Hard to believe Christmas Eve is two short weeks away.  For those folks not yet checked off on your Christmas gift list, the HFR suggests a copy of The Jade Steps. 

Or a Gift Subscription to To The Point.  You can gift a friend with a one-month, a three-month - or for a special friend an entire year - of the insights on the world that only TTP provides.  The HFR can't think of better gifts than these, that will be more valued and appreciated by your friends. 

(I should add here that Dr. Joel Wade's Pocket Guide to Mastering Happiness makes a great low-cost stocking stuffer...)

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Before we look at the dog's breakfast in Washington this week, let's have some fun at the Chicoms' expense.  Ever heard of the Confucius Peace Prize?  Neither did its recipient, who didn't bother to show up at the awards ceremony.  The result was the Chicoms ended up this week being laughed at and compared to the Nazis at the same time.  The world needs more of this.

Election of our nation's first black president is delivering an unexpected message to our black population.

Blacks are discovering that what a man or woman does -- their actions -- is what matters, not the color of their skin.

It is not hard to understand why black Americans were happy that a black man was elected president of the United States. It was kind of final and most grand announcement that racism has finally been purged from America.

But for the highly politicized parts of black America this was certainly not the only message. Because for the highly politicized parts of black America, the point has always been to keep race in American politics.

For black political culture that dominated after the civil rights movements, the point was not just equal treatment under the law, but special treatment under the law. Plus the assumption that more black political power -- defined by more blacks holding office -- would mean that blacks would be better off.

Now blacks have a dilemma. We have a black president and blacks are worse off. Not just a little, but a lot worse off.

We open this week's HFR with a Special News Bulletin from the Associated Press:

In response to the "Cablegate" scandal - the release of a quarter-million classified State Department documents by WikiLeaks - the US Government announced today that henceforth all Top Secret government documents will be placed in an "ultimate" secure location. 

"This location is so secure that even people with the highest of clearances cannot gain access," said R.J. Finklestein, Director of the Federal Document Classification Agency (FDCA) in a press release today.

All classified documents, Mr. Finklestein announced, will now be stored at the same location storing Barack Hussein Obama's Birth Certificate, College Transcripts, SSN applications, and off-shore campaign contributors list.

"Using our Ultimate Secure Location, we are quite sure that WikiLeaks will never be able to access any more classified documents," noted the FDCA director, "nor will anyone else."

Who would have thought just 18 months ago that a member of the eurozone, the most elite club of economies in Europe, could have a worse credit rating than Pakistan?

And yet this is the case for Greece today, perched on the verge of a debt restructuring; two other eurozone countries (Ireland and Portugal), meanwhile, are already in Europe's intensive care unit, receiving large bailouts.

And who would have thought that a rating agency would dare question the sacred AAA credit rating of the United States, the sole supplier of global public goods such as the international reserve currency (the dollar) and a financial system that serves as the nexus of international capital flow?

There are, of course, several custom-made reasons for these developments. But together, they speak to major realignments that are fundamentally changing the character of the global economy and how it functions. Three things in particular have had a significant influence, and they will continue to shape the world we live in for years to come.

I was hoping for a short and sweet HFR this week, as it's truncated by Thanksgiving.  No such luck.  We have a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started.

To my mind, the only reason to talk about a problem is as a prelude to searching for a serious solution to it.  That's why I'm so tired of terrified complaints over North Korea.  Here's a suggestion of how to get rid of the Norks...

...That's acting seriously regarding North Korea - and we're capable of it if we look at what's happened to the Al Qaeda-Taliban-Karzai government-Pakistan ISI cash cow of the Afghan poppy crop.

What's happened is indicated by this perversely hilarious headline in Sunday's (11/21) London Guardian, the bastion of British media Marxism:  Heroin Shortage in UK is Putting Lives at Risk....

...And you might surprised to learn that the HFR Hero of the Week is a 77 year-old rancher in Mexico.

A few months ago, I gave a talk to the U.S. Naval War College. This venerable institution is home to a student body of the future leaders of the world's navies, who preserve our freedom through strength on the seas.

Toward the end of a spirited question-and-answer session, a young officer stood and asked the final question: "What keeps you up at night?"

The simplicity of the question struck an emotive cord. In a flash, I thought of my boyhood growing up in an America where every morning I could get on my bike, and as far as the eye could see, there was President Reagan's "shining city on the hill," standing bright and tall on the horizon. The majesty, bounty and exceptionalism of America provided opportunity for all to climb that summit and share in the glow.

Yet now, for the first time since the Civil War, this God-blessed experiment is in real jeopardy of not being preserved for our children and the "huddled masses" seeking to embrace the American way.

I saw the concern in that lieutenant's eyes -- a soldier-citizen, seeking an answer. Mine was clear: "Debt out of control, entitlement spending out of control, and the loss of economic freedom and opportunity."

Why and from where had this malady come, and, most important, how can we restore our God-given national birthright?

Who is in charge of stopping the oil leak and the cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico - BP or the Obama administration? If you have a hard time answering the question, it probably is because the president has told us the "buck stops" with him and officials of his administration say they are "in charge."

Yet the administration also tells us that BP has the responsibility for stopping the leak and for the cleanup - but the company's every action has to be approved by the government!

One, among several, major reasons government agencies tend not to perform as well as private ones is because often there is little or no accountability.

BP stockholders are being severely punished because of the failure of BP's management to prevent this crisis - and you can bet many heads will roll at BP. Yet how many heads will roll in the U.S. government, which had the responsibility to make sure BP operated safely and that the beaches and marshes were protected?