I never post on Sunday. But I’m doing this anyway, because I feel that time is of the essence on this one. It may be quite important. Or not. We’ll see soon.

Yellowcake is a concentrate of uranium ore that is used to make nuclear material. It is the first step on the road to fuel for a peaceful nuclear reactor for power, or the makings of war materials.

Remember just before the Iraq war, when we were told that North Korea was supplying Iraq with yellowcake for their Weapons of Mass Destruction? Remember how that turned out to be based on forged documents? Remember how it helped start that war?

Now there is ‘intelligence information’ circulating that North Korea was shipping 45 tons of yellowcake, enough for 3-5 nuclear devices, to Syria at the time the Israeli airforce destroyed something in Syria, which is widely accepted to have been a war-oriented nuclear plant under construction. After the bombing, the Koreans turned the ship around for home port.

But now ‘intelligence sources’, which can probably be traced to the Israeli Mossad (their equivalent of our CIA but with a much better track record), say that those 45 tons of yellowcake were re-shipped to the Middle East last summer. More specifically, to Iran. This information has also been published by the New Agency of India, although they attributed it to a ‘Western diplomatic source’, which indicates to me that the United States is either involved with this story, or will gladly accept it as true.

Woah Nellie! That’s a game changer… if true. (more…)

Sayyed Nasrallah went to dinner on Thursday. (more…)

This is difficult, because there are not a lot of sources. But this is what seems to be happening.

As detailed in the Major Update two posts ago, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad hosted the leaders of Syria, Lebanon’s Hisballah, and Gaza’s Hamas to put the finishing touches on who does what in time of war. The question was whether that meeting would end with discord for some reason, or with all parties agreeing on what they were to do.

Apparently, it was agreeable.

Ahmadinejad is going on to host in Tehran this weekend an extraordinary meeting of (more…)

- Secretary of State Clinton told the Senate Appropriations Committee today that the US has little choice but to impose sanctions on Iran. However, she asked congress not to restrict her ‘flexibility’ by passing specific legislation. Instead, she ‘hopes’ the Administration will put together some sort of sanctions in ‘30 to 60 days’.

- In the meantime, a delegation headed by US Deputy Secretary of State Steinberg, including representatives from the National Security Council and the Pentagon are headed to Israel Thursday for more ’strategic dialog’ on Iran.

- Israeli Secretary of Defense Barak today told United Nations Secretary Ban today that Iran and Syria are arming Hisballah in Lebanon and Gaza with 40,000 missiles to be used upon the population of Israel.

- Little chance of Russian support for sanctions at the UN, as Russian official Oleg Rozhkov told press today that Russia will decline to work together with the US on any sanctions that could isolate Iran. The Chinese continue to back away from commitment.

So there are two paths down the road.

Congress stands down and lets the Administration do it their way, which has been mostly ineffective, which is why Congress put together the legislation in the first place. But if they do stand down, that gives at least 1-2 months before anything happens, and probably not much even then. That would surely seem a very long road to the Israelis.

Alternately, Congress says they have had enough of the low-impact path of the Administration and goes on to pass draconian legislation against Iran that the President is duty-bound to follow. At least ostensibly. Presidents have ignored Congress before.

But if he does not, and implements Congress’ sanctions… there we go.

A lot of ifs and maybes, but it does look like whatever path is taken, there is trouble ahead. Stay tuned.

First an overview, then the news. Most recent at the bottom of this post. (more…)

It’s about time for me to go through my periodic check of supplies, so I thought I share with you what I’m going to do. (more…)

1. Prayer.

Because that is about all you will have if there is an emergency or disaster. Especially pray that your neighbors are uncommonly kind and will share their two to three meals worth of food, since that’s probably all they have on hand. And give you one of the cans of warm soda in their non-functioning refrigerator, which is likely to be about all the water there is.

2. Um… there isn’t a number two.

That says it all for anyone who is not prepared for when… not if… normal life goes south for a while.

Maybe it will be a minor emergency, like someone in your family… or you… needing quick medical help. Even if 911 is up and functioning, there are situations where immediate aid can be life saving. If you do not have the training and materials to meet that need, the regret that follows could be immense.

Or perhaps there will be a regional disaster… a hurricane, tornado, flood, earthquake… you name it. There is not a piece of earth in the United States that is not subject to some sort of natural event that will at some time or another disrupt the flow of food and water, and create a sudden need for people trained in first aid.

As I’ve mentioned before, we have used our emergency supplies numerous times during the three-plus years that we’ve been stocked and ready. It has come in handy for relatively small’ things. And on one occasion, it very possibly saved a life. All the time and money spent has already paid off. And there has not yet been a major event yet in our area. We’ve come close a couple of times (nearby hurricanes), but nothing approaching what you would call a disaster.

Even a little preparation can pay you high dividends. A case of bottled water, stored in the closet. An emergency pack of food for a few days for everyone in your group. A real first aid kit with truly useful things in it. A jar of honey. You can find pages on each of these in this site, if you think it worth spending the time to look.

A word to the wise is sufficient. A thousand words to an ‘it can’t happen here’ person is not enough.

The stock market isn’t all that’s happening in the world, not by a long shot… but it’s some of the news. Predicting it is a full time job for some. Fortunately, not for me. But I’m interested. And I have a tiny position in the market. A bear position, of course.

I was reading some material yesterday that really hit me. I’m not a technical… a person who believes that the patterns of the Dow Jones repeat in certain ways. They can, yes. But just because the Market moved in a certain way the last time a certain pattern occurred, I do not believe that it will necessarily act the same this time. Not necessarily.

But sometimes it does.

An erudite technical named Al Coryell made a chart of the market just before the Crash of 1929, and a chart of recent movements . You can almost overlay the pattern, point for point. If you want, you can see that here:

http://www.thepanicnews.com/2009/09/18/is-todays-stock-market-doing-a-dead-cat-bounce-similar-to-the-stock-market-crash-of-1929-which-ushered-in-the-great-depression/

He does a more recent, more extensive analysis on this page:

http://www.thepanicnews.com/2010/02/08/is-that-a-dead-cat-bounce-ing-off-that-k-wave/

It seems that we have continued to move along that fault line.

The bit about the dead cat bounce is marketspeak for a short rebound after a sharp decline, which is exactly what has been happening in the market during the past year. The only point of disagreement between anyone is whether the rebound will continue, up, up, up the ziggurat… or falter a little bit… or complete the dead cat bounce, which ends in a sharp decline. Splat.

You can guess which one I think it is.

Al says we’ll know for sure when the market (currently at about 10,300) reaches 3,000.

On its way to 400.

Risk taking is currently seen as a negative personality trait, right up there with a rigid morality.

It’s understandable, from a certain viewpoint. If you want to create a society that is malleable to the desires of those in power, then you do not want people taking actions on their own, or having opinions that do not conform to current mass thinking.

People are glad to buy into the illusion of stability and safety that goes along with that, because most people desire safety and sameness above all. I’d cite an example, but there really is no need. It’s easy to see in every part of life.

In an emergency or disaster, things are radically different. The rules that applied a few seconds ago are out the window.

As people in New Orleans and Haiti found out, you can’t (more…)

When an emergency situation arises, the chances are that some of the people around you at the time will be different from you.

Even if they have the same ethnic background, they may have a completely different moral compass, a completely different world view. Since you are reading this, you probably see helping people as a duty and a privilege. Some people that you would normally be very comfortable around may think that stopping to give aid is just stupid and wouldn’t consider it.

You might actually have more in common with someone of a different ethnicity. Or, put more bluntly, color.

This gets very personal, but I do not know any better way of making these points. It’s also long, so if you’re going to take this journey with me, sit back and relax.

I have had an interesting walk through prejudice. (more…)