... who want to kill all Christians and Jews?
Uh ... Muslim?
Middle Eastern Christians’ “share of the region's population has plunged from 20% a century ago to less than 5% today and falling. In Egypt, 200,000 Coptic Christians fled their homes last year after beatings and massacres by Muslim extremist mobs. Since 2003, 70 Iraqi churches have been burned and nearly a thousand Christians killed in Baghdad alone, causing more than half of this million-member community to flee. Conversion to Christianity is a capital offense in Iran, where last month Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death. Saudi Arabia outlaws private Christian prayer.
“As 800,000 Jews were once expelled from Arab countries (following establishment of the state of Israel), so are Christians being forced from lands they've inhabited for centuries.
“The only place in the Middle East where Christians aren't endangered but flourishing is Israel. Since Israel's founding in 1948, its Christian communities (including Russian and Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians and Protestants) have expanded more than 1,000%.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203960804577239923033348982.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
(Linked from maggiesfarm.)
I'll do the usual disclaimer -- The above does not mean all Muslims want to kill Christians and Jews. But in areas known as Muslim, ... Well, maybe so.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
More on GM
Seven percent doesn't seem like a big purchase, but added to GM's $415 million for a transmission plan in Brazil and:
General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations
SAO PAULO -- General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."
"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Cate...ticleId=320909
(It's always good to know where too big to fail is spending money it didn't have three years ago.)
General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations
SAO PAULO -- General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."
"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Cate...ticleId=320909
(It's always good to know where too big to fail is spending money it didn't have three years ago.)
What's good for General Motors ...
... pretty much sucks for the rest of us.
“… General Motors last week bought more than $400 million in shares of PSA Peugeot Citroen - a 7 percent stake in the company.”
“An analysis by auto industry consultants IHS said it is ‘somewhat baffling that GM is willing to get involved in an alliance that it frankly does not need …’”
http://news.yahoo.com/american-auto-bailout-france-100824412--abc-news.html
(Maybe GM just doesn’t give a f and knows it can always go back to the trough and slurp up a few billion more.)
“… General Motors last week bought more than $400 million in shares of PSA Peugeot Citroen - a 7 percent stake in the company.”
“An analysis by auto industry consultants IHS said it is ‘somewhat baffling that GM is willing to get involved in an alliance that it frankly does not need …’”
http://news.yahoo.com/american-auto-bailout-france-100824412--abc-news.html
(Maybe GM just doesn’t give a f and knows it can always go back to the trough and slurp up a few billion more.)
Solyent pink
USDA is buying 7 million pounds of it-came-from-cattle-but-it’s-not-meat for school lunches.
“Custer said he first encountered the product — which gained fame recently as ‘pink slime’ in part due to the efforts of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver — back in the late 1990s. Despite voicing his concerns to other officials at the food inspection service, however, the USDA ruled that Lean Beef Trimmings were safe. ‘The word in the office was that undersecretary JoAnn Smith pushed it through, and that was that,’ Custer said.
“Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, Smith had deep ties with the beef industry, serving as president of both the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the of the National Cattlemen’s Association.
…
“Neither BPI, nor Smith, who now serves on the board of directors at Tyson Foods, responded to The Daily’s request for comment on this story.”
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/05/030512-news-pink-slime-1-3/
Now, before you go jumping up and down, chortling “Bush did it! Bush did it!” just remember whose Agriculture Department is buying the stuff now. Or, as Clayton Kramer says: “For all Michelle Obama's concern with healthy eating for the children, it does not seem to extend to shutting off the money going to a Tyson Foods division.”
http://claytonecramer.blogspot.com/2012/03/your-children-may-never-eat-school.html
“Custer said he first encountered the product — which gained fame recently as ‘pink slime’ in part due to the efforts of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver — back in the late 1990s. Despite voicing his concerns to other officials at the food inspection service, however, the USDA ruled that Lean Beef Trimmings were safe. ‘The word in the office was that undersecretary JoAnn Smith pushed it through, and that was that,’ Custer said.
“Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, Smith had deep ties with the beef industry, serving as president of both the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the of the National Cattlemen’s Association.
…
“Neither BPI, nor Smith, who now serves on the board of directors at Tyson Foods, responded to The Daily’s request for comment on this story.”
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/05/030512-news-pink-slime-1-3/
Now, before you go jumping up and down, chortling “Bush did it! Bush did it!” just remember whose Agriculture Department is buying the stuff now. Or, as Clayton Kramer says: “For all Michelle Obama's concern with healthy eating for the children, it does not seem to extend to shutting off the money going to a Tyson Foods division.”
http://claytonecramer.blogspot.com/2012/03/your-children-may-never-eat-school.html
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Neptunus Lex
Blog name for a retired naval aviator captain. He was a good writer. He pranged his Kafir Tuesday.
http://www.neptunuslex.com/2012/03/07/whisper-open-thread/comment-page-9/#comment-839280
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Appointment
Today I had an 11 a.m. appointment at the North Little Rock Vet Center. A counselor has been talking with me about anger. Well, I’ve done a lot of talking about anger. She has done a lot of listening.
In thought, though, most of my talking hasn’t been about anger, but simply about my life. At one point in my second visit, after I mentioned getting a degree in journalism, the counselor said, “I was going to say you should write all this in a book, but I guess you have.”
Anyway. This morning I signed in at 10:43. I then sat in the waiting area until 11:22. I went to the front office to say I would call and make another appointment, but no one was there. It made me kind of angry.
In thought, though, most of my talking hasn’t been about anger, but simply about my life. At one point in my second visit, after I mentioned getting a degree in journalism, the counselor said, “I was going to say you should write all this in a book, but I guess you have.”
Anyway. This morning I signed in at 10:43. I then sat in the waiting area until 11:22. I went to the front office to say I would call and make another appointment, but no one was there. It made me kind of angry.
Meandering
Walking five blocks from a parking spot to the Star-Telegram building in the valleys of downtown Fort Worth in winter brought a dose of cold reality: Tall buildings channel wind. December through February wind from Abilene, and before that, Amarillo, gets mighty cold and quick by the time it reaches concrete arroyos at 5 a.m. The cold wind beats against your back, pushes you forward and at the same time the coldness finds areas you thought were covered.
The modern has conquered the ancient. Hooray for the modern.
Or maybe not.
“Not by accident did the medieval townsman, seeking protection against winter wind, avoid creating such cruel wind tunnels as the broad, straight street. The very narrowness of medieval streets made their outdoor activities more comfortable in winter. But likewise, in the south, the narrow street with broad overhangs protected the pedestrian against both rain and the sun's direct glare."
http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/ on “Wide Streets, Narrow Streets and the Car.”
And as for cowpath streets: "Those who refer to the winding streets of such a town as mere tracings of the cowpath do not realize that the cow's habit of following contours usually produces a more economical and sensible layout on hilly sites than any inflexible system of straight streets." (Same link.)
On the reference to original green, see: http://www.originalgreen.org/
In other words, the way things used to be maybe they need to be now. Except … We’ve all heard people say, after talking about playing outside all day long, “But it’s hotter than it used to be.”
No, it isn’t. Air conditioning made people wimpy. When exposure to nature comes only during the time from house to car and car to work building, everybody is cooled as needed or heated as needed. Just those few seconds or minutes of uncomfortability lead people to shun outside.
That gets passed on to children. “It’s too hot for you to play outside.” Or to cold. Or not safe. Lions and tigers and bears and bad men with candy. People as untrustworthy as the weather.
Fear is what it is. Fear of the unknown; fear of the forest; fear of wolves from forest or plain; fear of steppe barbarians.
Stop the fear. Stop being afraid.
The modern has conquered the ancient. Hooray for the modern.
Or maybe not.
“Not by accident did the medieval townsman, seeking protection against winter wind, avoid creating such cruel wind tunnels as the broad, straight street. The very narrowness of medieval streets made their outdoor activities more comfortable in winter. But likewise, in the south, the narrow street with broad overhangs protected the pedestrian against both rain and the sun's direct glare."
http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/ on “Wide Streets, Narrow Streets and the Car.”
And as for cowpath streets: "Those who refer to the winding streets of such a town as mere tracings of the cowpath do not realize that the cow's habit of following contours usually produces a more economical and sensible layout on hilly sites than any inflexible system of straight streets." (Same link.)
On the reference to original green, see: http://www.originalgreen.org/
In other words, the way things used to be maybe they need to be now. Except … We’ve all heard people say, after talking about playing outside all day long, “But it’s hotter than it used to be.”
No, it isn’t. Air conditioning made people wimpy. When exposure to nature comes only during the time from house to car and car to work building, everybody is cooled as needed or heated as needed. Just those few seconds or minutes of uncomfortability lead people to shun outside.
That gets passed on to children. “It’s too hot for you to play outside.” Or to cold. Or not safe. Lions and tigers and bears and bad men with candy. People as untrustworthy as the weather.
Fear is what it is. Fear of the unknown; fear of the forest; fear of wolves from forest or plain; fear of steppe barbarians.
Stop the fear. Stop being afraid.
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