Free Republic

This one really brought out the Hitler crowd. Pollard was never charged with espionage or treason--just passing classified documents to an ally.

Are you for real? The classified documents Pollard obtained were alledgedly passed on to the Soviets in a deal made with Israel. Even Klinton wouldn't pardon him after many high ranking members of the CIA threatened to resign if he did. This article is trying to soft pedal the enormous damage done by Pollard's treason, hell, as far as I am concerned he should count himself lucky that he didn't receive the death penalty which he so richly deserved.

"North Korea's leaders are smart, not crazy. They know how to exploit opportunities," he said.

Well there it is in a nutshell; they're playing Bush like a violin. I've always considered North Korea more of a threat than Iraq, yet this administration continues to play footsie with them just like the klintoon administration did. I guess the lesson to the rest of the world is that if you acquire nukes then the U.S. will be reluctant to mess with you. Not a very good message to be sending.

As someone who recently moved back to NYS after living in Florida, I can vouch for this sorry state of affairs. My property taxes just went up another 12% to pay for this medicaid fiasco. If NY doesn't start getting its act together, expect even more business and people to leave. At least in California they have a nice climate to go with their high taxes, but where I am now it's 5 degrees out there. Taxes will be the death of this state yet.

The majority of Puerto Ricans see the United States as a meal ticket and nothing more.

That's how I see it. If it wasn't for the generous financial benefits they receive because of their commonwealth status, I think the majority would have voted for independence years ago. Hey, I don't blame them; if Americans are stupid enough to subsidize them why would they rock the boat? They had a pretty sweet deal going on and all they had to put up with was a military base where live bombing took place. I guess they just want the money without having to be inconvenienced. I think that they need to be taught that that is not the way things work in this world.

We will just make up their 'loss' by increasing the amount of aid/welfare we send them. In the end the US taxpayer will not be better off.

Unfortunately you're probably right. The 18 billion we send them in food stamps and other aid will just go up. On the other hand, since we no longer have a military base stationed there, what exactly do we need Puerto Rico for anyway? Grant them independence and let them sink or swim according to their own devices. It's a nice place to visit, but why should we be burdened maintaining an island that is little more than a welfare state.

This is NUTS, no way, no how am I going to allow a foreign government to enter my country and kill people.

I couldn't agree more. The majority of the American people would go absolutely ballistic at the idea of Israeli hit squads operating in the U.S., not to mention the blatent unconstitutionality of even allowing it. Makes me wonder who is floating this story and why.

AbsoluteShield File Shredder is a free program that takes care of that problem. http://www.sys-shield.com/fileshredder.htm

Then I saw that it was written by some left-wing stringer, not a real journalist.....

Reese a left-wing stringer? LOL. He's been a syndicated columnist for years and is hardly left-wing.

"People say, `Are you willing to talk to North Korea?' Of course we are. But what this nation won't do is be blackmailed," Bush said with the Polish president at his side.

I wonder if he managed to say this with a staight face. [/sarcasm]

So even I think that Gold is still a good investment, but don't let yourself be convinced that you should stake your life's savings on a long term resrugence of gold.

I agree. I see gold as on a hot trend right now similiar to the way tech and telecom stocks were in the early 90's. The potential for a nice profit is there, but if you get too greedy or emotionally involved with it, you could wind up like those suckers who got stuck with $800 gold and $50 silver 20 years ago. A certain objectivity and detachment is required when speculating in something as historically volatile as precious metals.

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good analysis of the situation. I've never been much of a goldbug until recently, and was not sure how much to attribute its recent rise in price to the prospect of war in Iraq, but this article suggests many other valid reasons to be a gold bull. When the mainstream press begins to tout gold and the general public starts to notice, watch out; the gold rush is just beginning.

Even after taking into account the usual war jitters, the rise of gold can be attributed to many other fundamental economic factors that will make 2003 the year of the gold rush.

I own physical gold myself, so I haven't been keeping too close an eye on gold stocks. Just be sure to buy one that is unhedged. Check out some of the gold forums on the internet - there must be a million of them. I think that gold will be to 2003 what tech stocks were to the early 90's. Get on board for the ride up!

Gold will hit $400 oz within a month.