Security Threat

Dear Vice President Cheney,

Some very suspicious events have been brought to my attention lately. Perhaps you and other members of the US government are already aware of them. Nearly everyone I have spoken to recently appears to be aware of this situation, and I cannot believe that the US government has not taken any action.

I am talking about a bearded gentleman most often seen wearing unusual clothes named "Santa Claus". Even this name appears to be an alias. His actual name seems to be Saint Nicklaus. "Santa Claus" may be just a mis-pronounciation of his actual name, since he seems to be a foreigner.

The widely-believed story that I have heard on numerous occasions is that Mr. Nicklaus is able to maintain heavy surveilence on US citizens, particularly young children. His organization supposedly keeps highly detailed records of all of the activities or children, and perhaps even adults. I'm not sure how this is possible, but perhaps he is using some sort of modern technology.

Mr. Niklaus is also supposed to be the owner of a children's toy manufacturing company. But this company claims to give all of its toys away. Clearly such a firm would be bankrupt very quickly. My suspicion is that this is part of some sort of elaborate money laundering scheme. Nothing else makes sense.

In addition, his toy factory seems to be staffed entirely with 'little people'. The claim is that these are elves (or is it dwarves?). This seems to be a very strange hiring practice. Why would anyone do this? My guess is that these are also children (children seem to be a recurring theme with Mr. Niklaus). Could Mr. Niklaus be running a large child-labor operation, too? We've seen many of these cases in other countries recently.

Finally, why has Mr. Niklaus chosen to locate his factory at the North Pole. I'll note that this is currently an area with no strong central government. The only possible answer is that Mr. Niklaus is looking to avoid public scrutiny and exist outside of the rule of law.

Pehaps most disturbing is the story that Mr. Niklaus and his associates routnely enter the US without going through proper immigrations or customs procedures. They are even rumored to violate US airspace, it would appear, undetected. Even more outrageous, most people I spoke with believe that this happens nearly every year, on or about December 25.

I know much of this seems fantastic, but I have heard this from multiple reliable sources. I assume that the US government is aware of this situation and is taking appropriate action. If not, I hope this letter will help see to it that some investigation of Mr. Niklaus and his activities is begun as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steven Morphy-Godchaux III,

Austin, TX
12/4/2007

NASA mum on plane data that might scare you

NASA is currently witholding data from a federally funded study on airline safety, because it may frighten us (NASA mum on plane data that might scare you). This could (they presume) be damaging to the airline industry. Things are pehhaps worse than I had thought in the US. Unless I'm missing something here, the US government has declared that the profits of the airline industry are more important than your safety, or even your right to know how safe or unsafe it is to fly in the US today. And the solution to an unsafe environment is not to make improvements, but to hide the data.

Judy Miller's War

I confess to having to Google for Judy Miller's name in the last post (how soon we forget). But what it did turn up was a 2003 story from Counter Punch titled Judy Miller's War. Wow. And this was all known in 2003. Is anything on the up-and-up in America these days?

The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us

New York Times op-ed columnist goes on an extended rant against the war in Iraq and the administrations policies relating to the war ( The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us ). My only complaint is when he blames 'the press' for going along for too long. I recall many members of the NYT cheerleading for this one (Tom 'flat earth' Friedman and jailbird Judy Miller, anyone?).

Blackwater Security and Privatization

The recent events in Iraq involving Blackwater security has brought the issue of the privatization of the US military into discussion. There seems to be widespread belief that anything private is going to be cheaper and better than anything run by governments. Some quick math shows that the first $1 billion no-bid contract for the 800 Blackwater personnel in Iraq comes to $1.25M per man. Oft-cited numbers put the price tag at 5x the cost of military personnel. And let's not forget the fact that the owner of Blackwater is very well connected politically, and even personally worked in the Bush I White House.

Naomi Klein

I have only just run across Naomi Klein. She has been called the heir to Noam Chomsky and one of the leading anti-globalism voices. She also isn't shy about taking on heavyweight economists like Milton Friedman and the the Chicago School. Her new book, "The Shock Doctrine" looks like an interesting view of things. Is the biggest reason the US is still in Iraq the enrichment to large US multinational corporations? There are 500 billion reasons why she might be on to something.

Dallas Oil Company Signs Deal With Kurds

A Texas energy company with strong connections to the Bush administration seems to have landed a big oil deal, in spite of a lack of arrangement with the central Iraqi government. And (I presume) with the approval of the US: Dallas Oil Company Signs Deal With Kurds

On a related note, Alan Greenspan has some shocking revelations in his new book: Greenspan: Oil the Prime Motive for Iraq War .

Liberty Lunch

This blog is a free-wheeling discussion forum out of Austin, TX. It is a more open and permanent record used to replace various ad-hoc email lists over the years. There is no limit to the topics, but they have tended to revolve around local, national and international issues concerning the interactions of people and their governments.