Friday, JULY 4, 2014

Visit today to Mariehamn, Finland where the population of 28 thousand is Finnish and the official language is Swedish and where they have a Prime Minister, a Parliament, many political parties, no crime (2 murders in 28 years) very low unemployment as most work in the shipping industry and, according to the guide, everyone is quite happy.  Different.



MARK THIS ONE DOWN AS ONE FOR THE BOOKS:Filling out a government form to assert one's freedom of religious beliefs/

DISTORTION, HYPOCRISY AND SO FORTH:So much disinformation, misinformation and the like.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

An interesting mini tour of Helsinki and a full blown tour of Eric Saarinen's home and studio on the outskirts of Helsinki plus a coffee stop at     's studio and home.  Saarinen's influence on 20th century architecture was major.  Dinner in suite.




CRONY CAPITALISM IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE:Question is, where do we go from here?

WHO WOULD PAY ANYTHING TO HEAR WHAT THIS HORRIBLE HARRIDAN HAS TO SAY:Well now we know the fix is ins at both public and private so-called institutions of higher learning. Pathetic.

THIS WILL NOT END WELL:  Question of the day:  What universe do the economists who manipulate our currency live in?

Further to yesterday’s note on “Behind the Levitation” about the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy, Ron Greiss of The Chart Store kindly sent along these four graphs that display the astronomical expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet in the aftermath of the crash of 2008.  These make for sober viewing indeed.  Hard to see how this ends well (click to enlarge any of these):

Ron Greiss notes that correlation does not equal causation, but still:

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

AM  aboard ship still at StP.  PM excursion exploring many canals of "The Venice of the North".




GLOBAL WARMING?

Now:

Astute readers will notice that the temperatures vacillate up and down, despite the steady massive increase in carbon emissions that characterized the industrialization of the 20th century. This alone disproves global warming theory.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

An R&R day aboard ship docked in StP.  H attended ballet and T dined with Terry, Bob&Nancy, Byron, and Pat. Excellent lobster salad.








TO THE SUBJECT OF LIBERTARIANISM: The authors, for all their credentials, either don't have a clue or are just a couple of knee-jerk progressives. Probably both.

Monday, June 30, 2014

Arriving St. Petersburg this AM.  Full day of sightseeing in St. Petersburg by bus. St. P. is much more active than when we were here 20+ years ago.  Traffic horrific.  People better dressed.  The evening spent getting to and from Catherine's Palace, a mere 20 miles from StP took 2 hours to arrive.  Castle tour stunning.  The sheer opulence breathtaking.  Lousy dinner at nearby restaurant.  Return to ship after 2AM.  Far too long a day.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Arrived in Talinn, Estonia during the night after passage through the Baltic from Stockholm.Slept in until noon, missing shore outing to see sights @ Talinn which must be capital city. Severe jet lag.  Lunch in suite. Afternoon resting.  Tonight captains welcome party. Dinner w/Bennetts, Keanes, Hawthornes.  Proceeding to St. Petersburg over night cruising.