Opit's LinkFest!: 18 August - An Informed View

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Memorandum to the Tsar February 1914
by Peter Durnovo

David Habakkuk commented on Indignation as Policy - Richard Sale: “Richard Sale, A very fine post indeed. You put your finger very precisely on crucial aspects of w…”
David Habakkuk commented on Indignation as Policy - Richard Sale: “Babak Makkinejad, They cordially disliked each other – but I think this was more to do with person…”
David Habakkuk commented on The West must make deals with the jihadis. Al-quds al-arabi: “Why should it be ‘too late for any decision Western US to change this fact?’ The logical implicati…”

Bad News For Conservation In Brazil's Coastal Forests

By Dave Cohen on Decline of the Empire

A new study Pervasive Defaunation of Forest Remnants in a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot reports that local extinctions of mammals in Brazil's coas …

2 days ago

Humanity's Biggest Challenge

By Dave Cohen on Decline of the Empire

A slide presentation called The continued economic decline of the west has made the rounds in the last few weeks. You can also watch the presentation

Groundwater Depletion Proceeds Apace

By Dave Cohen on Decline of the Empire

A recent study in Nature highlights the unsustainability of withdrawals from underground aquifers in the world's most populated areas.

Here we def …

7 days ago

The State Of The Climate — A Year To Remember

Climate Change Idiots

Freelance journalist Beth Gardiner wrote an editorial called We're All Climate Change Idiots which appeared in theNew York Times Sunday Review on July 21, 2012. There are valuable insights in it, though they are not the ones Beth had in mind when she wrote it.

... there are political and economic barriers, as well as some strong ideological opposition, to going green.

people with more hierarchical, individualistic worldviews (generally conservatives) sense that accepting climate science would lead to restraints on commerce

( And then are those who think climate can change dramatically. Without human drivers. It sure isn't the money ! :) )

Drought, Corn, Cattle, Ethanol And Craziness

By Dave Cohen on Decline of the Empire

Corn prices have spiked this year due to the severe drought engulfing America's farming regions. Now cattle raisers are up in arms about the soari …

Circling The Drain (Games People Play)

By Dave Cohen on Decline of the Empire

A Bloomberg story published on July 25, 2012 delivered more bad news for the Earth's plant and animal species. Justin Doom's headline read For …

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Indignation as Policy - Richard Sale

Day by day, CNN and its hireling’s indulge in rhetorical flourishes that frantically wave before us like white hankies. The fact is that rebels inside Syria are completely at odds with exile groups outside the country especially regarding the direction of their country once Assad falls. For example, there one indigenous group, the Khalid ibn al-Walid Battalion, which is supported by the Muslin Brotherhood. The al-Farouq Battalion is armed and funded by Saudi Arabia. There is another. None of these has a plan to unite warring religious or opposition groups, nor are they able to formulate a coherent policy that has real traction among the Syrian public. The Syrian conflict prompts one to ask, what kind of freedom fighters are these, these allies of America? Do the CNN defectives ever look at American’s allies aligned against Assad? The UAE is violating a number of fundamental principles of human rights. Specifically, the UAE does not have democratically-elected institutions and citizens do not have the right to change their government or to form political parties. Qatar, which had U.S.-trained Special Forces on the ground in Syria, restricts freedom of speech and the press, and it has been found of guilty of using forced labor in its economy. Some of the labor rights violations include beatings, withholding of payment, charging workers for benefits which are nominally the responsibility of the employer, severe restrictions on freedom of movement (such as the confiscation passports, travel documents, or exit permits), arbitrary detention, threats of legal action, and sexual assault. The Saudis punish crime by flogging, and the amputations of hands or feet. Saudi law does not recognize religious freedom.

You would think this would quiet some of the fervor to spread democracy in the Middle East but apparently it doesn’t.