OK, all my students: quit gravedigging old threads and read this one, mmmkay?
Debt and Deficit
I saw a version of that chart in this article by John Mauldin. I strongly recommend you read it. He takes Macroeconomics 101 and uses it to examine our current situation. His conclusion: even the Obama projections of future deficits are not a good thing.
Contested results, winner packing the ballot boxes to avoid a runoff, unrest in the provinces… except this time it’s not Iran, it’s Afghanistan.
The difference here is that the USA is supporting the “winner” instead of encouraging his opposition to post videos on YouTube. Karzai cheated on the election, plain and simple, and his cronies are the ones in charge of validating the results. Watch as the CIA does not stoke the fires of unrest in Afghanistan and as the US news media does not provide extensive, sympathetic coverage of the stolen election.
… and so it goes. The rules for one part of the world do not necessarily apply anywhere else if the USA is acting as the referee.
Diplomacy
Nuclear Submarines: Israel's Got 'Em
While the recent talks over Iran’s nuclear status have proceeded cordially and so far have failed to spike gasoline prices upwards, several things have shown up in the periphery of the news that really deserve closer attention and scrutiny: Israel has nuclear submarines, Iran has really been working hard on developing nuclear weapons, and that development was done in conjunction with Russia.
Seems ironic to consider the song “O Death” as a reason to live, but it’s the honest truth. The great Ralph Stanley has a voice and a presence that has earned him the title “The Godfather of Bluegrass.” I first heard this song in the film O Brother! Where Art Thou? and had to know more about it.
Once I found it, I discovered Dr. Stanley had sung just about every song from the soundtrack of that film and relished each of his recordings. But, always, I came back to the chilling a capella of “O Death.” The YouTube version I’ve linked has excellent sound quality, and with a voice like Stanley’s, nothing less than excellent will do.
Should Death spare me over for another year, I shall listen to this song at least once more. This song is one for the ages: it truly transcends time, age, and genre.
I’m not posting this to try to convert anyone as much as I am to put forward something that always makes me proud to be who I am and prouder still of who went before me. My ancestors sang these words as they crossed the plains, even after burying those family members who died before their journey was through. I chose this hymn for my son Jarom’s funeral and I will want it sung at mine. It is a song that epitomizes what it means to do what we all must do – endure to the end with patience, hope, and joy. Even in our sorrows, all is well. All is well.
A recent US report stated that al-Qaeda can no longer operate from Afghan bases. Yippee. Honestly, I don’t think they’ve been operating from Afghan bases since 2002. They’re all in Pakistan and points beyond. This is known as a balloon effect: eradication of something somewhere only drives it to another location, just like the assault on coca growers in Colombia drove production into Ecuador and Bolivia. No al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is a hollow victory when at the same time the Taliban has a permanent presence in 80% of the country, with permanent presence defined as an area where one or more attacks on US forces, its allies, or Afghan government personnel happen per week.
Just for the record, at the time of this writing in October 2009, the US has less than 50,000 troops in Afghanistan. At the height of its occupation, Russia deployed over 100,000. Russia couldn’t hold all of Afghanistan with 100,000. They had strategies at first, but after 1985 they decided bombing everything in sight was the only way to do things, and even that they knew to be an exercise in futility. We knew Afghanistan would bring war without end to the USSR and undo its empire: why, then did we plunge into that nation, knowing full well what it does to empires?
MISHA POZHININSKY IS PROBABLY the only website columnist who has actually killed an Afghani. He spent his youth as a soldier in the Red Army’s elite Airborne corps, and returned for the first time since the war in February of 2000 to territory held by the Northern Alliance.
My friend Cali Ruchala posed a series of questions and assertions which have appeared in the American press about the ‘War Against Terror’ from both the Left and Right. He answered via email and telephone from Moscow. This was from November, 2001. It’s fascinating to read what he had to say then as the USA prepares to pour more soldiers into Afghanistan.
I love steampunk. Science fiction without flash and flare, but grunge and grease. Films that sweat through some incredible stories and leave you fantasizing about living in that world. One of those films is the excellent, if extremely offbeat, Russian sci-fi classics, Кин-Дза-Дза (Kin Dza Dza). The film starts here… You’ll have to see it in segments, and I strongly recommend downloading them with Tubesucker, which I use to save up YouTube clips, especially ones I really enjoy. You never know when a video’s gonna get yanked or an account suspended, so save what you can when you can.
If you liked the Jawas in Star Wars and wished the rest of the movie was more like that, this is the film for you. What I find fascinating is that hardly any of the sets were fabricated for the film. Rather, they were found among the ruins of abandoned installations in Soviet Central Asia. The characters from Earth are totally earthly in their aspects. The aliens are truly inhuman in their culture, without any Star Wars or Trek makeup to tell you they’re alien. They accomplish their otherworldliness through a dash of wardrobe, but even more so through their dialogue and actions. Of course, in their alien nature, they serve to reflect back on humanity something of what it means to be human. The ending is completely justified and satisfying. I love this film, even though I know it’s an odd beast not everyone will appreciate.
“I’ve got one rule of thumb: If the president of a country denies the Holocaust, you should believe the worst, not the best, about what they’re doing.” – Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC
I don’t care if you’re Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, or None of the Above: the above is a correct statement.
It also points to imminent war with Iran. Attitudes are hardening and the hawks are spreading their wings. Love war or hate it, it is coming soon, I feel.
