Day: May 10, 2006

Quantum Sky on United 93

Posted on by Amir

05/10/2006: Quantum Sky shares the following insights regarding United 93:

One sunny Sunday afternoon three years ago I came home to find three men burglarizing my house. Instead of running when they were discovered, they told me it was their house now and made me a prisoner in my own home, going around ripping the phones out of the walls. It’s impossible to truly convey what that’s like. It was surreal, unbelievable, unthinkable. It simply couldn’t be happening.

Then the one guarding the front door moved away, giving me a shot at escape. Still, I hesitated for a moment before I ran. Looking back later, I realized it was because reacting to it acknowledged what was happening as real. I had to think about the unthinkable. There’s this huge temptation toward “just ignore it and it will go away” that’s very hard to overcome, even to just run, let alone fight. The passengers aboard United 93 didn’t have that option, and the fact that they did fight leaves me all the more in awe of their courage because I have some idea what it cost them.

What I experienced, terrible as it was, doesn’t hold a candle to what those people went through. I survived where, tragically, they didn’t. But I learned from it the same thing they did:

You cannot count on rescue.

This doesn’t just apply to violent crime. It’s any crisis, big or small, sudden or slow, happening to you or someone else. Medical, financial, legal, romantic, whatever. It may be that all you have to do is call for help. Maybe you only have to get to help. Or it may be you just have to be that help, however ill-equipped for it you may be.

I agree. This is why I carry a firearm. When/if the crap hits the fan, you cannot count on outsiders to rescue you. The government was impotent to save the passengers and crew of United Flight 93. The closest fighter plane was 100 miles out, and even that pilot didn’t have shootdown authority.

Given that the hijackers were Islamikazes, the passengers were the only ones who could effect any change that day.

They failed to save the plane, but they scored a victory that emboldened and embodied the spirit America.

Fed Jacks up Rates Again…More to Come

Posted on by Amir

05/10/2006: Get used to more of this. The Federal Reserve has announced another 1/4 percent hike in the fed funds rate. At 5%, this represents a five-year high.

It won’t stop here.

The dirty little secret is this: the Fed will have to keep raising interest rates for at least two more years, if not longer. I say this for the following reasons:

(1) The dollar is down about 40% over the past five years.

(2) Higher interest rates will be necessary to maintain badly-needed foreign investment in government bonds. This is necessary in order to fund our deficit spending.

(3) Oil prices are pegged to the U.S. dollar, which is one key reason why oil prices are so high. Those prices will not come down unless the dollar rebounds.

Can the government blunt the damage? Yes…by slashing spending and balancing the budget. That will require hard, painful decisions, but it will create a fertile ground for long-term prosperity.

Otherwise, inflation will make a big comeback.