May 28, 2007
Bubble Trouble
Probably somewhere among your family or friends' families is a youngster who drinks inordinate quantities of carbonated beverages. I know at least one case. I'd figured the corn syrup to be fairly harmful, also coloring agents and artificial flavors. But now there's a new warning about sodium benzoate, a common preservative in many brands (also used in other sorts of products). A UK scientist has found that the stuff can shut down critical parts of DNA, which in theory could be linked to a wide range of diseases including neuro-degenerative problems such as Parkinson's and the more general problem of ageing. The scientist is also quoted saying that U.S. FDA tests "were inadequate." So do exercise caution and check the labels when purchasing your soda pop!
Comments Fixed
Just fyi, I know comments haven't been working exactly right for a while — sorry about that. What was happening was that when you posted a comment, instead of a confirmation screen a blank screen popped up. (Thanks to those who went ahead and posted several comments despite this happening to them more than once!) Unfortunately my coding guy, Mike, got overwhelmed with other work and I lost him a couple months ago. And as a rule I don't have the skills to fix coding issues, but I got lucky and was able to track this problem down exactly: in one particular spam filter a call to a spam lookup site was getting rejected due to problems with that site (all MT installations were affected though, to my knowledge, MT has not broadcast a notice to their clients that most installations stopped handling comments properly), thus a hanging — blank — screen. Anyhow, I've fixed it. So please do feel free to comment as you like.
May 25, 2007
Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq
By Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
After several months of empty posturing against the war in Iraq, politicians in Washington have made what Democratic congressman James P. Moran [1] called a "concession to reality [2]" by agreeing to give President Bush virtually everything he wanted in funding and unrestricted license to continue waging the increasingly detested war that has made Bush the most unpopular president since Richard Nixon [3].
Continue reading "Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq"...
May 21, 2007
The Moral Collapse of the Moral Left
Explaining the French Vote
By Jean Bricmont
BRUSSELS — Once upon a time, there were, in France and in Europe, two ways to be on the Left. One was fighting for social reforms, both in the factories (strengthening of the unions) and at the state level (extension and democratization of education and build-up of strong public services); this was the program of the Social Democrats but also, in France, for the second part at least, by the Gaullists. The other way to be on the Left was hoping, or waiting, for a revolution, usually thought to be proletarian, similar to the Soviet revolution, or at least to what the dominant interpretation of that revolution was. That was the Communist line, along with one or another smaller groups, Trotskyite or anarchist. No such revolution occurred but, in practice, the two wings were helping each other — the fear of a revolution, which was overrated also by the right, for Cold War purposes, helped the reformists and, in any case, the Communists were fighting energetically for reforms while waiting for better times. Even the Communists and the Gaullists, for all their rhetorical differences, were in practice quite close to each other: both were in favor of decolonization, a strong social state and an independent foreign policy. Because De Gaulle was rather conservative, however, the social democratization of France was probably less pronounced than that in Scandinavia or Britain.
May 19, 2007
Ancient Engineering
It's always seemed sort of odd to me: the huge blocks of limestone in the pyramids were carved and set so finely, using copper tools, that you can't fit a knife-blade between them. And that not one of these copper tools has been found (I suppose the ancient Egyptians were highly disciplined about recycling copper — a valuable metal — but zero carelessness seems improbable). I've always liked, instead, the theory that the blocks were somehow artificially poured, like concrete, but physical evidence has not been persuasive. Dr. Michel Barsoum, an Egyptian-born Professor of materials science at Drexel, brought fresh into the pyramid mystery by a friend, has now, however, found fairly irrefutable proof that the blocks are not natural limestone. I'm sure debate over the pyramids will continue but as far as Egypt goes, for me, this is pretty much 'case closed'! To carry the work further it would be interesting to run similar tests on stone blocks at Machu Picchu and other pyramid sites in South America, where in the absence of concrete technology it sometimes seems anti-gravity rays must be the best explanation :)
May 15, 2007
A Predatory Aid Regime
For those of you unfamiliar, it's well worth reading regularly (use RSS feeds for this) Der Spiegel's English online version. They do quite a lot of in-depth, sensible reporting — such as the following — which you'll never find in the mainstream U.S. press. Highly recommended, despite the occasional neuralgic twitch. Now, here's a story that's been fluttering in the back of my mind for some time, laid out very simply and to the point: Western practices of subsidizing and protecting internal agricultural (and other) markets, while forcing open developing markets as a condition for "aid", so-called, is rank exploitation that means economic ruin for vast swaths of the third world. As an aside, in this context is it any wonder, then, that people like Wolfowitz get put in charge of the World Bank?
May 8, 2007
Our "Iraqi Harkis"
To continue a bit with the Algeria theme from yesterday. There's an excellent article at Salon interviewing Alistair Horne and considering the relevance to Iraq of his ideas about war. Of course Horne's A Savage War of Peace has been one of my prized books for many years, but Horne is an odd duck and I'm not so sure I'd want to consider his (or Kissinger's) suggestions for solving Iraq. Nevertheless one issue Horne brings up — but doesn't really answer — is worth pondering, because it's likely to be an increasingly important factor in our efforts. That's what happens to our Iraqi servants when we leave? In Algeria, a large number of Harkis came back to France with the French, and also a large number were killed in Algeria when the French left. In Vietnam the U.S. took in at least 20,000 Vietnamese as we retreated. Again, some large number of collaborators were killed. So far as I know there was little to zero (somebody who knows otherwise please correct me if I'm mistaken here) concern at that time whether we were importing VC who'd continue the war within the U.S. In Iraq, things are different. It would be politically impossible, and extremely unwise as well, to bring large numbers of Iraqis back to the U.S. What to do? Relocate "our Harkis" to Israel? To Syria? To India?? Up until now, by and large, our Iraqi collaborators do not seem to have been seized of the idea that when the U.S. withdraws they will be left in deep trouble. But what happens when that collective realization becomes widespread? It must at some point begin to affect their attitudes and I should think it will be a key reason why we'll never secure sufficient cooperation for our plans to work.
May 7, 2007
Sarko's Lessons
There was a time when Algeria was part of France — a département, or what would be a state in the U.S. federal system, though by size more analogous perhaps to a county — before Algerian independence. When I was born in Algiers, then, my Dad was working at an American Consulate, not an Embassy, thus not on the "blue list", and thus I was not, I believe, automatically exempted from French citizenship. I've never been able to determine exactly what my citizenship status was under the French law at the time, though if ever I had qualified for French citizenship the window would now be closed and in any case to exercise any such right probably I would have had to do French military service. It's all moot, except that having been born "in France," having lived in Paris as a kid, and having later worked in France myself as a U.S. diplomat (my first post being Marseille, of which they say that it's more like Algiers than Algiers ever was), and speaking somewhat fluent French, I consider myself a full-fledged Francophile.
May 3, 2007
The Least Un-Electables
I didn't watch all the Democratic candidates' debate, and I didn't watch all the Republican candidates' debate, either. But I watched enough of both to be pretty sure of a couple things. First, the Democratic field, weak as it is, is far stronger than the Republicans. Only one Republican, Rudi Giuliani, spoke as if he had a clue about contemporary America. The rest are a bunch of nutballs. McCain has completely lost it — I don't care how much money he raises, he's absolutely unelectable. And so is Mitt "Magic Underpants" Romney. If Fred Thompson or Chuck Hagel got in the race that might change things, but for now it looks to me like Giuliani vs. Democrat "X" looks good for the Democrats. Any other Republican would be a wipe-out.
May 1, 2007
May Podcast Schedule (Somewhat Tentative)
Only the first of these is recorded, but I feel reasonably confident about the others to indicate where we're going this month. And, if you're wondering why I haven't been blogging much, the reason is that putting these shows together has taken a great deal of time. First up, on May 4th, is a two-part conversation with Larry Devlin, formerly CIA Chief of Station in the Congo (twice during the 1960s) and subsequently Chief of Station in Laos (at a time when Laos was the largest CIA station in the world). Larry has a new book out, Chief of Station, Congo
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