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You've heard how frogs and amphibians are dying worldwide. 120 species gone, they think, since 1980.
New Zealand scientists think they've found the cure -- paradoxically, an antibiotic used for eye infections, which kills the fungus that is plaguing them.
I find this heartening.
Sometimes good things happen unexpectedly.
Frankly, I hope they spend the rest of their lives explaining, apologizing, rationalizing, sputtering...being defensive, vexed, and vilified.
They've dishonored their country.
I can hardly believe this astounding eff-up. They've ruined the careers of numerous brave, decent people with a single email.
Imagine the dread those people felt when they saw the address field and realized what had happened.
I feel sick.
The news is getting me down. It's hard to imagine there not being a bloody war with Iran before the election -- and that will change everything, God knows.
On top of that, it's quite easy to see the groans and creaks of the mortgage crisis breaking out into a full-fledged financial panic. That'll change things, too.
Unless the Dems have contingency plans for these in their back pockets -- what a laugh -- I could see them knocked off their feet with a headwind of panic and fear.
If we wind up with a President Giuliani, the man for whom the unitary executive theory was made (or vice versa; see Digby), I think the Bush years will be seen merely as prelude to a post-democracy era.
And this Giuliani quote will be justly famous, then:
“Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.”
Just unbelievable.
John Cole comes up with the ideal question for the next Republican debate:
...a question many of us would like asked of all the Jack Bauer wannabees in the GOP field who would literally do ANYTHING to save us from terrorist attack:
“Would you have sex with a man to stop a terrorist attack?”
Sure, it is a silly hypothetical, but so is the idiotic ticking-time-bomb scenario people throw around so damned much as an excuse for torture.
So what is it, Mitt, Sam, Rudy, Mike, and company? Which is worse? A hot gay dicking or a nuke detonated in NYC?
At the very least Saturday Night Live should use this premise for a skit.
Now going after a the family of a little girl with a heart defect.
Just incredible.
Christopher Hitchens gave a speech to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's annual gathering, eloquently defending enligntenment values. Crowd loved him. Standing ovation when he was introduced.
Then he wrapped it up by calling for the killing of so many Muslims that the survivors cry uncle.
PZ Myers was there:
[Hitch maintained the] way to win the war is to kill so many Moslems that they begin to question whether they can bear the mounting casualties.
It was simplistic us-vs.-them thinking at its worst, and the only solution he had to offer was death and destruction of the enemy.
This was made even more clear in the Q&A. He was asked to consider the possibility that bombing and killing was only going to accomplish an increase in the number of people opposing us.
I like this deep logic:
Hitchens accused the questioner of being incredibly stupid (the question was not well-phrased, I'll agree, but it was clear what he meant), and said that it was obvious that every Moslem you kill means there is one less Moslem to fight you...
Myers points out the obvious:
… which is only true if you assume that every Moslem already wants to kill Americans and is armed and willing to do so. I think that what is obvious is that most Moslems are primarily interested in living a life of contentment with their families and their work, and that an America committed to slaughter is a tactic that will only convince more of them to join in opposition to us.
That's just it. We can continue to try to punish and bully a billion people into submission.
Or we can look to cut a deal (which will involve not invading their countries and creating a Palestinian state that can muddle through, with lots of charity). Either project will take decades, but one involves much less expense, carnage and sacrificed freedom.
Basically, what Hitchens was proposing is genocide. Or, at least, wholesale execution of the population of the Moslem world until they are sufficiently cowed and frightened and depleted that they are unable to resist us in any way, ever again.
This is insane. I entirely agree that we are looking at a clash of civilizations, that there are huge incompatibilities between different parts of the world, and that we face years and years of all kinds of conflict between us, with no easy resolution.
However, one can only resolve deep ideological conflicts by the extermination of one side in video games and cartoons.
Sometimes I think the Regime Change doctrine was inspired by Return of the Jedi. Kill the Emperor, all done. Cue fireworks and Ewok party. Rebuild democracy. Easy, right?
It's not going to work in the real world. We can't simply murder enough Moslems to weaken them into irrelevance, and even if we could, that's not the kind of culture to which I want to belong.
I think that 'final solution' strategy was tried once.
And here is my favorite part. Myers articulates a positive vision for the future worth amplifying and repeating in the coming years:
A clash of whole civilizations is a war of ideas.
The way we can 'conquer' is on the cultural and economic level: the West should not invade and destroy, but should instead set an example, lead with strength, and be the civilization that every rational citizen of the other side wants to emulate.
Yes, there will be wars and skirmishes, because not everyone on either side is rational, but the bloodshed isn't the purpose.
Contain aggressors. Entice their people. Get stronger and richer by not fighting wars. Show by example they can do it, too.
Seems pretty...rational.
The Q & A was disputive. Applause faint. People walked out during the talk. I liked this lady:
I heard one woman sing a few bars of "Onward, Christian soldiers" as she left...
Pretty good joke at a convention of atheists.
I don't know how many blog posts I've read on the Frost family smear. Eight or ten, maybe.
This Krugman column is more vivid and succinct than anything I've read.
The quality of Krugman's writing, its economy, is not enough praised.
And what a slavering mob Malkin and her ilk are.
Good. He deserves it. He's been decades ahead of the nation on this, and he had to endure a lot of injustice.
David Roberts has some good advice.
No, it would be a disaster for Gore to enter the race at this point -- not because he might lose, but because he has transcended U.S. partisan politics. He has become a figure of global stature, one of a tiny fraternity of private individuals in the world capable of driving historical change from outside the confines of any institution. What many Americans don't realize is that the rest of the world is not distracted by the serial, lurid distractions that compose our political dialogue. Our national conversation is dominated by the resentful bile of core of nationalist, reactionary, authoritarian ding-dongs, but it's not like that when Gore goes overseas. In other countries, they don't care about his electrical bills or his waist size or his clothing choices or his lack of that most important qualification for leader of the free world, the ability to act like a regular guy.
(snip)
Gore can help bring governments together; he can get powerful financiers, corporate titans, rock stars, and energy scholars in the same room. He can help shape policy and public opinion across globe, not just in the U.S.
I wish him the best.
UPDATE: Fox news reacts with typical classiness.
This cautionary tale (actually, an innuendo-dripping HuffPo post) about the Edwards campaign's efforts to erase ties with a flaky ex-druggie-party-girl-suddenly-enlightened (she had her aura cleansed!) videographer reminds us that thanks to web archives and Google caches, our internet footprints are frozen in pixels.
Emphyrio might one day regret a post or two.
