Articles by Mardé

Juan Cole always sets me up with cheery news when I read him first thing in the morning. This time it’s about a United Nations Environment Programme study of brown clouds in the atmosphere. These light diminishing clouds stretch from Shanghai to Dubai with various “hot spots” in between. Take a look at the report. It’s pretty impressive. Lots of color maps and data!

So what are the conclusions? Here’s the summary of the findings:
The build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the resulting global warming pose major environmental threats to Asia’s water and food security. Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, halocarbons and ozone in the lower atmosphere (below about 15 km) are the major gases that are contributing to the increase in the greenhouse effect.

In a similar fashion, increasing amount of soot, sulphates and other aerosol components in atmospheric brown clouds (ABCs) are causing major threats to the water and food security of Asia and have resulted in surface dimming, atmospheric solar heating and soot deposition in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan-Tibetan (HKHT) glaciers and snow packs. These have given rise to major areas of concern, some of the most critical being observed decreases in the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, a north-south shift in rainfall patterns in eastern China, the accelerated retreat of the HKHT glaciers and decrease in snow packs, and the increase in surface ozone. All these have led to negative effects on water resources and crop yields. The emergence of the ABC problem is expected to further aggravate the recent dramatic escalation of food prices and the consequent challenge for survival among the world’s most vulnerable populations. Lastly, the human fatalities from indoor and outdoor exposures to ABC-relevant pollutants have also become a source of grave concern.
So, the ABCs of the ABC problem are extremely serious according to this report. I’m not knowledgeable enough, naturally, to critique it, but even if it’s half true it’s very worrisome. Thanks, Juan. More morning food for thought.

You’ve heard about the world, at least in certain respects, in my last few posts, but how am I doing now after my brush with disaster to usher in the month of November? Hey, as I like to say, I could be worse. I still do get uncomfortable at night when I try to move in bed. This endless muscle stiffness is very slow at going away. But it’s gradually improving. Other than that, I’m fine. I keep monitoring my blood pressure and find it freaky at times. I have an appointment coming up with an electrocardiologist who maybe can sort out the various electrical signals generated by my heart, i.e., the atrial fibrillation arrhythmia, the premature ventricular contractions, the interesting sinus rhythms, etc. Sounds serious, huh? Well I’ve been living with these signal types for many years and I’ve always done well on stress tests in spite of them, so, what me worry? The docs say, “Get your hiking exercise. Very important!” I missed it today. Too much blogging!

Eric Alterman points out that Rupert Murdoch (see Fox News) has now gotten hold of the news pages of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). He already had the editorial pages of the great old paper under his wing. Now he’s appointed a “right-wing curmudgeon” by the name of Gerald Baker in charge of the paper’s news pages. Baker thinks Obama is a “dangerous left winger” as he explains here. Here’s a sample:

There is a caste of left-wing Americans who wish essentially and in all honesty that their country was much more like France. They wish it had much higher levels of taxation and government intervention, that it had much higher levels of welfare, that it did not have such a “militaristic” approach to foreign policy. Above all, that its national goals were dictated, not by the dreadful halfwits who inhabit godforsaken places like Kansas and Mississippi, but by the counsels of the United Nations.

Though Mr Obama has done a good job, as all recent serious Democrats have done, of emphasising his belief in American virtues, his record and his programme suggest he is firmly in line with this wing of his party.

HEY! See my previous post! ha ha

Well, seriously, I’d say that that wing of the party is a pretty good wing! It’s just what we need to bring the USofA screaming into the 21rst century and get our economy moving again, and morality brought back into the world! GO BARACK GO!

Hey! Barack! Thanks for bringing the rest of your family!!
Now we’re gonna see some changes down in DC! Way to go!

A friend of mine of Middle East extraction sent me this photo. Good, huh?

As Juan Cole says this morning, there should be “a special place in hell for the Taliban in Qandahar who threw acid on the faces of two schoolgirls in Qandahar.” Aljazeera English reports that the tactic emptied the girl’s school that they attended.

As Juan points out, while the Aljazeera reporters were working on this story, a blast from a suicide bomber killed 6 and wounded 42. They caught the aftermath of this blast on the film.

Did I once say everthing’s going to hell in a handbasket? Yes, I think I did, in this post. Well, that was then! Look what’s happening now!

• Jobless claims jump unexpectedly to 7-year high
• OECD says developed world in recession
• Foreclosure rates up 25 percent year-over-year

And yet, and yet, I see this this morning: S&P 500, Dow futures jump on Wal-Mart optimism. I guess everybody’s going to their local Wal-Marts these days to save money. Hey, when the barrel’s almost empty, why not scrape the bottom of it? So, let’s see what the new day brings. How low can things go? Pretty awful low! Way more to go? I think the world’s going to hell in a hand basket. HA HA?

Here it all is, that great night of November 4, 2008, Barack Obama Elected 44th US President, a Daily Kos video by Jed Lewison:

Here’s something I never caught on the MSM this August during the Democratic National Convention: it’s Dan Rather blasting the MSM, caught by that great little alternative media, Link TV. Juan Cole included this today on his blog. Note the first three comments on Juan’s link. The first attacks Dan from the right, a fairly common MSM type attack. The third attacks him from the left: Chomsky has it all! The second comment I’d agree with. For almost 200 more comments, see the YouTube here. Juan says “If media consolidation is the problem then Anti-Trust actions would make more sense as a response”, rather than simply courage which Dan is advocating.

Everything points to the need for a New New Deal. Here is a 1.5 minute video comparing FDR and Obama. To make a contribution link here.

Look at this! Obama in Manassas, Virginia, last night!
Fired up and ready to go!