Climate change at least partly natural

A European study further complicates the already complicated Global Warming debate:

A Bonn study shows that since 1880 climate gases have caused just under half of global warming.

"Without the influence of the greenhouse gases the average annual temperature would have only increased by 0.4 degrees," is how Professor Andreas Hense summarises the results.

'However, the fluctuations at the end of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century are mainly due to changes in solar activity and volcanic eruptions.'

So, is the glass half empty or half full?

iPod theft trauma

Pity the poor person traumatized by the theft of his iPod:

Victims said they felt the thieves got an illicit glimpse at their musical tastes and even their "souls."

Sounds to me like these people have spent too much time with their headphones on in their own little iPod worlds. Either that or loud volume has rattled their brains.

Holiday destination: Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Remember how the intolerant Taliban thugs blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas? Good news, archaeologists think they'll be able to use the fragments to reconstruct the Buddhas.

Even before the reconstruction of the Buddhas, Bamiyan is attracting foreign tourists. This is difficult to imagine since Bamiyan is without electricity and land-mines litter the ground.

Still, three hotels have been built to take advantage of the oustanding views of the Hindu Kush. Oh yeah, Bamiyan has one more thing working in its favour, at least according to long-time resident and would-be tour guide Abdullah:

"It's peaceful here right now and I know the future will be too. We are now safe."

Thanks to those evil, war-mongering Americans.

EU consitution a "judicial monster"

You're probably aware Jacques Chirac went on French TV the other day to pitch for a YES vote on the EU constitution. Chirac's TV performance was less than convincing, consisting as it did of a stage managed on-air discussion with 80 politically unsophisticated youths.

Now, a member of Chirac's UMP has urged the French to vote NO. According to Niclolas Dupont-Aignan:

"If this Constitution wins, it is the end of Europe."

"The system has been built without the will of the people and they will revolt within ten years if this [treaty] is passed."

"We cannot build a solid European future on such a complex text," the MP added, branding the Constitution a 'judicial monster' which he said would be the end of free states in Europe.

Mark Steyn predicted the EU consitution would be ratified; maybe this is one of those rare occassion he gets it wrong. I reckon the constitution is irrelevant, Europe is doomed.

How you can tell when Seymour Hersh is lying

His lips are moving.

Supermarkets are eating your brain

It's a vibrational thing.

US neo-colonialism disguised as reconstruction

In order for the US to better handle any future foreign disasters, the State Department set up the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). Here's the blurb from the S/CRS homepage:

Failing and post-conflict states pose one of the greatest national and international security challenges of our day, threatening vulnerable populations, their neighbors, our allies, and ourselves. On August 5, 2004, Secretary Powell announced the creation of the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) to enhance our nation's institutional capacity to respond to crises involving failing, failed, and post-conflict states and complex emergencies. Ambassador Carlos Pascual serves as the Coordinator.

S/CRS has a core mission: To lead, coordinate and institutionalize U.S. Government civilian capacity to prevent or prepare for post-conflict situations, and to help stabilize and reconstruct societies in transition from conflict or civil strife, so they can reach a sustainable path toward peace, democracy and a market economy.

International coordination is amongst the S/CRS's core objectives. Specifically:

The Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization will:

•Work with international partners to develop a shared understanding of responsibilities, means for collaboration, and burden sharing.

•Increase efficiency and reduce redundancy in reconstruction and stabilization operations, adding value to existing capabilities and increasing overall effectiveness of multilateral efforts.

•Key international partners:
--United Nations (e.g. DPKO, DPA, OCHA, UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP)
--EU
--IFIs (World Bank, IMF, regional banks)
--G-8
--Regional organizations
--Country partners

Sound's great doesn't it, the good old US of A planning ahead to help future disaster victims through coordinated international effort? Sure, the program isn't totally altruistic but foreigners in need stand to benefit. Or, maybe not.

Naomi Klein sees the S/CRS as something sinister, a neo-colonialist plot:

Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries "at the same time," each lasting "five to seven years."

Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction.

Gone are the days of waiting for wars to break out and then drawing up ad hoc plans to pick up the pieces.

"We used to have vulgar colonialism," says Shalmali Guttal, a Bangalore-based researcher with Focus on the Global South. "Now we have sophisticated colonialism, and they call it 'reconstruction.'"

It certainly seems that ever-larger portions of the globe are under active reconstruction: being rebuilt by a parallel government made up of a familiar cast of for-profit consulting firms, engineering companies, mega-NGOs, government and UN aid agencies and international financial institutions.

So, according to Klein there's a massive conspiracy to bleed the third world dry. Read the whole thing, if you can – I kept drifting off but did manage to note the following regarding tsunami aid to Sri Lanka:

"We see this as a plan of action amidst the tsunami crisis to hand over the sea and the coast to foreign corporations and tourism, with military assistance from the US Marines."

Whatever.

The thing that most galls Klein is the western expectation that third world countries will make changes, notably, the privatization of public entities such as utilities. It seems reasonable that change is demanded of countries that cannot adequately look after their own and must go begging to the west.

I thought liberals were the ones who embrace change. Oh yeah, that's right, change is good only if people don't make money as a result. Power, not money, to the people. You know, like in Cuba, where the people reign supreme.

Food should go to waist, not waste

John Vidal, the Guardian's environment editor, has a big cry about the amount of food wasted every day in the UK. A big part of the problem is people who "no longer eat everything on their plate." As the British seem to be getting fatter by the minute, maybe they should throw away more food.

Visitors arriving via Tim Blair

You might want to go straight to my post War criminals UNpunished, which points to another potential UN scandal.

The ugliest kind of war, about US forces beating insurgents at their own game, is a must read.

Thanks for visiting; please take the time to have a good look around.

Annan blames US, UK for oil scandal

The headline above comes straight from al Jazeera, which reports:

Addressing a meeting on the United Nations and the news media on Thursday, Annan pointed to "the fact that the bulk of the money that Saddam Hussein made came out of smuggling outside the oil-for-food programme, and it was on the American and British watch".

"Possibly they were the ones who knew exactly what was going on, and that the countries themselves decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan because they were allies."

Interesting. The fact that the US and UK turned a blind eye to oil being smuggled to Turkey and Jordan for political reasons is one thing. For the UN to be riddled with corruption is another thing altogether.

Not only does Annan want to spread the blame, he's also trying – just as a sleight of hand magician would – to distract attention from what's really going on: keep an eye on his right hand while he pockets the coin hidden in his left.

US forces cleared in Sgrena shooting incident

The only thing in dispute is the speed of the vehicle as it approached the roadblock.

Via: lgf

Lethal injections cause pain

Shocking news:

As many as four of every 10 prisoners put to death in the United States might receive inadequate anesthesia, causing them to remain conscious and experience blistering pain during a lethal injection.

Researchers in Florida and Virginia drew this conclusion after reviewing levels of anesthetic in the blood of 49 inmates after they were executed.

There's always Idi Amin's favoured method of dispatch. Messy but cost effective.

War criminals UNpunished

A while back I posted on the early release from prison of convicted war criminal Miroslav Kvocka. Kvocka was released after serving four years of a seven year sentence for persecution, torture and murder. The full text of the ICTY's decision was not then available but is now online. Basically it states that, even though Kvocka's crimes were "particularly grave", he's actually a pretty nice guy. His sentence has therefore been commuted.

Kvocka is insignificant compared to Vladimir Lazarevic, who has yet to be tried but stands accused of:

... four counts of crimes against humanity and one count of violations of the laws or customs of war. The indictment alleges that the forces of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia "acting at the direction, with the encouragement, or with the support of" Vladimir Lazarevic, murdered hundreds of Kosovo Albanian civilians as part of a widespread and systematic campaign of brutality and violence that resulted in the forced deportation of approximately 800,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians from October 1998 until June 1999.

(For the full text of the indictment go here.)

Why was Lazarevic's release ordered today after being in the ICTY's custody only since February 3? In the words of the Tribunal:

“The gravity of the charges cannot by itself serve to justify long periods of detention on remand.”

In short, it wouldn't be nice to hold him until his trial starts, probably in 2006.

Will the MSM pick up on this? Don't count on it.

War criminals of the world take note, the UN is going to hunt you down and treat you real nice.

Humans are doomed

Scientists speculate on the end of the human race. I'm betting on the rise of the super-smart robots:

They will be our heirs and will offer us the best chance we'll ever get for immortality by uploading ourselves into advanced robots."

How will we reproduce?

Base jumper seriously injured

Jumping from heights is dangerous:

A man who leapt from the Sydney Harbour Bridge this morning is in a critical condition in hospital.

Police say a 39-year-old man, who was found with a parachute, is alleged to have jumped from the public walkway on the eastern side of the bridge around 2:30am (AEST).

A short time later the water police found the man being treated in a boat by ambulance officers.

He was taken to Royal North Shore hospital with injuries to his entire body and underwent surgery this morning.

Ouch! I probably shouldn't make fun of this guy since he was seriously hurt but I'm sure he understood the risks.

Australian genocide

Words can apparently have any meaning you want:

Aboriginal protesters have threatened to disrupt next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne if they do not see quick results from a genocide case launched against the federal government.

Calling for the government to be investigated for crimes of genocide, one of the signatories to the writ, Robbie Thorpe, said momentum was building for protests at the Games.

"This is the lead up to the 'stolenwealth' games - we want the issues of the black GST (Genocide stopped, Sovereignty restored and Treaty made) resolved before they have their 'stolenwealth' games," he said.

"We're sick of the genocide and the terrorism in this country and we want it to end.

"If we don't see a treaty by the end of this year, who knows what's going to happen."

Genocide? I thought Aboriginal numbers were increasing. Maybe Robbie Thorpe should buy a dictionary and learn how to use it.

Thorpe's thinly veiled threat of violence adds a nice finishing touch, does it not?

The ugliest kind of war

Not everyone is cut out to fight this kind of war:

From inside a vacant building, Sgt. 1st Class Domingo Ruiz watched through a rifle scope as three cars stopped on the other side of the road. A man carrying a machine gun got out and began to transfer weapons into the trunk of one of the cars.

"Take him down," Ruiz told a sniper.

The sniper fired his powerful M-14 rifle and the man's head exploded, several American soldiers recalled. As he fell, more soldiers opened fire, killing at least one other insurgent. After the ambush, the Americans scooped up a piece of skull and took it back to their base as evidence of the successful mission.

"Our battles have been beyond ruthless," said Ruiz, adding that he believes most Americans have little understanding of how the conflict is being fought.

"An urban counterinsurgency is probably the ugliest form of warfare there is," said Capt. Rob Born, 30, the C Company commander.

Read the whole thing. We're lucky to have a few with the stomach to out-ruthless the ruthless in taking the Arab way of war to the Arabs.

Alaska pipe spews gas and oil

Environmentalists will milk this for all it's worth by using it as an example of what could happen if drilling goes ahead in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge:

An estimated 1.4 million cubic feet of natural gas and an unknown quantity of crude oil spewed from a leak in a pipeline at the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope, state environmental regulators said on Tuesday.

The resulting mist of crude oil coated an area nearly a mile long and averaged about 300 feet wide, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement.

Lucky that stuff's all natural.

New York's event of the year

2005 Left Forum

The whining will be deafening.

By the way, the 2005 Left Forum replaces the long running Socialist Scholars Conference, which was cancelled after seven of the group's 16 board members resigned, "in protest of the lack of democratic and participatory governance procedures." The left undemocratic? Shocking.

Guardian schizo on Iraq

The Wednesday Guardian contains two Iraq opinion pieces, one by Jonathan Steele that's negative, and one by Simon Tisdall that's positive.

Steele:

The weekend's vast protest shows that opposition is still growing, in spite of US and British government claims to have Iraqis' best interests at heart. It was the biggest demonstration since foreign troops invaded.

The key issue, now as it has been since 2003, is for the occupation to end quickly. Only this will reduce the resistance and give Iraqis a chance to live normally. In a new line of spin - which some commentators have taken to mean that the US is preparing for a pullout - US commanders claim the rate of insurgent attacks is down.

The figures are not independently monitored. Even if true, they may be temporary. Thirdly, they fly in the face of evidence that suggests the US is failing. Most of western Iraq is out of US control. The city of Mosul could explode at any moment. Ramadi is practically a no-go area.

Tisdall:

But Saturday's demonstration, the largest that postwar Iraq has seen, suggested that the Sadrists' strategy has definitively changed. Instead of a return to shootings and bombings, they said they would be protesting and lobbying the new Shia-led government as part of a non-violent campaign to secure a US and British withdrawal.

This belated recourse to democratic means by one of Iraq's most formidable militias is in some ways more impressive than the election itself. Predictably, the big poll winners were the moderate Shia parties and the Kurds. The process failed to draw in the Sunni minority, let alone the various hardline Islamist factions.

But progress is being made in involving Sunni representatives in the government and in the writing of a new constitution. And as people such as Mr Sadr focus on conventional politics, the momentum behind the insurgency finally seems to be slowing.

Although US commanders say they still face at least 12,000 fighters, daily attacks on allied forces have dropped by more than two-thirds since the pre-election period. The Iraqi security forces are now bearing the brunt, and are said to be responding with increased competence.

To be honest, Tisdall's piece isn't totally positive but it's a lot better than the relentlessly negative stuff the Guardian usually cranks out. Maybe there's hope for Iraq yet. Maybe there's even some hope for the Guardian. Nah.

Crime warning for Japanese visitors to Queensland's Gold Coast

This isn't good:

Japan's Foreign Ministry has issued a travel advisory for Japanese visitors to Australia to beware of high rates of crime if they go to Queensland's Gold Coast.

The warning on the Foreign Ministry's website draws particular attention to the dangers of staying in budget accommodation.

The travel advisory lists a series of assaults and robberies on Japanese visitors to Surfers Paradise in February and March and warns that crime there is on the increase.

Being a country boy at heart, I've never had any desire to visit the Gold Coast – photos of it remind me of Miama, another place I've never been. I doubt I'm missing out on much. Maybe if I didn't spend – waste? –so time blogging I'd have a hankering to travel. Nah, I've made the trans-Pacific flight too many times; flying has lost its appeal.

Why the French like Jerry Lewis

Ever wondered why the French supposedly consider Jerry Lewis a comic genius? It's simple really:

Even the French embrace of jazz and the experimentalist comedy of Jerry Lewis's post-Dean Martin films is ''anti-Americanism carried on by other means,'' Roger argues, since championing such ''dissident and subversive'' elements allowed the French to portray mainstream American culture as pathetically blinkered.

The Roger referred to above is Philippe Roger, author of ''The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism,'' available in English this month. Roger started off doing what he thought would be a minor research project on 20th century French anti-Americanism and ended up tracing French anti-Americanism back 200 years.

See, you always knew there had to be some practical reason why the French like Jerry Lewis. They don't find him funny either, they applaud him just to annoy Americans.

Malik Zulu Shabazz pins tails on racist honkies

Mike over at Clear and Present links to an article at Front Page Magazine that details a recent speaking engagement at Carnegie Mellon University by Malik Zulu Shabazz:

On February 17th Malik Zulu Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense, came onto the campus ostensibly to talk about “black empowerment in education.” Instead, the firebrand lawyer, rap singer and follower of former Nation of Islam official Khalid Mohammad presented a rambling exegesis on black victimization, the crimes of white America and the perfidy of the Jews.

Declaring his intention to “pin the tail on the racist honkies at Carnegie Mellon University,” Mr. Shabazz—standing before a backdrop of lynching photographs and flanked by several “security guards”--asserted that the city of Pittsburgh was “racist as hell” and that racism at CMU “drips to the core of this university.”

Encouraged by shouts from the audience and his entourage, Mr. Shabazz adduced several arguments, among them that Jesus was black, Moses “lifted” the Ten Commandments from the ancient Egyptians, the Anti-Defamation League was established by gangster Meyer Lansky to bring “illegal alcohol, dope and drugs” into America, blacks and not Israeli Jews are true Semites, Israel is a “terrorist” state and Theodore Herzl has “blood on his hands.” Other observations Mr. Shabazz broached were that George Washington raped black women, the word “picnic” originated from “pick a nigger to lynch” and that he himself was not an anti-Semite. He provided no evidence to support his claims.

Shabazz's speaking fee was paid by SPIRIT, an association of black students, and anonymous donors. The anonymous donor thing seems odd to me: does anyone know who these donors are; better yet, does anyone care?

John Quiggin recently commented on America's apparently declining university enrolments, speculating that university was simply too high priced for most parents. Cost may be partly responsible for declining enrolments but I'll continue to argue that having morons like Shabazz and Ward Churchill speak at universities must give parents cause to doubt the value of higher education.

China anti-pollution riot

The Chinese economic miracle is not without costs:

Thousands of villagers have rioted in eastern China, injuring dozens of police, after two women among about 200 elderly anti-pollution protesters were killed during police efforts to disperse them.

Angry club-wielding villagers clashed with police in riot gear, overturned police cars and hurled rocks at policemen holed up in a local high school, villagers and local officials said by telephone.

The women were protesting against pollution from nearby chemical factories.

More than 50 policemen were injured and rushed to hospital, with five listed in critical condition, a hospital doctor told Reuters. About four villagers were injured.

China's bound to unravel eventually anyway, better sooner than later. Good to see women out there leading the charge.

Clubbing cane toads cruel

In an effort to halt the relentless spread of the dreaded bufo marinus – cane toads recently reached the outskirts of Darwin – David Tollner, Federal Liberal Member for Solomon in the Northern Territory has proposed the effective but messy toad eradication strategy he used as a child:

"We hit them with cricket bats and golf clubs and the like," he said.

"Back then things were a bit different, most kids had a slug gun or an air rifle and we'd get stuck into them with that sort of stuff."

This has, of course, prompted a response from the toad rights types:

The chief executive of the RSPCA in Darwin, Fiona Cummins, says bludgeoning them to death is inhumane and sends out the wrong message.

"We don't want children picking up their golf club or their cricket bat in the backyard and having a go at any animal."

She fears encouraging children to attack cane toads will result in attacks on a range of other animals.

"We're concerned that children see it's OK to be violent toward to any animals... to cats and dogs and rabbits and whatever might become a violent issue for children."

It has been suggested that the nasty little critters be dispatched by putting them in the freezer. Yeah right, lets fill up our freezers with poison oozing, pissy toads.

This is just silly. Kids understand violence and its consequences; if not they'd employ the violence they constantly see on TV and at the movies, and would be killing each other on playgrounds in droves. The kids should be educated on the danger the toads present to the Australian environment and then turned loose to kill. There's no way killing hideous, poisonous toads will cause kids to kill fluffy little kitties or bunnies. And, just think how many calories the ever-fatter kiddies would burn up while thumping toads. Get fit, thump a toad.

I'll bet a corporate sponsor could be convinced to provide some small reward for X number of carcasses handed in – hell, I'd be out there swinging a club myself if I knew McDonald's would give me a small fries for every five corpses submitted. Hey, McDondald's could even give away a free toad masher – call it the McClub – with every Happy Meal.

Now, for some real fun, if only I had a cane toad and a cherry bomb ...

Update: Here's an idea, cane toad golf. Unlike regular golf, high score, based on the number of toads obliterated per round, wins.

The creative cane toad snuffing possibilities are almost endless.

Jane Fonda, traitor

In an article in The San Diego Union-Tribune, Vietnam vet Robert Caldwell has nothing good to say about Jane Fonda. He recalls her North Vienamese adventure and closes with this:

The anti-war movement of the 1960s and early 1970s was, in fact, two parallel movements. The majority of anti-war protesters simply believed that American participation in the war was wrong. Their objective was American withdrawal from Vietnam. But a hard-core, hard-left minority in the anti-war coalition favored a communist victory by the Viet Cong and North Vietnam.

However witlessly, Jane Fonda lent herself to that latter goal, a communist triumph in Vietnam.

When the Soviet-armed North Vietnamese army overran South Vietnam in 1975, Fonda's then-husband, the left-wing radical Tom Hayden, expressed his relief and approval. When the North Vietnamese, quite predictably, imposed their totalitarian system on South Vietnam – complete with concentration camps that imprisoned hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese and the extinguishing of all civil and political liberties – Jane Fonda said she couldn't object because the evidence of oppression was unproven.

When, by United Nations estimate, a quarter of a million South Vietnamese boat people perished at sea escaping their supposed liberators in the 1970s and 1980s, Jane Fonda was silent. When 2 million Cambodians were murdered or died of privation at the hands of the communist Khmer Rouge (originally Hanoi's allies), Jane Fonda had nothing to say. When the people of reunified Vietnam were denied basic human rights and continue to suffer today under Hanoi's one-party dictatorship, Jane Fonda apparently was too busy with her personal life to comment.

That's a lot to answer for, Hanoi Jane.

I don't think Caldwell's going to buy her book.

Democrats vs the people

USC professor of history Kevin Starr knows what's wrong with the Democratic Party:

Those of us who label ourselves Democrats have stood for economic fairness since the New Deal, but in the last three decades our once-majority party has embraced a take-no-prisoners cultural agenda that now threatens to relegate Democrats to permanent minority status. The hostile takeover driving this drift to irrelevance is especially painful to cultural moderates, who remember that social democracy was born of traditional values.



The Democratic Party, in short, made a powerful alliance with the culture of Ordinary America, including its religious values. True, the party's links to segregationist Dixiecrats caused problems — big problems. But it was two Southerners — Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson — who struck the most significant hammer blows against the injustice of that dependency.

But now the Democratic Party elite — the activists, the pundits, the big-bucks donors — have succeeded in pitting social democracy against the very values (one is tempted to say the very people) that gave rise to social democracy in the first place.

The smarter-than-thous are never going to buy it. That's why Dean is chairman of the DNC.

Good news and bad news for Hillary

According to the Washington Post:

A poll by Rasmussen Reports finds that the number of Americans viewing the former first lady as a liberal dropped from 51 to 43 percent in January. The number regarding her as moderate rose from 27 to 34 percent. That's the good news for Clinton, who leads in the early -- and famously unreliable -- horse-race polls for the 2008 nomination. The bad news is that her "liberal" numbers are still dangerously high for a prospective Democratic nominee.

Dean wants to move the Dems to the left while Hillary moves to the centre. It will be really interesting to watch this develop.

Al Qaeda wants to go nuclear

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on the nuclear terrorist threat:

... if they have the weapon, they will use it."

"The more nuclear weapons that exist, the more threat we are facing. And the more countries that have nuclear weapons, the more danger we are facing."

"We can't afford one single lapse in the system of security of nuclear material or nuclear weapons," he said.

Perfect security is, of course, impossible. There's also the matter of nuclear powers, and would-be nuclear powers, that wouldn't mind sharing or selling their technology.

El Baradei isn't an alarmist – not that I can recall, anyway – so I think we should heed this warning and put maximal effort into preempting proliferation. Iffy threats like Global Warming can stay on the back burner indefinitely.

Some people are just ... different

Eggagog.