Libertarian Commentary, 24JAN16, #16-04A By Nathan Barton

It is dangerous to be a Muslim, I think. No, not so much here in the Fifty States, as in the Ummah, the Dar-Al’Islam, the lands of “peace.” A couple of stories here, the first from the Killeen Daily Herald, which tells us that in Cameroon, a teenage suicide bomber killed four at a mosque. “A Cameroon official says a 14-year-old suicide bomber has attacked a mosque in Cameroon’s north, killing at least four people. Governor Midjiyawa Bakari said Monday that the boy came early into a town in the Mayo Tsanaga Division in Cameroon’s far north and blew himself up during morning prayers.” I wonder just what the sin of the Muslims in the mosque was that merited their killing? And why another Muslim, the boy, would consider himself Allah’s tool of vengeance?

Meanwhile, in Yemen, a suicide bomber targeted the “quisling regime’s” (Freedom Net Daily’s choice of words) police chief in Aden and killed seven. According to Arab News of Saudi Arabia. “A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into the police chief’s house in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Sunday, killing seven civilians and security forces in a failed assassination attempt after militants killed two other security officials elsewhere in the country. Police Chief Shallal Al-Shayei survived a similar assassination attempt last month, as did the governor of the province, which forces loyal to the [quisling regime set up by Saudi invaders] pried away from Shiite Houthi rebels [sic] last year.” But there is more: a Saudi-led air strike bombed a police station in Sanaa, killing at least 26 people, including many civilians, probably all Muslim.

Makes you wonder, eh? For every Muslim in Canaan that Israelis kill, for every Muslim in Afghanistan or Mesoptoamia that Americans or French or Russians kill, it seems that other Muslims killed five or maybe ten.

It is not very good to be a Muslim if you aspire to a long, peaceful life. Or if you want to make a decent living, apparently. Fox News reports that the Caliphate (Islamic State) reportedly slashed fighters’ salaries. “In a sign the Islamic State terror group could be pressed for cash, a new report claims its leaders slashed the salaries of all its fighters in half. The ‘Treasury Ministry’ of ISIS blamed ‘exceptional circumstances,’ The Jerusalem Post reported. The terror group reportedly did not explain exactly what those circumstances were.

However, the announcement came out in December, before the Pentagon revealed that a January airstrike took out an ISIS cash stockpile in Mosul, Iraq. Terror leaders said this would not affect the collection and distribution of Zakat, a religious tax benefitting the poor, the Post adds.” I wonder how much of that money was part of the tons of $100 bills delivered to Iraq by Uncle Sugar back during the “reconstruction.”

It is NOT, of course, just lives that are being destroyed by the Caliphate in Mesopotamia, as Townhall reported on Wednesday. A 1,400 year old monastery was reduced to rubble, part of their “protection” of “people of the Book” (their name for followers of Moses and Jesus). There is some good to that, I suppose: the explosives or equipment or manpower used to do that was therefore NOT available to go around killing, torturing, and raping innocents.

Meanwhile, the predictions that the Saudi thugs will devalue the riyal (which has been at a fixed rate to the US$ for decades) are becoming more believable, as is the claim that these oil-thugs are going to ally themselves with China. Why? One reason is the price of oil [http://www.oil-price.net/], which is now below $28 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate! The 7,000 Saudi “princes” are in a panic. If they can’t keep getting all the dollars they need to pay off their security thugs to keep the Shi’a and everyone else down, and if they can’t live their “Islamic” lifestyle of drugs and sex with pretty boys and harems and all the rest, they might ALL end up shortened, with the heads on nice spikes someplace.

Meanwhile, as demand for fuel continues to slump stateside, not just oil but gas prices are slumping. Freedom’s Phoenix reports that a “gas war” (something from ancient days) has dropped the price of gasoline in one Michigan town to just 46 cents a gallon. According to API [http://www.api.org/Oil-and-Natural-Gas-Overview/Industry-Economics/Fuel-Taxes/Gasoline-Tax] gasoline taxes (Federal and State) in Michigan are 48.94 cents per gallon: so the companies (or someone!) is paying 2.94 cents per gallon to customers to fuel up: hope they are selling lots of soda and snacks!

Mama’s Note: That’s the truth, Nathan. My husband managed service stations in the 1960s, and one “gas war” saw leaded regular going for 17 cents a gallon. I don’t know what the tax was then, but he was paying several full time attendants to pump that gas, since “self serve” was pretty much unknown then. The station lost a bundle every day that went on, making a profit only on the increase in mechanical work and tires sold. I still don’t think they broke even. Most service stations didn’t have any sort of “mini mart” then, just a few vending machines at best.

Oey vey! Incredible. I’m happy with just paying $1.70 or so a gallon for gasoline or diesel. Well, not really happy, since I’m paying 40 to 50 cents of that in TAXES and much of that is NOT used to build and maintain the highways but instead spent on “mass transit” and “street art.” Or to steal for other government spending.

Mama’s Note: Indeed, but when I think about some of the times I waited in long lines to pay up to $5. a gallon in California years ago, the $1.79 a gallon here in NE Wyoming is almost like a miracle. And no lines. 🙂

And here is even worse: Koch (you know, the evil nasty conservative terror brothers) is actually CHARGING North Dakota producers 50 cents a barrel to refine their oil – according to Zero Hedge. It is, admittedly, a very nasty, low-grade sort of oil: North Dakota Sour, which means that it is much more costly to process, and I am sure the reason is that Koch really doesn’t want to accept it at all, and is constrained by long-term contracts from just refusing to take it via rail or pipeline at their Wichita refinery.