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Posts Tagged ‘Europe’

The 7 Billionth Person

November 1st, 2011 by John Feehery

According to the United Nations, the 7 billionth person came into the world the other day.

I was wondering why it felt kind of crowded around here.

The 1 billionth person arrived when Thomas Jefferson was president. No. 2 billion came when Calvin Coolidge was president, the 3 billionth when Dwight Eisenhower was president, the 4 billionth when Nixon was getting impeached, the 5 billionth when Reagan was in his second term, the 6 billionth when Clinton was in his second term, and now Obama is president with No. 7 billion.

If it seems like the pace is picking up, well, you are right. At this rate, we will hit 10 billion by 2050.

Most of the growth is occurring in Asia, Africa and South America. The United States and Europe are expected to stay fairly flat in their population growth, but that doesn’t mean that Europeans and Americans won’t be profoundly affected by the population explosion in other parts of the globe.

The CIA and the Defense Department planners are already thinking through the implications of this population boom. Politicians need to follow suit. Read more...

Tags: 7 billionth person, Africa, Asia, CIA, Defense Department, Europe, free-market, market capitalism, nited Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, Obama, population growth, Social Security, South America, Thomas Jefferson, Transportation infrastructure, United Nations, United States, Water security
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Food, Foreign Relations, Government, History, Immigration, Politics, bad news, health care, national security, poverty, spending, taxes | No Comments »

Secular Theology

August 12th, 2011 by John Feehery

Nihilism rules the streets of Great Britain. A normal looking Norwegian kills scores of fellow countrymen in the hopes of sparking a war against Islam. Paris is still recovering from the Algerian riots of last year.

America loses it AAA rating. Europe struggles to stay fiscally afloat. Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Iceland all look like they are going to go bankrupt.

European birthrates can’t compete with European death rates, as more immigrants fill the workforce and create tension.

Gangs of black youths run around major American cities, beating up white people for the fun of it. Police forces in rural America spend the majority of their time trying to close down meth labs, as the percentage of people in the country who are addicted to the deadly drug inches up.

Teachers (not students) are accused of cheating when it comes to grading standardized tests, so that they can escape the brunt of the No Child Left Behind law.

Stories of abuse, suicide, rape, incest and a variety of other unbelievable evils dominate the headlines.

What the hell is going on with Western Civilization? Read more...

Tags: Catholicism, Europe, Evangelicals, Great Britain, Holocaust, Iceland, Ireland, Islam, Italy, Moral Majority, Nihilism, No Child Left Behind law, Portugal, Protestantism, Spain, the Enlightenment, Vietnam War, Western Civilization
Posted in Bad Decisions, Education, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Laws, Politics, bad news, national security, spending, taxes, tragedy, war | No Comments »

The Declining Art of Negotiation

July 5th, 2011 by John Feehery

Otto Habsburg, the last heir to the throne of the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire and oldest member of the Habsburg family, died yesterday at the age of 98.

The Habsburg family used to be kind of a big deal in Europe, but the Habsburg empire collapsed during the First World War, and Otto and his family found out that being a former Emperor is not nearly as influential as being an actual Emperor.

The Austrian-Hungarian Empire was founded after the Holy Roman Empire collapsed after Napoleon ran around Europe at the conclusion of the French Revolution.

Prince Metternich was the man who picked up the pieces and constructed the Concert of Europe during the Congress of Vienna. Metternich was all about stability and the balance of power. He didn’t care much for nationalism or liberalism or democracy. He cared mostly about preserving the peace and keeping monarchies in place.

Metternich was a master of negotiation. He was able to craft a workable peace that lasted from 1815 to 1914 (not including a nasty little war between Prussia and France that ended with the creation of the German state). It wasn’t perfect, but the Metternich model was the inspiration for today’s United Nation and the European Union. Read more...

Tags: Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Concert of Europe, Congress, Europe, Habsburg, Napoleon, NBA, NFL, Otto Habsburg, President, Prince Metternich
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, GOP, Government, History, Politics, Promises, Theory, spending, taxes | No Comments »

America is Doomed?

May 27th, 2010 by John Feehery

Planet getting eaten (Credit: ESA/C Carreau)

I was watching television this morning and CNN was alternating between video of the great Gulf leak and a video from the Hubble telescope of a planet getting eaten by a bigger star.

So, the message is if we don’t all kill ourselves, well, then a big star is going to eat us all any way.

On that cheery note, let me add another.

America is doomed. At least, that is the message that we get all too often from both the left and the right.

We are going broke. Our workforce isn’t competitive. People in the rest of the world hate us. We can’t plug the damn hole. We have too many immigrants coming into this country. Crime is too high. Our military is stretched too far. We are too fat. We are too old. We are too young.

And of course, we better all start speaking Chinese soon, because the Chinese are so rich, they work so hard, they are so smart, and there are so many of them, that we really can’t compete. America is doomed.

Really? Put me down as an America-is-doomed skeptic. Read more...

Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, Brazil, china, Chinese, Christian right, Conservatives, Economy, Europe, India, Politics, poor, Tea Party, Tom Friedman, USA, WASP-12b
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, GOP, Government, Politics, Theory | 2 Comments »

Obama To Run For President of Europe

July 24th, 2008 by John Feehery

(Berlin, Germany) In a surprise move, Senator Barack Obama announced today that he was switching continents and is now running to become the President of Europe. He endorsed former Vice President Al Gore to take his place on the Democratic ticket for the race for President of the United States.

Political analysts were stunned by the move, but an Obama campaign worker said it shouldn’t come as any surprise: “Listen, the Euro is much stronger than the dollar. Europeans love Obama. Most of Europe, (except those damn Brits) was right on Iraq, from our perspective. It really was just a natural evolution for Barack.”

Insiders say that it was the German’s reception of him at the Victory Column in Berlin that finally convinced Obama to change continents. “Barack was overwhelmed by the love expressed for him by the Germans, who are not a very expressive people. He told me that he couldn’t leave these people behind.”