The plan to establish a futures market in terrorism may have been quietly scrapped by the defense department, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still bet on terrorism. As my friend Rom Enke, an options trader, explained to me, buying and selling futures is just a fancy way of betting: Don’t let the “futures” part [...]
Politicians love blaming violence on the media, but today Wolfowitz gives it a new twist: In an interview with Fox News, Mr Wolfowitz accused al-Jazeera of “slanting the news” in favour of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and claimed that the channel’s “very biased reporting” had the effect of “inciting violence against our troops” in [...]
Schooling is a human right, and Afghanistan’s girls are being deprived of it by a systematic campaign waged by “gunmen and warlords who were propelled into power by the United States and its coalition partners after the Taliban fell in 2001″ according to Human Rights Watch. The 101-page report, “Killing You Is a Very Easy [...]
There goes my site’s “G” rating! Probably means you won’t be able to visit my site from a school or public library web site anymore! Oh well… The Smoking Gun’s 2003 Legal Document of the Year Award goes to a zealous public defender: The boy’s troubles started when he was confronted at school by a [...]
Tom Tomorrow linked to this story about how the Pentagon is setting up a futures market where investors can bet on the likelihood of terrorist attacks around the world. I think Tom and the senators quoted in the article adequately describe the horrible stupidity, arrogance, and insensitivity of this plan. Instead, I would like to [...]
If the word “Avon” makes you think of a cosmetics company then you are clearly not a fan of the 80′s British Sci-Fi show “Blake’s 7“! Blake, the ostensible hero of the show was killed off after the third season – imagine if the main characters on Star Trek could die at any time! Avon [...]
Today’s NY Times Magazine has an in-depth look at the Iraqi sanctions. It is one of the best things I’ve read on the subject. Most importantly, it explains one of the main reasons why sanctions in Iraq were so devastating, especially when compared with those in South Africa: Before the conflict started, Iraq had imported [...]
Last night I went to see the Kirov Opera’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. This was part of a series called “Petersburg on the Hudson” which made me realize that the Kirov Opera was from St. Petersburg. But it turns out that the Kirov Opera was not always called the Kirov Opera, just as St. [...]
A recent NY Times Editorial argued that developing nations were being hurt by the unfair trade practices of Europe and America: The same sad story repeats itself around the globe, as poor countries trying to pull themselves into the world market come up against the richest nations’ insistence on stacking the deck for their own [...]
It amazes how much anger normally sane people in the democratic party have for the Greens and Ralph Nader. There have been a string of virulent attacks in the past few says. Notably The American Prospect’s Michael Tomasky, who argues that the Greens should learn to be more like the Christian Right and work within [...]