alQpr

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | Free market flawed, says survey.

Mr Ahmadinejad has a reputation for having a good eye and ear for the popular mood. So doesn’t the fact that he appears to be distancing himself from the RG and SL (to whom he may have been considered to be indebted for his victory at this point) perhaps suggest that a good eye sees things on the ground moving at last in a mor liberal direction?

Claudio Lomnitz and Rafael Sánchez have done a poor job of raising some legitimate concerns about possible anti-semitism in the rhetoric of Chavez. I say “poor job” because, although the problem is real, the article reeks of bias and resorts repeatedly to misinformation, inuendo, and guilt by association. Fortunately many of the commenters call them on this, but they flub their opportunity to correct themselves, and their response in a subseqent article is just self-serving rather than appropriately self-critical.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iranian leader ‘orders dismissal’
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Many of these Top 10 Myths about Sustainability are mythical in the sense that they are just elementary misconceptions that don’t qualify as myths because they are not widely held by intelligent adults, but “Myth 6: Sustainability means lowering our standard of living” is an exception because it is, I think, widely believed by intelligent adults.

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AlterNet Article by Chris Hedges

Rebuttal by Betsy Hartmann
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This post at squareCircleZ (a very nice enrichment and support website for students and teachers of mathematics) raises the conundrum of how to define 0^0 if all positive x give x^0=1 and 0^x=0.
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I have always believed that disprportionate reponse is justifiable (if struck once I will strike back unpredictably harder if I can so that there is no future temptation to estimate expected value of an attack). And I understand that in the event of military action some level of “collateral damage” has to be expected (and that even those opposed to a belligerent regime can expect to suffer the consequences of retribution if they have failed to remove it from power). But the scale of suffering now in Gaza (when comared to the ineffectiveness of the attacks which prompted it) does make me wonder how much is too much?

Prompted by this article (by Fares Akram in The Independent via Alternet)

Don’t Drink the Nuclear Kool-Aid | AlterNet

Typical knee-jerk anti-nuke article but comments actually worth reading

Heavyweight physics prof weighs into climate/energy scrap [printer-friendly] | The Register

AlterNet: Environment: Exposed: The Truth Behind Popular Carbon Offsetting Schemes

Commenting on the arrest of Haleh Esfandiari in The Chronicle: 7/13/2007: Banishing the Ghosts of Iran, Fatemeh Keshvarz says “We all wish Esfandiari to be freed, but the danger is that we will color all of Iran…” and goes on to harangue Azar Nafisi for not mentioning enough contemporary Iranian women writers in her story of the travails of an occidophilic women’s reading group in post-revolutionary Tehran. As if the readers of ‘Reading Lolita ..’ will not see the protagonist as well as her oppressors as the ends of a spectrum which includes many other categories in between. Perhaps ‘Reading Lolita..’ is a bit two dimensional (but it certainly allows for more than one!) but is concern about this issue is the most appropriate response to the arrest? Don’t get me wrong. I am interested in trying to see and understand a broader range of Iranian experience, but the context of this complaint is really rather dissonant.

My main reason for posting about this from David Brin is to see if any qualified comments come back on the feasibility of subductive disposal.

In Comment is free: Saddam: a tribute David Cox says “Saddam offered his people a harsh deal. Yet, their lives were at risk only if they chose to challenge his authority. Now, they die because of the sect to which they happen to belong.”

WOW!

David Brin quotes and annotates Russ Daggat comparing Bush and Clinton records.

AlterNet: Evidence of Election Fraud Grows in Mexico

Reviews: ‘Illusions of identity’ by Kenan Malik | Prospect Magazine August 2006 issue 125

Contrary Brin: An Interesting Guest Posting…

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Iraq’s War Porn is powerfully written and has stimulated a thoughtful set of responses - well worth reading.