Huntington was right - "“It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”- Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations,” in Foreign Affairs, summer of 1993. Mr. Huntington, it appears you had it right."
Yet Another Agency in Charge of Domestic Intelligence? - "It took me a half dozen e-mails and telephone calls over three days to just to confirm that yes, the Directorate of National Intelligence, or DNI, the new-ish uber-spooks body — has opened an office to deal with state and local law enforcement. And it took me a few more inquiries before the DNI gave up the name of its head, Michael Tiffany, though nothing more."
37 million poor hidden in the land of plenty - "A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. They are found from the hills of Kentucky to Detroit's streets, from the Deep South of Louisiana to the heartland of Oklahoma. Each year since 2001 their number has grown. Under President George W Bush an extra 5.4 million have slipped below the poverty line. Yet they are not a story of the unemployed or the destitute. Most have jobs. Many have two. Amos Lumpkins has work and his children go to school. But the economy, stripped of worker benefits like healthcare, is having trouble providing good wages. ... While 45.8 million Americans lack any health insurance, the top 20 per cent of earners take over half the national income. At the same time the bottom 20 per cent took home just 3.4 per cent. Whitaker put the figures into simple English. 'The poor have got poorer and the rich have got richer,' he said. ... Dealing with poverty is not a viable political issue in America. It jars with a cultural sense that the poor bring things upon themselves and that every American is born with the same chances in life. It also runs counter to the strong anti-government current in modern American politics. ... In America, to be poor is a stigma. In a country which celebrates individuality and the goal of giving everyone an equal opportunity to make it big, those in poverty are often blamed for their own situation. Experience on the ground does little to bear that out. When people are working two jobs at a time and still failing to earn enough to feed their families, it seems impossible to call them lazy or selfish. There seems to be a failure in the system, not the poor themselves." -- Worth the read.
Not terribly pro-life, is it Mr President? - "IN AUGUST 2001, George Bush told Americans he worried about "a culture that devalues life", and that he believed, as president of the United States, he had "an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world". ... Last month, the military forces that this same president commands aimed a missile at a house in Damadola, a Pakistani village near the Afghan border. Eighteen people were killed, including five children. The target of the attack, al-Qaeda's No 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was not among the dead, although lesser figures in the terrorist organisation reportedly were. Bush did not apologise for the attack, nor did he reprimand those who ordered it. Apparently, he believes that the chance of killing an important terrorist leader is sufficient justification for firing a missile that will almost certainly kill innocent human beings."
Let’s indeed talk about Iraq Losing its innocents: - "" One of the biggest insults to human "intelligence" is his claim that "30,000 Iraqis, "more or less," as Bush put it, have been killed and thousands more wounded." The UNICEF study have suggested that nearly 500.000 child under the age 5 have died from 9991-1996 from bad and deteriorating health, sanitary and food conditions due to the sanctions imposed on Iraq. That is an average of 100.000 children under the age of 5 a year!!! With worse conditions now than any time in the past, one could safely assume that at least 100.000, if not more, children under 5 are dying every year because of the "liberation"!!! That alone would mean nearly 300.000 child in 3 years!! I know that will shock the conscience of Americans but these are facts that Mr. Bush doesn't want Americans to know. Mr. Bush is leaving the American people wondering aimlessly in the bush."I know that it is very hard to swallow such assertion in America. Would America accept half of that: 150,000 ? would America accept quarter of that: 75,000? Even this figure is much much higher than the 30,000 "more or less" which Mr. Bush claimed at the press conference. ... Americans could continue sleeping with a clear conscience, believing that their elected government could not kill innocent people like Alaa’s brothers. Someday they have to wake up to reality but then it will be too late! The US has a very well "lubricated" media covering Iraq. My neighbors and friends at CNN Baghdad showed me how bad news never gets covered."
WWIII or Bust: Implications of a US Attack on Iran - " Witnessing the Bush administration’s drive for an attack on Iran is like being a passenger in a car with a raving drunk at the wheel. Reports of impending doom surfaced a year ago, but now it’s official: under orders from Vice President Cheney’s office, the Pentagon has developed "last resort" aerial-assault plans using long-distance B2 bombers and submarine-launched ballistic missiles with both conventional and nuclear weapons. How ironic that the Pentagon proposes using nuclear weapons on the pretext of protecting the world from nuclear weapons. Ironic also that Iran has complied with its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, allowing inspectors to "go anywhere and see anything," yet those pushing for an attack, the USA and Israel, have not. ... So there’s no urgency - just a bad case of déjà vu all over again. The Bush administration is recycling its hype over Hussein’s supposed WMD threat into rhetoric about Iran, but look where the charade got us last time: tens of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians, a country teetering on civil war and increased global terrorism. Yet the stakes in Iran are arguably much higher."
Suicide Bombers Warn U.S., U.K. of Attacks - ""With more than 1,000 trained martyrdom-seekers, we are ready to attack the American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran's nuclear facilities," Samadi said."
Google to feds: Back off - "Google lashed out at the U.S. Justice Department on Friday, saying that a high-profile request for a list of a week's worth of search terms must not be granted because it would disclose trade secrets and violate the privacy rights of its users."
Paternity fraud rampant in U.S. - "30% of those named as fathers bilked of child support unjustly"
A childless culture - "This is what a childless Canada would look like. But it is not the science-fiction vision of a far-off future. In less than a decade, seniors will outnumber children in Canada; in just 15 years, deaths may outnumber births. The country's population is in decline, and unless massive immigration or an overhaul of reproductive attitudes and policies compels a radical turnaround, Canada will soon reflect a lopsided and never-seen-before demographic reality where the young are drastically outnumbered by the old. By the year 2015, for the first time in the history of Canadian population statistics, there will be more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 15."
Quote of the Day
"Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
~ Paul Simon
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