Harvard historian Niall Ferguson apologized Saturday for having said that economist John Maynard Keyes did not care about future generations because he was gay and had no children. The question I want to raise here is the over-all logic of Ferguson’s underlying reasoning. What makes him continually make embarrassing and simple errors of fact, as […]
Saudi Arabian Women, Unveiled (VICE video)
VICE reports on Saudi Arabian women, unveiled, showing the strong private/ public divide in the Kingdom (and moreover private and public are drawn differently there).
We’ve been hurt before: Jon Stewart on Obama’s Renewed Pledge on Guantanamo
Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show on President Obama’s renewed push to close the illegal Guantanamo prison camp. Limbo Update America wanted to believe Barack Obama’s promise to close Guantanamo, but the skeptical country had been hurt before. The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook
Syria’s Neighbors have Rising Anxiety about Crisis (Three Aljazeera Videos)
Turkey is strategizing how to limit the impact of the Syria war on Turkey. Ankara is particularly concerned by the emergence of a relatively autonomous Kurdish area in northern Syria, fearing that PKK guerrillas might find refuge there. Turkey is also deeply worried about chemical weapons falling into hands of various sorts of guerrillas. Turkey […]
Bad Camel
Bad camel sticks head through window of family car, delights little girl no end by licking whole top of her head.
Our Terror: US Drone Strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, April 2013:
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism surveys US covert drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen for April, 2013 Pakistan April 2013 actions The US launched two strikes on Pakistan, killing at least eight. CIA drones have attacked Pakistan’s tribal areas twice every month since January, when six strikes killed 27 people. A strike on April 14 […]
The Incredible Shrinking Cost of Solar Energy Drives Mega-Projects around the World
Rob Wile uses a graph to point out the obvious, the dramatic fall in the cost of solar power generation. In many countries– Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal — and in parts of the US such as the Southwest, solar is at grid parity. That means it is as inexpensive to build a solar plant as […]
Fracking ourselves to Death: Hydrocarbons are bad for Children and other Living Things (Cantarow)
Ellen Cantarow writes at Tomdispatch.com: More than 70 years ago, a chemical attack was launched against Washington State and Nevada. It poisoned people, animals, everything that grew, breathed air, and drank water. The Marshall Islands were also struck. This formerly pristine Pacific atoll was branded “the most contaminated place in the world.” As their cancers […]
Why Obama doesn’t want to intervene in Syria
After President Obama’s remarks about chemical weapons use in Syria, many newspaper articles appeared suggesting that he was rethinking his opposition to US involvement there. They were wrong, and weren’t listening. Obama said we don’t know who used the chemical weapons or to what extent. That isn’t building a case for intervention, it is knocking […]