I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that the big sectarian rift between Sunnis and Shiites is that the Sunnis think that the first Caliph was Mohammad’s father-in-law Abu Bakr while Shiites think it was his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib. Personally I think the Shia have the better case though I also think that …
Tag: ek Politics
Jan 05 2016
The End Of Oil
Hyperbole, but there is a lot of truth in it. The economic utility of oil (outside of its lubricant properties) is that it’s extremely portable and has high energy density. Heavier than air flight was not possible prior to the Wrights (or Gustav Whitehead depending on who you believe) because the engines and fuel were …
Jan 04 2016
Still Hung Over?
Well, you probably had a more exciting New Year’s celebration than I did. Not that things didn’t happen, saw Star Wars and Sherlock, and had 4 great meals, just that I’ve been having enormous problems with insomnia and I barely made it to midnight and New Year’s Day I was all kinds of cranky. I …
Jan 03 2016
The Year That Was and The Year To Come
What do they want this horde of slaves Of traitors and conspiratorial kings? For whom these vile chains These long-prepared irons? Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage What methods must be taken? It is us they dare plan To return to the old slavery! 2015 In Review by Ian Welsh 2016 January 1 On the …
Jan 01 2016
Rahm Must Go!
The Associated Press has released thousands of emails made available to them through a Freedom of Information request that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that dozens of people in Rahm Emanuel’s office along with others in the upper echelons of the Chicago Police Department, deliberately suppressed evidence of the Police murder of Laquan …
Dec 31 2015
Echos, not Choices
The piece below is David Dayen’s response to one in The Atlantic by Peter Beinart titled Why America Is Moving Left. I agree with David that “The public might be moving left, but the Democratic and Republican parties are not.” In fact public opinion is moving rapidly Left but the Neoliberal Washington Consensus is not …
Dec 29 2015
Stopped Clocks and Revolutionary Times
Cracks in the Liberal Order Ross Douthat, The New York Times DEC. 26, 2015 In the twenty-five years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the architecture of liberal modernity has looked relatively stable. Not flawless or wonderful or ideal, to be sure; not free of discontents and decadence. But it’s been hard to imagine …
Dec 28 2015
The Death of HAMP
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Obama Program That Hurt Homeowners and Helped Big Banks Is Ending by David Dayen, The Intercept Dec. 28 2015, 12:07 p.m. Perhaps no program of the Obama era did more significant — and possibly irreparable — damage to the promise of an activist government that can help solve the country’s …
Dec 27 2015
Journalism in Connecticut
I have led a really bizarre life. I was Supervisor of Shipping and Receiving for a major Department Store. I’ve been a Life Guard and Swimming Instructor (including many children with Special Needs). I worked as a cashier at a Gas Station, twice. I was Master of my Masonic Lodge 3 years running and State …
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