Backstage

clipped from www.financialsense.com Rasmussen describes his involvement with sincere Soviet intellectuals who were moving toward political power after the collapse of Soviet power. The political failure of these people was due, says Rasmussen, to the “intrigues and dirty workings of the old KGB structures behind the curtain we all thought had fallen.” He further added, “Alas, no curtain ever fell. It was only moved to a position further backwards and deep into the dark shades of backstage.” Such a position is necessary if one intends to trigger a nuclear exchange between Muslim and Western countries.  Furthermore, it may only be a matter of time before they initiate a nuclear war against Israel and the United States on their own timetable (in coordination with their Chinese, North Korean, Syrian and Russian allies).  A strategic sequence logically follows from the thinking of Iran’s leadership, which may be summarized by the oft-heard cry of “death to Israel, death to America.”

Wake Up, Wake Up, Wake Up

clipped from www.financialsense.com For many years I have argued that Russia’s security services did not change their ways when the Soviet Union became the Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent States. My book, Origins of the Fourth World War, published before Putin came to power, says that secret totalitarian structures continue to work toward the old Soviet strategic objectives in “former” Communist countries. The totalitarian mentality continues under a new program. Is that so hard to grasp? Or do we prefer the comforts of self-deception?  No matter what events transpire, no matter what evidence or testimony emerges, no matter how many witnesses are assassinated, both conservatives and liberals will refuse to acknowledge the deceptive nature of Russian institutions. The Kremlin strategy to destroy America is not a paranoid fiction. It is a forgotten historical fact in a time of forgetfulness. if the Islamists have nuclear weapons then Moscow and/or Beijing arranged for them to have the weapons Wake up

Social Work For Witless Socialists

clipped from article.nationalreview.com In 1980, after Soviet tanks rumbled into Afghanistan, Pres. Jimmy Carter experienced an epiphany. The former Georgia governor who in 1977 liberated the U.S. from its “inordinate fear of Communism” and pecked Brezhnev on both cheeks, declaring that he and the Soviet leader “shared similar dreams and aspirations,” was shocked by this naked aggression. “The action of the Soviets,” he admitted, “made a more dramatic change in my opinion of what the Soviets’ ultimate goals are than anything they’ve done the previous time I’ve been in office.” Some people are slow learners. Leave aside the 20 million dead under Stalin, the subjugation of Eastern Europe, the Gulag, and the show trials. In just the previous decade, the Soviets had tried and jailed Natan Sharansky and Alexander Ginsburg The liberal tendency to believe that international relations are a form of social work is unchanged.

Docs Under The Bus

clipped from www.qando.net I‘m not sure what part of this Obama doesn’t understand. On the one hand, he told doctors at the AMA convention yesterday that he was not a fan of tort reform and felt that limits on malpractice cases was a disservice to those who were truly injured. On the other hand he made this case: Not long ago, doctors’ decisions were rarely questioned. Now they are being blamed for a big part of the wasteful spending in the nation’s $2.5 trillion health care system. Studies have shown that as much as 30 cents of the U.S. health care dollar may be going for tests and procedures that are of little or no value to patients. Somehow, apparently, he doesn’t understand the linkage. But AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar thinks there’s a much more basic reason than Obama not understanding the linkage: If Obama announced support for malpractice limits, that would set trial lawyers and unions—major supporters of Democratic candidates—on the attack. Not to mention consumer groups.

Insufficient

clipped from pajamasmedia.com After being briefed today on President Obama’s firing last week of Gerald Walpin, Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said the president did not abide by the same law that he co-sponsored – and she wrote – about firing Inspectors General. “The White House has failed to follow the proper procedure in notifying Congress as to the removal of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service,” McCaskill said. “The legislation which was passed last year requires that the president give a reason for the removal.” McCaskill, a key Obama ally, said that the president’s stated reason for the termination, “’Loss of confidence’ is not a sufficient reason.” Stay tuned. Here’s more from Byron York, who’s been on top of this story.

egOtistical

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com It has been suggested that Obama is well-advised not to speak up in favor of the dissidents because taking their side would enable the regime to de-legitimize the opposition as tools of evil America. Some have even speculated that the Iranian opposition has asked the U.S. to remain largely silent. The former claim is extremely difficult to assess; the latter is probably impossible. But we can note the tension between these claims and the view that Obama has made major inroads in influencing Muslim public opinion. For if Obama's popularity extends beyond Iran's student activists and intellectuals, a group that traditionally is pro-American or has no serious quarrel with the U.S., then his support should not be a liability for the opposition. And if his broader popularity is somehow contingent on not criticizing repressive dictators, then that popularity doesn't seem worth cultivating except for egotistical reasons.

O Character

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com A few weeks back, when Chrysler bondholders refused to endorse a deal that they felt was disproportionately onerous to their interests, not to mention contrary to bankruptcy law and many years of common business practice, President Obama had no difficulty declaring, "I do not stand with these people." I may be mistaken, but I believe those were the most direct, clearest, and unequivocal words uttered by Mr. Obama on any issue since the day he was sworn into office. Of course, he was not talking about any mullah dictators, or terrorists, or even white-collar swindlers, but many ordinary Americans like teachers and policemen. Their union pension funds had invested in Chrysler debt, and their retirements were now threatened by the valuations placed on their bonds by the proposed deal. Contrast that statement with his kid glove handling of Ahmadinejad and the rest of the mullahocracy, and you have to really wonder about this man's character.

2,000,000

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com An anonymous Iranian with the handle “Censored Name” posted something a little bit different on his Facebook page. What I saw today was the most elegant scene I had ever witnessed in my life. The huge number of people were marching hand in hand in full peace. Silence. Silence was everywhere. There was no slogan. No violence. Hands were up in victory sign with green ribbons. People carried placards which read: Silence. Old and young, man and woman of all social groups were marching cheerfully. This was a magnificent show of solidarity. Enghelab Street which is the widest avenue in Tehran was full of people. I was told that the march has begun in Ferdowsi Sq. and the end of the march was now in Imam Hossein Sq. to the further east of Tehran while on the other end people had already gathered in Azadi Sq. The length of this street is about 6 kilometers. The estimate is about 2 million people.

The Danger

clipped from reason.com The danger liberalism poses to the American experiment comes from its disposition to deplete rather than replenish the capital required for self-government. Entitlement programs overextend not only financial but political capital. They proffer new "rights," goad people to demand and expand those rights aggressively, and disdain truth in advertising about the nature or scope of the new debts and obligations those rights will engender. The experiment in self-government requires the cultivation, against the grain of a democratic age, of the virtues of self-reliance, patience, sacrifice, and restraint.

vOice Mail

clipped from www.lucianne.com Iranians riot at election results as Obama's 3 a.m. call goes to voice mail

O Duce's true values are showing. And they ain't pretty.

The Storm

clipped from azarmehr.blogspot.com There is so much to post, I don't even know where to begin! but as I said on Aljazeera English, once the crowds reach 2 million that is it, there is no going back. This is the critical mass I have always talked about. This is what tips the balance, when people see such large numbers, their fear disappears and at the same time the riot guards become more unwilling to beat up the protesters and scared of their own future. We have now reached that point. So long as people lead with their demands and are not fooled by compromises designed to take the sting out of their momentum, then our day has finally come! Can you hear it? Can you hear it? This is the sound of heart beats We are about to create a storm you have never seen before....

Dictatorship O The Now

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Splotchy Boys

clipped from www.slate.com For a flavor of the political atmosphere in Tehran, Iran, last week, I quote from a young Iranian comrade who furnishes me with regular updates: I went to the last major Ahmadinejad rally and got the whiff of what I imagine fascism to have been all about. Lots of splotchy boys who can't get a date are given guns and told they're special. It's hard to better this, either as an evocation of the rancid sexual repression that lies at the nasty core of the "Islamic republic" or as a description of the reserve strength that the Iranian para-state, or state within a state, can bring to bear if it ever feels itself even slightly challenged. There is a theoretical reason why the events of the last month in Iran (I am sorry, but I resolutely decline to refer to them as elections) were a crudely stage-managed insult to those who took part in them and those who observed them.

Naming Mushrooms

clipped from www.slate.com what I saw with my own eyes at a recent Hezbollah rally in south Beirut, Lebanon. In a large hall that featured the official attendance of a delegation from the Iranian Embassy, the most luridly displayed poster of the pro-Iranian party was a nuclear mushroom cloud! Underneath this telling symbol was a caption warning the "Zionists" of what lay in store. We sometimes forget that Iran still officially denies any intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet Ahmadinejad recently hailed an Iranian missile launch as a counterpart to Iran's success with nuclear centrifuges, and Hezbollah has certainly been allowed to form the idea that the Iranian reactors may have nonpeaceful applications. This means, among other things, that the vicious manipulation by which the mullahs control Iran can no longer be considered as their "internal affair." Fascism at home sooner or later means fascism abroad. Face it now or fight it later. Meanwhile, give it its right name.

More Than Just Odd

clipped from action.firedoglake.com The Federal Reserve is an odd entity, a public-private chimera that controls the US monetary system and supervises the banking system.  The system is governed by a Board of Governors, with twelve regional reserve banks that serve a supporting role.  While the Governors are appointed by the President with confirmation by the Senate, the regional Reserve Banks have boards of directors chosen primarily by private banking institutions.  Right now, for instance, the CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, as did Goldman Sachs Director Stephen Friedman.

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Hamstrung

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Obama has squandered [strategic opportunities] by demonizing Bush and the Iraq war for years. Imagine how powerful it would be for Obama (or, more likely, a surrogate) to be able to stand up and say to the Iranian protesters, "Under the USA, your neighbor Iraq held free and fair elections. The government of Iran went out of its way to demonize the US and undermine those elections. We are now seeing the results of that mindset come home to Iran as you are denied a voice by your government in your own elections. The US government stands behind all who seek free and fair elections." Of course, he can't say that with any legitimacy because he has spent years putting down Bush and Iraq. This is a classic example of why partisan bickering needs to be toned down; it hamstrings the new Administration. So frustrating to watch.

Stopped Clock Watch: Friedman Edition

clipped from www.nytimes.com Second, for real politics to happen you need space. There are a million things to hate about President Bush’s costly and wrenching wars. But the fact is, in ousting Saddam in Iraq in 2003 and mobilizing the U.N. to push Syria out of Lebanon in 2005, he opened space for real democratic politics that had not existed in Iraq or Lebanon for decades. “Bush had a simple idea, that the Arabs could be democratic, and at that particular moment simple ideas were what was needed, even if he was disingenuous,” said Michael Young, the opinion editor of The Beirut Daily Star. “It was bolstered by the presence of a U.S. Army in the center of the Middle East. It created a sense that change was possible, that things did not always have to be as they were.” Fortunately, each one of these Islamist groups overplayed their hand by imposing religious lifestyles or by dragging their societies into confrontations the people didn’t want.

Doomed

clipped from hotair.com Much depends on the meaning of “accepts,” though, doesn’t it? I’m sure we’ll get some patented Hopenchange drivel tomorrow about “grave concerns,” etc, but if Iran’s kids are expecting The One to walk away from nuke negotiations in protest of the coup, they’re kidding themselves. For one thing, that’s something Bush would do, and of course Bush was never, evah right. For another, if Obama walks away then he’s essentially betting all his chips on a full-blown counterrevolution to erupt and topple the regime. If it doesn’t, or if it’s put down a la Tiananmen Square, Khamenei et al. will be in no mood to forgive and forget. Which means it’s either war to take out Iran’s nuke infrastructure or learn to stop worrying and love the Iranian bomb. Israelis are learning already!

Two What?

clipped from www.haaretz.com Arguably even more important if true give-and-take is to occur, Netanyahu succeeded overnight in taking back a very major concession that previous Israeli governments had made and turning it into a significant bargaining chip. For years - surely ever since Ehud Barak made his famous magnanimous peace offer - Israeli support for a two-state solution was more or less taken for granted. In a surprisingly short period, Netanyahu has put Israel into a position in which if it agrees to two states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will be able to say that they and Obama have wrested a major concession from Israel's "right-wing government." it is important to deal now with the question of whether advocates of the two-state solution really mean two states - exactly the issue Netanyahu raised. If the answer is a hobbled state, Netanyahu may be right that it better to call it something else. If it is to be a true state, security arrangements other than relying on the U.S. and NATO are called for.

Gates

clipped from www.slate.com About 200 riot police waited in the middle of the square. I headed down an alley, just steps away, where protesters had created a blockade of flaming garbage cans. The demonstrators pushed aside a garbage can, opening a path, and rushed forward. Simultaneously, baton-wielding police charged. The protesters hurled rocks, and the police responded by beating everyone who couldn't escape into one of the connecting alleys. Citizens, nearly all on the side of the protesters, left their front gates open just a little to offer those of us fleeing the police an escape route. As we caught our breath in someone's driveway, I asked a man in his mid-30s whether he had witnessed anything like this before. "Over the last two weeks," he told me, "between the debates, the number of people in the street last week, and the violence now—no. I've never seen anything like this."

Hall Of Fascists

clipped from andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com It would be interesting to see what Swiss Accounts are in the possession of the senior leadership of the IGRC and the Ministry of the Interior, as well as those who are members of the Pasadaran (I believe that is the correct term), the Iranian Secret Service. The question is-are matters really worse, is Iran truly in the hands of a fascist clique as the Israelis fear, or is this simply the Tattaglias and the Barzinis successfully having put Michael in his place so they can get the lion’s share of the Drug Trafficking money in New York? Remember, as Ledeen will tell you, the “reformist” guy was one of the hand picked candidates from the Council of Elders. Deck Chairs, meet Titanic. Great analysis once again by Kevin. The problem is that I am convinced that Jerusalem believes that a fascist coup is underway, and that there is a mortal threat to the Jewish people. Photo: Members of the Iranian hardline volunteer Basij militia enter Tehran's university

Civil War

clipped from andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com Steve Clemons debriefs a source well connected to Iran's elite: The scariest point he made to me that I had not heard anywhere else is that this "coup by the right wing" has created pressures that cannot be solved or patted down by the normal institutional arrangements Iran has constructed. The Guardian Council and other power nodes of government can't deal with the current crisis and can't deal with the fact that a civil war has now broken out among Iran's revolutionaries. My contact predicted serious violence at the highest levels. He said that Ahmadinejad is now genuinely scared of Iranian society and of Mousavi and Rafsanjani. The level of tension between them has gone beyond civil limits -- and my contact said that Ahmadinejad will try to have them imprisoned and killed.

#CNNFail

clipped from news.cnet.com As the Iranian election aftermath unfolded in Tehran--thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to express their anger at perceived electoral irregularities--an unexpected hashtag began to explode through the Twitterverse: "CNNFail." Even as Twitter became the best source for rapid-fire news developments from the front lines of the riots in Tehran, a growing number of users of the microblogging service were incredulous at the near total lack of coverage of the story on CNN, a network that cut its teeth with on-the-spot reporting from the Middle East. For most of Saturday, CNN.com had no stories about the massive protests "CNN just loops the same stories endlessly, while ignoring the biggest story," posted Twitter user MediaButcher. "CNN needs to talk about the important things like Ms. California and who Paris Hilton is (sleeping with)," wrote Twitter user ArchivalQuality.

Shocking news.

Beeb Narrative(TM) Update

clipped from eureferendum.blogspot.com All this passed by the BBC, leaving Booker to report today that the election was a sham battle between rival factions of a regime as ruthless as any in the world, in which the real power is exercised by the gang of hard-line mullahs. He describes it as a "loathsome charade". As so it has come to pass that Tehran has erupted in riots at the "rigged" election. Defying official orders to stay off the streets, protesters shouted "Death to the dictator" and hurled rocks at riot squads. Police dispersed the crowds, beating up both male and female protesters. But by nightfall there were still sporadic disturbances across the capital, with palls of smoke rising across the skyline from burning tyres. Needless to say, the BBC maintains its spin to the last. Forced to report the riots, it still managed to head its report: "Ahmadinejad defiant on 'free' Iran poll", telling us that Ahmadinejad had defended his "completely free" re-election.

The Anti-PlatO

clipped from atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com I think Victor Davis Hanson nailed it back in November when describing the newly elected (not yet inaugurated) Obama's perception of the world: It's hard to make sense of all this. All I can make sense of is, he has a very different view of the world. This view is anti-platonic. And I say that, not to be condescending, but Plato said that the natural order of the world was chaos, it was war—peace was a parenthesis, it had to be achieved and worked at. I think in the Obama view that men like him that are charismatic, articulate, they can change the world because it's naturally a peaceful thing until people like George Bush rush in and through their stubbornness—"smoke 'em out dead or alive" vernacular—destroys it

Tweedle-Dee Update

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The National Socialism This Time

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Rush has been downright forceful in defending Israel, yet I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Jew defend him. It is frightening and sobering for me, as the child of Holocaust survivors, to see my co-religionists align with pals of unambiguous anti-semites like Rev. Wright. I let my wife choose to raise our kids as protestants, rather than have them risk the fate of my grandparents. American Jews have cast their lot as poorly as many German Jews did nearly a century ago. I can honestly say I never imagined in my blackest moments I’d see this. Yes, the mainstreaming of anti-semitism (disguised as being tough on Israel or “Zionists”) has proceeded apace, even while people on the right are the ones called Nazis.

The Coup

clipped from www.roozonline.com (TEHRAN 11P.M) In an interview, Mr. Mohsen Makhbalbaf, the distinguish movie director and spokesman for Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi, has declared that there has been a coup in Iran whereby the elections have been rigged, and people’s vote have been altered on a vast scale, in order to declare President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the “victor.” According to Mr. Makhbalbaf, in the early hours after voting had ended, the Interior Ministry had called Mr. Mousavi’s campaign headquarters to inform them that Mr. Mousavi would be the winner and, therefore, Mr. Mousavi must prepare a victory statement. Mr. Mousavi was, however, asked by the Ministry not to boast too much, in order not to upset Mr. Ahmadinejad’s supporters. Many of the president’s supporters are among the ranks of the Basij militia, and thus armed. But, just a few hours later, a center that had been set up by Mr. Mousavi in Gheytarieh (in northern Tehran) for monitoring the election and vote counting, was attacked by armed security agents.

The Madness This Time

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk It is now more than 200 years since the great astronomer William Herschel observed a correlation between wheat prices and sunspots. When the latter were few in number, he noted, the climate turned colder and drier, crop yields fell and wheat prices rose. In the past two years, sunspot activity has dropped to its lowest point for a century. One of our biggest worries is that our politicians are so fixated on the idea that CO2 is causing global warming that most of them haven't noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, with all the implications that has for whether we get enough to eat. It is appropriate that another contributory factor to the world's food shortage should be the millions of acres of farmland now being switched from food crops to biofuels, to stop the world warming, Last year even the experts of the European Commission admitted that, to meet the EU's biofuel targets, we will eventually need almost all the food-growing land in Europe.

Unintended Consequences (Part 83,389)

clipped from www.journalgazette.net Congress’ rush to embrace solar power is having some unintended consequences. It will turn over a large chunk of federal land to private energy companies, and it may involve withdrawing billions of gallons of water from sensitive desert habitat. By 2015, Congress wants the Interior and Energy Departments to place, on federal land, renewable energy projects that can generate at least 10,000 megawatts of electricity. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has set off a frantic land grab as solar and wind energy companies rush to obtain permits for projects in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. As of mid-March, the Bureau of Land Management had received 158 applications for permits for solar power plants, covering more than 1 million acres of land. Most of the proposed plants are near the border of Arizona, California and Nevada. This area of the Mojave Desert seems perfect for solar power; it’s hot and flat and vast. What the Mojave Desert doesn’t have is water.

The Sheep Will Follow

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com "At present," notes the Economist, "there's enough capacity globally to make 90 million vehicles a year, but demand is little more than 60 million in good economic times" (emphasis added). Unfortunately, says Reason magazine's Jacob Sullum, America's president "can imagine a world in which the internal combustion engine is obsolete but not one in which GM is." So, doubling down on his predecessor's misbegotten policy, the president is acting strenuously to perpetuate some of America's portion of the excess capacity. A bemused Paulson, who was present at the creation of Bailout Nation with TARP funds, said while still in office: "Even if you don't have the authorities -- and frankly I didn't have the authorities for anything -- if you take charge, people will follow." This would not be happening were Congress awake, or were the courts properly active. Constitutionalists are not amused.

"Yes We Can", Mahmoud Edition

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk Barack Obama found it “exciting” and Hillary Clinton saw it as “a positive sign”. A variety of useful idiots at home and abroad expressed similar illusions about the Iranian presidential election on Friday. Officially put at 85%, voter turnout was the highest in Iran’s history. Ahmadinejad won with 63%, collecting more votes than any of his predecessors. The results were arranged to give him a two-thirds majority among all categories of voters – men, women, young and old, poor and middle class, and in all of Iran’s 30 provinces. Whoever wrote the script also made sure that his three rivals, all veterans of the Khomeinist revolution, were roundly defeated even in their respective home towns. Ahmadinejad’s election slogan is “Ma mitavanim” (We can), like Obama’s “Yes we can”. Iran’s leader has been true to his slogan by showing he can fix the election results to the last detail. But can he cope with a restive population, a divided establishment and an economy heading for deep recession?

"Elections" In Iran

clipped from threatswatch.org Further identification to show the bearer is the actual person on the BC is not required. In addition, as Khalaii explains in great detail, Iran has no voter registration and no official accurate count of how many voters there really are (a convenient oversight), no voter identification verification, the voter must write the candidate's name on the ballot and 20% of Iran is illiterate, there are 'mobile polling stations' and not exactly impartial poll workers, among other reasons. We need not even consider that the candidates are each vetted by the Guardian Council, which ensures that no true moderates actually make presidential or parliamentary (masjid) ballots. With a back end so constructed for corruption, considering the democracy hijacking practices at the front end is merely an academic exercise. Or perhaps it's vise versa.

Blinding The Toothless

clipped from www.breitbart.com The BBC said Sunday that the satellites it uses to broadcast in Persian were being jammed from Iran, disrupting its reports on the hotly-disputed presidential election. The corporation said television and radio services had been affected from 1245 GMT Friday onwards by "heavy electronic jamming" which had become "progressively worse". Satellite technicians had traced the interference to Iran, it said. The satellites its uses in the Middle East to broadcast BBC Persian television to Iran were being affected, meaning that audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe would likely experience disruption. BBC Arabic television and other language services had also experienced transmission problems, the corporation said. "Any attempt to block BBC Persian television is wrong and against international treaties on satellite communication. Whoever is attempting the blocking should stop it now," said BBC World Service director Peter Horrocks.

Letter From Tehran

clipped from www.salon.com Matters soon escalated. A hapless "basiji" [volunteer paramilitary] was fingered by the crowd and began to receive a brutal punishment, being kicked, shoved, punched by what seemed like a thousand hands. Only the arrival of a phalanx of special riot police on motorcycles, batons swinging and decked out in what the New York Times referred to as black Robo-Cop gear, saved this man's life. By nightfall the situation had become worse. Iranians had become the very Palestinians their government has for so long supported. Rocks were prepared to throw at the police, storefront windows were shattered, stores were set on fire. The 22 of Khordad, June 12, will be an important date in Iran, particularly because, as I've noted, this vote wasn't just college students causing a ruckus. Grandmothers, fathers, daughters, and moms all showed up to stand for hours on end. They will not be just passive observers of what the "kids" are doing.

The Cheshire Cat

clipped from wattsupwiththat.com In the current solar minimum the number of spotless days has not been equaled since 1914 (2), see Figure 2. Some look at this figure and feel reassured; this has happened before. Others sense abnormality. Figure 2. Number of spotless days at cycle minima in the past. Why is a lack of sunspot activity interesting? During a period from 1645 to 1715 the Sun entered an extended period of low activity known as the Maunder Minimum. For a time equivalent to several sunspot cycles the Sun displayed few sunspots. Models of the Sun’s irradiance suggest that the solar energy input to the Earth decreased during that epoch, and that this lull in solar activity may explain the low temperatures recorded in Europe during the Little Ice Age (3). Figure 4. The maximum sunspot total field strength is plotted versus time We should mention, too, that the solar wind is reported to be in a lower energy state than found since space measurements began nearly 40 years ago (7). Will the Cheshire Cat Effect persist?