Jewish Movement for Bovine Liberation

We Jews eat unleavened bread - "matza" - on Pessach, as remembrance of our hasty flight from Egyptian slavery, when there was no time to let the mass to ferment and bake real bread. Pious Jews clean their homes of all gramineous seeds that could ferment and spoil their sacred intention. But fanatism has a way to become evermore extreme and now the extreme religious people in Israel have invented the kosher cow milk appropriate for Pessach. It is obtained by feeding cows only non-fermentable feedstuff, like soya beans, five weeks before the festivity. The cows are made to observe Jewish religious rules so their milk becomes Kosher for Pessach.

What do I think of this innovative practice? Personally indifferent, in a general way I consider religion a force for good. Therefore, I am for feeding Jewish cows only kosher feed. How do I harmonize my aquiescence to magical practices with my religious indifference? In my opinion magic, superstition and strange thoughts are inborn in humans, there is no way to extirpate them and they will always find a way to influence our thoughts and behaviour. If so, feeding cows kosher feed within a framework of a well tried religion makes less or no damage than opressing our inner magic spirits. These urges, when unchanneled, cause savage, barbaric, damaging expressions. When oldtime religion loses is hold on humanity, people does not become illuminated, but savage, and new strange practices and superstitions take over. For example, eating "free eggs", produced by "natural" chicken walking in the grass, or completely avoiding meat, because it is a dead animal's flesh, or other idiotic practices designed to save Earth. Better is to give regulated expression to our magic mind by eating super-kosher food, such as milk chocolate from Jewish cows fed a glatt kosher diet.

Pic: Congress on Kashrut

KOORF.PFK on OTC: 27%

Last Trade: 15.25
Trade Time: 10:41am ET
Change: 3.25 (27.08%)
From the Wiki:

Investors should avoid the OTC market unless they can afford a complete loss of their investment.

Kevin MacDonald, Zionist?

In The Occidental Observer, Prof. MacDonald analyses the reactions to his latest autobiographical piece in VDare. He is so satisfied with the response that injects less that his usual dosis of anti-Jewish venom in his new piece. Moreover, he focuses on one commenter, Steve Auster, who called MacDonald "idiotic" (which he is not) and Israel a "post-Zionist state dominated by soft-hearted liberals" (even less). Auster's words provide MacDonald with an opportunity to reveal his true sentiments: MacDonald admires Israel.

Whatever else one might say, Israel has definitely not entered into a post-Zionist era. Rather than condemning me for telling the truth, Auster should be happy that things are going his way in Israel. I wish that a similar powerful ethno-nationalist European movement was on the horizon in the US and other countries of the European diaspora.

I hope MacDonald's wish becomes true, if only to get him off our back and apply his talents to something constructive.

Dead Sea

We had a three day vacation on the Dead Sea resort of Sodoma. The first day slept some 30 hs. nonstop, I must have been tired. Then we soaked in hot mineral water pools, walked around, ate large meals of salted fish and expensive cheese. All the time my clients urged me to return and finish their projects. The pic was taken by me, the mountains of Edom are shown in their natural colors.

Pleasant Object

Unpleasant Object

“Whether North Korea launches a satellite or test-fires a missile, it is extremely unpleasant for such an object to fly over Japanese territory,” Minister of Defense Hamada said. “Whatever the intention is, we’d like them to stop.”

President Clinton had promised to drop an atom bomb on North Korea, should it detonate a nuclear weapon. Maybe it is not late yet. It would be very bad for the world that the Japanese feel alarmed and unprotected. Pic.: Gundam.

My Analysis of the Crisis

Simple. I dont believe that subprime mortgages had anything to do with the current crisis. It was a 300 million dollar potential loss, presumed loss, which had yet to happen. The Krach started as most things do, like the Industrial Revolution and The Beatles revolution, in the Roman City of Eboracum (*) in Britannia Inferior. In September 2008 there was a run on the UK Northern Rock Mortgage Bank. People feared that their savings were in danger and wanted to hide them in their cookie jars till they calmed down. Then they would have returned the money to the Bank. What else can they do with it?

The fact that a major UK bank needed the Bank Of England to promise support as it ran short of funds freaked depositors out, who swooped in over the weekend and lined up to make withdrawals. No one had envisaged a run on a high street bank.

To increase the loss of confidence in the Bank, Northern Rock ran a banner advertisement across The Daily Telegraph's front page promising 6.30% interest on cash deposits, more than 250 basis points above the average rate-of-return offered on time deposits by UK banks in August. The result: Now people KNEW that the Bank was in trouble, and the smell of fear was perceived even by investors of the other side of the Atlantic. They were soon infected by mass hysteria and an excited chorea sancti viti was registered in the walls and the streets.

That was the moment I should have sold all my portfolio and buy god metal. The panic, as panics are, was contagious and soon the mechanisms of mass hysteria started to do their work, prices fell, people lost faith in the solvency and honesty of the banks and the government, and everything stopped in sheer blood freezing fear.

It took a charismatic new President and bold impressive moves to start stabilizing the situation and slowly warm up the people to start working and investing. Now the next phase is coming, a mad return to excessive hope and prices. After an anxiety attack comes the manic phase. I am fully invested in expectation of the coming mass euphoria. Already I am 50% above the lowest point of my portfolio.

(*) Dont be lazy, look it up.

Betting on the Gnomes of Zurich

The Economist writes that Israel (with Denmark) is a Land of Golden Opportunity thanks of its ordered economy and its people's ability to operate in high risk situations. From my vantage point from the deep inside I dont see what The Economist sees, but let us take their word and believe it.

I am investing in Koor of one Nochi Dankner, a financial risk-taker (aka adventurer) as any. Credit Suisse added 14% yesterday on Nasdaq, and in Zurich it added 67% in the last two weeks. Koor owns 3.4% of Credit Suisse and the average price paid is 35 Swiss Frank per share. Today it price is 37.2 and the Swiss Frank has appreciated 13% relative to the shekel. Koor is already making some 150 million dollar profit. The Gnomes of Zurich (pic) are good at extracting gold from Earth's depth. The Secret Engineer's improbable dream was to "grow up" to become a Gnome of Zurich, but it did not happen, so it is hoping to share their profits vicariously.

Showing No Mercy

SLATE quotes the Book of Numbers, Chapter 31, Verses 13-18. The Israelites have just done a fairly pitiless job on the Midianites, slaughtering all of the adult males. But, says their stern commander-in-chief, they have still failed him:

Moses, Eleazer the priest, and all the chieftains of the community came out to meet them outside the camp. Moses became angry with the commanders of the army, the officers of thousands and the officers of hundreds, who had come back from the military campaign. Moses said to them, "You have spared every female! Yet they are the very ones who, at the bidding of Balaam, induced the Israelites to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, so that the Lord's community was struck by the plague. Now, therefore, slay every male among the children, and slay also every young woman who has known a man carnally; but spare every young woman who has not had carnal relations with a man."

Moses and Eleazar the priest go on to issue some complex instructions about the ritual cleansings that must be practiced after this exhausting massacre has been completed.

SLATE condemns the Bible and all the people who lives by it, calling them ... "religious".

I think that being forced to fight, for one hundred years, fanatical Muslims has made us in Israel quite "religious". Golda Meir said it forty years ago: I hate Arabs because they made killers of our sons.

Prof. Aumann: Thousand for One is Bad Strategy

Prof. Aumann, our Nobel Prize Winner for his work in Game Theory, says that the Israeli negotiating strategy with the Hamas Government in Gaza is wrong. We are offering one thousand Palestinian terrorists for one Israeli soldier they captured, but Hamas is saying that it is not enough and they are going to kidnap more soldiers. The capture of each of these terrorists was a complicated, dangerous and expensive operation, and once liberated, they are a great danger to Israel. Which is the best negotiating tactic to get our soldier AND discourage future kidnappings? The best strategy, I assume, is to give the poor soldier for dead and say we do not negotiate with criminals. Aumann does not say so much, but his thinking may be in that direction. Life is hard.

America Boldly Goes Ahead

I cannot but admire what Obama's economy team is doing. They received a world in total panic, in total uncertainty, no one was buying anything nor investing in production. Deflationary black hole was sucking in the planet. Japan, faced with similar situation a decade before, was seized by fear and did nothing. Life in Japan stopped since. America choose a young and unconventional President, who put in charge of the economy a young team led by Geithner. They are doing very bold things, trying new strategies, and we are talking about betting hundred of billion dollars on untried ideas. While European governments are unable to take any iniciative at all, and China's leaders are putting their money in US Treasury Bonds (the most conservative and unimaginative thing they could do), America's leaders are fearlessly trying out creative ideas in a truly unprecedented scale. The academy and the pundits are horrorized, they say the wunderkindern are fueling an inflationary conflagration, an unavoidable Weimar style collapse and all that. I am a bit frightened too, but admire American boldness and creativity. America is unique in many ways (I have truly cosmopolitan roots and move with familiarity in several languages and cultures, yet find that the world is a frozen dessert and things are happening only in America), and only America has the courage to put these boys in power with the mission of boldly going ahead where no one has gone before.

Total Confusion in NASDAQ

- - - - - CS 4:01pm ET 30.70 3.31 9.73% 3,440,995 2008-04-29 29.56
- - - - - GOE 3:24pm ET 58.00 6.00 9.37% 3,976 - -

CS Credit Suisse is always moving against GOE which is basically Gold derivatives. In this moments they are moving in the same direction and each losing about 10%. People is totally confused, they dont know what to do, where to run, behind which tree to hide.

Regulatory Issues in Baja California

Small scale extorsion by the Mexican police is an accepted practice. When I drive, I always have a hundred peso bill folded in my driving licence, so when I give it to the policeman, he has the option to return the licence while discretely pocketing the bribe. Astonishingly, Tijauna's street vendors have organized and are fighting the police extorsion they are exposed to. La Voz de la Frontera reports:

Se dijeron hartos de que cada que acuden a laborar, policias municipales les pidan cuotas a cambio de dejarlos trabajar. “No creo que los policías reciban órdenes de extorsionar, pero lo hacen”, aseveró Álvaro Castillo, presidente de la Unión de Comerciantes Solidarios de Tijuana. Sobrepasando sus funciones se han convertido en fiscales de la procedencia de sus mercancías y cuando éstos no acceden a “pagarles”, se las quitan. Lo mismo sucede con las mercancías procedentes de distintos orígenes, las cuales son retenidas alegando que no están importadas.

The policemen have spontaneously widened their area of operations and have started to control the origin of the merchandise, demanding to verify import dues paid.

What was I saying?

Once a minute did I say? Or was it twice a minute?

Amit Friedmann

I read somewhere that adolescent boys think about sex about twice a minute. What about old old men (the professional definition)? Not much less, if that is possible. Is that a typical Jewish feature? (Remind me to ask Prof. Kevin Macdonald).

Pumped storage electricity project

The license for a private electricity producer to build a pumped storage power plant - for a 220-megawatt power plant to be built in Haifa - was signed today. The "yozem" (promoter, in Hebrew) is Nochi Dankner. The power plant will cost an estimated $250 million to build. Building and other permits still have to be completed (one year, my estimate). This is the second project in Israel. Above a scenic pic of Ludington, Michigan, pumping storage project, an engineering marvel from the seventies, when there were no environmental certification problems and the fishing was good and considered ethical. Below, how it works.

Nueva California

Nothing stays as it is and California provides a glimpse into the future of America. In 2007, twice as many children were born to Latinas (IQ 82 - 89) than to White women (IQ 98 - 100). Fertility of Latinas is falling very fast (in Mexico it is near replacement level and falling) so the current proportions may stabilize and become the ethnic composition of California's population for several generations. Or it could change suddenly, as it did in the Sudeten or Silesia, should California and Mexico fight over the Colorado river.

KOOR doing well, thanks for asking.

Morgan Stanley has doubled its credit line to Koor Industries Ltd. (TASE:KOR). The new credit ceiling of 330 million Swiss Francs can be used for increasing Koor's investment in Credit Suisse, or repaying a loan to Goldman Sachs. The new credit is non-recourse and replaces the previous ceiling of 165 million Swiss Francs, of which Koor has only utilized 43 million Swiss Francs.

Koor has rised 20% this week in Tel Aviv. Thanks Nachi Dankner.

Prof. Macdonald's Hypothesis

Prof. Kevin Macdonald in The Occidental website is turning his attention to serious matters. He is saying now that President Obama has no qualifications for the Presidency, he is an Affirmative Action President, a front (or a puppet) of the Jewish right wing (Likud) cabal in the persons of Axelrod and Emanuel. This hypothesis will resonate with the right-wing pro-apartheid wing of the Republican Party. This is a political issue, more flammable than the one presenting Bush as puppet of neo-conservative (codeword for Jewish) cabal. MacDonald has a natural talent for writing and his argument is very astutely presented. He starts with an horrific massacre commited by a black criminal and gradually developes his story till one finds himself debating America's Black President:

But in the case of blacks, the association of blacks with low intelligence continues to be part of whites' implicit associations with blacks. And this association is solidly grounded in reality: Dozens of research studies show that whether in Africa or America or Brazil, on average blacks are indeed substantially less intelligent than whites. Moreover, there is good evidence that intelligence and racial differences in intelligence are strongly genetically influenced.

What this means is that the image of a stumbling Obama as an automaton who can only speak coherently when he is reading others' words very easily feeds into the negative images that most whites already have of blacks: Blacks are less intelligent, and blacks in America are achieving far more than is justified by their ability — Barack Obama as the affirmative action president.

And it means that the long-term effects of the Obama presidency on how whites think of blacks may depend not only on how successful Obama is. It will also depend on whether whites believe that Obama is anything more than an image created by the mainstream media desperately in search of a black man who could act the part of president.

In recent years, it became fashionable to talk about how Karl Rove was George W. Bush's brain. Suggestions that David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel are Obama's brain have a whole different connotation. And a very significant effect on how whites view blacks.

My opinion: Macdonald is becoming ever more poisonous. You have a new President who did nothing wrong yet, but Macdonald attacks him in a very ugly way, coming to him from behind, from the obtuse angle of a policemen-killing mass criminal. What has Obama, a Harvard graduate and an exemplary family man, in common with Macdonald's mega-criminal? Nothing. The Macdonald suggests that Obama is half-moron because (1) it is well known that Africans have lower IQs, and (2) once Obama became rather confused for a few seconds in the middle of a speech, one of the hundreds he makes every month. How can a trained psychologyst conclude anything from that onetime accident? He already has concluded that Obama is nothing, just a PR image created by ... guess who! the only two Jews in Obama's crowd of hundred collaborators and assistants. Macdonald derives farfetched, exaggerated, imaginary conclusions from no facts at all. He is a viperine antisemite. That is my opinion about him. Regarding Obama, he did nothing to me and seems a nice person. May be he will be a good president. The world needs a good American President.

Advanced Mathematics

Sent by an American friend:

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $ 2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters , but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this? Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:

1. Teaching Math In 1950s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit ?

2. Teaching Math In 1960s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Math In 1970s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Math In 1980s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20..

5. Teaching Math In 1990s
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it's ok.)

6. Teaching Math In 2009
Un hachero vende una carretada de madera por $100. El costo de la produccion es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?

Pic: Witten's dog, the simple perturbative diagram in superdupersymmetric string theory, is actually dual to Schrödinger's cat. No kidding!

Les Diablerets

Taki is vacationing here. Hopefully, the mountains will exert their psycho-therapeutic effect on him.

Demographic Victory

Israel is winning a silent but an unique victory in the demographic front. Arafat (who was homosexual) used to say that his most potent weapon is the Palestinian women's uterus. But the 2008 demographic statistics show that Israeli is winning this battle too, and uniquely among the world's peoples, is increasing its birthrate. We are not dying out, not at all (How could we, see pic of Amit Friedmann). Yoram Ettinger from Ariel writes:

Israel's Jewish population is getting younger and the Arab population getting older. The number of annual Jewish births increased by 45% between 1995 (80,400) and 2008 (117,000), as a result of aliya from the USSR, the shift by the Soviet olim from a typical Russian rate of one birth per woman to a typical Israeli rate of two-three births, the rising secular Jewish rate and the sustained high Orthodox and haredi rate. The number of annual Arab births has stabilized - since 1995 - at around 39,000, reflecting a most successful integration by Arabs into the country's infrastructures of education, health, human services, commerce, finance, culture, sports and politics. The fertility gap is down from six births per woman in 1969 to 0.7 in 2009, and the proportion of Jewish births has grown from 69% (of total births) in 1995 and 74% in 2007 to 75% in 2008. The downward trend typifies, also, the Arabs in Judea and Samaria due to large scale emigration, entrenched family planning, reduction of teen pregnancy, rapid urbanization, expanded education especially among women, record divorce rate and higher median marriage age.

One interesting fact is the Westernization of Arab fertility rate throughout the Arab and Muslim world. For instance, the 2008 map of the UN Population Division documents an average fertility rate of two-four births, compared with over four births 30 years ago.

Chinese Workers party

While Bolivia and Venezuela advance toward Socialism, the Chinese - who have been there and didnt like it - mock Maoist era propaganda posters. Here:

Show the world China's power! Chinese Workers go into the battle stripped to the waist (i.e. bravely) and overcome difficulties.

Visit Palestine (aka Israel)

Poster from the thirties.

Systemic failure and its solution

A clear exposition of what is going on by Patrick Buchanan: and for once, it was NOT done by the Jews. US Government is fighting to prevent another panic run, the idea being that the current crisis is caused by panic alone, and that once the situation gets stabilized, the real problems will be easily solved. I think it is right thinking, as the whole subprime mortgages adds up to no more than 300 million dollars, peanuts for the 13 Trillion US economy. It is really amazing that such a relatively minuscule issue - such as the lower classes being unable to pay back their mortgages - would create world financial crises, and the reason that this is so is simply panic. Bernanke's problem is how to pacify mass anxiety. By starting to invest in the stock exchange, I am betting that Bernanke will succeed. The illustration is also from Takimag, which appears to be improving.

The Gypsy Problem

A Hungarian paper writes that Europe's most important contemporary social issue is the Gypsy problem.

Their Jewish problem has been solved already.

Learning from Mogambo

Three days ago I registered my amazement and confusion about China's Premier Wen Jibao's strange warning to the USA. Now I read a satire about the same warning by Mogambo in Asian Times, and his interpretation is definitely superior to mine. This is a learning diary and I am learning. Mogambo (pic?) writes:

You will be happy to know that we have nothing to fear from the Chinese, as they are as stupid as the rest of us, as I learned from a Bloomberg.com report that China's Premier Wen Jiabao says that China is "the US government's largest creditor" in terms of Treasury bonds, and he is "worried" that something might happen to the buying power of all of that American money, and he "wants assurances that the investment is "safe" and that he "requests" that the US "maintain its good credit, to honor its promises and to guarantee the safety of China's assets". Which makes me laugh that anyone would even bother saying such a thing! Hahaha! Moron!

I say to Wen Jaibao, tears of laughter running down my face: "Hey, Chinese dude! Don't worry about your stinking dollars losing value! Hahaha! We'll take real good care of your money, you moron!"

I don't expect the Chinese to hear me and suddenly say, "Thanks, Mogambo!" or "That Mogambo fellow is one sharp economic cookie, and maybe we ought to be following his Strong Mogambo Suggestion (SMS) to buy gold, silver and oil against the terrifying inflationary conflagration that will inevitably result from such insane monetary and fiscal irresponsibility by the Federal Reserve and the Congress..."

Prof. MacDonald Writes his Memories

Prof. Kevin MacDonald has dedicated his professional life to the study of Jews, so now that he started to write his memories (in VDare), it should be of interest to his subjects (me). His immersion in Jewish life started in the university, where he shared a room with two politically active Jewish students. Soon, he was telling someone from his hometown that he had become "alienated" from American culture. His memories vibrate with me as being authentic. His observation about the hippy scene, of being less Jewish and more focused on drugs and sex sound true, it is an insight I instantly recognized and said "yes, it was so". Another of his insights is that learning (in his case, Marxist theory) was a way to get girls. The hottest Jewish girls I met were in the revolutionary left. It is thanks to immersion in Jewish counterculture that his writings lack the usual absurdities of antisemite literature, his Jews are credible and without horns, they take no part in international conspiracies and other laughable imaginations. On the other hand, he builds a chain of events that lead from the protest politics of half a dozen Jewish undergraduates in Madison college (directed to impress the girls) to world-changing mass movements like the election of President Obama. This is absurd: Macdonald himself provides the follow up of two Jewish activist he knew personally: one became a six term mayor of Madison (definitely no revolutionary) and the other a university professor in humanities, very much as Macdonald himself. We used to say that the man who at 18 is not a revolutionary has no heart, and who at 40 is still a revolutionary, has no brain. The political activism is a phase, and Macdonald's chevre grew out of it. I am no historian, but it seems to me that the world changing impact he attributes to his Jewish friends is out of all proportion. He is an intelligent person, how can he say that these young big-talkers changed America's culture? Like to say that Yevtushenko reading in public his poem Babi Yar leading in a direct chain of reactions to the fall of the Soviet Union. Is there a "purple thread" connecting the two events? Prof. MacDonald ruminations seem to me too farfetched and unreal. His roommates did not cause any revolution in the USA, and probably they had the same (lack of) success with the hotties (illustration: Amit Friedmann). I can say with knowledge of the matter, they were all pajeros (*). Maybe the young MacDonald, probably a virgin WASP from Wisconsin, imagined it differently?
-----------
(*) In my school we called pajeros those overheated Jewish intellectualoids who could not find a girl. Jerk. Wanker.

Win 25 Million Dollars

A 25 million US dollar prize is still available to anyone delivering dead or alive the man in the pic. He was last heard on an audio tape calling on his followers to infiltrate the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and behead its rulers.

Buying Up the World on the Cheap

Now that Goldman Sachs alumni are managing US economy, what is the mother company doing? GS is asking investors in its $15bn private equity fund for approval to shift much of its remaining uninvested money into distressed debt. Distressed debt, for example well-structured AAA’s backed by subprime mortgages, corporate junk bonds, and so forth, are trading 0.2 $ for the dollar. Unlevered returns in the 20% to 30% range are available. Audacity pays.

Death of the Carrozal-Chone Irrigation Project

Self-destructive madness rules in the High Andes. The Carrizal Chones irrigation and hydro-electricity project in Ecuador has been abandoned and weed grows on the earthworks already completed. In November 2008 the new Government of Ecuador decided to sue the Brazilian Infrastructure Contractor Odebrecht for some made up reasons and like Oxy and the oil companies then working in Ecuador, Odebrecht had to leave the country. I heard that only thanks to Brazilian Government's intervention (there were rumors of war) Odebrecht's engineers were allowed to leave Ecuador. The Government tried to get the Japanese to take up the project, but they refused. So the Government is having to do with local engineers and in March 10th., assigned 22 million dollars to save the project. But after a rainy winter, without the Brazilian management, with the workers disbanded, the machinery all but ruined, the project's roads and bridges falling down, it will be difficult to re-organize the project. Most probably the money will mismanaged and/or stolen.

Rafael Correa, Ecuador's President, the man who caused this disaster, announced that the project is advancing according to schedule.

KOOR, a Buy?

A new investment strategy is claiming to be conceived. I have urgent memos to write but I spend time reading blogs (Seth Franzman tells about a situation where an Ethiopian Jewish border guard asks an Arab for its documents at a Jerusalem checkpoint, while he overhears a conversation between two American Council of Churches ladies about Israeli apartheid. Seth notes the joke of the African Jew, persecuted for generations in Ethiopia, turned into a "White colonialist", so that the Arab slave owner can be classified as "Black").

Nochi Dankner (pic) owns KOOR and I am weighting if I should continue my accumulation policy. Till now I am losing ... ay, I dont even want to think about how much! Much too much! Anyway, KOOR seems to be recovering, it earned 238 million shekels in 2008 from its 4.7 billion shekel Credit Suisse holdings. Koor owns 3.4% of Credit Suisse, while other significant shareholders are the royal house of Qatar, and some Saudi group. The CS stock is around 30 Swiss Franks and rising.In addition, Koor has bought about 100 million dollar shares in Maktheshim Agan, which is also rising. I think I shall continue accumulating KOOR.

UPDATE: CS rised 10% today on the Nasdaq. Why, why, why take my decisions one hour late?

Julius Caesar, Prisioner of the Jewish Lobby

Gaius Julius Caesar would have been slandered to suicide if he lived today. First, he received large loans from local Roman Jewish bankers, and much assistance from the Judean high priests Hyrcanus. Caesar was always in pressing need of money to finance the political machine he maintained in Rome while he was campaigning in Germany. His decrees are amazingly pro-Jewish, to a point that would be unimaginable today:

"The Jews shall possess Jerusalem and may encompass that city with walls; Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, rule it in the manner he himself pleases; and the Jews be allowed to deduct out of their tribute a corus."

The next decree, dated before Dec., 47 B.C., establishes that

"the Jews of the Empire pay a tribute to the city of Jerusalem except during the Sabbatical year. This decree provides for an annual tribute to Hyrcanus and his sons. It ordains that the original ordinances in regard to the high priests of the Jews shall remain in force, and that Hyrcanus and the Jews retain those places and countries which belonged to the kings of Syria and Phoenicia."

It is known that Caesar was a friend of the Jews, but the details are amazing. Caesar, the ruler of the World largest Empire, did care a lot about the Jews, and granted not only the City of Jerusalem to the Jews but also the countries of Syria and Phoenicia (Lebanon). Jewish subjects paid less taxes than others and part of it was paid to the Jerusalem government. It is obvious to me that Greg Cochran is wrong when he says that the Jews of the Antiquity were not above-average intelligent. To achieve such unique privileges, that not even the smart Greeks could dream of, our ancestors had to be real special. More than we are now.

Worldwide water sector devalued

In spite of endless nonsense about Earth drying up and the terrible need for water, the worldwide water sector had a very bad year 2008. Veolia lost 75% of its market worth, Dow (an excellent company very much involved with membranes and desalination) - 75%, General Electric - 71%, Siemens a worldwide leader in wastewater machinery - 61%, American Water Works (something related to infrastructure operation) only 11% from its April IPO, SABESP - 61%, United Utilities - 57%, Calgon Carbon - 40%. Now, General Electric has announced that is expecting serious difficulties. GE is a well managed model company that a few years ago took the strategic decision to enter and become a serious factor in the water sector. GE has followed a consistent policy of expansion into the "future" water sector, yet it is failing. I continue thinking that the water sector is a fata morgana, it is not expanding faster than the economy and never will. The publicited water crisis is a media event, an eternal United Nations alibi for congressing in expensive hotels in exotic touristic scenes, not any real investment opportunity. People who "bought" the concept of water as the golden investment opportunity - lost its money.

President Obama's stimulus investment in infrastructure will not cause immediate prosperity in the water industry. The permitting and contracting process will consume at least a year till the first pipe is laid, and then its progress will be slow and gradual. Water supply is mostly saturated (in many cities, 200 years old wooden and ceramic water pipes are still in use. Pic: Wingecarribee Shire - Australia - Council road crew unearth wooden water pipes in 2006), there is no unsatisfied demand waiting to be satisfied, and its design - permitting - contracting - executing schedule is slow and cannot be accelerated. It is a low tech industry that allows no sudden breakthroughs and no sudden stock appreciation. There must be easier ways to make money than laying water and sewage pipes, and better areas to speculate.

Spengler Thinks Europe is Finished

Spengler, who writes in Asian Times, thinks Europe is finished and that the process was evident already in 1620, when the tiny band of English separatists departed Delft on the Mayflower. "Whether the Puritans were right to conclude that Europe already had been lost for Christianity is a matter for historians to debate," he writes. Today, the only major nation in which Christianity remains at the center of public life is America.

America really is different, from, say, Poland. Poland had a revival of Christianism under the Communist regime. "The trouble is that Poland's story is coming to an end. The country's population will fall by almost 30% by mid-century, and the median age will rise from 36 years to 56 years. But America's story will not end, at least not in the same way."

Interesting. Spengler thinks that religion is what makes peoples live or die. But there you have Japan, China and other Asians that thrive without religion. Anyway, we Jews are a people that is returning en-masse to religion.

Fighting Taki-Smear

the only reason Israel’s economy exists is because of American aid (Taki)

American generosity towards Israel is important and it is welcome with thanks. But Israelis are working very hard to make a living. Does Taki know that Israelis are Number Two in hours worked by person? There is only one people who work more hours than us, the South Koreans. Israel has a strong export economy. Taki is wrong, malignantly wrong. In fact, Taki is right but mixed up Palestinians and Israelis. The 5 million Palestinian nation produces nothing and are living mostly from US food aid (pic) and UNRWA United NAtions Refugee Assistance - since 1948 (sixty one years of living off foreign generosity). Each Palestinian born receives an UNRWA Refugee Card - even if he/she is sixth generation removed from the original refugee. The Card entitles him to be feed all his life, to receive education and housing, and so on. Enormous "camps" house the descendants of the 1948 refugees, all maintained by the UNRWA, that is, the American taxpayer. Since no one is protesting, America is slated to keep maintaining these parasitic exploding refugee populations forever.

I travel much in Samaria and each Palestinian village I see many large USAID signs: here a school, there a village water supply system, all paid by the American taxpayer. All the wastewater treatment plants of Samaria and Judea were built by the German and Nordic Foreign Aid. Unfortunately, none is being maintained and operated. Rich Saudis also build much in the Palestinian Areas: hundreds of magnificent mosques with tall minarets, and madrassas, religious high schools.

Breaking Up Old-New Land

Virgin land in the Shomron (Samaria) is being prepared for cultivation this spring. I hope to live and drink vin nouveau produced in this land. It will be irrigated with recycled water. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to put my grain of sand in this enterprise.

Stuffing the Matress

Much turbulence ahead. Morgan Stanley said that U.S. stocks are still expensive even after the S&P 500 dropped 52 percent in 17 months, according to a method used by Benjamin Graham. The index - they say - will tumble to 560 and then surge 47 percent to finish 2009 at 825.

Class in Infrastructure Planning

In last week's class I gave a home work to design the main water supply pipe of an Israeli city. The Students were divided in teams of four and received matched pairs of cities to work on. Following my system, this Friday I asked one of the teams to present their work in front of the class.

Water infrastructure planning is based on population projections. This team has received the matched pair of Mash'had, an Arab village in the Galilee, and Herzliya, a Jewish city on the Mediterranean. They have researched the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics publication and have built the logistic curve for each city. Herzliya has a 100 years of data and it fitted beautifully to the theoretical curve. The Jewish town in 2009 is near the saturation level of about 86,000 inhabitants, and is projected to add very few new inhabitants. Basically it did not need new water supply infrastructure, only marginal additions if any. Mash'had on the other hand, had zero inhabitants before the fifties, it appeared a totally new foundation. Its population growth also fits beautifully the theoretical framework, and is about 6,000 today and projected to grow along an arithmetic (lineal) line. The team calculated the water supply requirements for 2029 and the diameter of the proposed new main pipeline. Very neat, I gave the team 100. The class of this year is large and ethnically heterogeous. I have about 30% Jewish religious students from the Samarian settlements, about 50% miscellaneous Israelis, many adult people already working in civil engineering who need the title of professional engineer, and about 15 - 20% Israeli Arabs, mostly from the Triangle and the Galilee. Demography is a sensitive subject even for civil engineering students. I asked the class to explain why the two populations had different rates of growth: Herzlia 0% and Mash'had about 2%. If both followed the logistic curve, why was it like this? The answer is obvious: they are on different places on the curve, and while Herzliya is reaching saturation, Mash'had is in the maturing phase. Asked when, according to the theory, Mash'had will reach saturation and zero growth? That was the opening of a class debate. One Jewish girl said that Mash'had will never reach saturation. Only when imposed China-like one-child policy, the population stabilizes. I pointed out that other Arab populations have already reached zero growth, like Lebanon, without any dictatorial regimes. I also doubt the efficiency of China's policy, as other Chinese populations like Taiwan, Singapur, Hong Kong, have reached zero growth without any enforcement. She remained unconvinced. Other students said that the origin of the different growths is "culture", Arabs and Jews have different cultures. Arabs have many children, Jews, few. One Arab students said that nowadays that is not true. A religious student said that Jewish populations dont grow because they prefer to have a dog instead of a baby. Although I have explained that the logistic curve was discovered in experiments on rats, and it is appliable to all biological populations, the students - Jews and Arabs - were totally confused by their prejudices. Interestingly, my students solved the water supply infrastructure problem very professionally, but failed "to understand" it. In the middle of the debate, half of the Arab students led by a bearded student with green head cover asked permission to go out and pray. I asked if it was related to the issue in class, but they said no, it is their religion.

Malmo Triangle

Harsh Warning

"Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried," Wen said at a news conference Friday after the closing of China's annual legislative session. "I would like to call on the United States to honor its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets."

No Oriental inscrutability here. Very serious warning.

Follow Up: Only two days ago Premier Wen declared that there were very strong trends toward deflation. Keeping this diary I can see it half a page below. Sending contradictory messages is not the Chinese way. I am confused.

Ecuador Bonds in Default

Ecuador is not paying the interest of its debt, and its 2012 bonds are sold a 29% and the 2030 bonds at 28.5%. Ecuador disapppoints me.

Taki The Fearless

I am used to wait two or more weeks to Taki to write a new entertaining editorial in his Takimag, but today he is so angry and indignant with the ousting of Freeman that he breaks his schedule and fearlessly smears two presidents, one vicepresident, several journalists and other Taki-monsters. In his oeuvre "Fear of Smear" he even provides us free examples of fearless smear.

Bolton is a (mustachioed) buffoon and a protégé of that other great warrior Dick Cheney, probably the greatest physical coward ever to slime the seat of the vice president.

Ah, NOW it is clear. So THAT is smear. Thanks, Taki, for making it so clear.

This time Taki is in no mood to regale us with old stories of his seductions of the daughter (or was it the wife?) of the Belgian Ambassador, not his andanzas of courageous physical night-club warrior with his well-hung side-kick, the son-in-law of the Dominican Dictator. Maybe by now he has used up all his material? He can always mine The Memories of Giacomo Casanova, the Venetian master of all vices, an early explorer of exotic bedrooms.

Having new stories to role-play and phantasize about, Taki may come to his senses and stop insulting Vicepresident Richard Cheney and Presidents Bush, Father and Son. And Mr Bolton, whoever he may be. And his other nightmares, the Samurais Kristol, Podhoretz, Perle, Frum and Krauthammer. Insulting and smearing. Smearing, but Taki being Taki, always fearlessly.

More Work for Israeli Water Engineers

The Jewish National Fund (JNF), קק"ל In Hebrew, under president Ron Lauder, plans to invest $100 million in water projects in Israel over the coming years. The goal is to produce 200 million cubic meters of drinking quality water a year, enough for one million people, as well as irrigation for 250,000 acres and the development of open spaces. In the past decade, the JNF has spent $75 million on water projects.

It is not much money, but these are hard times.

The Blessing of the Sun

According to Bereshith (In the Beginning) the sun started to shine on the fourth day of the Creation. According to the Jewish calendar, the sun finds itself exactly in the same position as in the beginning once every 28 years. This is an occasion to recite the Birkat haHamah - the Blessing of the Sun. Next Wednesday morning Jews all over the world will stop, look above and carry out the ritual. Some modern rabbis give a New Age green interpretation, saying that it connects us with the origins of the universe and so on.

Industry in the Shomron

Above, a pic of the remnant of a Jewish wine press, and below, pics of an olive oil press, stones that witness ancient Samaria's dynamic agricultural export-oriented industry. Two thousand years ago, when it was the heart of the Jewish homeland, it was one of the most productive and wealthy places in the world. Driving in the Shomron, one is forced to look at the Palestinian shanty towns and tears come to one's eyes, it is so miserable and unbehooving to this our land. Seeing the desolation of our historical homeland, I feel what Hungarians feel about Cigany huts around their cutely decorated villages, what old time Californians feel when they look around in the Valley, what the people who built the formerly great city Detroit must feel when visiting (if they dare) the downtown.

Seven Spirits Sect (七灵派)

In China, political movements masquerade a spiritual sects. The Lightning of the East movement, of which the Seven Spirits Sect loosely forms part, is a new phenomenon. Interestingly, it is a Messianic movement, squarely within the Jewish-Christian tradition. If China becomes finally a Christian nation, this will be a very different world.

Sinking with ZIM

ZIM is an Israeli shipping company I am invested in and WE are sinking. Zim's financial commitments totaled $2.2 billion at the end of September 2008, while its shareholders' equity amounted to $736 million out of a balance sheet total of $3.6 billion. Zim took out a large part of its debt in order to purchase 22 ships and other equipment at a cost of $3.1 billion, with the goal of putting the company among the world's top ten shipping companies. However, the global recession has turned the grandiose plan into a millstone around its (our) neck. A lesson for this Learning Engineer.

Stupidity Rules in Bolivia

After 500 years of Spanish and Criollo (American born Spaniards) rule, Bolivia is the first country to have been retaken by the native Amero-Indians. The new Constitution legitimates Indian shamans and curanderos, and grants them official position within the country's health and social services. Is that one more of the many empty declarations of the new Constitucion or is it something with content? It appears that the thing is serious.

The Bolivian Ministry of Health has started a campaign to use papaya leaves to cure the dengue (*), a tropical fever disease. They say it is a miracle - and free - remedy. Bolivia is surely advancing towards the levels achieved by South Africa, which denied the mere existence of aids AIDS and its Chief, better informed, used to prevent contracting the disease by taking a shower after each rape.

Camiri, Bolivia (EL DIARIO).- Funcionarios dell Ministerio de Salud y Deportes iniciaron ayer la difusión de una receta para curar el dengue en base a las hojas de la papaya. Según esta receta, una vez obtenida las hojas de la papaya y previamente lavadas, deben ser machucadas, luego se agrega dos cucharadas de agua limpia y se guarda la masa acuosa en un lienzo limpio, para finalmente exprimir el contenido y tomar el preparado una vez por día.

La medicina milagrosa y gratuita habría sido descubierta por un padre de familia desesperado, cuyo hijo enfermó con dengue. De acuerdo a las instituciones que difunden la receta, el jugo de hojas de papaya cruda actuaría liberando de la fiebre al cuerpo enfermo, esta acción provocaría el incremento de las plaquetas en la sangre, que por acción de la fiebre disminuyen.

The EL DIARIO above difusses the Ministry of Health's instructions how to prepare the papaya leave infusion and how it works on the sick body.

(*) Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases found in the tropics and caused by four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. (From the Wiki)

Obama Did The Right Thing

Some misguided guy nominated Charles Freeman to a position in the USA (the world) government. Takimag published a hopeful article: May be Obama deep down is anti-Jewish. But no. Freeman's statements against Israel were severely out of step with the administration. He was rejected. Obama did the right thing.

Credit Suisse 17.5 % Up

CITI's good news triggered a general change in NASDAQ's environment. All of my stocks are strongly up. I felt it coming but did nothing. Boludo.

Update Next Day: Up another 10%. Pajero.

Taki, Beaten

Taki's new editorial is on the web and it is utterly confused. He starts with some warm memories of Margareth Thatcher visiting Taki in Gstaad, then his mind is derailed to last week's Malmo Davis Cup game, where Israel had to play without public as modern day lepers. At first, Taki appears to emphatize with Israel, remembering his beloved South African karate team, outcast from international tournaments because of the apartheid. But no, Taki is physiologically prevented to feel empathy with Jews. Since he hates Muslim immigrants with equal or more passion, he ends in total emotional and cognitive confusion. He writes:

I should be on the side of the Malmo lefty mayor who, Solomon-like, hit the nail on the head. But I’m not. Had the Swedes not opened their gates to the Muslim hordes, perhaps the matches could have gone on with only a few placards hoisted against Israel during changeovers.

Taki is not alone in his confusion, because Malmo represents something new and yet unclear: the confluence of European left with Muslim immigrants and Neonazis. Taki, in the end, decides for the Swedes, unmanly as he thinks they are, and wishes them to beat those "brothers". But happened that Dudu Sela (pic) became so upset that during the third set that he cracked his racket against the indoor carpet. His burst of anger appeared to have energized the Israelis, who broke Johansson's serve in the first game of the fourth. Sorry, Mr Taki, we are tough.

Interpretation of Dreams

I had, once more, the same dream. What does it mean?

The Context: I had a meeting this morning in the Ministry of Health about my Mikweh Project. I had submitted a drawing and a large Technical Report. They did not bother to read the text, they had given only a superficial look to the drawing. They were interested in a few things: pumps to be equipped with backflow preventers and thermometers to control water temperature (to fight Legionella). After the meeting I had lunch and fell asleap.

The Dream: I was in the airport waiting for my plane to depart to China. People was slowly starting to prepare and form a queue to ascend the plane, and it was like my turn. I was stressed because I had no passport nor documents and was uncertain if I would be allowed to the plane. I was carrying a large box containing some electronic device, people around was relaxed and helpful with the box. They told me not to worry, it will be all right. I woke up anguished.

Interpretation: I feel I dont have the qualifications for the things I am starting to do and feel I will be rejected and left on the ground.