Saturday, July 11, 2015

Going to Pluto. New Horizons.

Want a break from all the madness of planet Earth? Go to Pluto, the farthest out of all the planets of our solar system. So far it has taken the explorer satellite, New Horizons, nine years  to make the five billion mile journey.
Now, with it's single eye, the space probe will be beaming its first close images back to earth. So far everything looks serene and quiet, no activity, no volcanoes, no spouting geysers, no clouds: nothing. But what else would anyone expect from a piece of rock so cold that it would liquefy nitrogen?

No, it's on the third rock out from the sun that the action is really taking place. I'm talking about planet earth, the abode of human beings. This is the planet that had a visitation from the Creator of All Things a few centuries ago and left the inhabitants with a message.

It went something like this: "You people have truly messed things up.  The whole world is in rebellion against Me and my government. Nevertheless, I am sending my Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for you all. If you will hand your disobedient lives over to Him, I will grant you a free pardon and you can all come to live with Me on the planet that really counts. It is called Heaven."
Any takers?

Jubilate.

Ian

Sunday, July 5, 2015

How do you say "goodbye" in Greek.


It has been five years in the making. Let's call it the long "farewell" but this afternoon the Greeks voted a resounding "XOI" or, in any other language "NO".
'No' to more austerity, "Non" to more capital controls, ""Nada" to more pension cuts, "Nyet" to Europe in general.
Effectively this means that, come Monday (July 6th), the Greek banks will not be dealing Euros but in government issued I.O.U.s as the prelude to the new Drachma.
How much the Drachma will be worth is any one's guess but, put in the simplest possible terms, Greece will be a great place to go for a cheap holiday in September.
To any one else's mind this "No" vote is an act of national madness, but not apparently to the Greeks.
Tsipras, the prime minister, reminded the crowd last Friday that the very word "Europe'" was given by the Greeks in one of their fables and that the democracy we enjoy in the West was birthed in the homeland of Greece.
So, he argues, how can anyone kick Greece out of the Euro-zone?
Shortly he will find out. The whole country (democracy and nomenclature aside) will be evicted for NOT PAYING THEIR BILLS and that is a 21st century reality that thousands who sleep under bridges and who are refugees in shelter homes know only too well.
Spare some sympathy for the Greek people, not for their financial plight only but also for their nutty leaders who put them into it.

Jubilate.

Ian