Doug's Darkworld

Another week, another step closer to the Apocalypse. Yes, Elephant Pharmacy declared bankruptcy and abruptly closed this week. Well, OK, Apocalypse is hyperbole. And a local pharmacy chain with three locations isn’t really all that big  a deal. However, to repeat a point that a lot of people (probably not readers of my blog, who tend to be more astute than most) still aren’t getting, the end is nigh. Economically speaking of course, we’ll deal with the 2012 nonsense in due time. This is how this works on a  local level. Small businesses like Elephant Pharmacy closes, 100 people or more are suddenly out of work … with little prospect of re-employment in anything like their previous capacity. So they stop shopping locally, and other businesses already stressed by poor sales and tight credit go under. I predict we’ll see a cascade of local places close this spring. This economic collapse is the result of at least 28 years of mismanagement, possibly as may as 95 years. Lincoln, Washington, and Eisenhower working together couldn’t turn this around. Maybe Obama will be a great president, but it’s a little naive to expect him to fix the economy. In any event, no worries. Stock up on food. Plant a garden. Learn to barter. Square dancing is optional.

OK, my obligatory rant about the economy is over, anything else interesting happen this week? Well, for one thing a central Asian nation, Kyrgyzstan, has ordered a key US military base closed. Key in that it was important in getting American supplies to Afghanistan. The Russians basically offered them more money, and this past summer’s Georgian fiasco played a role no doubt. It’s clear that there are limits to US power in Russia’s back yard, so it’s probably better to get along with Russia than the USA. Plus Russia has shown itself to be willing to actually commit big time to defend its friends, another lesson learnt in Georgia. We may see more countries in Russia’s backfield switch allegiances to Russia as America’s power and influence in the region wanes.

And speaking of central Asia, insurgents in Pakistan have destroyed a key bridge for getting supplies to Afghanistan. Yes, two key supply routes closed in one week. This is not a good thing, and it’s one of he reasons invading Afghanistan was an insane idea in the first place, especially the part about getting Pakistan to join in. As people tried to point out, going to war against Afghanistan meant that we were effectively going to war against the Pashtun people, most of who live in Pakistan. And the government of Pakistan is going to be reluctant, to put to mildly, to go to war against its own people  in order to pull the USA’s fat from the fire in Afghanistan. And now that insurgents are increasingly concentrating on US supply lines, our situation in Afghanistan is going to grow increasingly untenable. And American flying robotic death squads blowing up houses in Pakistan are making the situation worse, not better. It’s going to be an interesting summer in Kabul, that’s for sure.

And lastly, in our ongoing “face of evil” coverage, Dick Cheney has announced that he is the Antichrist. OK, not quite, but close. He and others have been saying that Obama’s ending of torture and illegal surveillance is inviting another 9-11 terror attack. This is sick, wrong, and just plain evil. For one thing, the idea that torturing people and spying on Americans was “protecting” us never passed the laugh test in he first place … people who use suicide attacks aren’t exactly going to be deterred because they might get caught and tortured. Secondly, the changes Obama is making to the “War on Terror” are trivial. Thirdly, there is only so much the President can do to prevent attacks on the USA. Huge numbers of people and thousands of tons of contraband are smuggled into the USA every year, a determined attacker is going to be able to attack the US mainland if they want.

So by pre-emptively blaming Obama for another 9/11, they are literally setting up Obama and our country for failure. If another attack happens, the country won’t rally around Obama the way they did around Bush after 9/11. Partisan politics at its ugliest. We’re not the first Empire where the rich and powerful continued to play politics no matter what the cost to the country, but it’s still sickening to see it unfolding before my eyes.

Right, the above picture. That’s a fossil photographed on Mars by the Opportunity Rover. Lots of so called “fossils” have been spotted on Mars, but they all look like rocks to me. This one is different, it really does look like it could be the real deal, even scientists are intrigued.  Granted it’s only a millimetre long, and there are geological explanations, but still. I posted it because if there was once life on Mars, maybe it was destroyed by some appocalypse. Which would be Obama’s fault of course.

Have a great weekend everyone.

(The above image is used according to NASA’s guidelines, which basically means if you aren’t using a NASA photo to imply they endorsed your product, you’re good to go. In any event the search for intelligent life in the galaxy continues … >insert your own joke about intelligent life in Washington here<)