Center of gravity in oil world shifts to Americas

My how times have changed … http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/center-of-gravity-in-oil-world-shifts-to-americas/2012/05/25/gJQAjeuVqU_story.html?tid=pm_pop

Destination - Madrid

Our first R&R of 2012 – Madrid! We flew Becka, Cody, and Meg to join us in the Spanish capital at the end of March. We spent the first 4 days in Madrid, followed by taking the train to Toledo, and then the last day in Seville. Weather was cool with blue skies until Friday in Seville with rain showers. Food was excellent and the fellowship was even better.

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third largest in the European Union after London and Paris.The city spans a total of 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi).

The city is located on the Manzanares river in the centre of the country As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political centre of Spain.

Madrid urban agglomeration has the 3rd largest GDP in the European Union and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial centre of Southern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula; it hosts the head offices of the vast majority of the major Spanish companies, such as Telefónica, Iberia or Repsol. Madrid is the most touristic city of Spain, the fourth-most touristic of the continent.] and is the 10th most livable city in the world according to Monocle magazine, in its 2010 index. Madrid also ranks among the 12 greenest European cities in 2010.Madrid is currently a Candidate City for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[21]

While Madrid possesses a modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Its landmarks include the Royal Palace of Madrid; the Teatro Real (Royal theatre) with its restored 1850 Opera House; the Buen Retiro park, founded in 1631; the 19th-century National Library building (founded in 1712) containing some of Spain's historical archives; a large number of National museums,and the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three art museums: Prado Museum, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, a museum of modern art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which completes the shortcomings of the other two museums.

Puerta del Sol

The Puerta del Sol (Spanish for "Gate of the Sun") is one of the best known and busiest places in Madrid. This is the centre (Km 0) of the radial network of Spanish roads. The square also contains the famous clock whose bells mark the traditional eating of the Twelve Grapes and the beginning of a new year. The New Year's celebration has been broadcast live on Television Espanola since December 31, 1962. The Puerta del Sol originated as one of the gates in the city wall that surrounded Madrid in the 15th century. Outside the wall, medieval suburbs began to grow around the Christian Wall of the 12th century. The name of the gate came from the rising sun which decorated the entry, since the gate was oriented to the east. Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the area was an important meeting place: as the goal for the couriers coming from abroad and other parts of Spain to the Post Office, it was visited by those eager for the latest news. The stairs to the Saint Philip church at the square were known as the Gradas de San Felipe, and were among the most prolific mentideros de la Corte (this Spanish idiom sounds as "lie-spreaders of the Court", but it is related with the verb mentar, "to say about someone", not mentir, "to lie", so it is more appropriately translated as "places of the City where people buzz about other people").

Plaza Mayor

The Plaza Mayor was built during the Habsburg period and is a central plaza in the city of Madrid, Spain. It is located only a few Spanish blocks away from another famous plaza, the Puerta del Sol. The Plaza Mayor is rectangular in shape, measuring 129 by 94 metres, and is surrounded by three-story residential buildings having 237 breathtaking balconies facing the Plaza. It has a total of nine entranceways. The Casa de la Panadería, serving municipal and cultural functions, dominates the Plaza Mayor. The origins of the Plaza go back to 1576 when Philip I asked Juan de Herrera, a renowned Classical architect, to discuss a plan to remodel the busy and chaotic area of the old o';o0['Plaza del Arrabal. Juan de Herrera was the artist who designed the first project in 1560 to remodel the old Plaza del Arrabal but construction did not start until 1617, during Philip III's reign. The king asked Juan Gómez de Mora to continue with the project, and he finished the porticoes in 1619. Nevertheless, the Plaza Mayor as we know it today is the work of the architect Juan de Villanueva who was given the glorious, albeit difficult task of its reconstruction in 1790 after a series of enormous fires. Giambologna's equestrian statue of Philip III dates to 1616, but it was not placed in the centre of the square until 1848.

Santa María la Real de La Almudena is a Catholic cathedral in Madrid.

When the capital of Spain was transferred from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, the seat of the Church in Spain remained in Toledo; so the new capital – unusually for a Catholic country – had no cathedral. Plans were discussed as early as the 16th century to build a cathedral in Madrid dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena, but construction did not begin until 1879.

The cathedral seems to have been built on the site of a medieval mosque that was destroyed in 1083 when Alfonso VI reconquered Madrid.^[1]

Francisco de Cubas, the Marquis of Cubas, designed and directed the construction in a Gothic revival style. Construction ceased completely during the Spanish Civil War, and the project was abandoned until 1950, when Fernando Chueca Goitia adapted the plans of de Cubas to a baroque exterior to match the grey and white façade of the Palacio Real, which stands directly opposite. The cathedral was not completed until 1993, when it was consecrated by Pope John Paul II.

Five reasons Congress should act now to stop Taxmageddon

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/18/five-reasons-congress-should-act-now-to-stop-taxmageddon/

posted at 4:45 pm on May 18, 2012 by Rob Bluey

Americans are facing an unprecedented $494 billion tax hike on Jan. 1, 2013. It’s been dubbed “Taxmageddon” given the economic devastation it would cause.

Conventional wisdom suggests lawmakers in Washington will wait until the 11th hour to come up with a solution. Fortunately, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced this week he won’t wait for a lame-duck session of Congress. From his speech to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s 2012 Fiscal Summit:

Tax hikes destroy jobs – especially an increase on the magnitude set for January 1st. Small businesses need to plan. We shouldn’t wait until New Year’s Eve to give American job creators the confidence that they aren’t going to get hit with a tax hike on New Year’s Day. Any sudden tax hike would hurt our economy, so this fall – before the election – the House of Representatives will vote to stop the largest tax increase in American history.

The bulk of Taxmageddon comes from expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, but also means the child tax credit will be cut in half, the Alternative Minimum Tax patches end, the Death Tax returns to its 2001 level, and a handful of new Obamacare tax hikes take effect.

Here’s the outlook under different policy scenarios:

If this isn’t enough to scare you, then the prospect of waiting until after the November election should be. Here are five good reasons from Heritage’s J.D. Foster why Congress should act now:

1. Families and small businesses should not be threatened by their own government with a devastating tax hike.
2. A massive tax hike would obviously devastate the economy in 2013 and beyond, but the uncertainty about how, when, and even whether Congress will prevent Taxmageddon is already adding to the large cloud of uncertainties hanging over the economy, threatening to slow job growth even further.
3. Congress has no excuse for threatening families and the economy with this tax hike with the entire summer legislative schedule wide open for business.
4. Many Members of Congress of both parties agree with President Obama on the need for fundamental tax reform. Allowing Taxmageddon to go into effect would raise tax rates while increasing the tax on saving and investment—the opposite of tax reform’s results. Even though positive reforms are extremely unlikely in 2012, Congress can prevent a severe case of sound policy backsliding and create more opportunities for exploring positive options for tax reform in the balance of the year by preventing Taxmageddon quickly.
5. Elections are referendums on past decisions and on the future direction of the country. Voters should be able to judge performance of their Members on more than just vague assurances. Those favoring raising taxes should have the opportunity to vote their beliefs while challengers announce their fidelity to higher taxes, and likewise for those favoring low taxes and limited government. Citizens can vote their beliefs based on solid information.

Conservatives should applaud Boehner for seeking a solution sooner rather than later. But without action from the do-nothing Senate, there’s little hope of stopping this enormous and unprecedented tax increase before November.

Spengler » Why Invent Mohammed?

Spengler » Why Invent Mohammed?

.... We have extensive archaeological evidence in the form of coins and inscriptions from the 7th century, and there is no mention of a new religion in any of them until 70 years after Mohammed’s supposed death, as Nevo and Koren showed in their 2003 book Crossroads to Islam. Two centuries go by before an account of Mohammed’s life is circulated. The Koran itself is evidently a compilation that draws on contemporary Jewish and Christian sources, in a language that often does not resemble Arabic.
If Islam is an invention of the 8th and 9th century, the question is: Why? The simple answer is that the Arabs were founding a new empire and wished to legitimize their power. But that does not explain the devotion that Islam continues to inspire. Among the unsung heroes of Islamic scholarship, perhaps the most informative is Prof. Sven Kalisch of the University of Muenster in Germany. I translated some of his work in my 2011 book How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam is Dying, Too). Prof. Kalisch, a convert to Islam who since repudiated his adopted religion, still offers the most cogent explanation I have seen.
Here is a relevant excerpt from my book:
In 2008 a Muslim theologian at Germany’s Universityof Münsters candalized his co-religionists by asserting that the Prophet Mohammed was a figment of myth rather than an historical personality. Sven Muhammed Kalisch was a convert to Islam who held one of the most important positions in Islamic studies—the first German university chair for teaching Muslim religious instructors in German public schools. His paper, “Islamic Theology Without the Historical Mohammed,” was the first work by a Muslim academic to dispute the Prophet’s existence. Prof. Kalisch since has apostatized and repudiated the Muslim faith, but the damage was done. As he told a German newspaper, “It might be that the Koran was truly inspired by God, a great narration from God, but it was not dictated word for word from Allah to the Prophet.” ......

And so it begins …

The KZ government passed a number of new regulations last fall all in the name of controlling extremist, fundamentalist organizations (yet still makes claims of religious freedom).  Among them …

• every religious organization must re-register by October 2012
• a “city” organization must have 50 KZ citizens as its members
• a “region” organization must have 1000 KZ citizens as its members
• a “national” organization must have 5000 …
• all teaching material must be submitted for approval
• all meeting sites must be approved by the government
• meetings must be lead by KZ citizens

In March, the hotel which we were meeting cancelled our lease and we were forced to move to another building.  Fortunately, the leadership of that building was kind enough to let us meet on Saturday evenings.  About the same time, our p*st*r was told that his religious visa would not be renewed and so he and his wife left for another country.  Our associate p*st*r has been unable to obtain a year visa and is forced out of country each month to receive another one month visa.  He and his wife will now return to their home country as a result of that and on-going stress.  Our ch*rch does not have the 50  required.  We have over a hundred expats as members, but not near enough KZ citizens. Based on legal advice, we voted to dissolve our ch*rch and dispose of the assets.  The lawyer said that Almaty has 1500 such organizations – there is NO way the local government will be able to review all the applications in time to meet the October deadline.  So, what now?  G*d is gracious and provides alternatives.  He reminds us that the ch*rch is not the building or the legal entity.  It is the people who believe in a risen Savior, who are banded together to worship and serve Him.  Our group will continue thanks to the kindness of our buildings current owner!