Drew, To call Americans 'peace-loving' is not strictly an accurate representation.
Let's go back to the Mayflower. Not too many centuries after the pilgrims set up shop, the local people were feeling the pinch. In fact, the locals were quite violently moved out of the way! Of course, those people had quite violently made their way from Asia, via Alaska, down through the continent to the real cold places down south. They laid waste to huge numbers of big animals which had been happily eating each other for eons.
So there was not strictly a 'peace-loving' start.
I watched a lot of 'cowboys and Indians' shoot em up John Wayne movies which didn't make me think things were too peaceful in the Wild West.
Here are another few ideas. Civil war. Right to bear arms and the highest murder rate on earth on the streets, in the schools and in the houses. Waco. Ruby Ridge. Symbionese Liberation Army. Ku Klux Klan. Slavery. Desert Storm. Grenada. Star Wars. Texas Clock Tower turkey shoot. OJ Simpson. Dr Strangelove and B52s round the clock. Minuteman. 20 Megatonnes. 4 July [which moved the right to collect huge taxes from London to Bill Clinton]. Police cars in San Diego which look like self-contained military operations. Armed police. Armed guards. Airport-type security searches at Federal Buildings [courthouses etc].
Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Bay of Pigs.
The USA conducted the only nuclear war ever [winning 2-0].
Now, I'm all for self-defence and using nuclear weapons to do it, but I wouldn't pretend that 'peace-loving' is an apt description of the military installations I bump into anywhere I drive around Honolulu, San Diego area and East Coast. The USA has been the biggest, toughest, most militarily powerful country on earth for half a century [and more].
I've fired a shotgun at Camp Pendleton, which was the only time I've ever fired a gun - other than my cousin's airgun at age 15 and my shanghai before that - oh and I made a cracker gun for firing marbles which I used only once or twice because it seemed a bit hazardous in terms of muzzle velocity. So after only a short time in the USA, I was adopting the shoot 'em up ways!! It was fun and I was proud to get 17:20 of those skeets [they fired only one at a time], which is apparently pretty damn good even for experienced people [must have been all the practise firing shanghais in my youth].
The French have been positively peaceful by comparison. Sure, that criminal thug Mitterand and cronies committed terrorist murder in NZ [though actually manslaughter which means indifference to killing rather than an intentional death]. They have their force de frappe. Okay, they did a bit of guillotining in their revolution, marched to the 1812 Overture into and out of Russia, had a French Foreign Legion, lost before the USA in Vietnam, helped collect Jews for the Nazis in Vichy France, and have had their share of mayhem. Okay, France is certainly not peace-loving either. So that theory is out.
Maybe it's because I went and stood at Arche De La Defense and there is "holistic life-energy synergy".
Actually, there was a spike when WSJ.com promoted dehypothecation in their market manipulating, possibly criminally illegal operation to affect the stock price and hurt investors. They sure succeeded in causing a spike by their activities [they would probably deny that was their intention, but they would, wouldn't they - I wonder if any of them bought shares before publicizing the Great Globalstar Memorial Day Massacre - the SEC should investigate them and Carrie Lee especially to see if she did some illegal market manipulation].
We saw how much money can be made by media talking about how Unicom would, then wouldn't then would then wouldn't use CDMA. How Korea would use cdma2000 - corrected next day to W-CDMA. We see downgrades [with, presumably, some warning to customers that a downgrade will be issued]. The SEC has fertile ground for investigating what are obvious opportunities to illegally profit from well-publicized market manipulating statements. Check out the Gilder Effect for what a big impact can be caused by a soothsayer's comments. If they act contrarily to their statements, that's apparently illegal. If they act ahead of their statements, that's apparently legal.
In summary Drew, I have no idea. But watch the fun on Monday now that there is a weekend for shorts to chew it all over.
Mqurice |
