The 9.0 quake that struck Japan could very easily cost more than $100 billion in damages. Don’t expect that insurance policy to cover it.
Insurance companies might cover as little as $12 billion of losses.
Eqecat, a catastrophe-modeling firm, estimated that the quake may trigger only $12 billion to $25 billion of insured losses.
And the government of the United States wants a health care system totally controlled by the insurance industry?
In Midland, Texas, Liberty Tax Service was offering free tax preparations for anyone who contributed $50 of their return to The American Red Cross relief efforts in Japan.
Liberty Tax Service is a national sponsor of The American Red Cross.
Ask you local Liberty Tax Service if they will do the same where you live.
Russia has fired its ambassador to Libya. No official reason given so far.
A Russian newspaper speculates the ambassador was fired for failing to understand Russia’s interests in Libya.
Russia is against the UNSCR 1973.
A Libyan government official said they will discuss oil contracts with China, India, Russia and Brazil.
This is to gain support against “neo-crusaders”, taking military action against Libya, through the UN resolution.
China has already condemned the military operation against Libya. 20,000+ Chinese were evacuated from Libya at the end of February.
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh said he wanted to see Libyans make their own decisions “free of outside interference.” India evacuated 18,000 workers from Libya.
Will Russia resume weapons sales to Libya? Russia stopped weapons sales, but only on the condition that military action would not be taken against Libya. “In Moscow, we regret this armed action within the hastily passed UNSCR Resolution 1973,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.
Brazil’s newly elected president, Dilma Rousseff, said Brazil expects more of the United States, criticizing American protectionism. Brazil opposes military action against Libya. Brazil has also evacuated citizens from Libya.
Brazil, Russia, China and India are now the world’s strongest economies.
WikiLeaks reveal documents that showed U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, had criticized Mexico’s handling of the Drug War.
Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon, retaliated by pointing out that the various U.S. security forces, in Mexico, repeatedly fail to coordinate with each other and actually view each other as competitors. This makes them useless to Mexican security forces fighting the drug gangs.
President Calderon also said, in a newspaper interview, that U.S. Ambassador Pascual is ignorant and continually distorts the facts. Calderon says weapons being used by Mexican drug gangs are still coming from the United States. He has repeatedly asked the Obama administration to remove Pascual.
Hillary Clinton admitted that Pascual’s resignation is meant to keep attention away from Calderon’s accusations; “…to avert issues raised by President Calderon that could distract from the important business of advancing our bilateral interests”.
When Japan got hit by the massive quake/tsunami, and then the nuclear power plant disaster, world oil prices dropped. By a lot.
Prior to the Japan event, on March 10th, Brent crude oil closed at $115.60 per barrel. U.S. light sweet crude closed at $104.25. Oil prices had been going up, and the “Libyan crisis” was blamed. “…mainly fueled by regime-toppling instability in the Middle East and North Africa.” -CNN/Money
March 11th, the Japan event and immediately oil prices began falling. Brent crude fell to $113.67, U.S. crude $101.16. By March 15th Brent crude had fallen to $108.52, U.S. crude $97.18.
From March 10th to March 15th Brent crude prices dropped by $7.10, U.S. crude dropped by $7.07.
Then, suddenly, the United Nations announced it had passed a resolution authorizing any military action necessary to get rid of Gaddafi (an historic resolution by the way, it’s NOT a no fly zone). This seemed to come out of no where. What happened to oil prices? Immediately oil price shot up: March 16th Brent crude closed at $110.62, U.S. crude $97.98. March 17th: Brent crude $114.90, U.S. crude $101.42. “The Middle East unrest outweighed concerns about radiation from a Japanese nuclear plant…” -Bloomberg
Another evidence of war mongering by speculators is that oil prices fell when Gaddafi announced a ceasefire. March 18th (ceasefire announced) Brent crude closed $113.90, U.S. crude $101.07.
I speculate that British Brent crude prices are more sensitive because the British, along with the French, have a big stake in gaining control of Libya’s eastern oil fields. After all, who got the biggest oil contract in Iraq? BP (British Petroleum).
Technically a no fly zone simply means that no aircraft can fly in a specific area. At the most this should mean that if an aircraft is found flying in such area it will be shot down. But the current United Nations resolution against Libya is NOT a no fly zone.
The resolution allows any force necessary, that would mean air strikes, and even troops, on the ground. That is NOT a no fly zone. This is what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “The resolution authorizes the use of ‘all necessary measures’, including a no-fly zone to prevent further casualties and loss of innocent lives.” In other words a no fly zone is just one part of the military operations that will take place.
Ed Luck, a special adviser on the protection of civilians, said this current resolution is historic : “This is the first time that the council has taken Chapter 7 enforcement measures specifically to ensure the responsibility to protect.” He added that it “…authorizes a much greater use of coercive force if necessary.” In other words the UN (at the urging of France, United Kingdom & United States) has just moved closer to being willing to go to all out war with member nations.
Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, warned that any “humanitarian consequences” following any military action to enforce a no fly zone, will be on those enforcing the no fly zone: “Responsibility for inevitable humanitarian consequences caused by excessive use of outside force in the Libyan situation would be fully born by those who resorted to such actions.”
Russia abstained from voting on the no fly resolution, because there were no plans presented to actually protect peaceful Libyans.
France will host a summit meeting later on Saturday. Rumors are that air strikes by U.K. and French forces could start air strikes within hours of the meeting’s end.
Saturday’s meeting will be between the European Union, Arab League and African Union. UN chief Ban Ki-moon will attend as well.
The governor of Utah made it official, the Browning M1911 .45 caliber pistol is the Gun of Utah.
I like the M1911A1. Back when I was in the California Army National Guard (and later the Idaho Army National Guard) we used the M1911A1, and I always scored expert. Then we switched to the Beretta M9, and I never scored expert again.
Utah has bragging rights because John M. Browning designed the gun, and he was born and raised in Utah. The M1911, with .45 ACP ammo, came in response to a U.S. military search for a gun with the stopping power to bring down drugged up tribal rebels during the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, after the Spanish American War in the late 1800s (yes the United States has been an empire for a while now). When you get knocked down by the .45 you don’t get up.
The U.S. military switched to the Beretta M9 in the 1990s. It uses a higher velocity 9mm ammo, and carries more rounds in its magazine. The M9 has always had problems. I’ve always wondered why I could not score expert with the higher velocity 9mm, but had no problem scoring expert with the lower velocity .45.
Despite my affection for the M1911A1, I have to question why state lawmakers would spend time trying to make an official state so and so. Don’t elected officials have more important things to address?