"Finally some meat on these bones," writes Post blogger Star Eagle in comment #1. "I need to put two recent post together to get to the essense of what is going on here. While I love Barbara's perspective of the Chinese people and wholeheartedly agree as really, we the people here in the good old USA are right there with the Chinese people as only wanting a good and healthy life for us and our loved ones. If it were only so simple! Now I have to throw in Michael's post 'CON GAMES: Military-Industrial Complex @ 50.' What we are dealing with today is the convergence of this countries 50 year evolution of the M/I Complex and China's monetary birth in a new millenium. The future of this unholy union is the concern for those fine Chinese citizens as well as for those of us here in the U.S. This is the crux before us today. Not whether we should be voting for a liberal or a conservative! Those who wish to remain in the divide and conquer past will find the future a train wreck. As in, most likely they won't know what hit them till its too late and the force...."
"Prostate cancer, a notoriously slow-moving disease, was the culprit for the killer who blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in the south Scotland in 1988, killing 11 Scots on land—243 passengers, and 16 crew members for a total of 270 dead," blogs the Con Man. "Abdebasit Ali al- Megrahi has now lived almost nine months beyond the prescribed three, and his doctor, Dr. Karol Sikora, told the Times of London, that the killer could live another ten or even twenty years. Dr. Sikora quickly backtracked from his latest calculations, but that was only after it became known he was picked by Libyan officials who had not only paid him for his prognosis but also plied him with the three-months-before death requirement. The Scottish Minister of Justice said there was little his government could do in the face of such an imminent demise, and that he was all but required to let el-Megrahi fly away home. Of course, a Scottish doctor might have a different diagnosis than one from Libya, particularly if that doctor is on the Libyan payroll. Dr. Sikora might also have had a different diagnosis than an American doctor, who might be inclined to let the Lockerbie killer rot in jail for several millennia.
"give us a break," spake Post blogger infowars.com in comment #1, "you have always had a pro-abortion, pro-gay agenda and you were all ways bashing the Bible and Jesus waaaaaay before your interview with Elaine Pagels, like 9 years ago. now be a fair little journalist and interview someone from the Bible Code. ohhh but wait, you cant possibly be fair and truthful can you? Aramaic? not sure about that."
Posts filed under 'Foreign Policy'
Most Americans were momentarily outraged a year ago when al-Megrahi, the bomber behind the Lockerbie killings, was released from prison with the ostensibly accurate news that he had but three months to live.
Prostate cancer, a notoriously slow-moving disease, was the culprit for the killer who blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in the south Scotland in 1988, killing 11 Scots on land—243 passengers, and 16 crew members for a total of 270 dead. Abdebasit Ali al- Megrahi has now lived almost nine months beyond the prescribed three, and his doctor, Dr. Karol Sikora, told the Times of London, that the killer could live another ten or even twenty years.
Continue Reading August 2nd, 2010
Helen Thomas the pampered doyenne of the White House press corps is Kaput. Her remarks were - it goes without saying - way, way over the top. But there is some food for thought here: Did her 'interviewer' know her parents were Lebanese immigrants to this country? Did she know she was not just chatting (in the White House driveway) to a star-struck rabbi with a camcorder, but to a rabbi/blogger with a camcorder? There is a difference.
Lebanon has such a tortured history with Israel - the Sabra and Shatila massacres in '82 included Lebanese civilians too, and so much more bloodshed has happened between the two countries since.
Is a rabbi/blogger with the sudden power to shatter a 50 year career morally justified in the use that power? Did he tell Helen she was cooked? Did he ask her, "what the hell did you just say?" Should he have lowered his camera, and told her what she had just given voice to and who he was, and given her the opportunity to end her own career? Did she deserve such an ignominious take-down? What would you have done with a career spanning 50 years in your hands?
Maybe it was a bridge too far, and Helen - who in recent years had become too much even for Helen - needed to go. Maybe Mr. Nesenoff, the rabbi, could have thought more about Helen's age and irascibility and given the tape to Hearst on the QT. while insisting his copy would see the light of day if she didn't retire. Helen's "Go home to the Killing Fields" answer was staggeringly insensitive, and I don't need Ari Fleischer to tell me so.
June 8th, 2010
The "Gulf" (everyday), and the monumental callousness, greed, dishonesty, indifference and fecklessness of the British Petroleum officials who virtually guaranteed this would happen. And for what? A yield of a morning drive-time's worth of gas? All courtesy of the 'W' and Dick Chaney cronies at the eviscerated, drug-addled MMA.
In my opinion, the worst line ever uttered by a politician -- and there's a mountain of them to choose from and it has inexorably led us to this toxic wasteland that will be our post apocalyptic 'Gulf' -- is one that has set one group against another, seemingly in perpetuity. It has given rise to the kind and quality of politicians we have today, to the eight years of a court appointed American plutocracy, to Politicians who will pay and listen to the half gov. Sarah Palin, to Newt Gingrich, Mitch Mcconnell, John Boehner, George W, and "Heck of a job" cronies. It's poison is matched only by the harm it has caused this country, and by those who blindly adhere to it's simplistic destructive force. It is Reagan's "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." "Aha! That's it they say; let's privatize the damn thing."
Hi all, H
May 22nd, 2010
For most Americans, the word apartheid brings to mind the ruling white minority’s dominance and oppression of the majority black population in South Africa, which was characterized by segregation and racial inequality. Blacks were denied their basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, and the right to peaceful assembly.
Due in part to international pressure which included boycott and sanctions, apartheid in South Africa was brought to an end. But today the same system exists in Israeli occupied Palestine, where the majority Arab population, both Christian and Muslim, are segregated from the ruling Jewish minority.
Continue Reading March 2nd, 2010
It’s been one year since Israel attacked Gaza, killing over fourteen hundred people, wounding thousands, displacing 60,800 civilians and damaging 17,000 homes, resulting in Jewish South African judge Richard Goldstone finding Israel guilty of war crimes and human rights violations. In the last year, Israel has prevented the Palestinian people from rebuilding their homes, businesses, and infrastructure, causing a humanitarian crisis the likes of which the world has never seen.
Continue Reading December 28th, 2009
When Al Qaeda destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001—nearly eight years ago—most Americans, like President George W. Bush, wanted Osama bin-Ladin dead or alive.
Now he barely matters. Al Qaeda has not only reconstituted itself but jihadism in all its heinous forms is a gathering storm in countries around the world. How bad has it become? When a radical Islamic group tried to assassinate the President of a country—Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia—it registered as barely a blip on our national consciousness. News that insurgent group Shahab is removing gold and silver teeth because people have broken religious law in Marka, Somalia, slipped by unnoticed, a minor story from a minor country.
Jihad will not permit dentures.
Continue Reading August 11th, 2009
The diabolically compromised view of our sorties into Iraq and Afghanistan begins with the vision of these wars as well worth the loss of “treasure” when compared to more momentous conflagrations. As the number of deaths has ticked away over the years in a trickle of blood and tissue, supporters of invasion and incursion have been more than happy to wave away one thousand soldiers dead—then two and three and even four thousand.
Compared to the great wars—and the 120 million dead from all the wars of the 20th Century—a few thousand casualties can seem like nothing more than a rounding error.
Somehow both the deniers of the dead and the critics of the war managed to all but miss the most recent threshold of treasure spent—the combined deaths of more than 5,000 United States soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because much of the coverage was veiled beneath the more immediate news that July 2009 had become the deadliest month for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, the larger story of our war dead fell through the cracks of the latest news cycle July 20, 2009. In case you’re interested in the details, four Americans killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan helped put us over the top.
Continue Reading July 30th, 2009
God forbid.
Should there ever be a terrorist attack in the United States again, then every finger will be pointed at the Department of Homeland Security. Were they not there on the ramparts with the simple mission of keeping us safe? Is Homeland Security not the repository of the best and the brightest—and best practices—when it comes to keeping us secure against a terrorist attack?
There is the real possibility that the Homeland Security Department will miss the necessary clues because they had more important things to do—like prepare for the next hurricane.
Continue Reading July 30th, 2009
Not much attention was given to World Refugee Day -"Real People Real Needs" on June 20th or our part in keeping two groups refugees. Our invasion of Iraq resulted in approximately 4 million Iraqis becoming refugees with half leaving mostly to take refuge in Jordan and Syria. Many are still afraid to return to Iraq.
According to UN agencies, Palestinian refugees (4.6 million) are the largest and longest existing refugee population. Their dislocation started with 1948 Israeli violence, persecution, land confiscation. etc. to create a Jewish state in Palestine. The violence caused approximately 700,000 Palestinians to flee to neighboring Arab states. Others fled to the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
Continue Reading June 24th, 2009
I don't know what they are.
I do understand that centrifuges are not needed for nuclear power. I do know that centrifuges are needed to produce weapons grade Uranium. The fissile isotope U-235 in the only Standard Temperature gaseous compound of Uranium -uranium hexafluoride (UF6) weighs (molecular weight) slightly more than 99.1477% of the non fissile isotope U-238 in the same chemical compound. Physical means are necessary to separate the two, since they are the same element, there are no chemical means to separate them -- hence the need for centrifuges. Gaseous diffusion filters also work, but are much slower.
Possession of U-235 does not guarantee the desire to build and use a fission bomb any more than bullets and gun possesion guarantees a latent desire to commit murder. Possession certainly makes the acts more acheivable through convenient impulse.
June 9th, 2009
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