The end of the USA

[>]

Globalization, dreamliner, french wine

[>]
Toast. All toast. Without the butter.

Straits of Magellan

Why would Magellan take a shortcut like this?
The Chinese said he could save some time going this way.
On the other hand, he may have noticed that the water was salty.

Energy Independence

The amount of oil that we use for transportation is about equal to the amount of oil we import. Therefore traveling less cannot eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. Any use of oil for transportation requires foreign oil, at current efficiencies.

Tripling efficiencies for transport would help some,
but any use of oil for transportation requires foreign oil

Sex drive

Mosquitos have a working sex drive,
and their brains are quite small.
Apparently, not much brain is required.

Fort Benning, Georgia

Father Ray Bourgeois served as a missionary in Bolivia and El Salvador. There, he witnessed death squads, that were trained in the US at the "Special Forces" school at Fort Benning, Georgia. When he returned to the United States, he became a nationally known peace advocate. He will be excommunicated next week for participating in a ceremony that the Vatican considers unacceptable: the ordination of a woman who is not transsexual.
----
We do not know if Jesus considered sex reassignment surgery, since we do not know if that surgery is sinful. We can assume that Jesus was tempted by homosexual thoughts, since homosexuality is worse than heterosexuality.

Select the best answer

33. Saint Peter was
a) Selected by Jesus
b) A Catholic
c) A pope
d) A priest
e) Married
f) All of the above

And that's why priests can't marry.

Love your enemies

Love the devil?
Not gonna happen.
Not in my lifetime.

Solitary confinement

On the cheap

If I onlyhada heart

The cowardly lion
----
The intelligence failures that Bush reminds us of were manufactured in Doug Feith's office in the White House.

Select the best answer

31. (mommy)Where do babies come from?
a) The hospital
b) The delivery room
c) The birth canal
d) The womb
e) Ask your father
----
It depends on what the meaning of baby is.

Old vs. New

a smoldering wick he will not snuff out

No group is all bad

viz. Samaratans, theives

Godless capitalism's answer

How to survive the upcoming economic meltdown:
open a nuclear test facility on your wyoming ranch.

What shall we do

Is it ok to vote for a law you think is immoral,
or vote against a law you think is moral?
---------------------------------
For that matter, is it ok to vote for a law that is moral?
Isn't it redundant?

Jacob have I loved

Esau have I hated

Pentecost

1 and 2?

Was Jesus gay?

[>]
Did He have homosexual feelings?

Good News / Bad News

:-) We will be independent of foreign oil soon.
:-( They won't sell us any.

Zombie economics

Let's rethink this.
Kunstler
And Merry Christmas!

Lots of asteroids in the past

Luckily, those days are over.

State sponsored arms and drugs

[>]
Cocaine goes from Afghanistan to Turkey. Everybody knows.

Ying/Yang

Yes we can / No we can't.

Long term debt

no longer makes sense,
since tomorrow you will be poorer.

I pledge allegiance

to the heavens,
and to the earth on which I stand
and to the poorest, to the weakest
to liberty, to justice, for all.

And now for something

completely different

Close Guantanimo Prison

Close Guantanimo.
Naval Station.

$700 Billion Bailout

To prevent corporate bankruptcy?
Didn't we just "fix" the bankruptcy laws?
How about preventing bankruptcy for the poor?

Who is this man?

What's the difference

The Green Revolution

Now what? We are out of green.

Is solar energy clean?

Not quite.
If absorbing the suns rays is what warms the earth, and it is,
then absorbing more rays will heat the earth more. :-)
Maybe we should cover the Sahara with aluminum foil
just to be sure.

We are not on the wrong side

We are the wrong side
Daniel Ellsberg, regarding Vietnam

Non-proliferation, 1954 style, Vietnam

Hearts and Minds[@4:41] or
House of War p.549 note 151
George Bidault, French Foreign Minister, reports that Dulles
He took me aside, in the corner of a window at the Quai d'Orsay,
et il me dit "And if we were to give to you two atom bombs?"
And later, the Russians gave the Cubans 100.
Also Black Ops, Geraghty, p5.

$700 billion per year

[>]
seems to be the number to cite as what we pay terrorists for oil.
We use 20+ million barrels per day.
Yes, 20 mbbl/day * 350 days * $100/bbl = $700 billion.
But 11 mbbl/day comes from North America
(CAN=2, US=8, MEX=1)
In 2007, oil imports cost $342 billion.

[>]
About 5 quads of natural gas are used for electricity.
This is 20% of the 25 quadrillion BTUs of oil imported, not 38%.

Hang Victory

Let's focus on honor.

Bad news

[Picture this]
9%

WTF are they pulling with Bolivia now?

[article] Rice targets jobs in Bolivia.
Let's pressure this socialist democracy.
---
Unemployment was the number one issue in the 2002 election, and the failure of President "Goni" to deliver jobs was the cause of his ouster in 2003.
Yes, Bolivia has natural gas, which the vermin would like to get.

Shithead

Hayden claimed 'state-secrets' in the Rich Barlow case. Barlow had reported that Pakistan had the bomb and was conducting a market in nuclear technology. He was fired for trying to alert the administration to the A. Q. Kahn network.
[story]

Charlie Wilson's War

funds Pakistan's nuclear program.

1974/05: India surprises the west by exploding a nuclear weapon
1975/12: AQ Kahn steals nuclear secrets from the Dutch
1978/04: socialist Revolution in Afghanistan
1979/02: Islamic Revolution in Iran against the Shah
1979/07: Carter authorizes action against Afghanistan
1979/12: USSR invades Afghanistan.
1980/04: Carter's failed rescue of hostages
1980/09: Iraq invades Iran

1982: Charlie sends money to Pakistan to give to the Afghans.
1982/12: Rumsfeld greets Sadaam
1985: US sells 40 F16's to Pakistan as "Peace Gate I & II"
1987: Charlie sends stingers, some of which Pakistan sells
1987: Pakistan detonates an atomic bomb, in China. 1
1988/05: USSR begins to leave Afghanistan
1988: India leases three nuclear subs from USSR
1989: Pakistan modifies the F-16 to carry atomic weapons.

(15 years later)

2004/02: A Q Khan takes the fall and is pardoned.

Clean coal

Ironweed DVD club

[Special interest films].

A Crisis

Is a terrible thing to waste. [Richard Heinberg]

Con man

Sometimes it takes more than confidence.

Why do they hate us?

When we are so good.

Privatization fucks us again

A private company, USEC, was "spun-off" the Department of Energy, giving it the job of providing enriched uranium to the US. In addition to enriching uranium ore, they were asked to take old atom bombs from the USSR, and include that material in their nuclear fuel product. This line of production was more costly, so USEC secretly discouraged Russia from accelerating the shipment of its warheads to the US for processing. (Joseph Stiglitz)
[1] NY Times article, before the scandal
[2] Paducah Sun article about Russian warhead glut
[3] Stiglitz on the 'hush money' to MinAtom, the Russian partner

In other news

China walks in space.

Something is happening here

and you don't know what it is. Do you. Mr Jones.
[This] may help. It's the borg.

No Exit

[Art]

India helps Saadam go nuclear (Globe and Mail, 2005)

[full article]
Nuclear cooperation between India and Iraq started in 1974 under the direct supervision of Saddam Hussain himself on the Iraqi side when he was still the Vice President. Saadam flew to India specially to sign a Nuclear Cooperation Treaty with the then Indian Prime Minster Late Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The little known Treaty involved the exchange of scientists, training and technology.

India tested its first nuclear explosive device on 18 May 1974, in less than two months time from signing of these agreements.

Tyranny and backwardness

They go hand-in-hand. [Slater]
Which way are we headed?
--- He also says ---
the early Christians embraced radically democratic values and practices, but they, too, were soon engulfed by the universal authoritarianism of the age.

Dilawar

d. Dec 5, 2002,
Bagram, Afghanistan
while in custody

Intelligence failures

01. stability of Iran under the Shah
Jimmy Carter, new year's eve, 1977:
"Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world. This is a great tribute to you, your Majesty, and to your leadership, and to the respect and the admiration and love which your people give to you."
02. formerly known as the Soviet Union
03. Saadam will not invade Kuwait
04. Saadam is a grave and gathering threat
05. yellow cake
06. the fundamentals of the economy are sound
07. India's atomic bomb
08. Tonkin Gulf
09. remember the Maine
10. arctic ice caps
11. peak oil
12. Iran/contra
13. overthrow Allende
14. overthrow Hugo Chávez
15. overthrow Mohammad Mossadegh
16. overthrow Saadam
17. rejection of 'grand bargain' from Iran
18. we will be greeted with flowers
19. we do not torture
20. School of the Americas
21. De-Stalinization
22. Sputnik
23. the missle gap
24. overthrow Castro
25. Kobar Towers
26. the Pueblo
27. 9-11
28. Vietnam
29. World Trade Center Bombing
30. Douglas Feith *
31. Gorbachev
32. Pearl Harbor
33. Francis Gary Powers
34. the Chinese embassyin Yugoslavia
35. the Chinese will not cross the Yalu Rive
36. Alrich Ames

The dog that didn't bark

The US dollar continued to gain strength
despite the failure of the bailout.

Siebel Edmonds

[wikipedia]
Another loose thread, some 9/11 related

Drill, baby, drill

Is downing a six-pack to fix your hangover.