Putin is Golden, Libby's Not So Hot

Russian strongman, Vladimir Putin, is dumping US Treasuries and buying gold. In the meanwhile, what's been described as "Obama's brilliant strategy to cripple Putin" is in shreds, with the trillion dollar leveraged US shale industry tanking and blood on the streets of Aberdeen, as the UK's oil industry goes Defcon.

So what's up with that? As one commentator put it:

"I'm stacking ammo. Your gold had better be hidden well because all you need to do is read any paper around the globe to know that when the thin veneer of civilization comes off, it's going to get ugly quickly."

Ugly? Quickly? If England's new Boy Bishop and her celebrity millionaire socialist buddy, Desmond Tutu, is anything to go by, we're already there. But please, please, stop hoarding .22LR.

Some of us want to plink.

LSP

New Year's Eve

The Opposition

2014 is nearly here and there's an uneasy truce between the blocks. We stare at the Marriott and they stare at us, waiting. At Midnight, as Calgary's famous bell tower rings in the New Year, we'll launch the first salvo of rockets and move in. Let the dice fall where they may.

View of the Blocks from the Redoubt

Meanwhile, revelers throng Stephen Avenue, full of New Year's spirit. Some of them are wearing white wedding dresses and I asked them if they were getting married. "Nah, we're going to a RAVE!" they said, "We're like, the new hippies!" Hunh, that explains it, I thought quietly, as taunts rang out from the mid-level floors of the enemy Marriott. Well, you might be laughing now, Marriott, but just you wait till Midnight.

Buffalo Head

Speaking of the New Year, let's hope 2014 is better than 2013. Maybe Hillary Clinton and Piers Morgan will finally be brought to justice. You never know, a miracle might happen and an economy that's based on debt might even find itself solvent, along with Detroit, and wise people will decide that LGBT gender advocacy isn't the defining civil rights issue of our generation. 

I wouldn't bet on any of those things, but I would on Putin; I'll wager his star will continue to rise along with Russian investment in gold.

Have a blessed New Year,

LSP