Today’s links to interesting news and analysis…
- Disturbing news: “The Guantánamo ‘Suicides’: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle“, Scott Horton, Harpers, January 2010
- New Scientist’s Editors ask IPCC for explanation of their egregious error about melting of the Himalayan glaciers: “Sifting climate facts from speculation“, 13 January 2010 — IMO they’re saying “please lie to us”, as the obvious facts described here are too unpleasant to acknowledge.
- Two years ago experts worried that we were running out: “Natural gas under Gulf may be too much of a good thing“, Houston Chronicle, 15 January 2010
- “NASA GISS Inaccurate Press Release On The Surface Temperature Trend Data“, Roger Pielke Sr, at his website, 16 January 2010 — Note links given to the some of the many peer-reviewed papers questioning accuracy of the global climate databases.
- “Meet the Real Jack Bauers“, Marc A. Thiessen, National Review Online, 18 January 2010 — “In Courting Disaster, the real CIA interrogators explain why their methods bear no resemblance to what you see on Fox’s 24.”
- Nice summary of the debate about using the “tribes” (an absurd term) to win in Afghanistan: “The World According to Gant“, Michael Cohen, Democracy Arsenal, 18 January 2010 — Follow the links to the actual reports and articles!
Special feature: We’re in year 3 of the recession. Reserves exhausted, some families, businesses, and even nations are sliding to the edge.
- Bad news, but California is not the only State at risk: “California at the Brink of Financial Disaster“, Michael E. Genest (California Director of Finance), 13 January 2010
- Much of Eastern Europe is also in trouble: “Ukraine Is Headed for National Bankruptcy“, op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, 17 January 2010
- “Illinois enters a state of insolvency“, Crain’s Communications, 18 January 2010
- A potential flash point for a global crisis: “Grεεk dεbt disastεr“, Tracy Alloway, blog of the Financial Times, 18 January 2010 — Excellent summary of what is probably a “no exit” situation
Quote of the Day
Excerpt from “The Truth Shall Set You Free (Offer Not Applicable in the Netherlands)“, Mark Steyn, National Review Online, 17 January 2010:
This sounds very familiar. During my long battles with Canada’s disgusting and corrupt “human rights” thought-police, I was frequently told (by lawyers, experts, “human rights” activists, Islamists et al) that “truth is no defense.” The factual accuracy of what I’d written was never in dispute; it was whether or not it was legal to say it, however accurate it may be. And so it goes at Geert Wilders’s show trial:
“It is irrelevant whether Wilder’s witnesses might prove Wilders’ observations to be correct”, the ‘Openbaar Ministerie’ stated, “what’s relevant is that his observations are illegal”.
{Source: “”Shrugging off Spinoza”, Arthur Legger (SpringPeople Analysis & Text, Senior International Reporter), posted at Tidsskriftet Sappho (“the free press magazine), 17 January 2010 — Note the links at the end.}An “Openbaar Ministerie” sounds like my kind of government department, where the booze flows as freely as the trillion-dollar line-items. But it is, in fact, the prosecution service of the Dutch Ministry of Justice — although, given the state of Dutch “justice,” the Ministry for Openly Barring Persons may be a more accurate translation.
Afterword
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