Happy MLK Day

Hang on to your hats…it looks like the markets are in for a wild ride tomorrow. And it won’t be a fun sort of ride, either:

Global anxiety about the prospect of a recession in the United States triggered steep stock market declines Monday, pushing the Toronto Stock Exchange down more than 600 points, or 4.79 per cent, by mid-day.

[…]

The losses were felt across the board: In London, the FTSE 100 index plunged 5.48 per cent to close at 5,578.20 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 index lost 6.83 per cent to close at 4,744,45 points and in Frankfurt the DAX shed 7.16 per cent to close at 6,790.19 points, with both markets seeing the biggest single-day losses since the 9/11 terror attacks.

The European markets followed the Asian markets in posting steep declines.

In Asia, India's benchmark stock index tumbled 7.4 per cent, while Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng index plummeted 5.5 per cent to 23,818.86 – its biggest percentage drop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Ouch. The market is off nearly nine per cent already this year… and tomorrow looks like a bloodbath-in-waiting. Enjoy your Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, folks.

―:☺:―

In other financial news… I had my propane tank refilled this morning. Total cost: $31.34 for just a wee bit more than 11 gallons. Two weeks ago I bought eight gallons for a mere $22.00. It looks like it’s gonna be a long, cold winter. And it’ll be a more expensive winter, too.

―:☺:―

So. I’m seeing a lot of this sort of talk lately, as exemplified by Bill Quick:

I will not vote for any ticket headed by John McCain or Mike Huckabee. If McCain is the nominee, I won’t vote for any candidate. If Huckabee is the nominee, I’ll vote for the Democratic candidate. Yes, I would vote for BJ & Hillary Clinton before I’d cast a vote for that constitution-rewriting Christian reconstructionist theocrat in the making, Huckabee. In fact, I won’t vote for any ticket of which he is a part.

At the moment, probably the best I can hope for would be a Giuliani/Thompson ticket. I think that, absent Fred, Rudy would have the best leadership talents. My only problem is where he would try to lead us. But I’d vote for him. I’d vote, but with less enthusiasm, for a Rudy/Romney ticket, in whatever order, and I would vote for a Romney/Thompson ticket.

But McCain or Huckabee? Either one is a deal-breaker, and neither will get my vote. The only difference is that Huckabee will cause me to vote - for his opponent.

Which is only partly offset by this sort of talk, coming from William Kristol writing in The Weekly Standard:

Conservative editorialists, radio hosts, and bloggers are unhappy. They don't like the Republican presidential field, and many of them have been heaping opprobrium on the various GOP candidates with astonishing vigor.

For example: John McCain--with a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 82.3--is allegedly in no way a conservative. And, though the most favorably viewed of all the candidates right now, both among Republicans and the electorate as a whole, he would allegedly destroy the Republican party if nominated.

[…]

So the conservative commentariat should take a deep breath, be a bit less judgmental about these individuals--and realize that there is not likely to be a second Reagan.

[…]

So conservatives might think of John McCain as our potential TR, Mike Huckabee as our potential FDR, and Mitt Romney as our potential JFK. Support the one you prefer. But don't work yourself into a frenzy against the others. Let the best man emerge from a challenging primary process. And if there is no clear-cut winner, then the delegates at the GOP convention can turn on the fifth ballot to an obvious fallback compromise candidate, one who would be just fine with conservatives--Dick Cheney!

I like Bill Kristol, always have. His “take a chill pill” advice is good advice. People like Mr. Quick, who says he would vote for Hillary rather than Huckabee, amaze me. There is at least one Supreme who will either retire or die on the bench during the next administration, and two more who are likely to retire. An administration lasts eight years at the most, the Supreme Court lasts for generations. My “eight year” figure doesn't consider the Second Coming of the Clintons as a continuation of a previous administration, and I probably should, coz the “new” Clinton administration will be a continuation of the old. Aside from the “who will bring me more dead terrorists?” question, the composition of the Supreme Court is the second most pressing issue that will be decided this November. And people like Mr. Quick would prefer Bill and Hillary over John McCain?

You have to be shitting me.

I think Huckabee is out of it, so I won’t talk about him, specifically, and that sort of kills half my argument. But the members of the “I’ll stay home if McCain is the nominee” crowd, and that crowd appears to be substantial in size, would only be cutting off our collective noses to spite their own small-minded faces. And, the Supremes aside, I have another question for the people petulantly stomping their feet about McCain… who would you really want as Commander in Chief? Billary, who presided over one of the largest draw-downs of the nation’s military and intelligence organizations in recent times, or a bona-frickin’-fide war hero?

Oh, wait…I forgot. Billary ain’t a lock, now, are they? Well, given that we know hardly anything about what Obama would actually do… absent detailed plans, policies, and the like… are you comfortable putting the security of the nation in the hands of a guy whose platform is limited to “Change!” and “Trust me?” Hell, that applies to any Democrat, actually… but it looks like Billary and Obama are the only two left standing. Whatever. Both want to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq, increase your taxes, ratify Kyoto (more accurately: its successor protocol), give us mandate a “single-payer” health care system a la the British National Health Service, and change the composition and tenor of the Supreme Court. So, if that’s your idea of what America needs, then go ahead and stay home if McCain is the GOP nominee.

Excuse me if I don’t think that’s real frickin’ smart.

―:☺:―

Today’s (From the Archives) Pic: The only photo I have… or rather, can find at the moment… of The First Mrs. Pennington in her youth. This picture is of TFMP and SN2 in our off-base apartment in Wakkanai, Japan…sometime in early 1969. Quite the sultry wench, isn’t she? (“Sultry wench” is the archaic form of “hawt,” and is in no way derogatory.) There really should be more photos from this time period hanging around somewhere, and I hope there are. About which…

SN2 and I spoke on the phone last evening and he’s going to poke around in the boxes he’s holding for me to see if there are any other photos, slides and the like lurking within. I cannot believe, figuratively speaking, all the stuff that’s missing from my photo archives. Literally speaking, it’s easy to believe… given the state of flux life was in when I collected, boxed up, and sent SN2 all that which I absolutely, positively wanted to retain. It’s entirely possible a lot of stuff got thrown out inadvertently. And that would be a shame.