TOO BIG TO PUNISH: U.S. SHIP DAMAGES WORLD HERITAGE CORAL REEF IN THE PHILIPPINES AND BARELY SAYS “EXCUSE ME.” The commander and 3 other sailors are “relieved of their duties” after they ignored warnings and slammed their minesweeper ship into the Tubataha Reef. The $1.5 million fine against U.S. government is castigated as a loose-change “slap [...]
BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A TEMP JOB? While unemployment rates in the U.S. have shown some improvement, with less than 9% of the work-force unemployed on a “given day,” this measure of unemployment masks the fact that over 13% of workers and their families will face a period of non-employment during some part of [...]
SOMETHING IS EATING AWAY AT THE SEA SHELLS IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. British oceanographic report publicizes the fact that Antarctic waters are showing ominous indications that acidification of oceans resulting from CO-2 contamination is destroying the shells which are the basis of the marine and bird food chain. (Common Dreams) ` FIFTEEN ASIAN NATIONS [...]
PAKISTAN AND THE UNITED STATES: “THE DYSFUNCTIONAL NUCLEAR FAMILY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS.” This is Dilip Hiro’s description of a situation in which, in a country most of whose inhabitants have sharply “anti-American” feelings fueled by drone raids and operations like the one that took out Osama bin Laden, keeps a small arsenal of nuclear weapons ostensibly [...]
IF INTRA-UTERINE DEVICES AND HORMONE IMPLANTS ARE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE WAYS OF PREVENTING PREGNANCY, WHY DO ONLY 8.5% OF WOMEN USE THEM? IT’S THE COST, STUPID! An experimental program in St. Louis dispensing free contraceptives demonstrates the validity of this answer. When given the choice of contraceptives without regard to cost, 75% of women chose [...]
A LESSON THAT AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY NEVER SEEMS TO LEARN: IF YOU FEED A SCORPION IT WILL BITE YOU. British columnist Robert Fisk cites this saying in a survey of the dismal history of U.S. efforts to arm insurgent and opposition elements: from the support of the Afghan insurgency against the Soviet Union to [...]
U.S. AND NATO TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN HAVE “GUARDIAN ANGELS”: TO PROTECT THEM FROM…THEIR AFGHAN “ALLIES.” Recent instances of the killing of occupation troops by members of Afghan security forces highlight what has become a “debacle” of failed mission in the country. The commanding General decrees designated “angels” in each unit to keep their guns [...]
“IT’S GOING TO RUIN OUR OCEAN”: SHELL OIL’S PLAN FOR MASSIVE ARCTIC DRILLING RUNS AGROUND…LITERALLY. (CNN) The “most complex, most difficult wells” ever drilled are to be found in the Alaskan wilderness, where Shell is launching a controversial plan to increase oil exploration in the Aleutian Islands. It is one of the largest such [...]
U.S. POLICY IN AFRICA: WHERE THERE IS NO DIRECT RULE, LET THERE BE CHAOS. (Black Agenda Report) A new UN report on the the Democratic Republic of the Congo, delayed by U.S. obstructionism, details the ongoing genocide which has killed 6 million Congolese since 1996 and heaps blame on the U.S. which, for “strategic interest,” [...]
MEXICO’S WAR ON DRUGS: IS THE NEW POLICY TO BE “HUGS NOT BULLETS” FROM THE U.S.”? (New York Times) This possibility is indicated during the current presidential election in which the candidates to succeed Felipe Calderon say they will place their emphasis on curbing violence rather than interdicting the flow of drugs to the [...]
Recent Comments