The military fights wars and the diplomats make peace – until the Hedgemony. So now the diplomats are not happy about being ordered into a war zone, rather than handling the assignments on a volunteer basis.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports on the controversy: Diplomatic Call Up Riles State Department

…the union which represent Foreign Service Officers contends Iraq should be for volunteers only.

“We have concerns, many of our members do, about assigning diplomats who are unarmed civilians, who are not trained for combat, to combat situations,” said Steve Kashkett of the American Foreign Service Association.

[Read more →]

So, Money magazine tells us thatOil jumps $4 on Fed, supplies:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Oil prices set a new record high Wednesday, jumping over $4 on an expected interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve and dwindling supplies in the United States.

U.S. light crude for December delivery jumped $4.15 to settle at a new record of $94.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, topping Monday’s record close of $93.80 a barrel. Prices rose as high as $94.74 in intraday trade, surpassing crude’s all-time record trading high of $93.80 a barrel, also set Monday.
…

[Read more →]

Position: 23.2 N 78.5 W. [10PM CDT]
Movement: North [0°] near 3 mph.
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph.
Wind Gusts: 70 mph.
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 115 miles.
Minimum central pressure: 996 mb.

TS Noel is about 140 miles South-Southwest of Nassau in the Bahamas and about 210 miles South-Southeast of Miami, Florida.

Noel is back over the water and regaining some strength as it turns to the North. It will turn to the Northeast later as it reaches the prevailing Westerlies and will encounter significant wind shear forestalling development into a hurricane. The current gusty winds over South Florida are not directly related to Noel, but to a high pressure system that is moving in from the Northwest.

Unless something radical happens, I won’t be upgrading this post today.

Whether you celebrate Celtic New Year’s Eve [Samhain], the evening before All Saints Day [Halloween], or the posting of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 [Reformation Day], have a happy one.

Wikipedia does its normally thorough job of covering all of the bases on the holidays that share October 31^st.

I’ll include my remembrances of Halloweens past.

These “harvest festivals” aren’t fooling anyone.