sfarber

This week’s visit to our comrades at Beijing’s People’s Daily give us this rather alarming news about the Arctic polar ice cap: it might be gone in 55 years or so. Scientists, conservative by nature, do not know the exact cause (perhaps they should ask the “intelligent designer?”), but can come up with no alternative than the likelihood of the effects of accumulation of greenhouse gases and global warming. In essence, as noted by the People’s Daily, the melting of the floating ice cap itself will not directly raise world sea levels, as the ice is already floating, but will...

Of the 6 plus billion people in the world, a huge number will soon be threatened with instantly devastating– and deadly– illness, if fears of the avian fly mutating and migrating to humans in a human-to-human transmittable form this winter come to pass, according to this piece from our old friend Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey at Pravda. In the “great minds think alike” department, our friends over at the American Street are also focusing on this issue, which could easily kill tens of millions of people. The bird flu out of Asia now– which has killed an astounding 60 of the 120...

Or waive, as in waiver, provided by Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, who allegedly finally waived confidentiality of co-conspirator, war criminal, and New York Times employee Judith Mililer, who reached a deal with the Valerie Plame case special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, and accordingly, Ms. Miller was released jail, agreeing to testify about her conversation with Mr. Libby. Well, well. With Tom DeLay actually under indictment, and Bill Frist under a cloud, and the Bush Administration still reeling from its mishandling of Katrina in every possible way (including its blank check to Halliburton after the fact to rebuild, which...

Oh, what a day… ethical corruption in high places has taken it on the chin… First, close to home, Brooklyn Democratic kingpin Clarence Norman was convicted of felonies related to campaign law violations, and will have to relinquish his state assembly seat and his law license. Indeed, your talking dog had been advised from time to time that the cost of obtaining a job as a judge in (his home borough of) Brooklyn was around $75,000, payable to Mr. Norman, his friends, relatives and/or their “consultancies”. With Norman convicted… hey… who do you have to bribe to become a judge...

After years and years of telling us we can have everything (and free pie too), i.e., tax cuts for the super-rich, drugs for Granny, a strong and overpriced defense, homeland security, a huge discretionary war, big new education spending (no child left behind), and now, a coupla hundred billion to give away to friends and GOP contributors at Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, et al. pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery and rebuild the Gulf States… finally, the President has called for some level of national sacrifice. “Don’t drive, “ sayeth the President. Unless you really have to, of course. None of those...

Two groups of people, both of whom expected (or probably didn’t actually expect, but had a right to expect, legal, moral or otherwise…) the help of the United States government, and won’t get it: (1) Gulf area residents who, thanks to Republican largesse, will find it difficult to impossible to take advantage of bankruptcy protections…, and (2) Iraqis, in general of course, Shiites specifically, of late, five schoolteachers rounded up and murdered, execution style, in their school, along with the usual day’s atrocities, bringing American soldiers killed in the Iraq adventure ever closer to the 2000 mark, a grim death...

Our long overdue return visit to our comrades at Pravda gives us this piece on Iranian nuclear derry-do (derring-do?) at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which observes that the big bad EU nations (and the USA) are being mean to Iran by threatening to take the issue of Iran’s purported violations of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to the UN Security Council. Of course, Iran has already lined up the support of (UN Security Council veto holders) Russia and China, to naysay such a referral in the first place, and prevent too much isolation if it occurs. The Pravda piece...

By a not unexpected 13-5 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the President’s nominee to be Chief Justice of the United States, Judge John Roberts. Voting against confirmation were senators either from uber-liberal states seeking to head off possible attacks (some day) from their left flank (Schumer of my home state and Feinstein of California, and Durbin of Illinois, as well as chief uber liberal Kennedy of Massachusetts) or possibly running for President (Biden of Delaware). All Republicans (surprise, surprise) voted to confirm, as did Democrats Leahy of Vermont, and Kohl and Feingold both of Wisconsin. Given that the committee...

Just convince the GOP that (preferably unconstitutional) faith-based spending is involved, and the House will quickly send beaucoup bucks their way, as in the case of a measure approved by the House to providers of “Head Start” pre-school services even if the providers discriminate on the basis of religion (i.e., a sectarian program might wish to hire only adherents to its own sect.) The fact of the matter, with all due respect to my good friend the Raving Atheist, this is actually important, whereas nonsensical tripe about whether or not the words “Under God” are in the pledge of allegiance…...

There are reminders out there that there is evil… and then, there is evil. One of those reminders reminded us that time marches on, as famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal died at 96. Wiesenthal devoted his life to the pursuit of justice against those responsible for the Holocaust… the standard-setters for evil for all time. He was most famous for his role in hunting down the architect of the Holocaust, Adolph Eichmann (who was duly captured by the State of Israel, kidnapped from Argentina, tried, and to this day, the only prisoner ever formally executed by Israel.) The fact of...