George F. Will - George F. Will: Fossil fuels belie environmentalism - washingtonpost.com

George F. Will - George F. Will: Fossil fuels belie environmentalism - washingtonpost.com: "In 1914, the Bureau of Mines said that U.S. oil reserves would be exhausted by 1924. In 1939, the Interior Department said that the world had 13 years' worth of petroleum reserves. Then a global war was fought, and the postwar boom was fueled. In 1951 Interior reported that the world had . . . 13 years of reserves. In 1970, the world's proven oil reserves were an estimated 612 billion barrels. By 2006, more than 767 billion barrels had been pumped, and proven reserves were 1.2 trillion barrels. In 1977, scold in chief Jimmy Carter predicted that mankind 'could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade.' Since then the world has consumed three times more oil than was then in the world's proven reserves."

The Evolution of the God Gene - NYTimes.com

The Evolution of the God Gene - NYTimes.com: "But group selection has recently gained two powerful champions, the biologists David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson, who argued that two special circumstances in recent human evolution would have given group selection much more of an edge than usual. One is the highly egalitarian nature of hunter-gatherer societies, which makes everyone behave alike and gives individual altruists a better chance of passing on their genes. The other is intense warfare between groups, which enhances group-level selection in favor of community-benefiting behaviors such as altruism and religion."

Police: Marine reservist attacks visiting Greek priest

Police: Marine reservist attacks visiting Greek priest: "Bruce grabbed a tire iron from the trunk, hit Marakis four times over the head and chased him about three blocks before pinning the priest, police said.

In a 911 call, Bruce made a derogatory comment about a man he said was a terrorist and was trying to rob him and had grabbed him in a sexual manner, police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.

When officers arrived, police say, Bruce told them he heard the man say 'Allahu Akbar' – Arabic for 'God is great.'

'That's what they say before they blow you up,' Bruce said, according to police."

Why Neanderthals Really Went Extinct: Begley | Newsweek Voices - Sharon Begley | Newsweek.com

Why Neanderthals Really Went Extinct: Begley | Newsweek Voices - Sharon Begley | Newsweek.com: "About 30,000 years ago, the vast forests of Eurasia began to retreat, leaving treeless steppes and tundra and forcing forest animals to disperse over vast distances. Because they evolved in the warm climate of Africa before spreading into Europe, modern humans had a body like marathon runners, adapted to track prey over such distances. But Neanderthals were built like wrestlers. That was great for ambush hunting, which they practiced in the once ubiquitous forests, but a handicap on the steppes, where endurance mattered more."

Two biographies of Ayn Rand. - By Johann Hari - Slate Magazine

Two biographies of Ayn Rand. - By Johann Hari - Slate Magazine: "Rand was broken by the Bolsheviks as a girl, and she never left their bootprint behind. She believed her philosophy was Bolshevism's opposite, when in reality it was its twin. Both she and the Soviets insisted a small revolutionary elite in possession of absolute rationality must seize power and impose its vision on a malleable, imbecilic mass. The only difference was that Lenin thought the parasites to be stomped on were the rich, while Rand thought they were the poor."

book notes

The Family: power, politics and fundamentalism's shadow elite By Jeff Sharlet

Despite militarism and heavy religion making the American character a good candidate for fascist takeover, any great leader always has to play second fiddle to Jesus.

Section on unseen cultural impact of elite fundamentalism

Many people who fled LA or New York for Colorado Spings site crime and pollution but the burglary rate in and around CS is actually

book notes

Where Men Win Glory

Brzezinski is said to have claimed that the CIA armed the mujahadeem intentionally to precipitate a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (and to have started doing so 6 months before the invasion)

Najibullahprediction that if the U.S. doesn't stop funding mujahadeem, Afghanistan will become a center for narcotics and terrorism.

book notes

Republican Gomorrah by Max Blumenthal

Lubbock, TX, mandated abstinence-only education and the level of STD's has risen to double the national rate. White evangelical women lose their virginity at 16, younger than any group other than black Protestants. "The exploding rate of sexually related disasters have sustained the Christian right, enabling its activists to exploit personal crises for fundraising and recruitment drives."

Great synthesis of all the weird GOP scandals -- Haggard, Foley, Craig, etc.

Bush was so popular with evangelicals because they could relate to his beating alcoholism by find Jesus

"Some people snort cocaine. Other people snort religion"

book notes

Before the Dawn

Murder by humans and chimpanzees may simply be a function of intelligence. All other animals may not understand that simply injuring an opponent means he can come back another day.

Dogs -- Dogs acting as night sentinels probably tipped the scale in getting humans to become sedentary.

Language -- Dialects were used to tell if someone was a friend or foe, as well as contributing to group solidarity.

Race -- The Comoto tribe is about 2% of Kenya's population but is half its (and the world's) champions in intermediate running. West Africans dominate sprints.

According to DNA analysis, African Americans are, on average, 17 percent Caucasian

.05% of all the men in the world carry the Y chromosome of Ganges Khan.

Op-Ed Columnist - Two Wrongs Make Another Fiasco - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Two Wrongs Make Another Fiasco - NYTimes.com: "Gen. David Petraeus stipulates that real counterinsurgency requires 20 to 25 troops for each thousand residents. That comes out, conservatively, to 640,000 troops for Afghanistan (population, 32 million). Some 535,000 American troops couldn’t achieve a successful counterinsurgency in South Vietnam, which had half Afghanistan’s population and just over a quarter of its land area."

LA PC

Why Hollywood fears Nikki Finke : The New Yorker: "“People in this town are much more concerned about being called names than about losing money. You’re never fired for cause—it’s always for some political fuckup. So Nikki saying Jeff Robinov is a sexist has more impact on Jeff than the New York Times doing a big piece on the business decisions Warner Bros. has made.”"

Obama and gays in the military

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Gay After Tomorrow
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Op-Ed Contributor - Beijing’s Afghan Gamble - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Contributor - Beijing’s Afghan Gamble - NYTimes.com: "Everyone keeps saying that America is not an empire, but our military finds itself in the sort of situation that was mighty familiar to empires like that of ancient Rome and 19th-century Britain: struggling in a far-off corner of the world to exact revenge, to put down the fires of rebellion, and to restore civilized order. Meanwhile, other rising and resurgent powers wait patiently in the wings, free-riding on the public good we offer. This is exactly how an empire declines, by allowing others to take advantage of its own exertions."

book notes

Inside the Third Reich by Albert Spears

Hitler regreted that the Arabs were turned bacjk in France in xxx at the Battle of xxxx because, had the Arabs been victorius, the Germans would have been Islamized and, in Hilter's view, would have supplanted the Arabs as the head of the Islamic empire. As a more aggressive, violent religion, Islam would have been better than Christianity for Hitler's concept of the German people.

Hilter accelerated his schedule for world conquest because of worries that his poor health would result in early death.

Bifurcated command in anti-insurgency

Eight questions for Thomas Ricks | Democracy in America | Economist.com: "I think the US military essentially shirked the grandiose mission they were given in Iraq, which was to transform Iraq into a beacon of democracy that would change the whole Middle East—"drain the swamp", as the Bushies used to say. The generals looked at that mission and said, consciously or not, "That's crazy! We don't do revolutionary operations!" What do you do when the mission is insane? I think you should quietly retire, as indeed a couple of generals did—Gregory Newbold and John Batiste. But those were exceptions. Most of the senior commanders involved instead re-defined the mission as "stability operations", because they were comfortable with that. But while they were trying to bring stability to Iraq, Ambassador Paul Bremer was trying to bring revolutionary change, by dissolving the Iraqi army, banning Baathists from public life and trying to establish a free market. So from the very beginning, the American civilian effort in Iraq was undercut by the military’s approach. This sort of friction, resulting from a bifurcated command structure, with no one in charge of the overall effort, still surfaces from time to time."

Osama speaks

Evil Speaks – Are We Listening? � Patrick J. Buchanan – Official Website: "“At the beginning, I say that we have made it clear and stated so manytimes for over two decades that the cause of the quarrel with you is your support for your Israeli allies, who have occupied our land, Palestine. This position of yours, along with some other grievances, is what prompted us to carry outthe 11 September events. Had you known the magnitude of our suffering as aresult of the injustice of the Jews against us, with the support of your administrationsfor them, you would have known that both our nations are victims of the policiesof the White House, which is in fact a hostage in the hands of pressure groups,especially major corporations and the Israeli lobby.”"

Afghanistan

Obama at the Rubicon � Patrick J. Buchanan – Official Website: "Thus Obama’s dilemma: Accept a longer, bloodier war with little hope of ultimate victory, a decision that could cost him his presidency. Or order a U.S. withdrawal and accept defeat, a decision that could cost him his presidency.

In such situations, presidents often decide not to decide.

Harry Truman could not decide in Korea. LBJ could not decide in Vietnam. Both lost their presidencies. Ike and Nixon came in, cut U.S. losses and got out. The country rewarded both with second terms."

The Straight Dope: Do mosquitoes prefer certain blood types? Plus: Do tall men get more skin cancer?

The Straight Dope: Do mosquitoes prefer certain blood types? Plus: Do tall men get more skin cancer?: "Generally speaking, skeeters favor people with type O blood over those with types A and B blood, confirming the earlier research. (2) They really favor type O secretors over type O nonsecretors and type A secretors."

Buger King coupon

Dexter quotes

Science is a cold bitch with a 14-inch strap-on

book notes

The First Family by Mike Dash

connections between proto-mob and The Godfather: Godfather was in olive oil importing, proto-mob used olive oil cans imported from Sicily to smuggle in counterfeit bills; Godfather put horse's head in bed of Hollywood producer, proto-mob would kill the draft horses of grocers who would not pay protection.

The initial Mob preference for Sicilians came from Morello getting ratted out by his Irish "queer pushers" It was sustained by the fact that the Irish had so many police officers in their community.

The Women’s Crusade - NYTimes.com

The Women’s Crusade - NYTimes.com: "Our interviews and perusal of the data available suggest that the poorest families in the world spend approximately 10 times as much (20 percent of their incomes on average) on a combination of alcohol, prostitution, candy, sugary drinks and lavish feasts as they do on educating their children (2 percent). If poor families spent only as much on educating their children as they do on beer and prostitutes, there would be a breakthrough in the prospects of poor countries. Girls, since they are the ones kept home from school now, would be the biggest beneficiaries. Moreover, one way to reallocate family expenditures in this way is to put more money in the hands of women."

The Mohammad baby-name myth

The Spectator: "It's also striking, mind you, how many people desperately want to believe in the idea of a muslin reconquista sweeping away european elites who were too effete and too weak to realise they needed to defend themselves and who, consequently, deserve everything they get."

book notes

The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria

Asian comfort with ambiguity grows from the non-abrahamic religious tradition

India's specialization in services has lot to do with its terrible infrastrucure -- all you need is wires, not roads and ports

The Chinese Communist Party has relied on nationalism to replace communist ideology --- but it can easily get out of hand.

LRB � Rory Stewart: The Irresistible Illusion

LRB � Rory Stewart: The Irresistible Illusion: "Afghanistan is starting from a very low base: 30 years of investment might allow its army, police, civil service and economy to approach the levels of Pakistan. But Osama bin Laden is still in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. He chooses to be there precisely because Pakistan can be more assertive in its state sovereignty than Afghanistan and restricts US operations. From a narrow (and harsh) US national security perspective, a poor failed state could be easier to handle than a more developed one: Yemen is less threatening than Iran, Somalia than Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan than Pakistan."