You know this Israel-Hamas War is newsworthy because I've been gazing at MSNBC all morning, and there has yet to be even one commercial.  On nostalgic Tuesday today, I focus on the Hamas and the Gaza Strip.   My posting 15 years ago said :   End to the Gaza Strip War : “Why don’t those #&%#@* Hamas idiots just stop lobbing rockets into Israel,” courtesy of a golf buddy pundit expressed at the Ala Wai Golf Course Clubhouse. He wanted me to repeat this in my daily blog, but I thought we should protect both of us from any possible fatwa by not specifically identifying the source.  Two years later in 2010 , I reported that the 128th country to visit this blog site, was the  Gaza Strip , with, then, a population of 1.5 million.   I might add  that I am now up to 221 entities and 2,731,530 pageviews.  That 875,512 pageviews in the graphic is because, I stopped paying Google many years ago to carry my blog. While there are only 195 countries in the world, their are 221 entries because

Well, there are now wars on several fronts.  Of course Ukraine, and the Republican civil war in our House of Representatives.  Now,  Hamas terrorists are creating havoc in Israel  with their attack in Gaza.  Look for a decisive response and watch how the price of oil changes.   A glance at the right column on petroleum prices shows that the $100/barrel price precipitously dropped to $84/barrel from a week ago.  Interesting what this will be on Monday.  Interested in buying or selling your home?  Notice that mortgage rates are now at around 7.5%, and seem headed for 8%.   Read this to understand how mortgage rates differ from long-term interest rates . Way back towards the end of 1981 it was up to 18.39%.  This was during the Great Recession.  Then, a gradual drop over two decades, and the  30-year mortgage rate  was was down to 2.67% at the end of 2020.  The past 34 months saw this sudden escalation. We all place a bottle of mayonnaise or catsup in a refrigerator after opening.  But do