If an enemy wanted to defeat the most powerful nation on earth they wouldn't attempt a frontal attack. They would work and worry at your weak point.
The U.S. response to Bin Laden, "radical Islam, "The War on Terrorism", whatever you want to call it... appears, when combined with impossible entitlement spending, to be leading the U.S. to the brink of disaster. While we cannot know if Bin Laden understood that the impacts of Peak Oil and a huge military/regulatory/law enforcement/security apparatus buildup would then be "traded", within the American Body Politic, for massive social spending. The result is the massive debt now placed upon the backs of the American taxpayer at the same time that said taxpayer is being slowly (for now) starved of Oil.
Perhaps Bin Laden, et al are not that smart... but its an awfully disconcerting possibility to consider... because even if it was just plain dumb luck, that doesn't change anything... now does it? Worse, those within the American political leadership are all too blind and all to willing to do anything to get reelected.
-----------------------------------------------
I wonder how many of the men that signed the Declaration of Independence could pass today's sexual background check... not a one, I suspect. For every philandering husband there is a philandering woman/wife/female on the other side of the trade... the one thing that should not even be remotely considered in policy is an individual's sexual history... yet it seems to be the only thing that matters for a significant portion of the electorate, an electorate that philander's with great aplomb... This piece is as artful a piece of propaganda as has ever been written: Mom, Home, Apple Pie, Baseball have ALL been violated by John Roberts (and believe me, I am NO FAN of John Roberts the policy maker), it seems... When somebody dies, they are re-cast in the angelic light of the heavens... I have no idea what kind of husband John Roberts was, nor any idea of what kind of wife Elizabeth Roberts was (or how much rutting around was done by whom) - BUT, I am ABSOLUTELY SURE that it is none of my g-- damn business - still, it seems the American electorate is absolutely willing to pass on the next Ben Franklin Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson, or John F. Kennedy (all outrageous philanderers) should he or she show up.
Ms. Carlson speaks of Roberts' love child like it was the Anti-Christ. It never occurred to Ms. Carlson that maybe, just maybe, this child was meant to be for reasons that I am not capable of understanding (and men are not uniquely guilty here... 4 to 5% of American's are sending their father's day cards to the wrong guy... should we wipe these people from the face of the earth?) Life is a funny thing, and it really is a "funny ol' world"... we all want and understand the need for forgiveness... but it seems not a single one of us is willing to give it.
We need a leader that can sort this mess out far more than we need a Saint.
---------------------------------------
Oil prices fell with the inventory report... now they have turned positive on the day... Its all about the price. Time will tell.