down the garden path...

Historian’s wait at least a generation before any serious attempt to grapple with the past. There was a philosophy professor from the South who spoke of the importance of the death of the last Civil War veteran. Only once we loosen the emotional attachment to events can we really look at the past with even a modicum of objectivity. This may turn many accounts, eyewitness reports, and the conventional wisdom on its head.
For instance, McCarthy was certifiable and his hearings took a tremendous toll, but communism was a national security threat. The International, an apparatus of the Soviet government, led many left leaning Liberals and socialists down the garden path. America was at war with the Soviets. I do not approve of redbaiting and know that its proponent used it to smash Unions, the Arts and journalism, but it would be wrong to damn the justification for the hearings as insanity. Throwing one’s lot in with the Soviets was not a harmless political act

photo by Totalitaria

the healthiest patient in intensive care....

The following is from the Guardian. It shows the bankruptcy of the American approach to cutting down on CO2.

"How green is the Prius really? Car expert Paul Horrell gives his verdict
In as far as a car can be green, the Prius isn't the only green car. It isn't even the only hybrid car. Yet from all the hype surrounding it and the evangelism of its owners, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's single-handedly causing the ice-caps to re-freeze.
Not so. There are now a number of cars on sale that can match or beat its official CO2 figure. The easiest way to make an economical car, and hence a low CO2-producing car, is to make it small - which is why the Prius-beaters are all pretty cramped: the VW Polo Bluemotion, the Mini Cooper Diesel, the Seat Ibiza Ecomotive. Shortly, there will also be a Ford Fiesta and a Smart. The Prius is big enough for five.
So the Prius isn't the most economical car, merely the most economical big car. Toyota's Lexus subsidiary uses hybrid power on its most economical big SUV, and its most economical limousine.
In planet-saving terms, that's like being the healthiest patient in intensive care.
And the "combined" fuel and CO2 figures quoted by manufacturers are a combination of two tests. In the out-of town figures, a Prius is beaten on economy by a BMW 318d saloon.
That's because the hybrid system recovers your car's kinetic energy as you slow down, then re-uses it in acceleration. In town, that's useful - and makes the Prius unbeatable as a family car for urban use. On a motorway, at steady speeds, the hybrid system - motors and batteries - is so much dead weight.
Also, because it was developed mostly for Japan and America, where they don't do diesel cars, the Prius' primary engine runs on petrol. In Europe, we have diesel cars, which are fundamentally more efficient - they don't need the extra complication of a hybrid system to nearly match the Prius' saintly thrift.

photo by mormegil

lock'em up and throw away the key, not!

A study described on CNN, concludes that 1 in a 100 American’s are incarcerated. “The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier.” The report also concludes that there has been no resulting decrease in recidivism or deterrence.
Shocking too is that "While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine."
Crime is admittedly a major problem but building more prisons isn’t the answer.
Too blame racism for the high levels of incarceration among young black males is too simplistic as is blaming it for high incidence of First Nations people incarcerated in Canadian prisons. Both beg for a social fix but there is either no will or a feasible plan to overcome this injustice.

photo by Ray (rayphua)

there is a reason military intelligence is an oxymoron...

According to CNN, “More than six years after the United States invaded Afghanistan, the Taliban has regained control of about 10 percent of the country, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Just a few weeks ago, Gates [Defense Secretary Robert Gates] touted NATO military success in Afghanistan in 2007 and said the Taliban controlled no land.”
10% might not seem like much but the government in Kabul only controls 30%. The rest is tribal

photo by Moslihh

I’ve lost the source but someone last night compared the lack of challenges to Roe vs. Wade with the chances that the next President will strike down NAFTA. Obama and Clinton in there latest debate pandered to the rust belt working man. The jobs are not coming back with NAFTA or without. America has prospered under NAFTA. The Free Trade Agreement is such as easy target and now is not the time to talk about hard choices.

photo by Preterist1972

bee or not bee...

Jeremiads paint potential environmental catastrophe due to global warming in broad strokes but sometimes something as small and insignificant as a honeybee can have a profound effect on our livelihood. 2/3 of all crops need to be pollinated and according to The Herald Tribune, “…in the last year, American beekeepers lost 30 percent of the approximately 2.5 million managed colonies to diseases, according to the U.S Department of Agriculture. The deaths are linked to a recent surge in diseases and pests, like parasitic mites, to Colony Collapse Disorder, which leads bees to abandon their hives. Scientists are still struggling to understand the causes of colony collapse.”
The article uses Hagen Das as an example of a company heavily dependent on the bee and yet is also living in denial. They seem smug about the $250 thousand they’ve donated to research. This “…when Growers have known for years that honey bees faced increased threats. One indicator was a surge in the rental price of a beehive, to $140 this season from $40 in 2000.”

photo by lotusfee

rock vs blow...

Due to the disparity of sentencing for possession of crack and powder cocaine legislators judges have enacted new sentencing guidelines that will see the release of around 20,000 inmates convicted of possessing crack cocaine. This was seen as a race issue: blacks use crack, whites powder. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, however, is pushing to have lawmakers reverse the decision because putting it into force will allow violent criminals back on the street. If the sentencing guidelines involving cocaine are unfair, the convicted individual should be released early regardless of the consequences. It is only just and will defuse a racial powder keg.

photo by DCvision2006

and the oscar goes to who?

The rap on the Oscars was that they rewarded box office success. Now it has gone to the opposite extreme with all of the pictures up for top picture, according to at least one source, not in the year’s top 50 grossing motion pictures. Juno may be an exception grossing over a 100 million. This could explain the low ratings for the ceremony as well. Oscar campaigns follow the festival circuit where creative merit trumps audience appeal. Somehow a balance must be struck where both artistic merit and wide spread appeal are determining factors.

photo by shutterblog

we the people...

Obama often speaks of himself using the editorial “we”, but as Mark Twain pointed out, “Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial "we"." The quip is aimed at populist’s like Obama. Barack is of course referring to “we” in the populist sense of “we the people”, and you don’t have to be a William Kristoll to worry about a populist President. Kristoll quotes Obama’s wife, Michelle, as saying, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.” There in lies the danger of the demagogue for she has been an adult since the mid-eighties and there are at least a few things any American can be proud of during that time. Messianic overtones scare me and may get Obama shot.

photo by Koog family

chaos theory in the iron age...

According to a survey done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life as reported by CNN atheists or agnostics account for only 4 percent of all Americans.
This figure seems low but is probably accurate. In an age where science is king when technology can put more than a billion transistors on a microchip and the entire human genome can be charted and that the science necessary to do so would be impossible without having the theory of evolution as its foundation why are so many drawn to Iron Age myths?

photo by sliver108

democracy triumphs again...

I fail to understand why the party of Benazir Bhutto is looking for rapprochement with the very groups that ordered her assassination. But this is what is happening. Rather than fighting the insurgents in the West, they look to negotiate and to re-establish semi-autonomy in the region.
The only upside is the ruling coalition do not have the two thirds majority to force Musarraf from power.

photo by "abro"

la's tapped resources...

According to CNN at “...the 18th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting, held Saturday....The title of best municipal water was shared by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves Los Angeles, and the town of Clearbrook, British Columbia.”
Who would have thought the water would be so good in an area with such dirty air? The irony I suppose is that Los Angeles may be the bottled water capital.

photo by Muffet

the internet enters the satellite age at last...

(CNN) -- Japan launched a rocket Saturday carrying a satellite that will test new technology that promises to deliver "super high-speed Internet" service to homes and businesses around the world.
It has always struck me as odd that the Internet relies on fibre optics, coaxial cable and telephone lines which harkens back to the days before satellite transmission. We have been going wireless but this relies on the “cell” technology. The launch of this satellite will offer service to all at speeds of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second. I wonder why this has been so long in coming? I suppose it comes down to how the technology evolved as a system to circumvent direct blockages in services from point a to point b in case of nuclear attack.

photo by NaOH

obama comedown syndrome too little too late...

David Brooks posits that there maybe a condition beginning to exhibit itself by Democratic supporters called the “Obama Comedown Syndrome”. He looks at Obama’s voting record and asks, “If he values independent thinking, why is his the most predictable liberal vote in the Senate? A People for the American Way computer program would cast the same votes for cheaper.” And goes on to say,
“The Gang of 14 created bipartisan unity on judges, but Obama sat it out. Kennedy and McCain created a bipartisan deal on immigration. Obama opted out of the parts that displeased the unions. Sixty-eight senators supported a bipartisan deal on FISA. Obama voted no. And if he were president now, how would the High Deacon of Unity heal the breach that split the House last week?”
Unfortunately I think the comedown will not happen until after next November when the anti-Bush will be elected and that ‘aint a good thing.

photo by Steve Rhodes

masharraf vindication political suicide...

As you know, I am a fan of Musharraf. The recent elections seem to vindicate me. In a US brokered deal, he brought Bhutto to share power. On her return, an assassination attempt led to anarchy and martial law established. Then, in part due to her own stupidity or messianic delusion, she was assassinated and he put the election off until now. This was, considering the results, fair and transparent. The only knock was his dismissal of the Supreme Court Justice, but I wonder how impartial the judiciary was in Pakistan given the level of corruption at every other level of government. I think there is more danger of Pakistan descending into chaos now than there was before the election if Musharraf is forced from power.

photo Sir Cam

huckabee just can't say good night...

I don’t understand. The right wing of the GOP despises McCain and yet by being divisive threaten his chances in November by encouraging potential voters not to show up at the polls. Huckabee is toast but his staying on only stops McCain from getting a jump-start on the Democrats and campaigning for the Presidency. Isn’t it the Democrats who usually shoot themselves in the foot?

photo by Buddy Stone

"i thought africa was a country." -George W. Bush

In the Herald TribuneSusan Jacoby, author of "The Age of American Unreason” describes walking home after 9/11 “…overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day's horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II:
"This is just like Pearl Harbor," one of the men said.
The other asked, "What is Pearl Harbor?"
"That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War," the first man replied.
At that moment, Jacoby said, "I decided to write this book."
Anti-intellectualism is nothing new in America. Richard Hofstodter chronicled it as have many others, but in this day of easy access to information a majority may believe in creationism. This attitude may leave the country behind and lead to idolatry and sophistry.

long live the queen...

I have been watching a series on how The Royal Family in Britain works. To state my bias I am a royalist. George Bush makes my point for me. Whom would you rather have as Head of State, Elizabeth II as we do here in Canada or George Bush? People talked about the end of history before 9/11 put things back in perspective. One program I watched documented a State Visit by an African Commonwealth to Buckingham Palace another chronicled a State Visit to one of the Baltic States and finally one followed the opening of Parliament. Some are critical and see the Royalty as an anachronism that should be replaced by a republican form of government. I disagree. The rituals and pageantry remind us that ours is but a brief glimpse of time in the long run.
Now however the Queen is one of the most astute and self-assured women you would ever want to meet and her children are clearly all of this world.
Andrew who served in the Navy for 22 years and is now a trade representative criticized American policy in Iraq and Afghanistan saying they could have done worse by looking at Britain’s imperialistic short comings.

photo by Vincente-Amigo

a bit of a retraction vis a vis spielberg

I was too harsh in belittling of Stephen Spielberg’s for not pulling out of his artistic director’s job for the Beijing Olympic sooner and as a result having his head in the ground when it came to China’s economic ties with the Sudan. I believe it is more complicated. Too often, the Games have been politicized. If there were an appropriate time to take politics into account it should have been with the vote that gave China the games. I can now understand Spielberg’s reticence. He was brought on board to do a job for which he is more then qualified and I think he has shown courage by bowing out. If he had not accepted the job or dropped it sooner then perhaps it would not have the profound effect it does now.

photo by TELportfolio

easy way out?

One of the reason I would support Hillary Clinton if I had the chance is her pragmatism on Iraq. She is no hawk but a realist. If the next President is a Democrat, they are going to be left with a mess. George Bush will leave no exit strategy. She will have to rely on the advice of the Joint Chief of Staff and whomever she chooses as her Security Advisor. Just to simply cut and run could take the better part of year. Americans stands firm against a protracted engagement and yet many remember the shame of abandoning Saigon. Obama naively says he will not prop up a government that will not make the hard choices, but will he really leave Iraq much worse off than it was before the invasion? In debates, Obama has been doctrinaire about getting out. Clinton is the pragmatist. The problem is Obama’s supporters are looking for the easy way out. If he isn’t careful, we could get a hawk back in the White House for John McCain is no W.

The wanderer 2007

white knight?

Warren Buffett has come with a plan to bail out those caught by the subprime mortgage his “...rescue package for the so-called monoline insurers immediately injected confidence into global stock markets and helped the FTSE 100 index of leading shares to make gains of 202 points. Wall Street jumped 200 points.
Dubbed the Sage of Omaha for his ability to second-guess markets, Buffett intends to make billions of dollars with his scheme to reinsure up to $800bn of the municipal bonds guaranteed by the insurers. He said: "When I go to St Peter I will not present this as some act that will entitle me to get in. We're doing this to make money."
His Berkshire Hathaway company would put $5bn into its new bond insurer. "If you put up $5bn, you ought to make some money," he said. He told CNBC television that last Wednesday he offered the three main monoline insurers in the US - Ambac, MBIA and FGIC - an insurance policy underwriting guarantees they had provided to municipalities, essentially local councils and cities.”
Anyone who can make the Dow jump 200 points has too much money.

photo by pricillious

maybe if he'd emailed them...

Stephen Spielberg has pulled out of his job as creative advisor for the Beijing Olympics. It took him awhile. Last summer Mia Farrow said he might be remembered as the “…modern-day Leni Riefenstahl - the German film director who became one of the Nazis' chief propagandists.” due to China’s role in propping up the genocidal regime in the Sudan by buying their oil and supplying them with arms. The incredulous Spielberg said he pulled out when he sent a letter to the Chinese government asking them to reconsider their policy there and they did nothing. Weird, eh? He is the Stephen Spielberg, after all, what do they think he is, chopped liver?

photo by InternationalRescueCommittee

common sense from an unlikely source...

According to CNN the Rand Corporation was commissioned by the Pentagon to look into the insurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq one of their recommendations was that, “Pro-America" themes should be dropped "in favor of strengthening local government" and emphasizing the failure of jihadists to meet people's needs.”
Never a fan of the Rand Corporation their recommendation, however, makes sense because it’s doable and not imperialistic. All it asks for is good government and at the end of the day what more can you expect?

photo by asai22222

but can he sing randy newman's political science?

Sidney Fish on the NYTs Op-ed page looks into the virulent attacks on Clinton. There is a danger that Obama’s attempts to break the mold in Washington and yet to use Fish’s term, have political savvy. According to Fish, however, "political savvy is perhaps not what Obama wants to claim. His boast–problematic down the road–is that he is not a politician at all.” And this is what scares the shit out of me.
Have we forgotten that W. campaigned for change and was the people’s choice, the anti-Clinton. I fear undergraduate zeal carrying the day. You guys are electing a President not the next American Idol!

photo by beastandbean

blackberry blues...

There was a problem with Blackberry’s email function. Roger’s provides this service in Canada and a journalist phoned the company to find out what was going on not knowing the problem was wide spread. She got through to voice mail and was told to send an email and the problem would be looked into.

photo by Fritch Fotos

ethnol not the answer?

According to the The Guardian, “Last week a study by the University of Minnesota and Nature Conservancy, published in Science, found that the carbon lost through the clearance of forests, peat lands or even grasslands far outweighs the greenhouse gas savings that can come from biofuels.
Conversion of land for corn, sugarcane, palm oil or soybeans released 17 to 420 times more carbon than the annual savings from replacing fossil fuels with bioethanol or biodiesel, the researchers said.”
The EU set guidelines of 10% of fuels to come from ethanol. They are reconsidering. Environmental grounds are not the only reason. In Indonesia the demand for palm oil is not only increasing the uptake of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but is displacing millions of indigenous peoples.
In Britain, politicians are looking at other means to decrease their carbon footprint such as making mass transit more desirable. It seems the production of ethanol is having a dire effect on the Third World such as the conversion of land used for food production. In the US, fertilizers are produced from petroleum which skews any cost benefit analysis.

photo by sulesizlard

hard, hard rock...

According to the CBC, "The Toronto Star reported Monday that NBC has acquired exclusive rights to launch 10 episodes of a proposed television show called Rockstar Curling.
Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, apparently closet curlers, are among the megastar rockers being courted to host it."

photo by klokhuys

bush's banana republic...

With its massive debt load and dependency on foreign oil and cheap consumer products the US is about to become the largest banana republic ever and its “free” market economy and democratic values in jeopardy. According to Pankaj Mishra in the Guardian, “Last month, George Bush was left futilely pleading with his Saudi hosts to reduce the oil price while Citigroup, damaged by the sub-prime debacle, became another prestigious western bank to seek help from hitherto unlikely sources such as China, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. In less than a year, as the Wall Street Journal noted, "power and wealth have shifted from west to east, from major oil companies to petro-governments, and from US banks and hedge funds to the state-controlled investment funds of the Middle East and Asia".”

photo by doublesneeze

maybe american televison's preoccupation with the paranormal has lead to overkill...

" A 23-year-old woman is expected to appear in court today after reports of a bomb on a North Sea oil rig sparked a full-scale emergency operation involving the army, RAF and police.
According to one report, the scare started when a woman employee on the rig was overheard recalling a dream she had had about a bomb on the platform. Jake Molloy, general secretary of the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, one of the biggest unions representing offshore workers, said: "It was complete madness. This girl had a dream about a bomb being on board and she was a bit shaken. The next thing anyone knew workers were being evacuated."

my grandmother the terrorist...

According to The Guardian, “The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.”
Do the American’s still think that terrorist will fly planes into buildings? This is a bit flippant for there was an attempt foiled by British police and intelligence agencies to blow up more than one aircraft. But since the notorious shoe bomber the Department of Homeland Security have not caught a single terrorist in their net although I must admit that the “no fly list” might have averted disaster that is if the terrorists were stupid enough to use their own passports. One might here the argument that security issues might stop these incidences from being reported but I believe if Homeland Security actually foiled a plan we would hear about it from the rooftops. What is important in Britain’s stopping attempts was the effective use of police and intelligence agencies. Let’s stop the War and make terrorism an international crime. Waging war on terrorism would be like waging a war against bomber aircraft during WW II. Terrorism is a tactic. The war is against Muslim fundamentalism so why strip search my grandmother from Timmons because she had embroidery scissors in her purse.

photo by Thomas Hawk

even anderson's "wheels" spin...

According to CNN, “Raw Politics" on "Anderson Cooper 360" delivers the latest political news with a wry sense of a humor and without spin.”

Saying his column has no spin is as likely to be true as saying Fox News isn’t slanted. The only objective head is an empty head.

photo by ibookperson

when push comes to shove...

Venezuela is the Socialist Dubai. Chavez sees himself a revolutionary when his country’s GNP is completely dependant on oil exports. He rails against the US imperialists and yet is completely dependant on them. The countries crude is so low grade that the Americans are about the only nation who can refine it.
Proof of Chavez’s lack of real power is his pulling out of two joint ventures with Exxon Mobile. The company immediately froze $12 billion dollars of his assets worldwide.

say it ain't so, Arlen...

Congress and the President's popularity are near all time lows, even within their own parties. The following from AP gives good reason why confidence is so low,

"When I see them say they want to investigate Bill Belichick and Spygate, I say, 'Why do you want to investigate something like that when we have things we should address'" like the economy and health care, Mitch Dugger, 46, an independent from Mandeville, La., said.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., recently said the Senate Judiciary Committee may want to examine why the National Football League destroyed evidence in a scandal over cheating by Belichick, the New England Patriots' coach."

You can add to this the work of a Committee trying to see if Roger Clemens used steroids.

photo Michael P. Whelan

I wonder if W. knows that Hiltler was democratically elected...

In a piece about the 75th anniversary of Hitler's coming to power, Jonthan Steele of The Guardian speaks of what he calls "denazification" of Germany saying it "...was driven by the victors. Senior Nazis were convicted by foreign judges at Nuremburg. Revanchist propaganda was banned and textbooks changed. But most of the many lower-level officials who had loyally served the Nazis kept their jobs. The western allies were careful not to impose on Germans the same kind of humiliation that had followed the first world war."

Does this sound familiar? Wouldn't Iraq be a better place if the civil service, regardless of culpability, had been left in place?"

photo by ratratran valley

romney spent $40 for every voter in iowa

Timothy Gash in the Guardian writes of Obama’s “winds of change” narrative that “…what began as a whisper in Springfield soon carried across the cornfields of Iowa, where farmers and factory workers, students and seniors stood up in numbers we have never seen before". And how, yea verily, their voices "echoed from the hills of New Hampshire to the deserts of Nevada, where teachers and cooks and kitchen workers stood up to say that maybe Washington doesn't have to be run by lobbyists any more". (Kitchen workers of the world, unite, you have nothing to lose but your lobbyists - lobbyists and Clintonists, that is.)
“Stirring stuff. But there's another way to tell the same story. It would go something like this: "What began as a whisper on YouTube soon carried across the tall sheets of the New York Times. Their voices echoed on the soaring satellites of CNN, ABC and BBC, where the anchors and producers and newsroom workers of CBC, France 24 and al-Jazeera International stood up to say that the momentum for Obama was now the story". The medium is not the message, but media and politicians are locked in a systemic clinch, out of which a triumphant narrative is eventually born.”
Jaded perhaps but wait. Candidates are spending obscene amounts on their campaigns. It is ironic that because Clinton’s supporters who tend to more organizational and corporate are limited in the amount they can raise, she will have much less to spend for the rest of the campaign than Obama, the populist, who relies on individuals. A populist maybe, but a populist who spends 10s of millions on ads in the establishment media.

photo by ( ]N[)

put the fear of god back into business...

Associated Press Monday February 4, 2008

Guardian Unlimited

A court in northeastern China today upheld a death sentence against a businessman accused of defrauding investors in a would-be ant-breeding scheme, state media reported.

This is no way to justify the death penalty, but if some poor slob kills a store owner in a botched hold up attempt gets a lethal injection then why not the con men who rob thousands of little old ladies out of their life savings. Kenneth Lay would be first in line followed up shortly by Conrad Black as far as I’m concerned.
The Chinese sentence is barbaric, of course, but helps keep things in perspective

photo by missbeckles

carnevale makes san franciscos gay pride parade look like the rose bowl parade...

finally a radio you could listen to under your pillow...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Intel Corp. has built a new chip packed with a record 2 billion transistors, more than doubling the processing power of a line of its chips for supercomputers, the company said.
In the early ’60, I had an 8 transistor radio. It wasn’t state of the art but the technology revolutionized and established electronics by replacing tubes with transistors, capacitors and resistors.It also allowed Japan to jump from cheap knockoffs to the forefront of the new technology

photo by transistor radios

fat and happy, for now at least...

LONDON (AP) -- Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.
This should be a brutal reminder to smokers and the obese that they may not be around as long as those who neither smoke nor are overweight.

photo by pink sherbert

how many outsiders edit the harvard law review?

Gary Younge writes in the Guardian,
“While running for Congress in West Texas in 1978, a young George W Bush attended a training school for Republican candidates. In a class on fundraising he was struck by inspiration. "I've got the greatest idea of how to raise money for the campaign," he told David Dreier, now a California congressman. "Have your mother send a letter to your family's Christmas card list! I just did, and I got $350,000."

Younge not only looks at wealth creating privilege and position but “For the sclerosis in America's political class is pervasive and profound. Today Jimmy Hoffa (the Teamsters union leader), Richard Daley (the Chicago mayor) and Martin Luther King (the Southern Christian Leadership Conference head) all carry the names and job titles their fathers did; 5% of senators are doing the jobs their daddies did; and the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is herself a congressman's daughter.”
He makes a profound argument against the Clinton campaign. There are young people of voting age who weren’t born before either a Bush or a Clinton was in the White House.
China may be more of a meritocracy.

photo by Ziet O Zaa3taar

the billary factor...

If I were an American I would back Clinton, but I’ve reservations. The Billary thing is a worry. Up until now, many First Ladies have performed more of a function than just being hostesses: One need look no farther than Lady Bird Johnson or Eleanor Roosevelt. But have we never had a First Man or an ex-President playing the role in the White House. Pillow talk, I’m sure, has played a role in the decision-making process, but we still live in a patriarchy and with his dominant personality how much will Bill influence Hillary’s decision? He stayed away from her life in the Senate but what about as Commander and Chief? Presidents are only allowed two terms for very good reasons.
I will not compare Hillary’s election with that of a Third World dictator with a term limits that lets his wife run to stay in power. She is her own woman and will make a good President, but I worry about Bill’s influence. Sexist or not, I worry.

picture by Siegfried Woldhek

are american auto engineers still trying to convert sunbeams into cucumbers?

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. will introduce a new hybrid full-size pickup and a concept hybrid truck this week at the Chicago Auto Show, betting that pickup drivers have been itching to jump on the hybrid bandwagon.
On Friday, I watched a journalist who hosts a show on cars. He’d returned from the year’s big automobile show in Detroit. There were the usual concept cars and road ready hybrids. But the big news was the emergence of the new diesel. There is nothing new about it. In some place in Europe, more than 50% of cars run on it.
I’d been told the technology is too dirty to meet North American particulate standards, but that isn’t true. It is North American diesel that is not up to scratch. Not only does diesel radically improve fuel economy, but performance as well.
Let’s see if governments, manufacturers and big oil will put their money where there mouth is when it comes to going “green” with a proven technology.

I’m not holding my breath.

photo by londonconstant

bad science...

One of the features I enjoy in the Guardian is Bad Science this week the columnist writes, “I know I'm wrong to care. On the BBC news site "crews were hopeful the 20m cubic litres of water could be held back and not breach the dam wall". And that'll be a struggle, since "cubic litres" are a nine-dimensional measuring system, so the hyperdimensional water could breach the dam in almost any one of the five other dimensions you haven't noticed yet.”

photo by amitwakama

king corn still reigns...

"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of farmers clogged central Mexico City Thursday with their slow-moving tractors, protesting the entry of cheap imported corn from the United States and Canada."

If Mexico were subsidizing something other than corn to the same level as the US does with corn there would be the same kind of outrage there was before the Softwood Agreement between the US and Canada was signed.

What is tragic is that it is Big Agriculture that is benifitting on the backs of smaller scale Mexican farmers.

photo by floridapfe

not such a big foot print, maybe...

Where have I heard this before? By using carbon-capture technology to control CO2 emissions in Alberta the industry and the Federal government propose to make the oil sands “green”. Where I did hear this was when Big Coal justified coal-fired power plants by saying there would eventually be carbon sequestering. This may also be all talk north of the border but if it isn’t why should the rest of Canada pay?

photo by gordmckenna

does this mean you can't eat a ham sandwich either...

According to the CBC website "The new taxi bill of rights for Metro Vancouver introduced earlier this week could pit the rights people who rely on guide dogs against the rights of drivers whose religious beliefs prohibit them from contact with the animals, a Muslim leader said."

Does this mean the blind have repeatedly been refused service? I' m sorry I believe in Charter Rights but I don't know why the blind should have to take a back seat (pun intended).It is tough enough for someone with this disabilty to get a cab in the first place, without having to ask that a Muslim not be sent out when a large percentage of cabbies are Muslim or to be turned down once the cab gets there. I believe disabilities trump religious freedom.

photo by midiman

mccain supporters for obama...

I watched part of the Obama/Clinton debate last night. Today Obama says he is in a better position to beat McCain because he was against the war right out of the chute. He promises he will set a date for withdrawal and criticizes Clinton for not doing so as this will get the Iraqi Parliament off their butts. Clinton on the other hand says an open-ended exit strategy is essential because Bush is handicapping the next President by not having a contingency plan for withdrawal so if one of them is elected they will have to it the ground running and find when it is practically possible to bring the troops home. Setting a date before that will be impossible and if Obama sticks to a strict timetable without having the ear of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, McCain will eat him for breakfast.

photo by rts_ boink