Tuesday, July 8, 2014

SAR #14187



An essential component of most investment plans is wishful thinking, followed closely by denial.

On Little Cats' Paws: US Special Forces are now operating in Kurdistan the Kurdish region of Iraq as the shell game continues. It is unclear if they are part of the 300, the additional 550, or yet more “non-combatants”sent to insure that abandoning the Baghdad embassy goes smoothlyas part of the expanding U.S. political and military effort to keep Iraq from splintering”. SecDef Chuck Hegel says “None will perform combat missions.” Except, one suspects, for the Apache attack helicopter pilots. 

Lawyers: Goldman Sachs has asked a judge to make Google unsend an email. Haven't we all wished for that power?

Doing Unto Others: Israeli right-wing fanatics have burned an Palestinian child to death to show that they are just as good as the Palestinians who abducted and killed three Israeli youth. Israeli cops, protecting the homeland, brutally beat and stomped a suspected Palestinian terrorist who turned out to be an unarmed American teen. Except for the children, I'd say they Israelis deserve the Palestinians and vice versa.

Peeping Tom: The Washington Post has put the lie to the NSA's denials; they are tracking you, etc, etc. Files full of “startlingly intimate, even voyeuristic” data are routinely compiled on average citizens. “They tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes.” The files include résumés, children's report cards, pictures of infants in bathtubs, pictures of their mothers in bathtubs, selfies of men flexing their muscles. and your mother's recipe for potato salad – which may in fact be proof of some form of terrorism.

Vote Of Confidence: The US says it will not ship the F16s and Apache helicopters Iraq needs to help suppress the ISIS advance because the US is afraid they may fall into ISIS hands. That Iraq already paid $40 billion for the weaponry doesn't seem to matter.

Asked & Answered: Do Americans understand the scientific consensus and the evidence behind things like evolution and climate change? Yes and no. The problem is not the lack of knowledge or understanding, the problem is many are not willing to believe the evidence if it contradicts their political or religious views. Knowing is no substitute for believing.

The Thing-In-Itself: A study found that children of same-sex couples are happier, healthier than those of the general population.

Thinking Cap: Under what conditions should you be able to force Google (or anyone else) to take down factual items from a website? Perhaps never, for as Orwell observed, “ He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." And if you can erase things, so can lots of others. It's called rewriting history and it is a favorite of dictatorships.
 
Our Motto: Victory is more important than principles and war is better than minding our own business. Wait, war is our business.

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