Unless their goal is to tick off as many people as possible, the pro(?) illegal immigration crowd should not release a the US national anthem in Spanish. It just has all the trappings of an argument that didn't have to be. In fact, rather than showing that many Spanish-speaking immigrants are welcome members of the society (as I believe), this song serves only to bolster the casuse of those who believe that the Spanish speaking immigrants are unassimilatable wretches.
It's a stupid, stupid way to make a political point about wanting illegals to remain in this country.
An Anthem's Discordant Notes
Friday, April 28, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
Reasons for scepticism
From the Telegraph's opinion section.
Two simple graphs provide needed context, and exemplify the dynamic, fluctuating nature of climate change. The first is a temperature curve for the last six million years, which shows a three-million year period when it was several degrees warmer than today, followed by a three-million year cooling trend which was accompanied by an increase in the magnitude of the pervasive, higher frequency, cold and warm climate cycles. During the last three such warm (interglacial) periods, temperatures at high latitudes were as much as 5 degrees warmer than today's. The second graph shows the average global temperature over the last eight years, which has proved to be a period of stasis.
Two simple graphs provide needed context, and exemplify the dynamic, fluctuating nature of climate change. The first is a temperature curve for the last six million years, which shows a three-million year period when it was several degrees warmer than today, followed by a three-million year cooling trend which was accompanied by an increase in the magnitude of the pervasive, higher frequency, cold and warm climate cycles. During the last three such warm (interglacial) periods, temperatures at high latitudes were as much as 5 degrees warmer than today's. The second graph shows the average global temperature over the last eight years, which has proved to be a period of stasis.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Interesting Statistic
Reuters is reporting that
Some 146 people die each week in the northern region where rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have waged war against the Uganda government for two decades. War-related deaths in the region are three times higher than the number of killings in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 -- a death rate that represents 0.17 deaths per 10,000 people, compared with 0.052 per 10,000 in Iraq, according to the report, entitled "Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda."
We don't hear much about this issue, while the media concentrates on making Iraq look like Dante's lowest circle of Hell.
Some 146 people die each week in the northern region where rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have waged war against the Uganda government for two decades. War-related deaths in the region are three times higher than the number of killings in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 -- a death rate that represents 0.17 deaths per 10,000 people, compared with 0.052 per 10,000 in Iraq, according to the report, entitled "Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda."
We don't hear much about this issue, while the media concentrates on making Iraq look like Dante's lowest circle of Hell.
Hard to Keep a Good Operation Secret Anymore
This BBC story says a lot about the difficulty of conducting operations using modern tradecraft. The operations hardly ever remain secret for long.
A former US Diplomat believes that the current spying scandal in Greece is a case of our own intelligence agencies not trusting others. While his argument might have some truth to it (namely, that some people within the intelligence community might believe that some foreigners are not trustworthy), I doubt that an operation of this size would be conducted solely because of xenophobia and sensitivity to terrorism. I imagine that nearly every intelligence agency in the world had its ears to the ground during the Olympics, listening for impending plots.
But, as with many things overseas, when you don't know whom to blame, blame the CIA.
He [former US Diplomat] argues American intelligence agencies would not have trusted the Greeks with the massive security operation surrounding the Athens Olympics in August 2004 set up to counter any potential terrorist threat.
"They believe you cannot trust foreigners, that foreigners are incompetent and of dubious trustworthiness," he says. "You owe it to yourself if you have the capability, to have an independent ear listening to them and I think that is what this was."
A former US Diplomat believes that the current spying scandal in Greece is a case of our own intelligence agencies not trusting others. While his argument might have some truth to it (namely, that some people within the intelligence community might believe that some foreigners are not trustworthy), I doubt that an operation of this size would be conducted solely because of xenophobia and sensitivity to terrorism. I imagine that nearly every intelligence agency in the world had its ears to the ground during the Olympics, listening for impending plots.
But, as with many things overseas, when you don't know whom to blame, blame the CIA.
He [former US Diplomat] argues American intelligence agencies would not have trusted the Greeks with the massive security operation surrounding the Athens Olympics in August 2004 set up to counter any potential terrorist threat.
"They believe you cannot trust foreigners, that foreigners are incompetent and of dubious trustworthiness," he says. "You owe it to yourself if you have the capability, to have an independent ear listening to them and I think that is what this was."
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