Although ostensibly we are carrying on a dedicated air campaign against the Islamic extremists, and even though the Kurds retook Sinjar with a great deal of weapons and training from Western (read: CIA) backers, the fact remains that we still have a stateless terror group firmly entrenched in two sovereign nations' territories with no imminent signs of their defeat on the horizon. Even though France is now urgently calling on the US and Russia to resolve their longstanding differences for the sake of presenting a unified front to destroy ISIS, it seems the two world leaders are instead content to continue reciting platitudes (or worse, it seems more recently that Russia may become the new leader in world security). Since the "vicious retaliatory air strikes" carried out unilaterally by France in the wake of the attacks have done little to dampen the enemy's resolve, and this after five years of protracted warfare with little to no western intervention, it must be accepted at this point that we are, in fact, doing virtually nothing.

Psalm 37 is a very worthwhile read if you haven't reviewed it lately. One of the phrases it contains which has always stuck with me is in verse 25, "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread."

The whole passage talks about how God is a refuge for the righteous, and how he protects them during times of famine and trouble, unlike the wicked who may prosper for a time, but in the day of trouble can only wail with despair as God turns a blind eye to their suffering.

I quietly announced last month that I believe the nation and the world will soon be facing another time of economic hardship. Even though our dear Federal Reserve Chair is desperately singing and dancing to the emperor's tune of "everything's fine," there are plenty of skeptics out there who have said that at best the numbers are fishy, and at worst the US government is only marginally better than the Chinese (who are well-known for simply inventing statistics that support their government policies).

When it comes to an interest rate hike, I'm ambivalent. On the one hand, we've been at zero percent (or very nearly) interest rates since the Global Recession seven years ago, so it's high time that we got off the floor in order to dissuade companies from engaging in the same ridiculous business practices which caused each of the last major financial crises in the first place. On the other hand, since we never really solved the problems of the last recessions (we merely kicked the can down the road in time-honored American fashion), a rise in interest rates would likely expose the colossal fault lines in our economic system.