...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica
Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.
Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors
We'll neutralize:
If Russia goes through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Israel will use an electronic warfare device now under development to neutralize it and as a result present Russia as vulnerable to air infiltrations, a top defense official has told The Jerusalem Post.JerusalemPost 09.Aug.08
CNN's main window had that photo in the featured top left column yesterday.
Russian response called 'far disproportionate'
Russia's use of strategic bombers and ballistic missiles against
Georgia's civilians outside of the South Ossetian conflict is "far
disproportionate" to Georgia's alleged attack on Russian peacekeepers, a senior U.S. official said Saturday.
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Last year, the Georgian president commissioned from private Israeli security firms several hundred military advisers, estimated at up to 1,000, to train the Georgian armed forces in commando, air, sea, armored and artillery combat tactics. They also offer instruction on military intelligence and security for the central regime. Tbilisi also purchased weapons, intelligence and electronic warfare systems from Israel.Debkafile 08.Aug.08
These advisers were undoubtedly deeply involved in the Georgian army’s preparations to conquer the South Ossetian capital Friday.
In addition to the spy drones, Israel has also been supplying Georgia with infantry weapons and electronics for artillery systems, and has helped upgrade Soviet-designed Su-25 ground attack jets assembled in Georgia, according to Koba Liklikadze, an independent military expert based in Tbilisi.International Herald Tribune 05.Aug.08
Former Israeli generals also serve as advisers to the Georgian military.
For the best possible illustration of why Islamic terrorism may one day be considered the least of our problems, look no farther than the BBC's split-screen coverage of yesterday's Olympic opening ceremonies. On one side, fireworks sparkled, and thousands of exotically dressed Chinese dancers bent their bodies into the shape of doves, the cosmos and more. On the other side, gray Russian tanks were shown rolling into South Ossetia, a rebel province of Georgia.Anne Applebaum/Washington Post 09.Aug.08
Russian armored vehicles continued to stream into South Ossetia, and Russian officials said that 1,500 civilians had been killed in South Ossetia and that 12 Russian soldiers had died.Michael Schwirtz et al. NyTimes 09.Aug.08
A Georgian government spokesman said that 60 civilians had been killed in airstrikes on the city of Gori. Each side’s figures were impossible to confirm independently.
The most coveted resource on earth is the giant oil-field in the Caspian Sea region, that competes in scale with the riches of Saudi Arabia. In 2010 it is expected to yield 3.2 billion barrels of crude oil per day, in addition to 4850 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year.Uri Avnery/Counterpunch 11.Feb.02
Until very recently anyone looking at the sky would see, in the day, something solidly blue, and at night darkness punctuated by tiny lights. Two bodies wheeling across the sky east to west from horizon to horizon, both exactly the same size, one burning so bright it hurt to look at it, the other cold. Both occupying .5 degrees of the celestial arc.
Except for the differences in color and intensity between the sun and moon, none of these things are true.
The sky isn't blue, you can't go up there and get a piece of it and come back with something blue, and the night sky isn't dark, not in the way it seems.
And of course the sun and the moon aren't the same size at all.
Their functions are mirror opposites. One goes around the earth, the other the earth goes around, one is a source of light, the other only reflects it.
The night sky appears dark, and it's so counterintuitive to think otherwise even people with scientific educations will argue the point, but a simple thought experiment shows it's filled with light, everywhere.
Stand in the desert and look at a star, say Alpha Centauri. Then go stand on the moon and look at it, while someone takes your place on earth and looks at it at the same time.
Now leave someone in your place on the moon and go stand on Mars and look at it, while the other two look at it from the earth and the moon.
Each one sees the light of the same star at the same time, because the light of that star is everywhere around us, as is the light from every other visible star. All around us, anywhere there's line of sight.
So there must be a sphere of light coming from each one. We're bathed in starlight - it may seem like little dots, it may seem like there's only the line of it coming toward you that hits your eye, but like the blue sky and the same size moon and sun that's no more than an illusion.
The most fundamental appearance of what surrounds us is illusion.
Violence runs through this 'stable' India:
Yet George Bush reportedly introduced Manmohan Singh to his wife, Laura, as "the prime minister of India, a democracy which does not have a single al-Qaida member in a population of 150 million Muslims".Pankaj Mishra/GuardianUK 07.Jul.08
To be fair to Bush, he was only repeating a cliche deployed by Indian politicians and American pundits such as Thomas Friedman to promote India as a squeaky-clean ally of the United States. However, Fareed Zakaria, the Indian-born Muslim editor of Newsweek International, ought to know better. In his new book, The Post-American World, he describes India as a "powerful package" and claims it has been "peaceful, stable, and prosperous" since 1997 - a decade in which India and Pakistan came close to nuclear war, tens of thousands of Indian farmers took their own lives, Maoist insurgencies erupted across large parts of the country, and Hindu nationalists in Gujarat murdered more than 2,000 Muslims.
beneath the shadow of The Bomb:
The most enduring lie is that the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war in the Pacific and save lives. "Even without the atomic bombing attacks," concluded the United States Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946, "air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that ... Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."Pilger/GuardianUK 06.Aug.08
Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran's nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran's atomic program, even if it can't destroy it.
Gutkin/AP 07.Aug.08
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Iran has test launched a naval-based missile with a 300 km range, state media reported on 4 August, warning that it would be able to easily close the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world's crude oil supplies pass.
Gelfan/Jane's 05.Aug.08
Anthrax Mystery: Questions Raised
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Massive Greenhouse Gases May Be Released As Destruction, Drying Of World Wetlands Worsen
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CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas, and greenhouse effects are not the only CO2 problem
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Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming
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Monckton saves the day!
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never fear, RealClimate is here!
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News Trust
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"the line separating good and evil is drawn through the human heart"
some kind of duty:
..when we talk about the Zionist crimes committed against us, we are either accused of lying or exaggerating, and since the written word in western press is mostly pro-Israeli, we have only these photos left to speak for us. It is because one single such photo speaks a thousand honest words, many prefer not to see them or pretend not to know of their existence. When Palestinians distribute pictures of the victims killed by the IOF to news agencies, they are accused of using their dead for propaganda. But when the Israelis spread pictures of their dead, they are pitied for their loss and their dead are glorified. The world is allowed to see Israeli mothers crying near their dead sons and allowed to see scenes of suicide bombings with blood all over the place, but not that of Palestinian mothers crying the loss of their loved ones...Reham Alhelsi/Palestine Think Tank 05.Aug.08
Cartoonishly Evil People Run the World
BoRev:Chevron has been ordered to pay compensatory damages to thousands of Ecuadorian families who have suffered from cancer and birth defects over the years after the company dumped billions, billions, of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon. Chevron, naturally, doesn’t want to pay the dead kids’ moms or whatever so instead they’re asking the Bush Administration to tell the Ecuadorian courts to overturn themselves. And of course the Bush Administration is like “ok sure maybe” and now we may downgrade our trade relations with Ecuador unless they undermine their entire judicial system and let Chevron off the hook. For killing kids. And just for ridiculously sinister affect, here is what Chevron’s sleazeball lobbyist had to say about the whole thing:"We can't let little countries screw around with big companies like this”That is seriously what he said. To Newsweek. So there you go. The good news is you can help kick this shitbag’s ass, so if you have any human decency please click on the clicky and go over to Just Foreign Policy’s website where they’ve got it all set up for you (This civic exercise works best if you happen to be a U.S. citizen).
That is, however, the least we can say:
The Arctic is unique, but so is Aspen. Up north, there are polar bears. Here, there are fun-seekers of a different sort.Madeleine Albright
You see, my grandmother taught piano, and I stayed at her house while my parents worked.Condoleeza Rice
[...]
I had a conversation with my parents that went something like the following:
"I'm changing my major."
"To what are you changing your major?"
"I don't know."
"You're going to end up a waitress at Howard Johnson's."
"I'd rather be a waitress at Howard Johnson's than try and teach piano."
The Words and Music collaboration has been going on for a couple of years now. It was established by our good friend Tom Friedman, in order to bring together programs of the Institute and the Music Festival and SchoolAlan Fletcher President and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and school
Breaking News! Venezuela Opposition Leader Murdered, National Police Suspected
His written statement elaborates on old rumors:
His written statement elaborates on old rumors that Mr. Holbrooke had brokered a deal with him to avoid arrest.NYTimes 02.Aug.08
The offer, he asserted, required him to withdraw from public life, declining all interview requests and offers to write articles or books.“Mr. Holbrooke undertook on behalf of the U.S.A. that I would not be tried before this tribunal and that I should understand that for a while there would be very sharp rhetoric against me, so that my followers would not hamper the implementation of the Dayton agreement.”[...]
“I cannot imagine what he is talking about,” said Mr. Goldstone, a South African judge. “The whole thing does not make sense. Resign because of what?”
Mr. Goldstone said the United States had not asked him to withdraw Mr. Karadzic’s indictment.“No one could ask me to do that,” he said.
