province have been either captured by rebel forces (those fighting Gadhafi’s iron grip rule) or simply left unattended. The US has yet to allow for the American public to benefit from its own stockpiles of oil that could help balance the high cost. If the US actually does enforce a no-fly zone over the country, prices will increase even more dramatically. Remember, the only way to go about doing that is to launch a war against Libya. With forces already stationed in other war zones, not to even mention how there are worse genocides currently underway, and a soaring deficit, interfering with the tiny country of Libya would be ridiculous.

Ivory Coast sees escalation in violence.

Significance: Conflict has again returned to this land as President Gbagbo is proving to be more stubborn than Gadhafi. Ivory Coast is heading towards a civil war, since no country can have two presidents. The United Nations has slowly been pulling out of the country as violence increase. The impotent organization will hardly be missed. Though this is totally unrelated to the crisis in the Arab world, some Black African countries have seen a rise in protests similar to those in the Arab world. This has come about because of direct ties of some African leaders to the dictators of Arabian lands (such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and former Idi Amin of Uganda). Remember, African countries are hardly better than Arab ones for the common man.

More dead continue to be discovered from the massive earthquake in New Zealand.

Significance: The 6.3 behemoth that devastated the South Island, specifically Christchurch (which is a good place to catch a ferry heading to Antarctica), is not yet behind. The NZ civil defense is having trouble keeping up with the humanitarian problems now facing survivors. So far, the death toll has reached 161 but there is a good chance it will double. Many nationalities are among the dead (Canadians, Danes, Israelis, etc.) since it is a great hub for backpackers.  

Thought of the Day: George Washington did not want his image on US currency. He did not want to imitate European monarchs.