MONDAY’S GAMES AND FROLICS Boston Massacre 3 dead. Kabul, Afghanistan – 24 dead. Mogadishu, Somalia – 38 dead. Combined all-star team in Iraq – 61 dead, 271 wounded. The major leagues are tough and the Boston Marathon just doesn’t have what it takes to make the Big Time. However, our prayers and well-wishing thoughts go…
Blog Archives
BOMBS AWAY!
KOREAN MISSILES Range Hwasong 5 – 300 KM (apx 186 miles). Cannot reach Japan. Hwasong 6 – 500 KM (about 310 miles) Musudan – 3000 KM (10 x Hwasong 5′s 186 miles range – you do the math.) Taepodong 1 – 2,500 KM Cannot reach Hawaii or Guam. Taepodong 2 – 6,700 KM Could threaten…
Where Is This Going? – We’ve Heard This Song Before
While Arabs may not be smart enough to see that all these raids and counter-raids are hindering the peace process, Israelis ought to know better. It is very mystifying. **************************** From The Wall St. Journal- TEL AVIV—Israeli jets struck the Gaza Strip late Tuesday and early Wednesday for the first time since a week of…
WHAT HAPPENS IN CYPRUS SHOULD STAY IN CYPRUS
This tiny island that hardly merits having a name has gotten more attention than it deserves. Newspapers and TV flood us with stories about its economy. But why? In truth, if a giant tsunami washed over this bit of land smaller than Connecticut, nobody would notice or care. The Cypriots themselves would be dead and…
Bored!
I know you don’t care – and who can blame you? – but here are the best stories of the day: 22 March 2013 Today’s top story France: Sarkozy comeback dream in tatters after corruption charge Agence France-Presse. Nicolas Sarkozy’s hopes of a political comeback lay in tatters Friday after the former French president was…
The American-Israeli Relationship
From THE ECONOMIST “MAKE no mistake about it,” said a senior Israeli official preparing for the arrival on March 20th of Barack Obama on a three-day visit. “Iran will be front and centre of the discussions between the president and Mr Netanyahu.” The dangers to the region from the bloody Syrian civil war and the…
OUR FINEST
I can no longer remember a time when New York City’s police force was not informally referred to by NY politicians as “OUR FINEST.” Understandably, they never told us Finest What. Surely, they could not have meant NY’s finest citizens, thereby putting down the firefighters, emergency ambulance squads, and the people themselves. In truth, they…
Poaching Madness
Rhino horn fetches nearly $30,000 a pound, more than crack cocaine, and conservationists worry that this “ridiculous price,” as one wildlife manager put it, could drive rhinos into extinction. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/world/africa/ruthless-smuggling-rings-put-rhinos-in-the-cross-hairs.html?ref=ivory In an instant, an entire Chadian squad of rangers was cut down with alarming precision by elephant poachers who were skilled at killing more than…
Kill ‘Em All
PEW Research Center reports this: Only 44% of American women approve of drone strikes but 40% don’t give a hoot or holler whether they endanger civilian lives. Their concern is whether such strikes will lead to retaliation and/or damage America’s reputation. Men love drone strikes – only 21% disapprove and 11% are bored out of…
At The Oscars
If what you like is plenty of action, thrilling escapes sans verisimilitude, then ARGO is for you. It is a loosely based, highly contrived account of an incident in Iran that is not worth describing. You probably know what it is, anyway. Ben Affleck was in charge of falsities and he is entirely unapologetic. I…
When The Left Hand Does Not Know What The Right Hand Is Doing
The Oscar Pistorius story has taken either a macabre or hilarious twist. You tell me. Hilton Botha, the chief investigator in the alleged murder of Reeva Steenkamp, the glamorous girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius, is himself facing an attempted murder charge stemming from an incident in 2011. Apparently nobody informed the prosecutor in the Oscar case.…
HOO DAT?
Pollsters do not directly ask responders who Joe Biden is but the best estimate on the basis of various questions is that roughly 50% know he is Vice President. That’s not so bad. Fewer have a clue about John Kerry or Chuck Hagel. Hegel is probably known by about 20-25%. Compared to these chaps, Hillary…
DESERT DRAMA – ISLAMISTS TAKE HOSTAGES IN ALGERIA
This article really puts all the nonsense about deficits, trade ceilings and other such garbage that dominate the TV news into perspective. ********************************** ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — In a desert standoff deep in the Sahara, the Algerian army ringed a natural gas complex where Islamist militants hunkered down with dozens of hostages Wednesday night after…
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE OIL AFTER AN OIL SPILL?
This article is reproduced in its entirety from ForeignPolicy.com with its permission. A recovery effort is currently underway to clean up a massive oil slick caused by the explosion of the oil rig Deep Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico last week. The leaking well is gushing more than 1,000 barrels of oil a day…
Civil War Movies
At about the halfway mark of the Civil War, Abe Lincoln takes the bold step of issuing an Emancipation Proclamation. A truly great moment in U.S. history. So it is now 150 years since that most important time. The film, LINCOLN, is about that moment. Since it stars Daniel Day-Lewis, there wasn’t, and could not…
Today’s Doings in Mali
“Little” Mali is probably a little less than the size of Alaska and Texas put together so it is no wonder that few Americans know where it is or care to know. But in Africa they do know, and they care. This report is an excerpt from today’s Al Jazeera. *********************** Rebels have grabbed more…
OBAMA’S LAW
Very quietly on December 30, the President reauthorized ‘Fisa Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012′, which provides a five-year extension of Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Big Brother will watch you. Worse yet, Obama has agreed to a provision preventing the construction of any new facility for transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo…
GET OUT YOUR CALCULATORS!
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ Two of the GREATEST economists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT6u7Q
THE BRADLEY MANNING CASE
Bradley Manning was arrested in Iraq under suspicion of being the source of the vast transfer of US state secrets to WikiLeaks, he is alleged to have entered into a web chat with the hacker Adrian Lamo using the handle bradass87. “I’m honestly scared,” the anonymous individual wrote. “I have no one I trust, I…
UNHAPPY IN OKINAWA
This just in from The Japan Times *************************** Okinawa mood getting worse Crime, Osprey add to anger over pervasive U.S. military bases By YURI KAGEYAMA AP OKINAWA, Okinawa Pref. — For nearly 70 years, Okinawa has gotten more than its share of America’s military — more jets rattling homes, more crimes rattling nerves. It was…
MASSACRE AS A WAY OF LIFE
While people living in Goma and sheltering in nearby camps continue to live in fear of new clashes between an armed group called the M23 and loyalist forces, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is witnessing increased violence in Masisi, some 80 kilometers (48 miles) to the northwest. In this isolated area of North Kivu,…
BAD YEAR FOR GUN FANS
Gun advocates are in hiding for the time being, and rightly so. You cannot match reason against heart-felt emotions and visceral feelings. The entire nation is in mourning for the children who died in NewTown, Ct, cut down by a heavily armed madman. Consequently, this is a time for cries for a “national conversation,” and…
BLOWHARDS, BLOW EARLY, BLOW OFTEN, BLOW LONG
Worries about chemical warfare that could be introduced by Syria have caused President Barack Obama to warn Syria that “[t]he use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable” — a comment echoed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, both of whom said that use of the arsenal…
PSEUDONYMS
I don’t like pseudonyms. If you have signed up using a pseudonym, I now invite you to delete your name. But I also ask you to tell others of our existence, if you are staying on. If I have been neglecting topics, please let me know. Check the topics on the right. If you have…
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