Thursday, June 21, 2012

in other news....

[Kurdish-inhabited areas include large sections of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia]

Headlines in today's Wall Street Journal -


Sanctions for Iran as Talks Fail
     The good news:  Western governments are finally showing some backbone in resisting Iranian nuclear program.
     The bad news:  The sanctions will screw the Iranian poor far more than the rich.


India in Race to Contain Untreatable Tuberculosis
     The bad news:  TB concentrated among the poorest of the poor, usually the Untouchables.
     The good news:  We're not in India


Home Prices Rise, But Not for Everyone
    The good news:  Home prices rose for some.
    The bad news:  Economic stratification in the US continues to worsen.


Charter Schools Fall Short on Disabled
     The good news:  We can afford oil and ethanol subsidies to big corporations..
     The bad news:   We don't have the money to care for disabled children.


Southern Baptists Pick Black Leader
     The bad news:  The Southern Baptist church was founded in 1845 as a secession from the abolitionist tendencies of northern Baptists.
      The good news:  The mo' fo's are so desperate for membership and relevance that they have been forced to stoop to engaging in the justice they have been preaching for over a century and a half.


Sandusky's Wife Contradicts Accusers
     The bad news:  Mrs. Sandusky is going to stand by her man, no matter what.
     The good news:  She is going to divorce him and take him to the cleaners as soon as he is convicted and the appeal fails.


Band-Aids for the Health Law
     The good news:  The US finally has a limited form of national medical insurance.
     The bad news:  What little we have of national medical insurance stands to be scuttled by the Supreme Court, the Guardians of Our Liberties.


Farm Bill Holds Windfall for Insurers
      The good news:  "Farmers" are usually large corporations who don't really need the money.
     The bad news:   Insurers don't exactly need any more of the public's money either.


Clues Emerge on Romney's VP Pick
     The good news:  He won't pick Palin.
     The bad news:  He will pick someone just as right-wing as Palin but not as laughably stupid.


Sides Dig In Over Gun Documents
    The good news:  Government program which resulted in the US arming Mexican mafiosi being unmasked by House Republicans.
     The bad news:  The House Republicans didn't care about the program when the Bush administration began it.


Europe, Weak Economy Add to Pressure on Fed
     The good news:  The Federal Reserve Board has several options to prevent the US economy from falling further into recession.
     The bad news:  In the past none of those options has worked.


Criminal Inquiry Focuses on EPA Email
     The good news:  A lead smelter company which polluted a park in Omaha and caused elevated lead levels in children playing there was fined $187 million by the EPA.
     The bad news:  The lead smelter company is trying to criminalize the EPA actions and get the $187M back.


Egyptian Opposition Finds Unity
     The good news:  The Egyptian opposition is finally united in opposition to what is effectively a military coup..
     The bad news:  The main result of the Arab Spring has come down to a showdown between rule by the military and rule by the Muslim Brotherhood,


Conservatism Propelled Islamist to Presidency's Doorstep
     The good news: The West can now drop the pretense that the Muslim Brotherhood is, or was ever going to be, "moderate".
     The bad news:  I am not going to even try not to say, "I told you so."  Repeatedly.


Mubarak In Hospital Following Stroke
     The bad news:  He was a son of a bitch,.
     The good news:  but he was our son of a bitch.  (Harry Truman describing Chiang-kai-shek)


Pakistan Court Orders Dismissal of Premier, Escalating Power Struggle
      The bad news:  The military regime are sons of bitches.
      The good news:  They're our sons of bitches .  Wait, they aren't even that.  There is no good news from Pakistan.


Associate of Bo Xilai's Wife Arrested
      The good news:  Evil local dictator has been undone.
      The bad news:  Corruption and power struggles are apparently endemic in China.


Activists Issue Plea to Evacuate Civilians in Syria
      The good news:  Syrian rebels are said in the West to be "moderate".
      The bad news:  Is there an echo in here?


Kurds Attack Turkish Post in Escalation
     The good news:  There are 32 million Kurds in the Middle East, 8 times as many as Palestinians..
     The bad news:    More than half of their country is occupied by our allies, Turkey and Iraq.  The rest is occupied by our enemies, Iran and Syria.


Europe Rethinks Approach to Madrid Aid
Cyprus Warns Deadline is Near for Bank Rescue
Confidence Declines in Germany and France
G-20 Leaders Divide Over Euro-Zone Crisis
     The good news:  The European Union and Euro-Zone are a brave and mature attempt to end a thousand years of endless, progressively more destructive, intra-European wars.
     The bad news:  The whole thing may unravel over quarrels about money.


WikiLeaks Founder Tries to Get Asylum
       The good news:  Julian Assange looks and sounds like the kind of privileged sleazeball who would do what he is accused of doing.
       The bad news:  Rape charges immediately after he embarrassed the US and NATO and arguably damaged our security, seems like way too much of a coincidence to be believed.  It reminds me of the trumped-up murder charges frequently brought against labor organizers in the early 20th Century US.



Of these stories, the one that matters is the untreatable TB in India story.  There are 200 million Untouchables in India, most of them close to penniless and living in intensely crowded slums.  The potential catastrophe is so immense as to make even people who don't give a damn lie awake at night.




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3 comments:

  1. Patches12:41 PM

    can see tumbleweed in here, hehe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well it would appear that marriage agrees with Jack. He is fat and happy and does not need to rant and rave on his blog anymore.

    ReplyDelete