It is hard to decide which is the worst news in the International Energy Agency’s new study. The central piece of bad news is that as the world recovers from the 2008-2009 crash, it is spewing record amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In 2010 human beings sent 30.6 gigatons of carbon into the […]
Archives for May 2011
Yemen in Flames
The political situation in Yemen continued to deteriorate on Tuesday. Since Sunday, 50 protesters have been killed by troops and security forces in the country’s second-largest city, Taizz. The government insisted on forcibly removing the protesters from their own version of Tahrir Square, which accounts for some of the casualties of the past two days, […]
Time to Begin Leaving Afghanistan
Memorial Day, in my view, should be a time of reflection not only on the sacrifices made for the nation in war but on whether our wars are necessary and whether they are being fought in the right way. The Iraqi people and the parliament want the US out of Iraq, and the US public […]
Egypt Lets Palestinians of Gaza Circulate
The new, transitional Egyptian government formed in the wake of a popular revolt took a step on Saturday toward lifting the Israeli-induced blockade of the civilian population of Gaza. Egypt, at Israeli insistence, is still blocking import of needed material such as concrete, necessary to rebuilding the 1/8 of homes destroyed by the Israelis in […]
The Revolution was not Televised: Gil Scott-Heron RIP
Gil Scott-Heron is dead at 62. Ironically, his obituary will not be televised because television news became just what he predicted. In memoriam:
G8 ‘Marshall Plan’ for Arab Spring Nations Falls Short
The 8 wealthiest industrial countries, meeting at the G-8, urged that the world give Egypt, Tunisia and liberated Libya (’emerging democracies in the Arab world’) some $40 billion in aid. The sum will make headlines but there is less to it than meets the eye. The G8 is only ponying up $10 billion itself, and […]
Congress: Yankee Come Home; Iraq, Pakistan: Yankee Go Home
Between 70,000 and 100,000 members of the Sadrist Shiite political bloc rallied in Baghdad on Thursday, demanding that the some 47,000 US troops still in Iraq leave altogether. Sadrist leader Muqtada al-Sadr says that if the troops remain, he will reactivate his Mahdi Army militia. It is a powerful threat. But in some ways, his […]
Israelis Support Obama over Bibi
More evidence that Israel derangement syndrome is a malady among the American political class and a narrow sliver of the AIPAC elite, but that most Israelis and most American Jews are far more pragmatic and humane. 57 % of Israelis support Barack Obama’s speech on Middle East peace, and are critical of that of Israeli […]
The Secret Patriot Act
Dear Tea Party: If all your distrust of the federal government doesn’t cause you to vote against the so-called PATRIOT Act, your tea is weak. Very weak. Spencer Ackerman reports that Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) is worried about a “secret PATRIOT Act”– that is, a set of practices and inquiries into the affairs of private […]
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