Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Obama’s Afghanistan pull-out: It only encourages Islamist enemies of the West

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From Eric Dondero:

Pro-Defense libertarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali from her column in the Christian Science Monitor, "Obama’s Afghanistan withdrawal: another sign of America's decline?" June 27

Many in the US and around the world wonder if Obama’s speech – and the broad bipartisan support for it – is yet another sign of America’s decline. American power and weakness is often a matter of perception.

From the Taliban’s perspective, the withdrawal is a sign of US weakness and their impending victory. Not only the Taliban will see it this way: Iran and Syria’s regimes and the malignant units in the Pakistani military and secret service see a weak America that roars but retreats when the going gets tough. The short-term benefits of abandoning counterinsurgency may be politically appealing. The long-term costs may be greater than Obama anticipates.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Foundation for Human Rights - AHA

Last Minute Plea To Not Retire Shuttle Fleet

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Letter From Astronauts and Apollo Veterans Regarding Space Shuttle Retirement and Risk to ISS Operations

"To maintain this vital life safety margin for long-term ISS operations we are requesting the following: ... To avoid any gap in providing independent repair spacewalks as a safety contingency for the space station, Congress, NASA and the ISS partners should evaluate the option of postponing the launch of STS - 135 until more external fuel tanks and other parts can be built to support additional shuttle flights in 2012."

Final NASA shuttle mission clouded by rancor, Washington Post

"Garver and other administration officials are getting heat from some of the most famous astronauts on the planet, not to mention members of Congress and aerospace industry executives. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and someone never known to be a rabble-rouser, recently co-wrote with fellow Apollo astronauts Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan an op-ed in USA Today declaring that the space policy of the Obama administration is in "substantial disarray." The astronauts protested the decision to kill the Constellation program, the George W. Bush-era plan for a new lunar mission with new rockets and spacecraft."

Keith's note: The timing of this letter and editorial effort by these folks is odd to say the least. The authors wait until the last possible moment and then expect the White House, NASA, and Congress to suddenly do a 180 degree course change in policy - with all of the associated and unbudgeted costs - 6 to 7 years after that policy was announced and agreed to by all parties.

Greenspan speaks: Fed’s credit easing a dud

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Gloomy forecast ahead

From Eric Dondero:

CNBC interviewed Alan Greenspan and reported "The Federal Reserve's massive stimulus program had little impact on the U.S. economy besides weakening the dollar and helping U.S. exports, Greenspan told CNBC Thursday."

The former Fed Chairman was quoted:

"There is no evidence that huge inflow of money into the system basically worked," Greenspan said in a live interview.

"It obviously had some effect on the exchange rate and the exchange rate was a critical issue in export expansion," he said. "Aside from that, I am ill-aware of anything that really worked. Not only QE2 but QE1."

Perhaps even more stunningly, Greenspan predicted that a Greek default appears to be "likely," and that it would have a major impact on the US economy.

Editor's comment - "Helping U.S. exports," and "weakening of the dollar," enough to make a Pat Buchananite have a massive heart attack.

Photo credit - TheExaminer

Wave Power Generation Using Reservoirs

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The energy in waves can be captured by building reservoirs at sea. The reservoirs would be fixed to monopiles so that the bottom of the reservoir is fixed at low tide level.

Water enters the reservoirs through one-way valves in their sides and exits through turbines to generate electricity. Water w

Breitbart on Why the Liberal Media absolutely despises Bachmann

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From Eric Dondero:

GOP libertarian media critic Andrew Breitbart appearing on Fox, defends Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann from attacks by the MSM.

Breitbart also comments about the US Constitution on July 4th weekend.

That's why I support the Tea Party... we've lost so many of our founding principles.... The pendulum is swinging back to what the Constitution actually means written on the parchment.

Rwanda vs. Burundi | Gene Expression

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Reading Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa. Rwanda looms large in the narrative. Out of curiosity I wanted to use Google Data Explorer to compare Rwanda to Burundi. The two nations are almost mirror images in various demographic statistics (e.g., ratio of Tutsi to Hutu, etc.), with the main difference between that Rwanda experienced a period of populist Hutu domination between the 1960s and the genocide.

Many Lapsed Vegetarians Become ‘Ethical Omnivores’

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From TIME: "Return of the Meat-Eaters: Many Lapsed Vegetarians Become 'Ethical Omnivores'":

In 2005, a CBS News study found that ex-vegetarians outnumber current vegetarians by a ratio of three to one, suggesting that 75% of vegetarians lapse. A survey by Hal Herzog and Morgan Childers found that these born-again omnivores were mostly women (as many vegetarians are) an average age of 28 years old and had been vegetarians for nine years when they reverted. The majority went vegetarian due to concerns about the treatment of animals and returned to meat because of declining health ("I will take a dead cow over anemia any time," one man told Psychology Today), logistical hassles, social stigmas, and meat cravings. Only two of the seventy-seven former vegetarians surveyed resumed meat-eating because their moral views changed.

For some, like Berlin Reed, 29, the return to meat has ironically been a humane one. Reed, who went vegetarian at age 12, was such a die-hard that his friends once staged a "bacon intervention." He has the world "vegan" tattooed on his neck. But these days, he both eats meat and works with it, calling himself "the ethical butcher." He insists that changes in the butchery profession are crucial to improving the meat system. "I don't eat beef from factory farms for many of the same reasons I won't buy clothes from The Gap," Reed told the Today show. "It's all about the industries and practices that are polluting our world, not whether or not it is okay to kill for food."

Indeed, it seems that the latest form of animal activism is not not eating meat, but rather only eating ethical, sustainable meat. What's that? It depends on the perspective, though it can include some combination or permutation of industry terms like "organic" "free-range," "cruelty-free," and "natural," and labels about animal welfare from certification companies. Sustainable meat-eating is particularly suitable for those who return to omnivorism because of health problems, like nutritionist Julie Daniluk, 38, who co-hosts a cooking show on the Oprah Winfrey Network, where she promotes conscientious meat-eating and weekly "vegetarian days."


Seniors In The Work Place

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We are living longer, thanks to advances in medicine, nutrition and education. Once people reach retirement age, they start thinking about retirement. Some welcome it; others dread the idea. We are programmed to think retirement at age 65 is the normal way of life, but it is not nor should it be. Wi

Michael Bay Just Re-using Footage from The Island for Transformers 3 [Video]

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It's hard being Michael Bay, what with all the money he needs to count and women he needs to objectify. Plus, one shitty, loud, oversaturated three-hour car commercial is as good as the next, so you can't really blame the guy for re-using footage from one in another. He's got robot testicles to design! Frankly, the very existence of Transformers 3 is so insulting it's hard to feel further affronted by the fact that its director can't even bother to shoot new footage—in any event, as /Film points out, it's not the first time Bay has done this. [via /Film] More »


One Last Look At A Magnificent Flying Machine

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Atlantis: The Grand Finale Photo Special at Launch Pad 39A Part 2, Ken Kremer, SpaceRef

"It was both relentlessly breathtaking and surreal to find oneself at a historic crossroads - looking skywards from directly beneath the wings of the very last shuttle orbiter that will soon be orbiting Earth some two hundred miles overhead. NASA's Space Shuttle's are the most complex and magnificent machine built by humans, constructed with over two and a half million moving parts."