- The Violence Against Women Act and The War on Men
- Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:01:37 +0000 - The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) arguably is one of the most misguided pieces of legislation ever passed by Congress. From conceptualization to consequences it has wreaked a wide swath of destruction across American society and accurately can be described as “A War on Men.” Conceptually, VAWA is based on the false Duluth Power and Control Wheel model. VAWA falsely presumes that all Domestic Violence (DV) is perpetrated by evil patriarchal males against virtuously innocent female victims. This false gender ideology has no research support. By contrast, social science research, replicated across hundreds of studies, shows that: DV is initiated about equally by men and women; slightly more women than men are physically harmed by DV but men nonetheless still represent more than 40% of the physically harmed victims; the DV initiation rates for women, and especially young women, have been rising; and DV has nothing to do with an evil patriarchy because the DV rates for bisexuals, gays, and lesbians all are higher than for heterosexual couples. The research further exposes misrepresentation in the title: “The Violence Against Women Act.” Given that DV approaches 50-50 on most indices, why does Congress want to serve only half of the victims? [...]
- Gasoline is Expensive – Deal with it
- Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:49:34 +0000 - The White House announced it was getting into the commodities game in an effort to protect consumers from some of the geopolitical factors spilling over into the retail gasoline market. OPEC and the IEA both said in their monthly reports that market perceptions were behind higher energy prices, not physical shortages. With most U.S. consumers still economically gun shy, gasoline consumption is down amid high retail prices. But on the business side, protection against potential oil shocks in the long-term could help push a reinvigorated U.S. economy over the recessionary hump. Apart from the murky waters of economic nuance, however, President Obama said that, no matter what, American commuters need gasoline. Speculation aside, maybe that’s the problem. High gasoline prices make for angry constituents. That means politicians, especially politicians fighting to keep their paychecks, start pointing their legislative guns at Wall Street almost as soon as the gavel strikes. Market indices don’t particularly care one way or the other if consumers and lawmakers are frustrated, but they are concerned nonetheless. U.S. lawmakers in March complained to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that nobody was watching energy markets closely because perceptions are trumping real-world scenarios. Demand is down and supplies are up, which typically means prices [...]
- Welcome Home
- Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:09:17 +0000 - When I got into the terminal at Logan in Boston there were people waiting for me. My wife, Butch and his girl Sheila McCarthy, Eddie and Larr. Sheila, a registered nurse, had written me in Nam often and while not dating Butch any longer had met with him to be there for me. My male friends were and are friends for life all these years later. Other than Nam Vets (1) and those that were there when I came back from war no one has, to this day, ever said welcome home to me. That’s just one reason I work real hard these days for Veterans to have cannabis as a medical option. Please see www.Veteransformedicalcannabis.org. The plane rides from Nam to Massachusetts took almost 24 hours. The red eye from San Francisco was almost empty. The stewardess brought me a sandwich and on the plate were some cherry tomatoes. I had not seen a whole tomato in a year. They exploded flavor in my mouth and it was the first stirring in me that I was alive and would likely stay that way for a bit. I’d been ready to die for quite a while. The war would go [...]
- Is a Water War between India and Pakistan Imminent?
- Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:22:06 +0000 - A peaceful and stable Pakistan is integral to western efforts to pacify Afghanistan, but Islamabad’s obsessions with its giant eastern neighbor may render such issues moot. Since partition in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought four armed conflicts, in 1947, 1965, 1971 (which led to the establishment of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan) and the 1999 Kargil clash. With the exception of the 1971 conflict, which involved rising tensions in East Pakistan, the others have all involved issues arising from control of Kashmir. But now a rising new element of discord threatens to precipitate a new armed clash between southern Asia’s two nuclear powers – water. Lahore’s “The Nation’ newspaper on Sunday published an editorial entitled, “War with India inevitable: Nizami,” the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief and Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust Chairman, Majid Nizami, asked his fellow citizens to prepare for a war with India over water issues. Nizami told those attending the “Pakistan-India relations; Our rulers- new wishes” session at Aiwan-e-Karkunan Tehrik-e-Pakistan, which he chaired, “Indian hostilities and conspiracies against the country will never end until she is taught a lesson.” While The Nation is a conservative daily, part of the Nawa-i-Waqt publishing group, with a circulation of roughly 20,000, it has a website, [...]
- Standing Down as Iran’s Power Struggle Unfolds
- Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:06:48 +0000 - A strike on Iran, however limited, would push the current internal power struggle to a premature end that would not be in the US’ best interests – that is the message, whether intentional or not, of the recent “intelligence leak” that has provided the Obama Administration with justification for standing down with regard to Iran. Earlier this week, the media had a field day with “intelligence leaks” suggesting that there is no imminent threat of Iran achieving nuclear weapons capabilities, apparently with the concurrence of Israel’s Mossad. There are two things to be avoided in this discourse, the first being the obvious reality that intelligence is used to support policy decisions and “leaks” are one tool through which this is accomplished. Also less important is the discussion on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which can be largely summed up by noting that civil nuclear programs can enrich uranium which can be used for nuclear weapons and that Iran can decide at any moment to pursue this path. It is an unknown that has been used to push public opinion in a number of directions. Interestingly, the public (media) can so easily accept “intelligence leaks” that accuse Iran of developing nuclear weapons but [...]
- Oil & Politics – The Real Situation in Iraq
- Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:47:29 +0000 - A delegation from the International Energy Agency spent two days in Baghdad speaking with high-ranking officials in preparation for an end-of-year report on the country’s oil sector. By some estimates, Iraq could hold some of the largest oil reserves in the world and an international auction for oil and natural gas blocks is planned for May. Without a hydrocarbon law, and considering the fractured political system, the IEA’s report may be more about political obstacles than oil potential, however. Baghdad announced triumphantly this week that oil production increased to more than 3 million barrels per day for the first time in more than 30 years. Exports, the government said, should increase substantially once a new floating oil terminal starts operations later this week. The IEA in December said crude oil production in Iraq could reach an average of 4.36 million bpd by 2016, about half of what Riyadh produces. The agency warned, however, that Iraq’s fractured political system might be as much of an obstacle as anything. Iraq’s post-invasion political system has never been stable. Tensions in Baghdad flared up when Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused his Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi of terrorism almost as soon as the last American troop left [...]
- Zimbabwe – last to leave, Never Mind Turning Off the Lights – They’re Already Off
- Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:44:40 +0000 - In the 32 years of his benighted rule, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Gabriel Mugabe has done more damage to the country than its white-led minority government ever did. With the exception of the smuggling of “blood diamonds” the country’s economy, once the “breadbasket of Africa,” resembles nothing so much as a slow motion train wreck. One of the foundations of modern nations’ economic prosperity are reliable sources of power and here too, Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union cronies have managed to screw things up. While the country has a peak electricity demand of about 2,200 megawatts, it only produces 1,200 megawatts because its installed power generation capacity cannot meet demand, which primarily comes from the Hwange Power Station (HPS) and Kariba Power Station (KPS). According to Mugabe, it’s because those pesky international sanctions scare away potential investors and are a covert cover for the return of the colonialist British. So, in the meantime, what to do to meet the energy shortfall? Why, import electricity from neighboring Mozambique, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Here too the bankruptcy of ZANU-PF policies is evident, as last month Mozambique’s government threatened to shut off electricity exports from its Hydro Cabora Bassa [...]
- The IPCC May Have Outlived its Usefulness – An Interview with Judith Curry
- Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:25:55 +0000 - As the global warming debate increases in its intensity we find both sides deeply entrenched, hurling accusations and lies at one another in an attempt to gain the upper hand. This divide within the scientific community has left the public wondering who can be trusted to provide them with accurate information and answers. The IPCC, the onetime unquestioned champion of climate change, has had its credibility questioned over the years, firstly with the climategate scandal, then with a number of high profile resignations, and now with the new “Gleickgate” scandal (1) (2) – One has to wonder where climate science goes from here? Oilprice.com just had the pleasure of interviewing the well known climatologist Judith A. Curry in order to get her thoughts on climate change, the IPCC, geo-engineering, and much more. The original interview can be found at Oilprice.com Judith is the current chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology and hosts sensible discussions on climate change at her popular blog Climate, etc. Considered somewhat of a black sheep within the scientific community Judith was a one time supporter of the IPCC until she started to find herself disagreeing with certain policies and methods of the organization. She feared the combination of groupthink and [...]
- Another Nail Driven into Japan’s Civilian Nuclear Future
- Tue, 06 Mar 2012 07:25:04 +0000 - The 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that effectively destroyed Tokyo Electric Power Company’s six-reactor Fukushima Daichi complex have claimed another victim, Japan’s fast breeder reactor program. Fukushima’s effect on Japan’s atomic energy program has not had the consequences of a nuclear blast, but more the relentless drip of acid rain, slowly eroding public confidence in the country’s nuclear power industry, which last month saw 49 of the country’s 54 nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors idled. The figure is hardly insignificant, as the nuclear power plants (NPPS) collectively generated more than 47,000 megawatts, nearly 30 percent of the country’s electrical needs. Now another nail has apparently been driven into Japan’s civilian nuclear future. On 23 February a Japan Atomic Energy Commission panel of experts reviewing Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle production policy in the wake of the Fukushima debacle, while acknowledging that a fuel cycle involving a fast-breeder reactor has some advantages, concluded that for Japan it cannot be considered as a realistic option for the next two to three decades due to technological considerations. The review is effectively a death sentence for Japan’s Monju troubled $12 billion experimental fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, intended to reprocess spent nuclear reactor [...]
- How Will Increased Iranian Sanctions Affect South Africa
- Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:52:34 +0000 - The U.S. new sanctions initiative, strongly supported by Israel, to impose new sanctions against Iran, is designed to punish it for its purported covert nuclear weapons program by imposing new restrictions on Tehran. As a result, many of Iran’s oil customers are scrambling to avoid collateral damage to their economies. The sanctions’ potential fallout is now hitting South Africa, Africa’s biggest economy, which receives nearly 25 percent of its needs from Iran, roughly 98,000 barrels per day (bpd), or about 4 percent of Iran’s total exports. South Africa’s economy, which has been hit by fuel shortages in the past because of strikes and refinery problems, would be hard-pressed to fill any gap quickly. South Africa’s Department of Energy director general Nelisiwe Magubane said that South Africa had not yet received any formal request from the United States to halt or reduce Iranian crude imports following a visit to South Africa last week by a senior U.S. energy official but added that, as most South African refineries are designed to treat Iranian crude and that any adjustment to handle other crudes would involve a financial cost, telling reporters, “We have said let’s work on a worst case scenario. In other words, [...]
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