Evict Bush!

Saturday, January 04, 2003  

Saturday morning funnies from Daily Kos, as guest writer Billmon makes his 2003 predictions.

Saturday morning funnies from WorldNetDaily:

Muhammad, a 'demon-possessed pedophile'? - by Jerry Falwell

Content-free, laudatory book review for Moonie Times columnist Joseph Farah's new offering. He starts off by insulting the American public with the title of his first chapter, "Immoral, Fat, Lazy, Stupid", and says that the revolutionary spirit is gone. (And they say that liberals hate America?)

Trash-talk about Patty Murray, campaigning for potential Republican challengers already. A link was provided to their original article on the topic, wherein the highly objective Daniel Pipes trash talks her.

Are you green to the bone? Have a Sierra Club membership? If not, you can ignore this post. If you are, read this, and consider calling them up and telling them to go to hell. If I want to support a bunch of people whose leadership is liberal only when convenient, I can send a check to the *^%$ing DLC.

This website started partly as a journal of my political self-education. However starting next Monday, I'll be joining the ranks of returning students who decided to go get a degree after all, and let someone else take a hand in that education. What with the economy being in the doldrums, it seemed a reasonable decision at the time.

I'm really looking forward to it. Not least because due to a combination of late registration and tremendous demand for continuing education, the basic classes for my major are all full. All of them, even for the Winter quarter. That might seem like a colossal pain, but really it gives me the excuse to take a couple classes that I wanted to take anyway. Go me :)

The point of this is that posting may be very light over the weekend as I prepare for the return (it's been years) and take care of errands. I'm also working on a series of essays to release over the week, so I won't have to feel guilty about neglecting the blog as I adjust. No unlucky houseplant has ever inspired this kind of attachment, which is ironic considering that I'll be taking a botany class. For those of you who may have hoped that I'd be taking an English class, sorry, all full ;)

If you haven't read See The Forest in a while, mosey on over.

Rick Salutin on what war in Iraq isn't about. The list of obvious non-reasons: terror, WMDs, democracy, and the US economy. That doesn't leave very many things for a war to be about, but hey, who cares?

In the Asia Times:

The DynCorp corporation has taken over the responsibility of protecting Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. Lucky him. (More about DynCorp here, here, and here.)

...[A] concern about DynCorp is that using it will allow the executive branch to evade public scrutiny. A November article in the New Republic expressed concern that "no one in government or at DynCorp would tell me when the mission will start or finish, confirm exactly what roles DynCorp will play, or even reveal what the company will be paid ... As a result, PMC [private military corporation] missions often fly beneath the radar, garnering almost no attention in the press or anywhere else."

In that regard it is worth noting that in early December the Bush administration rejected Colombia's offer to grant war crimes immunity to US soldiers in the country after Colombia refused to extend the protection to private military contractors such as DynCorp.

DynCorp will be under great scrutiny as it tries to carry out this new, high-profile assignment without any glitches. While it has been involved in providing military services for some years, notably in the Balkans and Colombia, it has come under fire recently for the actions of some of its employees. It was recently involved in a scandal when some of its employees were involved in a prostitution ring in Bosnia. DynCorp personnel contracted to the United Nations police service in Bosnia were implicated in buying and selling prostitutes, including girls as young as 12. Some DynCorp employees were also accused of videotaping the rape of one of the women. ...

Why the Bush administration's policy is not only about oil, but market hegemony.

[Per the front page lead-in]...Multiple choice: The economic effects of regime change in Iraq might include (a) The neutering of OPEC, (b) The destruction of the Russian oil producing sector, (c) The implosion of the Russian budget, (d) A bonanza of de-nationalized Iraqi oil concessions for US-based multinationals, (e) A cascade of de-nationalized oil concessions around the globe or (f) A fundamental re-ordering of the global economy, including all of the above.

A case for why having more troops in Saudi Arabia is almost as important as having them in Iraq.

..."There is a deep realization among the US policy makers that in fact there are two concepts of Islam that prevail in the Muslim world. One emerged from Najad [Saudi Arabia], and the other very recently when the Turks ruled an Ottoman empire stretching from Turkey to Morocco," a US diplomat said recently. "The Islam that emerged from the deserts of Najad, called the Salafi branch of Islam, purely finds its sources in the holy book [Koran] and the teachings of Prophet [Sunnah]. The concept of Islam that evolved during the days of Turkish rule are also based on Koran and Sunnah, but instead of taking direct instructions from the book and the teachings, this concept relies on the interpretations of different scholars and Islamic jurists. The Islamic concepts which emerged from the deserts of Najad have always been extremist, whereas the concepts that evolved during Turkish empire are very moderate."

There is no geographical divide between the two concepts, both exist in all Muslim societies. Islamist organizations such as al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world, the Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, the Jamaat-i-Islami Afghanistan, the Islamic political parties of Indonesia, Malaysia and Algeria, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, Hamas in Palestine, Chechen fighters etc - all belong to the Salafi branch and all are, or have been, the recipients of Saudi aid in one form or another. It is a fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the vanguard of this Salafi branch of Islam. ...

Digby finds a piece indicating that John Ashcroft's Justice Department has begun investigating antitrust violations on the part of two free alternative newsweeklies. Those tyrannical bastards at the Village Voice who stomp out all competition have been warned.

The US government says that drugs are very, very bad. Unless you're an Air Force fighter pilot.

If that's the case, you could be forced to take amphetamines on duty before taking off on a mission. The manufacturer's warning on these drugs explicitly cautions against operating heavy machinery or engaging in potentially hazardous activities. (Five bucks says they also weren't told about the potential circulatory system strain, risk of addiction, or other damage to the body that can result from long-term amphetamine use.)

This was discovered during the trial of two pilots who mistakenly bombed a contingent of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Update: Having called four local aviation medical examiners, two of them have gotten back to me with the information that Dexedrine (and in fact, any prescription stimulant or psychotropic) is a disqualification for piloting civilian aircraft in the US. The other two have yet to report in.

Update, the second: A retired Air Force medical examiner who now does civilian evaluations was the third to weigh in. He said that the FAA does not explicitly list safe/unsafe medications, but that generally speaking, drugs considered to be mind-altering aren't allowed under most circumstances.

According to Dr. Webb, some exceptions in the case of Dexedrine might be use as a weight loss drug, or use for recurrent sleepiness. In both of these cases, a thorough examination would have to verify that the individual was safe to fly, and showed no indication of impairment. The examiner, however would not be allowed to make this determination, and would have to refer the case to the FAA for review. If the same drug were being taken for a mental illness, the existence of that illness would be a probable disqualification. Someone showing signs of addiction or being high would be disqualified.

In the New York Times

Paul Krugman wants to know what game Bush is playing in North Korea. As he says, "What was it Teddy Roosevelt said? Talk trash but carry a small stick?"

The Paper of Record notices that the Bush administration is a bit secretive. No! D'ya think? Unsurprisingly, Ari Fleischer is quoted as saying that the president is "dedicated to an open government," even though this administration has given three new agencies (Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services) the power to classify documents as secret. Long article, very good.

President Chavez says state regaining control over oil industry. The incoming president of Brazil has promised to help all he can.

Meanwhile, Chavez has been accused of helping Al-Qaida on this site. I'm not buying it, but I guess it's good to know what people are yammering about. Word of this smear will probably hit the mainstream press long before any information comes from his supporters.

Update: This reminds me of a snarky comment I made in early December, where I said "Next thing you know, we'll have Al-Qaida members mysteriously working in Latin American countries who've been getting uppity enough to elect populists." But then a few days later, Daily Kos did warn me that I shouldn't joke about it, and sent me a couple good links that you can find in the original post on the topic. Prescient advice if ever there was.

In the BBC:

Scientists examine the culture of orangutans.

DR Congo ceasefire broken, thousands flee their homes. The Belgians, who first taught the Africans about cutting off the hands of the uncooperative, will no longer get involved. This timeline of the country is a good minimal backgrounder.

Israel freezes arms shipments to China.

Bangladesh promotes closer ties with eastern neighbors like Burma, China, and Thailand.

IMF to Zambia: privatize or collapse. The country says that their debt burden is intolerable.

Thailand pays off IMF loans early.

Breast-feeding reduces pain for babies.

Testify! has two posts up, here, and here, regarding the competition between the dollar and the euro. He makes an interesting case that while it's not strictly untrue that the war in Iraq is about oil, it may be more accurate to say that it's about the currency that oil is traded in.

In short, what really sealed Hussein's fate was the decision to trade oil for euros instead of dollars, and the rumblings of other OPEC members towards similar actions. Even that Venezuela's recent actions have cut dollars out of their oil transactions, which may be another significant factor in their unpopularity with the US. Considering (he explains) that our currency is presently overvalued, it would depreciate significantly if other nations were no longer required to keep large stocks of it available for trade. Anyway, go read the posts.

On Counterpunch:

Pop Quiz on Korean-American relations.

Pat Robertson's hate propaganda.

From the New Scientist:

The environment in 2002.

Eat the beef, save the range. Lab grown meat is on its way. Will there come a time when couples argue about who forgot to exercise the steak?

Cities take up the best agricultural real estate. Certainly, Orange County, CA didn't get it's name out of a hat. Rows of boxhouses cover what was once miles of orchards. On Seattle's eastside, the prosperous city of Bellevue stands on blueberry fields and farms. Surely not the only two places in the country like that.

Some Republicans already preparing to push their anti-abortion platform. However, the close of the article said something that it seems very hard to get across to people:

...This agenda reflects a strategic shift among many anti-abortion advocates in recent years: While still committed to ending legalized abortion someday, many have adopted a more gradual, step-by-step approach intended to change attitudes and laws over the long haul.

People are usually pretty good at picking up on an immediate threat, but it's the slow and steady build up that's hard to stay focused on fighting. With civil rights, with reproductive rights, with all of it, every step in the wrong direction represents an uphill battle sometime in the future. The other side has been strategic, acknowledged their bad PR, and started sneaking in the back way.

If reproductive freedom is an issue you care about, don't ever forget that the ultimate goal of the so-called 'pro-life' movement is to make even birth control illegal. To forbid the morning-after pill to rape victims. To allow doctors and pharmacists to refuse to offer birth control devices with no sanction. To keep every teenager completely in the dark on how to prevent pregnancy should their hormones get the better of them someday.

And people think, yeah, if they ever did that we'd have mass demonstrations at the statehouses. We'll barricade the streets, march for days, weeks, months, years. But the way things usually go, it won't happen overnight, all at once. It'll be one thing here, one thing there, none of which sounded very important at the time. Then on that day when we wake up to see the truth, it'll be a long climb back to where we are today.

Newsflash: curiousity is good for you.

It has been announced on many sites today that digby, a stalwart commenter at Eschaton, has finally graced us with a blog. In typical digby fashion, he has some sage advice for the Democrats.

Talk Left offers up the only sane reaction to a draft proposal from any politician of any party: disgust.

The bitter shack of resentment has an interesting post up about the situation in Afghanistan and neighboring Turkmenistan. Bringing to light the fact that Hamid Karzai is a former Unocal consultant (the people now putting in the pipeline), and that Turkmenistan's pro-Unocal dictator is perhaps even more of a megalomaniac than Saddam Hussein. But he's 'our' megalomaniac, so I guess that's alright.

Argentina and Privatization

Ned Boudreau talks about the IMF sponsored economic destruction of the IMF poster child, Argentina.

...Despite previous 2001 loans and loan agreements, and with total sovereign debt at $132 billion, on the 5th of December 2001 the IMF pulled the trigger by withholding the $1.264 billion disbursement. This step was taken because austerity measures imposed by the government – measures originally insisted on by the IMF – were not austere enough. (Nor were IMF oversight and supervision severe enough.)

The government had, in fact, overspent. Yet the hard truth is that the IMF denied Argentina a mere $1.264 billion – which would have all but balanced the budget – and thereby brought down the economy and the government. ...

Yet the true lesson of Argentina is this: The IMF is a creature controlled by the United States, which is that institution’s primary backer in terms of percentage of funding by member nations, and thus in voting rights. Ergo, the United States holds the reins on the runaway stage that is the IMF, and by extension the World Bank. And the reason the U.S. carries on with policies and practices that prove disastrous for other countries is very clear: Those policies and practices are very, very profitable. Many banks and other investors mobilized by IMF and World Bank loans charged Argentina interest premiums of 7% to 16% above the commercial rate. ...

Naomi Klein wrote about this earlier in the year, regarding a country with nothing left to sell.

...Rocardo Cabellero and Rudiger Dornbusch, a pair of MIT economists writing in the Financial Times, go further. "It's time to get radical," they say. Argentina "must temporarily surrender its sovereignty on all financial issues . . . give up much of its monetary, fiscal, regulatory and asset-management sovereignty for an extended period, say five years." The country's spending, money-printing and tax administration should be controlled by "foreign agents," they say, including "a board of experienced foreign central bankers."

In a nation still scarred by the "disappearance" of 30,000 people during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, only a "foreign agent" would have the nerve to say, as the MIT team does, that "somebody has to run the country with a tight grip." And that, with the Argentineans out of way, the country could be saved by prying open markets, introducing deep spending cuts, and, of course, a "massive privatisation campaign." ...

But there's another hitch: Argentina has already done it all.

As the IMF's model student throughout the 1990s, the country flung open its economy (that's why it's been so easy for capital to flee since the crisis began). As far as Argentina's supposedly wild public spending goes, a full third goes directly to servicing the external debt. Another third goes to pension funds, which have already been privatised. The remaining third alone covers health, education and social assistance. Far from spiralling out of control, these expenditures have fallen far behind population growth, which is why shipments of donated food and medicine are arriving by boat from Spain. ...

And with the backdrop of all that, there are those who would argue(2) that water privatization is a good idea for developing countries. In light of how privatization and globalization is actually practiced, this becomes a good test case for capitalist fundamentalism.(2) While there are a number of water privatization horror stories (some links here, scroll down), it might be more useful to examine the idea in terms of scenarios that have occurred in developing nations with other privatized resources, and in terms of Argentina's present situation.

Money: In countries where half or more of the population is living below the poverty line, and jobs are fleeing, who will be able to pay higher rates for water? In a country where only the ports and customs offices still remain in government hands, where would the revenue come from to support water vouchers for the poor? In such a scenario, it sure isn't coming from income tax. Also, many developing nations charge reduced taxes to foreign companies, who then take profits out of the country for investment abroad.

Property Rights: Once the rights to a resource are in private hands, its disposition is up to the owner. In considering the agriculture market (food being only slightly less necessary than water) it can be seen that following years of land consolidation, many starving countries are food exporters, just like Argentina. Will we see a world where thirsty countries will be water exporters? Once a resource is no longer owned by people who have a stake in the local economy, the possible impetus to sell that commodity abroad to the highest bidder becomes a significant issue. Thirsty Latin Americans will be pressed to compete with thirsty North Americans when water becomes even more the property of unaccountable multinationals.

Scarcity: As I've posted before, even the NY Times has discussed the potential water shortage posed by vanishing ice caps around the world. And it's hard to find a region of the world where people aren't concerned about depleted aquifers, drying wells, and a water system increasingly vulnerable to pollutants. The global commodification of natural beauty and ecosystems is already proceeding to the point that you practically have to be wealthy to be able to keep them. Why is water less likely to be exploited? This is a scenario ripe for profiteering, and the people who will be left holding the bag are the ones who will no longer be able to afford to buy the groundwater in their own country.

Policies which leave vital national assets and services with companies or individuals that are not accountable(3) to the people who depend on them are doomed to fail. Not that they will fail to make a profit, but they will certainly fail to serve the interests of the public. Especially when, as is often the case, no compelling interest exists to ensure adequate levels of local service.

(1) Thanks to Not Invented Here of the no-working-permalinks and good tech articles.

(2) Fundamentalist Capitalism: The dogmatic belief that the market can solve all problems by means of an Invisible Hand which always acts in the best interests of society at large. And I have a lovely bridge for sale...

(3) Countries are often put immediately in the wrong by the international finance community if they try to correct sour privatization deals through regulation. Uppity governments may be rated down, or have vital loans witheld. Under current global trade agreements, they may even be sued for damages in closed court courtesy of the WTO.

In the BBC:

UN can't find any unauthorized weapons in Iraq. The inspectors say that if any further intelligence is possessed by the US or UK, they'd very much like to see it.

Bush affirms commitment to diplomatic engagement with North Korea. Which will be something new, because the administration hasn't tried that option yet. Anywhere.

Protests, fires, and attempted breakouts plague Australia's asylum camps.

Israel's Likud party rocked by bribery scandal before election season.

Lula will be sworn in as president of Brazil.

Bangladesh commisions first female army officers, a precursor to adding female troops to the rank and file. The country's last national election had both leading parties headed by a female candidate, beating out the very modern US of A by who knows how many years.

The Media Awareness Project reprints this NY Times article about the hidden penalties that people who've served their time in prison face once they get out.

...The ban on living in public housing is among the penalties for criminals that are not spelled out at sentencing and do not begin until the sentence runs out. Most of the sanctions were passed by Congress and state legislatures in the 1990's to get tough on crime. Now, as the record number of men and women who filled prisons in the last decade are finishing their terms, the consequences of the penalties are being felt.

The penalties also include a lifetime ban on receiving welfare or food stamps for those convicted of drug felonies, prohibitions against getting certain jobs in plumbing, education and other fields, and the loss of the right to vote, for life in some states.

Felons with drug convictions are barred from receiving federal student loans, and women who serve more than 15 months in prison may be forced to give up their children to foster care. ...

...The consequences affect millions of Americans. Thirteen million felons who are in prison or have done their time live in the United States, according to an estimate by Christopher Uggen, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota. That is almost 7 percent of the adult population. ...

Read the rest. It's a sobering look at the way former convicts are turned into a permanent underclass with no recourse to public assistance, and little hope of gainful work. A life sentence to a marginal existence doesn't sound so hot when you think about 40 & 50 year olds still being punished for getting caught on possession in their late teens, early twenties. If we genuinely want to rehabilitate people, and bring them back to being productive stakeholders in society, this isn't the way.

This editorial examines the huge cost of harsh sentences. A topic that budget crunched states are just beginning to examine now that our prison population has increased by leaps and bounds, and continues to steadily grow larger with each new crop of low level offenders who run into mandatory minimum sentencing. One state at least has started walking towards sanity:

...In Michigan, the Legislature responded to budget constraints by repealing its mandatory-minimum sentencing laws -- a scheme so harsh that some people were given life sentences for mere possession of heroin or cocaine. Republican Gov. John Engler is expected to sign the repeal. In Kansas, cost cutting has led the Kansas Sentencing Commission, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers and others, to recommend that those arrested for drug possession, with no violent crimes or drug trafficking offenses in their background, should be diverted into treatment. ...

In a country where many states spend more on prisons than schools, this is a change in priorities that's long overdue.

Courtesy of Liberal Oasis, we find that SKBubba has given us a Republican's list of Things That Marital Infidelity and Oral Sex Are Worse Than. Something many of us have probably thought, but maybe hadn't put so explicitly.

Update: This jogged a memory that's been nagging at me lately, and gets no less disturbing with time. So, I went to see Forrest Gump in the theater when it came out, and there's a couple with a 10-ish year old boy sitting just behind me. And we're watching this movie with parts where people are getting shot and blown up, bodies being mangled, etc., and there wasn't a peep from the peanut gallery.

But then there's that scene, you know the one, where it looks like the female lead is about to remove her bra and (god help us) you might see a topless woman. And all of a sudden, I hear, "Quick, cover his eyes."

Of course, it's eminently defensible to suggest that young children should not be exposed to naked human bodies. But when those children are considered old enough to watch graphic depictions of human bodies being willfully damaged, what does that say about us? Where are our ethical standards as a culture when breasts are sinful but brutality is not?

Body and Soul writes about the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and how the US is doing its darnedest to avoid dealing with it.

More With Less

George Monbiot takes fundamentalist capitalism to task. In part:

...Capitalism is a millenarian cult, raised to the status of a world religion. Like communism, it is built upon the myth of endless exploitation. Just as Christians imagine that their God will deliver them from death, capitalists believe that theirs will deliver them from finity. The world's resources, they assert, have been granted eternal life. ...

Go read the whole thing. Then when you're done with that, and thoroughly ticked off about having it pointed out that the world is in fact finite, go read up here about humanity's option for success as envisioned by R. Buckminster Fuller.

It would be easy in our cynical age to dismiss his optimism, and laugh off his 'spaceship earth' terminology, but try to avoid this reflex. The concept that we are in a closed system which we have to pass on in a livable condition to future generations is an important one to grasp. And it doesn't mean that we need to starve or have a planetwide Amish conversion. Bucky would likely have been terribly offended by the idea that the only solution to our current problems is to lower our standard of living, and hope that no one else raises theirs.

Some of the ideas that he brings up in his writings are basic ones, but have the potential to make significant change possible if taken seriously. For instance, how many tons of material really need to go into a building to make it functional and safe? To do all the things that a building should, but with far less of a resource footprint. Or, in our current state of freshwater crisis, do our plumbing systems use water in the most efficient way? Is it possible that we could clean ourselves and our houses, flush our toilets, and water our crops, with far less of a precious resource than we now use?

Bucky wanted to know how he could get the same, or a better, result with lower inputs and/or less wasteful outputs. This is an essential quality of life question that we need to ask ourselves as a species. As our cities get more crowded and polluted, and unspoiled countryside vanishes at an alarming rate, we face a time when only the wealthy will be able to afford both natural beauty and prosperity. Certainly, the residents of Aspen, CO aren't ever accused of NIMBYism. But it will also never be suggested that they put up with living near a paper mill that poisons a several square mile radius with unbearable stench. Do only the wealthy deserve to have their health and property values spared?

The voices of popular culture want you to believe that our present system is the modern day version of an inevitable divine order. But the world works through interactive consensus of one sort or another, it's created through our participation. Through decisions big and small our whole lives over, we shape the resource footprint of our society and the standards of acceptable waste. And because we're living in the closed system of our spaceship earth, we need to know for a fact that our actions affect each other and to accept that responsibility. It's an obligation that our society has deferred for too long.

Charles Dodgson's latest post makes a good case for thinking that our North Korea policy comes straight out of The Onion.

The Agonist has good posts and links up today. Go peek.

Venezuelan news has been slow in coming from less biased sources over the holidays, but this piece on Brazil's new president is a good introduction to the man branded in some circles as part of a southern axis of evil in concert with Chavez and Castro. (Wrong on so many levels that I won't go into it now.) Anyone who believes these leaders are a threat to the US is probably still afraid of communist infiltration of the US government.

Brazil is presently helping Venezuela import fuel to cover their shortages in the wake of a massive employer lockout. Other OPEC nations*, of which Venezuela is a member, have also offered assistance. Keep that in mind when you're told in the press that Chavez has had dealings with 'terrorist' nations, many of whom are coincidentally also part of OPEC. Venezuela recently held the rotating presidency of the organization, and is a founding member.

It's more amusing (in a grimly ironic sense) than ever that leaders of peaceful nations who have neither invaded their neighbors nor murdered their citizens are portrayed as a rising force of evil. They don't even have WMDs. Clearly a definition of evil with which I'm not familiar.

* Neither Brazil nor Trinidad (another source of assistance) are members of OPEC, merely neighboring governments who've chosen to be friendly. Venezuela is currently the only member of OPEC in South America.

Venezuela Archives

Alas, A Blog on the current efforts to save Firefly. A good sci-fi show amidst a sea of canned office joke pablum and Friends knockoffs. A shiny gold star for anyone who pitches in ;)

Go read PLA today. Several good, long posts.

Mainstream media finally recognizes that many veterans from the last Gulf War got really sick, just as we're preparing to send a fresh crop of troops back. From increases in cancer and birth defects to early Alzheimer's disease, one victim said:

"I'm not the same person as I was when I left." And: "I would have preferred to have stepped on a land mine than to be exposed to what I was exposed to over there."

Our people are sick, and the Iraqis still living there are sick. How many more people have to suffer this kind of chemical exposure before governments are willing to renounce the use of toxic weapons?

Congressman Bernie Sanders talks about Bush's war on elderly workers. Once again, good to their contributors, not so good to loyal voters.

Peter Preston suggests that North Korea is not such a big threat after all. I would agree, with the qualification that if they were actually attacked, all bets are off. They may be up for a game of Chicken, but they're unlikely to start anything unless the US gets stupid.

Japan's birthrate drops as educated career women find that men aren't interested, and their companies won't support working mothers. Japanese businesses face a looming decline in the working age population due to their society's rigid social system.

Government Executive's Amelia Gruber tries to put a bright face on the fact that an extra half-day off at Christmas didn't make government employees any happier about the pummeling they've received from the administration.

The Christian Science Monitor examines the effects a young life spent in competition for Ivy League admission.

...Gerald Smith, a professor and adviser at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., tells of a young man who scored a perfect 1600 on his SAT but lasted less than a year at the liberal-arts school: "Even though he made straight A's that first semester, he came to my office sobbing. He didn't know who he was, what he wanted to do, and was never taught to think outside the box." ...

In the BBC:

Three Americans killed in Yemen at the missionary hospital where they worked.

Russia to North Korea: Chill Out.

Saudi Arabia denies that it agreed to let US use their bases.

A complete skeleton of the largest aquatic reptile ever found in Mexico.

MadKane gives us Fristy the Surgeon, sung to the tune of Frosty the Snowman of course.

Houston, we have comments. (And the power of offensive post deletion.) Rhetorical dust-ups and thoughtful disagreement encouraged, insults and graphic obscenities frowned upon. Enjoy.

Update: Well we had them last night, anyway. Bloody &*&^ ... Working on the problem.

Update: If the comments don't appear, refreshing the page may bring them back.

The University of Washington hosted a series of lectures on Islamic culture as it relates to the terror attacks and popular mis/conceptions titled Context and Consequences. You can find links to the pdf partial transcripts and slides of each of the seven lectures at the link.

The Agonist has an interesting post up about the situation in North Korea. Although I disagree entirely with him over the Iraq question, he makes some very good points in this post.

Charles Dodgson responds to the Libertarian position that the only meaningful abuses of power are by governments, and that corporate power is nothing to fear. As he notes correctly, these people seem never to have had a run-in with credit bureaus or HMOs.

Televangelist and faith-healer Benny Hinn raises a lot of money. Where's it all going? This two-part article was the result of a Dateline NBC investigation.

Detainees at Bagram airbase not faring so well.

The Bush administration will stop issuing mass layoff statistics. Maybe they think the unemployed will be less of a problem if we don't know about them.

Hillary Clinton addresses unemployment on this past Saturday's Democratic radio address.

In the BBC:

China launches space mission.

US has no plans for military action against North Korea. (sigh of relief)

The party that has ruled Kenya since independence has been ousted in recent elections.

In Venezuela, the walkout continues.

Vatican prepares to make some Nazi-era records available to scholars.

Saudi Arabia will agree to let US use bases and airspace in the event of war with Iraq.

In the Arab News:

A survey of looming environmental damage.

The perceived lawlessness of US actions abroad.

Saudi Arabia and Sudan build closer ties.

The local government of Rio de Janeiro has finally decided to do something about its sprawling shantytowns: Lay sewer pipe and bring in water and electricity.

...The paved streets have infused people here with new self-confidence. Suddenly they have firm ground beneath their feet instead of red, ore-bearing earth which turns to mud in the tropical rainstorms and often used to send whole neighborhoods on fatal slides down the mountainside. Paved streets bring the poor neighborhood one small step closer to the residential areas of the white middle and upper classes: asphalt as a status symbol! And being listed in the land register, which turns the tiny plot of land each of the residents once illegally occupied into their legally owned property, lifts them out of the state of illegality. As a favela develops into a residential neighborhood, each "favelado" develops into a citizen. ...

Go read Eschaton today.