#1
If this planet was just 5 million more miles on the average closer to the sun or further from the sun, this would certainly be a different sort of place.
#4
I'm still reading MSM-NET News Artics on desires for Humanity to SERIOUSLY EVENTUALLY dev advanc techs to FORCIBLY OR PHYSICALLY ALTER THE EARTH'S NORMAL ORBIT AS A WAY TO MINIMIZE GLOBAL WARMING.
IOW, PERTS > are trying hard NOT to say the SOLAR HEATING OF THE EARTH + PLANETARY SYS IS GOING TO INTENSIFY = WORSEN IN TIME.
SUB-IOW, LACK OF SUNSPOTS = SSSSSSSHHHHHHHH ENERGY(S) WILL BUILD UP INSIDE THE SUN, CAUSING THE SUN TO EXPAND? [read, GAIN WEIGHT = FAT] + SLOWING THE SUN'S MOTIONS, WEAKENING ITS GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS.
Apparently it [seemingly]hasn't dawned on the MSM Perts yet that any weakening of the Sun's grav fields also affects all the other planets in our system, not just every human's favorite third space rock from the sun.
#5
Wouldn't the increase in size offset any lessening of gravity?
seems to me there'd be no effective chage since the sun's mass does NOT change much over millenia?
Size of corona does NOT change mass.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/09/2009 22:42 Comments ||
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North Korean defectors say the Stalinist country's National Defense Commission could be behind the decision to release a huge amount of water from a dam on the Hwang River early Sunday morning. Six South Koreans died in flash floods caused by the unannounced release on the southern side of the border.
One defector, a former official in the North Korean Cabinet, on Monday said, "North Korean dams close to the military demarcation line belong to the Ministry of Electrical Industry, but as they are linked to military tactics to release dam water as a weapon that could threaten South Korea, massive releases of water from dams are decided by the commission."
That implies that dams near the border were built to play a dual role of supplying water to factories or for irrigation and of flooding South Korea in wartime.
A former senior North Korean official said, "There is the likelihood that by releasing water from the Hwang River Dam, North Korea showed one of several ways in which it could threaten South Korea." He suggested that the release of water from the dam was probably a long-premeditated provocation.
"North Korea built dams including the Mt. Kumgang Dam to inundate Seoul," he said, but the project was foiled by South Korea building the Peace Dam. "But North Korea believes it can decisively threaten Seoul if it opens the floodgates at times of heavy rainfall," he added.
A defector who took part in the construction of the Hwang River Dam said, "The dam is so well-built and sturdy that there is almost no danger of collapse because the central government took charge of construction. The water stored in the dam is mainly used for irrigation for the Hwanghae provincial region or for industrial use in the Kaesong district. It is against common sense to drain away all the water at once when there had not been much rain."
The Hwang River Dam, which went into use in 2002, is 40 m high and 900 m long. A hydroelectric power plant built on the dam generates 50,000 to 100,000 kw of electricity per year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
A hydroelectric power plant built on the dam generates 50,000 to 100,000 kw of electricity per year.
Still ain't enough to keep the lights on at night. Heh-heh.
But I shouldn't laugh...we in Oregon may be forced to do just that in a few years if the commies in Salem have their way...
#2
While they could use dam releases as weapons it would be pretty counterproductive - it would make them targets and eliminate them as power and irrigation assets to the NORKS. Unless they have an Aswan Dam equivalent relative to Seoul.
#3
A static target like a dam is a turkey shoot for any 21st century missile with even a rudimentary guidance system. But we're talking about 19th century goons with unguided rockets, so I digress.
#4
"...the project was foiled by South Korea building the Peace Dam."
I won't pretend to be well versed in the Korean situation, but I do get the impression that the SKors will bend over backwards to appease their nutjob northern neighbours. They probably provided aid to construct the NKor dams which are being used to kill and threaten their people today. Why not rename it something less pathetic, like the "Stalwart Dam".
#5
Few iff any Koreans north or south of the Korean DMZ wants to see NORTH KOREA get overtly or formally taken over by CHINA and governed from Beijing, NO MATTER HOW "FASTIDIOUS/UNRULY" THE NORKS GET.
PRESIDENT Obama's State Department waited until the cusp of Labor Day weekend before publicly backing Latin America's dictators in their assault on democracy.
Our thug-worshipping diplomats figured they'd slip it by us. With the nation focused on barbecues and the beach, they announced that, if Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez's client, Manuel Zelaya, isn't returned to power in Honduras, the United States won't recognize the results of that country's upcoming free elections.
...
Well, President Obama's taste in elections is finicky:
* He'll recognize the utterly bogus results of Afghanistan's corrupt election.
* He initially blessed the results of Iran's rigged election. (He was for it before he was against it.)
* He hasn't spoken one word of criticism as Chavez continues to strangle Venezuelan democracy.
* He hasn't questioned the divisive, racist politics of Presidente Evo Morales in Bolivia.
* He hasn't demanded free elections in Cuba -- instead, he's easing up on the Castro regime.
...
What's next? Will Obama withdraw support for democratic Colombia? After Honduras, is El Salvador next? Will we be complicit in turning back Latin America's political clock by 50 years?
For shame.
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2009 17:57 ||
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Don't hold your breath this evening waiting for President Obama to utter the words "trial lawyers." As former DNC chairman Howard Dean told an August town hall crowd, Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have carefully avoided including anything in Obamacare that the trial lawyers oppose. As this newspaper has repeatedly noted, the trial lawyers lobby is among Washington's most powerful special interest groups. The trial lawyers used their generous campaign contributions to buy enough senators and representatives to kill measures they oppose, and to approve legislation they favor. Not coincidentally, the latter often creates new reasons for them to sue somebody. That way, the trial lawyers make more money and the politicians get more campaign cash. What the trial lawyers won't tolerate, though,is health care reform that includes medical malpractice caps.
A major factor in rising health care costs is the ever-present threat to doctors and other health care professionals of being sued by trial lawyers looking for big contingency settlements and the fat fees that come with them. As a result, medical malpractice insurance premiums have zoomed into the stratosphere, thus encouraging "defensive medicine." Defensive medicine is when doctors order multiple tests, MRIs, and other procedures, not because the patient needs them, but to protect against litigation based on allegations that something should have been done that wasn't. Experts estimate that as much as $300 billion in unnecessary health care costs are attributable to defensive medicine. Besides more time-consuming appointments, patients are left with fewer services and less access to quality care as doctors either narrow their practices or leave the medical profession entirely.
Incredibly enough, however, the class-action trial lawyers may be just getting tuned up, considering the explosion in recent years of their television advertising seeking new medical malpractice cases. A study conducted for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and released yesterday shows that trial lawyer advertising between 2004 and 2008 soared 1,300 percent in dollars spent, from $3.8 million to more than $62 million. This flood of trial lawyer cash for advertising paid for 10,150 spots in 2004 and steadily increased annually to more than 156,000 last year. We hear a lot of trash talk from the White House and Democrats in Congress about health insurance industry abuses and profits. But that gleaming bronze lady named Freedom adorning the Capitol Dome will croon The Star Spangled Banner before Obama utters a critical word about his buddies and contributors among the trial lawyers.
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2009 17:48 ||
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#1
A study conducted for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and released yesterday shows that trial lawyer advertising between 2004 and 2008 soared 1,300 percent in dollars spent, from $3.8 million to more than $62 million. This flood of trial lawyer cash for advertising paid for 10,150 spots in 2004 and steadily increased annually to more than 156,000 last year.
Most of it must have been spent in Georgia, with a few time spots for The Scooter Store, which can also be 100% funded by the SSTF. Blood parasitic scum be they all!
...What we are now seeing with Obamas coterie is a sort of Billy Carterismafter a while what seems at first outlandish gradually becomes repugnant. Half of the country is now furious at Obama because they are starting to see that Ayers, Khalidi, Meeks, Pfleger, and Wright were representational, rather than aberrational; that is, the associates that for 30 years were the natural friends and role models of Obama proved hard to shake and appear buffoonish 24/7. And stranger still, Obama himself seems surprised that they keep reappearing, as if one so easily can throw under the bus decades of choices, attitudes, and second natures.
What do I mean by representational?
There is a strange pseudo-culture in America, of which Obama is a perfect example. Millionaire Michael Moore announces, Capitalism is evil as he hypes promotion of his moneymaking new movie. Oliver Stones praises Chavez, as the dictator shuts down voices of dissentyet Stone himself could not make a movie in Venezuela as he does here. So too the murderer Che becomes a popular T-shirt emblem among the college elite. Van Jones calls Bush a crackhead but then in self-important style flashes on his website, As a tireless advocate for disadvantaged people and the environment, Van helped to pass Americas first green job training legislation: the Green Jobs Act, which George W. Bush signed into law as a part of the 2007 Energy Bill. Bush is a crackhead in front of some audiences, compliant supporter to others?
Otherwise quite content Americans, getting rich and famous in the free market under the aegis of U.S. freedom and security, have not only the luxury to play the court jester, but see it as a wise investment. Moore would never go to Cuba for brain surgery. Stone would never criticize the Bolivian government while he was living in Bolivia. No Harvard undergraduate would have liked to join occasionally murderous Che in the jungle.
So too it is with middle-class guys like Jones and Obama....
Posted by: Mike ||
09/09/2009 15:10 ||
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#1
Actually, several Americans did join Che Guevara in the jungle. They were all either executed or had to flee for their lives.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/09/2009 15:30 Comments ||
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...In the summer of 2009 we're overwhelmed with stories about the death of the most notable trannie since Elagabalus, followed in short order by solemn meditations on the demise of a criminal politician, along with a few sidebars devoted to the imperial vacation at Martha's Vineyard. And oh yeah -- Michelle's shorts. How could I have overlooked them? But none of that, needless to say, will go into the books. The real story this summer, the one that the scholars will be pondering for decades to come, concerns the absolute collapse of the American messiah.
It looks as if Rush can rest easy -- the Big O has failed, and failed completely. You couldn't say the same about an ordinary president at this stage of his first term. At eight months after inauguration, the run-of-the-mill chief exec is still gearing up, getting a feel for things, beginning to put his plans into motion. But Obama, as we have been told time and again, is in no way ordinary. He is a man spoken of in religious terms -- the One, the Messiah, the Lightbringer. On the stage of history, we do not create our roles. We fill them as they have been previously established through repeated human activity across the millennia. Obama's role is one familiar to anyone versed in the history of the ancient world: he is the god-emperor. Obama was elected to do more than was possible for any ordinary president, and to do it more quickly than is possible for the merely human. His apotheosis was to be like nothing else in history, a redemption of promises so deeply pledged as to have become axiomatic. The age of Obama was to be a time of sweeping, an epoch of transformation. When he strode across our horizon, nothing would remain unchanged.
Now, unless I've been paying too much attention the New York Dolls reunion to notice, nothing of the sort has occurred. It's been a dull summer on the messiah front. In fact, Obama's performance so far has been dramatically below average even for the sorry run of mortal presidents. We have, in the past few months, witnessed one of the great anticlimaxes of political history. The god-emperor has failed, and no one can deny it....
Posted by: Mike ||
09/09/2009 08:11 ||
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Obama could easily prevail by setting aside his status as god-emperor, dropping the effort to leave his imprint on the age and ignoring the cries of his more fanatical followers.
Chance of that happening? As J.R. Dunn indicates, slim to none. Barry is simply rearranging the deck chairs. Hopefully all of us make it to the small boats.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Gregory Kane You know Chucky The Lip better as Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. Rangel is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and he's also a well-known hatchet man and race baiter for the Democratic Party.
Chucky The Lip's latest race-baiting salvo came last week when he spoke at a health-care forum in the Washington Heights section of New York City. Those opposed to President Obama's health care plan are motivated, sayeth The Lip, by "bias" and "prejudice." Translation from Lip-ese into standard English: they have a problem with a black man sitting in the Oval Office. In case that wasn't clear enough, Rangel added this: "Some Americans have not gotten over the fact that Obama is president of the United States. They go to sleep wondering, 'How did this happen?'"
Actually, I go to bed wondering how race-baiting demagogues like Rangel and Michigan Rep. John Conyers get re-elected term after term. I'm still miffed at Rangel for calling former President Bush "our Bull Connor," and it's not because I have any great love for Bush. It's because the allegation was scandalous, darned near slanderous and downright untrue. Comparing the president who named the first two black secretaries of state and who had one of the most diverse Cabinets in history to the man who turned fire hoses and police dogs on black civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 was a new low in demagoguery.
But with that quote about how some Americans go to sleep wondering how Obama became president, Rangel is absolutely right, but not for the reasons he thinks. And we should thank him for dredging up the issue of race. It allows us, once again, to point out how race worked FOR Obama during his run for president, not against him.
What most of those Americans who are wondering how Obama got to be president are wondering about is not how a black man got to be president, but how a guy with only two years experience as a U.S. senator, less than 10 years experience as a state senator and absolutely zero years of military experience got elected president of the United States, leader of the free world and commander in chief of our armed forces.
Really, could a white guy with those same credentials have run for president of the United States and won? Or would a white guy with those same credentials have been laughed out of the presidential race before he was barely in it?
Perhaps some full disclosure is in order at this point. I'm a registered Republican. I didn't vote for Obama, for a laundry list of reasons. Obama's view on abortion and the Roe v. Wade Supreme court decision was at the top of my list.
But on that list, right behind abortion, was the matter of experience. There was no way I could see myself voting for a guy who was, basically, a state senator, and helping to elect him to what is in essence the most powerful office in the world. I dismiss, out of hand, Obama's two years of experience in the U.S. Senate. I consider that no experience at all. (Yes, I know that as of November 2008, Obama had technically been a U.S. senator for three years and 10 months. But he declared his candidacy for the presidency and started running in 2007. I don't consider running for president legitimate experience as a senator.)
In addition to his woeful inexperience, there are the matters of Obama's age -- he was only 47 when he was elected -- and his politics, which are far to liberal for my tastes. (The only two other Democrats who've been elected president since 1968, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, at least had the wisdom to campaign as moderates.) Obama's liberal leanings may explain why he's appointed to the Supreme Court a justice who thinks white male judges don't quite cut the mustard, and a black man who's compared Republicans to a well-known bodily orifice and who's also a 9/11 conspiracy theorist to an administration post.
Rangel has a point: if his race didn't help get this far-left liberal, wet-behind-the-ears whippersnapper elected president, then what did?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
...ah, the dying MSM. Their salute to their former reader and viewership.
To the last, I will grapple with thee... from Hell's heart, I stab at thee! For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee!
#2
Broer teen broer (brother against brother), the ill-fated leftest cadre of the Congressional Black Caucus will fight to the death for Charles of the straight locks. We simply wouldn't understand.
#3
Oberman was playing from the same book last night. He said everyone who is against Obama is a latent racist. We validate our racist beliefs by not working with the president but by going against him. We are all bigots that don't deserve to be heard, let alone part of the democratic process.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/09/2009 11:06 Comments ||
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#4
The by Olberman's "logic," Pan, any black person who was against George Bush's policies must also be a racist.
Right?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/09/2009 16:31 Comments ||
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#5
"The" = "Then"
PMIF.
Wratts.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/09/2009 16:32 Comments ||
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#6
Barbara, Barbara, Barbara! How many times do I have to tell you: a black person cannot be a racist by opposing a white person.
A black person can be a racist. For example, Thomas Sowell opposes Obama. Therefore, he is a racist.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/09/2009 21:56 Comments ||
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#7
Oh, yeah, Rambler - what was I thinking?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/09/2009 22:20 Comments ||
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#1
A quote from the article: I really cannot imagine how frightened this girl is, because we adults who left Islam in America, we are scared. Were living in constant fear. Because according to Islamic law, we must be killed. And that's not just radical Islam. That's all schools of Islamic law. A person who leaves Islam must be killed. Period. No doubt about it. So this is coming to America. And radical Islam is following us here and we need protection.
#2
Bullshit this is coming to America. I don't give a fuck who you are, you kill someone in this country and you'll end up behind bars for life. Do it in Texas and you'll end up dead and the sooner the better.
Radical Islam my ass. Live here and obey OUR laws or go back to the shithole you were born in and live in fear there.
By Amir Mir LAHORE: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's September 6 statement that Sri Lankan elements had been involved in the March 3, 2009 attack on the visiting cricket team in Lahore has further deepened the mystery as to who had actually masterminded the bloody incident.
Talking to newsmen in the federal capital on Sunday, Gilani in fact quoted Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, saying terrorist elements in his country might be involved in the 3/3 Lankan cricket team attack. The brutal assault on the world of sports since the attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 killed eight people, including six policemen and injured six Sri Lankan players. As the attack grabbed breaking news slot worldwide, the pundits were quick to point out similarity between the Lahore and Mumbai attacks ñ an armed group of people swooping on pre-determined targets with chilling ruthlessness. However, Lahore differed from Mumbai in one major respect ñ not a single assailant was killed or nabbed by the Pakistani authorities. In the absence of an Ajmal Kasab, there began breathless speculations about the identity of those who orchestrated the attack on the Lankan team.
From India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to militant groups (like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) to the Sri Lankan Tamil avengers to al-Qaeda-Taliban ñ their complicity in the 3/3 attack was discussed threadbare. Yet, by evening, RAW had already been blamed for masterminding the 3/3 to avenge the 26/11. A senior PPP leader and Sindh Assembly member Nabeel Gabool told Geo TV network almost immediately after the assault: "The Lahore incident was a replay of the 26/11 Mumbai attack and most likely carried out by Indian intelligence agents. Those investigating the bloody attack have already recovered some India-made weapons as well as food items from the crime scene."
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, too, didn't rule out a foreign hand and the Pakistani foreign office thought the assault was perpetrated by the enemies of Pakistan-Lankan friendship. No prizes for guessing who they were referring to. A day after the Lahore attack, the national press had flashed a warning letter by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Punjab police, citing in a clandestine communiquÈ on January 22, 2009 an alleged Indian plan to target the Lankan cricket team. The CID report claimed that the RAW planned to carry out the attack on the route the Sri Lankan team was to take from their hotel to the ground. At the same time, however, there were those in Pakistan who were not willing to buy the official spin on the Indian involvement in the Lahore terrorist attack. Former information minister Sherry Rehman was the first one to have officially denied any government knowledge of an Indian involvement. On March 6, 2009, the Pakistani media reported that police and intelligence officials had categorically ruled out involvement of any Indian intelligence agency as well as the LTTE and were zeroing in on the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama was quoted as saying by the international media: "From our point of view, there is no Indian involvement. India has helped us in our counterterrorist efforts. I don't see a need for India to target the Sri Lankan cricket team."
Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer hinted at the involvement of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He had told the media people after visiting the site of the attack: "It is the same pattern, the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai." His statement was followed by stories in the national press stating that the attack could have been an attempt by the LeT militants to hijack the bus carrying the visiting cricket team to demand in return the release of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
On June 17, 2009, almost 15 weeks after the Liberty terrorist attacks, the Lahore police claimed having broken a Punjabi Taliban network, besides arresting a man seen on CCTV footages, shooting down a traffic warden. Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Pervez Rathore told a news conference that the suspect, identified as Mohammad Zubair alias Nek Mohammad, coming from Dera Ghazi Khan district, was arrested from Madina colony in Lahore and was among the seven terrorists who had attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team with an aim to kidnap them. He described Aqeel alias Dr Usman of Kahota as the mastermind of the attack who had finalised the plan at Tauhid hostel on Wahdat road, Lahore and a rented house in Madina colony near Cavalry ground, Lahore. Zubair told the police that he was working as a waiter at a small hotel in Rawalpindi when a man Saifullah convinced him for waging Jihad.
Almost a month later, on July 10, 2009, an investigation report submitted by the interior ministry to the National Assembly standing committee on sports and culture claimed that the main objective of the attack on the Sri Lankan team was to hijack the bus carrying the players and pressurise the government to release some arrested terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi including Akram Lahori and Malik Ishaq. Almost a week later, the national press reported on July 22, 2009 that Pakistan has handed over to India comprehensive evidence of the Indian involvement in a number of terrorist acts on its soil, including the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. These reports said a dossier containing proofs of India's involvement in subversive activities in Pakistan was handed over by Prime Minister Gilani to his Indian counterpart Dr Singh during their meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
And last but not the least, Prime Minister Gilani has spoken about the Lankan connection in the 3/3 attacks. The million dollar question remains: Who was the actual mastermind of the 3/3 attack?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
I am surprised that anyone even listens to this doddering fool. He has been wrong too often. He is an apologist for the Palestinians and no friend of Israel. Throw him in the dust bin of history and forget about him.
Following the statement to Asharq Al-Awsat from a high-ranking Syrian source in which he said that his country would not surrender its Iraqi dissidents and that had Syria done so in the past Nuri al-Maliki would not be the country's Prime Minister today, and so the relationship between the two neighboring countries has deteriorated even further.
Iraqi Prime Minster Nuri al-Maliki was one of the Iraqi dissidents residing in Syria during the Saddam Hussein era. Damascus did not hand these dissidents over then, not out of love for them, but out of hatred for the Saddam Hussein regime. The Syrian source was clever to limit his statement on the non-surrender of [political] dissidents, to Iraqi dissidents, for had he generalized this [to other dissidents] we would have to recall what happened to the Kurdish commander Abdullah Öcalan.
There is an irony in the Syrian statement that must be highlighted here. If Damascus is so proud that it did not hand over its Iraqi dissidents to Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein, then why is Syria now attacking the West, and particularly America, for overthrowing the Saddam Hussein regime?
Why does Damascus, in every forum, say that the occupied [Iraqi] people have the right to resist their invaders, even though the new leaders of Iraq previously resided in Damascus, and planned to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime themselves from there?
To return to the issue of the Syrian -- Iraqi crisis, we do not know if we can say that this has reached the point of no return, especially as both sides are currently following the policy of brinkmanship with regards to their statements to the media. We do not know if Damascus has calculated its escalation against al-Maliki in an intelligent manner, in that al-Maliki is not Iraq, and that due to the divisions [in Iraq] and the new Shiite coalition in Baghdad, his prospects of winning a second term in office at the forthcoming Iraqi elections are weak. Therefore, charging into conflict with al-Maliki does not necessarily mean that this conflict will be ongoing, as it may be very easy to reconcile with his successor. Perhaps this is the reason behind the Syrian escalation in response to every Iraqi statement.
This may also apply to Iran's calculations, as it seems that Tehran is pleased with what is taking place between Baghdad and Damascus. Perhaps the Iranians want Syria to be pre-occupied, or even punished [by Iraq] as it is politically unhappy with Damascus for flirting with the Americans and negotiating with the Israelis, not to mention some of the analysis that was made behind closed doors [in Syria] regarding the outbreak of the post-election crisis in Iran. Therefore Tehran may view al-Maliki as a man at the end of his political career, looking for a lifeline, and therefore it is appropriate for him to start a conflict with the Syrians in order to preoccupy and exhaust them.
As for the Arabs, there is a mixture of confusion and gloating. One of my sources who in the past has revealed to me numerous confidential issues relating to the Middle East, told me that everybody is now watching this [conflict], including the Americans, particularly because there is a conviction that the Syrians have gotten too big for their boots, and should therefore clean up their own mess.
Therefore it seems that the Syrian -- Iraqi crisis may escalate even further, it also appears that there is no party, either in the region or abroad, that wishes to break up this conflict, as everybody would prefer to watch it, especially since it is free.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > RUSSIA DELIVERS SAMS TO SYRIA + AQ KHAN: PAKISTAN HELPED IRAN'S NUKE QUEST [USA turned a blind eye to PK Nucprogs during Cold War].
#3
OOOOOPPSIES, forgot BHARAT RAKSHAK > SPACE WAR - THE CIA OPERATION THAT SHOULD'VE PREVENTED THE [2003] IRAQ WAR. Saad Tawfiq reiterates belief that SADDAM had shut down his Nuke-WMD Devprogs.
While I've often thought that Tom Friedman's thinking is muddled, I have never before thought of it as depraved. But what other conclusion can one draw from this?
Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China's leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.
Our one-party democracy is worse. The fact is, on both the energy/climate legislation and health care legislation, only the Democrats are really playing.
"One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks!" Just last week Xie Changfa was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the crime of attempting to organize a political meeting. Apparently, in Tom Friedman's mind, the "drawback" of Chinese democrats being treated like violent criminals is outweighed by the benefit of central-planning that serves ends Tom Friedman likes.
Matt Welch is dumbfounded ("One almost doesn't know where to begin"), while Jonah Goldberg notes that Friedman's line of thinking has a long and unsavory pedigree.
Let me just say for the record that this is a monstrous column. When faced with American public defection from elite-preferred outcomes on certain policy issues that involve many difficult tradeoffs of the kind that democracies, with much jostling and argument, are supposed to work out among many different groups, Friedman extols the example of ... China's political system, because it's both enlightened and autocratic? Who among us knew?
Posted by: Mike ||
09/09/2009 15:01 Comments ||
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Who among us knew?
Certainly not the Chinese people. There are several hundred protests in China every day! These are generally protests against specific corrupt officials and criminal actors protected but the government.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/09/2009 15:23 Comments ||
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#3
Who would have thought a New York Socia1ist plutocrat would have more in common with the Beijing Communist plutocracy than the proles under them? Really.
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2009 17:28 Comments ||
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#4
I invite Mr. Friedman to live in Beijing. He can write for the Beijing Times.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2009 18:16 Comments ||
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But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages
So, he's against all labor laws and any type of pollution controls. Interesting view for a lefty.
#6
Speaking of pollution, when Microsoft Xbox engineers from Redmond talk about visiting the manufacturing facility in China, they refer to it as "going to Mordor". Funny how "workers paradise" so frequently means "hell hole".
Ms. Paglia once again makes clear what is going wrong in the world. Always delightful even if you don't agree.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
While it was enjoyable reading and she does manage to stray from the lemming-line, I am never impressed with her. She is just another product of the liberal, "Who can I blame to make myself holier than thou" game. Obama bad, Bush bad, Cheney bad, democrats dumb, republicans dumber. At least she's a witty nag.
#2
Too bad she can't understand the implications of her own words. She goes on fawning over the "visionaries" of her youth who were so wonderful in their drug-addled music and literature while berating the current Democrap elite that doesn't understand the "common" people.
Forty years ago it was forseen that the narcissistic flower-power youth were nothing but incipient authoritarians or sheep trained by the increasingly leftist academics, and that the current result would follow as night follows day.
But Paglia can't understand that as she rails against the result she shouldn't go on touting the cause. She, too, is a victim of that lack of education in logic and critical thinking.
#6
Its a sad day when a commercial featuring processed cheese is more inspiring than the President, and the worse team in baseball has a winning percentage a good 10-15 points better than the approval rating of elected officials.
#7
Too bad she can't understand the implications of her own words.
Camille is clear-eyed enough to see what's actually going on, instead of merely parroting the standard "Obama rulez, Palin SUX, f--- U rethugz!!!1!!" you get from the Kos Kiddies. I say we encourage her in her observations, even as we disagree with her conclusions. She just may well come around to our way of thinking.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/09/2009 13:48 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
J.R. Dunn, American Thinker
You know Chucky The Lip better as Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. Rangel is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and he's also a well-known hatchet man and race baiter for the Democratic Party.
LAHORE: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's September 6 statement that Sri Lankan elements had been involved in the March 3, 2009 attack on the visiting cricket team in Lahore has further deepened the mystery as to who had actually masterminded the bloody incident.
Following the statement to Asharq Al-Awsat from a high-ranking Syrian source in which he said that his country would not surrender its Iraqi dissidents and that had Syria done so in the past Nuri al-Maliki would not be the country's Prime Minister today, and so the relationship between the two neighboring countries has deteriorated even further.
