Weekly Post #1

Since my computer is jacked up and since I need to free up time for other activities; I have decided to make one major post a week and then try to have a "response post" just before going back on the road to respond to any comments about my main post. I think a single post can suffice in monitoring the Collapse Condition and will be helpful by not "pushing down" the posts of others so that others can start topics and get good discussions going.The three big things on my mind this week include: 1) The Easter KiteDogfight 2) The idiotic behavior of the Federal Reserve and George Bush and whether they are intentionally wrecking the dollar 3) The next Neo-Swashbuckler broadcast.

The kite dogfight will be at Elm Fork Park near Pilot Point. I know I had promised to hold it in Fort Worth, but none of the parks we saw there were suited for the event. From Sanger (I-35) you just go east on 455. 455 is the road that crosses the Lake Ray Roberts Dam. As soon as you pass the dam you will make a right turn (opposite the lake) and follow a winding road down to the parking lot. We will be the group with all the kites. I will be the guy wearing the pith helmet. We will have tons of picnic food and will start the dogfight once everone is finished eating. My best guess is that we will get the kites in the air between 1:15 and 1:30. The food will be ready at noon and there will be traditional and vegetarian foods. By the way, I have already committed to having the 2009 dogfight back in Austin. Everyone is welcome even if you are not a real Neo-Swashbuckler and are actually a Vookuranian spy. In 2007 I actually sent an invitation to Vookuray since we had that event in Houston. Evil kites would only add suspense to the outcome. Of course Vookuray chickened out in 2007, claiming that her car was too unreliable to go from New Orleans to Houston. Iwonder how reliable it will be after I put a footlong tube of sweet tarts in her gas tank?

The US is doomed. I am certain of this now. Most of my economics training is from the early 1970s from Southern Illinois University. I also took one graduate econ class at the University of Missippi and a couple of classes that involved economics at the University of Texas at Arlington. I have never taken classes at Yale or Harvard or Princeton like all of these guys who are currently in charge of the economy. So why can I see that what they are doing is idiotic? Are they just making a series of blunders? Or do they know full well what they are doing and have some secret plan? If I were trying to undermine the US Dollar I could not think of more ways to go about it than Bush. Obama is absolutely right about the Iraq War having a huge impact on the decline of the dollar. We cannot continue throwing away a billion dollars every 2 1/2 days in Iraq. We cannot afford the tax rebates. We cannot afford to bail out Bear Stearnes. We cannot afford to have low prime interest rates and continue to pump money into the economy to avoid a recession. Nobody wants a recession, but as bad as recessions are they are nothing compared to a currency collapse.The dollar has fallen in relation to other currencies before and we have weathered the storm. But, ask yourself this, has the dollar ever been used to buy so many foreign goods? The declining dollar drives up the price of all foreign goods. Go into Wal-Mart and look around for goods made in the US and then consider that even those goods that still are made in the US are often made with materials or components that are foreign. Also, the energy used to make goods in the US is mostly coming from foreign oil. This is the first time that the dollar has tanked in relation to foreign currencies since this whole "global economy" thing started. The Federal Reserve has forgotten its job. It is not the job of the Federal Reserve to keep the economy out of recession. Its their job to protect the dollar's value. They are now giving the economy a dose of cancer to avoid a cold. Gas prices should have never gone up this high during this last bump. There is no strain on supply. Gas prices are not up relative to the Euro or other currencies. Do you know that eggs cost 27% more this Easter than last Easter? Eggs are mostly produced here in the US, but their cost has gone up because of increased energy prices and high feed prices. Why are feed prices high? Feed prices are largely set by energy prices. If the only effect of the declining dollars was on energy prices then that would be enough to cause great problems. If you could just stimulate an economy by printing lots of cheap currency then the countries in South America would all be economicpowerhouses by now.

IMPORTANT: I need callers for the Neo-Swashbuckler broadcast on Easter Sunday at 4:00 PM. I intend the coming broadcast to be a little more goofy than the first two, so callers could call in on a lighthearted topic and not be out of place. Any topic is welcome though. I will suggest topics for callers during the broadcast. I will also discuss the situation with Vookuray's new hackers, plans and ideas for the new site, discuss my new policy of one big post a week and finish discussing the Plan from the perspective of the Drake/Sitton/WayneParty. Naturally, there will be an announcement regarding the outcomeof the kite dogfight.

OTHER THOUGHTS:Any opinions on the flying stingray death in Florida? Stingrays are definately enemies of the Neo-Swashbucklers, but I doubt that getting hit in the face by a 75 pound stingray would be fatal at sailboat speeds. Can you eat stingrays? I'm hearing that there are places off the Keys where the water surface is just covered with stingrays.

I have had two different white guys tell me that if they were black they would riot in Denver if Hillary uses treachery to steal the nomination from Obama if Obama goes into the convention with more elected delegates and a greater popular vote total in the primaries. Idon't see why this is a racial issue. All people should be upset when democracy is thwarted. Maybe there should be a Neo-Swashbuckler riot team in Denver. It would be warm even in Denver in August, but we could sleep in tents and not bake too much up at those altitudes. We could even set up a higher altitude encampment near Denver so we could sleep in comfort during the nights after a hard day of rioting and swilling rum.

The same moderators in the old group will be converted to moderators in this group today as soon as I get a chance. I am slightly reducing the powers of the moderators in case a Vookuranian hacker gets your identity. If she gets mine then we are screwed because I have the "delete group" option.Please also check the Blogspot site on occasion. I will continue to post there and will put my weekly posts there so that people who are not Neo-Swashbucklers can comment. I'm thinking about informing Vookuray about the site so she can get all her hostility out of her system without hijacking people's screennames. My intent of shutting her out of all things Neo-Swashbuckler was that it might eventually lead her to forget about us, but that strategy does not seem to be working. I think she is obsessed for life. I may not stick to my "one post and one reply" policy this weekend because it is a long weekend, we have the broadcast coming up on Sunday and we will have the kite dogfight results to announce. Besides, Ihave not started the novel project yet.