My brother did the same thing for me, got two baseballs signed, one for me, not signed by Paul O'Neill but signed by Mikhail Gorbachev. True story.

Another example of why baseball is so much more than "just another pro sport."

Sat next to a fellow that worked for Rand McNally map company on a flight years ago. He correctly identified the town in New York State that I grew up in. 

All visited prior to age 36, and the two that are missing I haven't been to in the 30 years since I was 36, and have been in adjacent states often. Need to go check out the leaves it would seem. 

Andrew could get me really pissed, with some releases I viewed as "made before being vetted." Those were conscious decisions on his part, and he certainly did more to inform America of dangers woven deep than almost anyone in the past couple of decades.

Sure they do, but to .05% of the electorate. Is that a win?

Strategic vision? Like what really makes sense, the elimination of all corporate taxes, and therefore eliminating "legislative favor?" That will not sell to the middle. Sorry, don't like the guy but with Newt claiming that Iranis speak Arabic and Santorum chasing Satan away, which only RWR could do, there is no choice.  

So I guess you believe that the center, from which the winning margin will come, might go for Gingrich or Santorum? I personally would prefer either over Mitt, but there is not a chance in the world that either one could take as big a chunk of the middle as Romney. You have no idea how I detest that, but I certainly believe it.

Or put another way, when translated into reality, I'm for beating Obama. 

The contrast just across 101 in East Palo Alto is needed for any real perspective, which is why I never take that particular left turn.

Suspending oil sales does not cost Iran anything, it does cost Britain and France however, or ultimately the consumer.  Crude oil is priced on a "single world market," a market that "prices rather than sells," to a customer set that needs every drop that is put on the market.

Countries, like Britain and France, or rather downstream oil operators in those nations, the refiners, have long term delivery contracts with various crude producers, like Iran.

This allows them to manage arrival and offloading of tankers and the refining of a specific type of crude, when those contracts are cancelled, as Iran has done, there is no shortage of crude on the market, but increased costs of delivery and refining will add a healthy percentage to the price at the pump.

It's a strange market, and business, for instance Britain itself produces 100% of the crude it needs, but much of that goes to other places in Northern Europe that have a demand for it.

So the net is what? Not a cent lost to Iran, but the market price of crude will go up a couple of points as there is now a "source shuffle. 

100% Correct. Gates sounds exactly like what he is, a history graduate who then became a cop, spy if you will. Perhaps if he had ever created anything, or had to meet a payroll, his perspective as critic might be a bit different.

Hold on there, we best start at the beginning, without the hard sciences there would be NO civilization, hunting and agriculture were the beginning of “hard science” if you will. The soft sciences that make life pleasurable are not in fact part of the economic machine as part of the creation of wealth, in the economic sense of the term, they are assuredly part of the economic multiplier by spreading wealth around, but not creating it.

You can debate Adam Smith all you like but until wealth is created, and a survival based method of exchange is created you don’t get around to anything soft.

 Every dollar in the economic machine can be traced back to creation of wealth, not the amassing of it. Agriculture, value added manufacturing, energy production are the most prevalent, technology complicates the picture but as an example software, and yes Microsoft, is not related to creating wealth, only amassing it, as are the markets themselves.

Three Irishman walk out of a bar....  

..come on now, it could possibly happen..

Be well, and keep staying safe Dave, it's good for you and for us.

People in Saudi, rich sheikhs and clerics no doubt fund militant Islamists, but I can assure you that the Royal family, therefore the government, does no such thing. The West is a secondary target for Islamist extremists, they want to take over Saudi Arabia, and Mecca and Medina, the holy cities, as their prime goal. In 1982 Saud ordered 10 747's, which the national airline did not need, to be used in a reconfigured bench seating mode in order to evacuate the royals. At that time they numbered about 5,000, today perhaps 50,000, if not more. It's said that Ibn Saud fformed Saudi Arabia with a sword of steal and a sword of flesh, Ibn Saud was born in 1876, formed Saudi  Arabia between 1926-1932, and one of his many sons is king still today. Defense never was concerned with Israel but the same sort of Islamist militant that OBL and al Qaeda represent. Saudi Arabia the nation is hardly an enemy of the USA.