Month: December 2015

We Have Nothing To Fear Except Fear-Mongering Politicians

For over a year I have been telling people about ISIS….mostly I have been hitting the foreign policy of the US the hardest…..I have gotten some interests comments on my posts…..some not so interesting and a bit insulting…..but that is what you expect when you try to teach a horse to sing……..

I have found that David Stockman has an excellent mind and his writings are right on target…..I do not agree with him on some of his thoughts but for the most part he is dead on with this subject.

In all my writings I have tried to point out the fear mongering politicians are self-serving and are not looking after the best interests of the country…..Mr. Stockman covers this subject well…..

Source: We Have Nothing To Fear Except Fear-Mongering Politicians | David Stockman’s Contra Corner

Any questions?

Just How Confusing Could It Be?

I have been asked in the past about what some see as a preoccupation with the Middle East……that is two fold…..my university years were spent on achieving degrees in political science and international relations with a specialty in the Middle East…..and two I lived and worked in the region for a couple of years………..

So I spend more time than most reading reports and papers on the region and I have learned and try to pass on to my readers at the Middle East is more complex than the cut and dry solutions that one hears daily from the media.

I attempt to try and make the news that I learn as simple as possible so everyone can grasp what is going on in the region….that is a daunting task for black and white does not explain anything…..good and evil does not either…..

I recently found a great flow chart that makes it a lot easier to explain and does so with few words…..

Simple, huh?

Announcement

I am sure that there are some that are hoping that I will take some time off from blogging…..for you see I am a bit testy some times…..

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for the aforementioned but I am going NO where……I will be posting less over the next month or so…..

This announcement is two-fold…..”the lonelyauthorblog” comments have made me look at my writings….. I have decided to take his advice and change the attitude of IST…..during one of our exchanges he pointed out that I was using some pretty insulting rhetoric….that I was beginning to read like so many others on the right (this part is my words not his)…..after some deliberation I see what he meant……I had become that which I detested……truthfully it is not something that I would want to admit……but I feel I must.

I will attempt to be more reasonable in my criticism of people that I disagree with on issues….I cannot promise that my sharp tongue will completely disappear….only that I will try to be more understanding and word my post thusly…..I thank him for his honesty and his words….

Now for the main reason for this post…..I have been asked to lecture at a local college on the Middle East and American foreign policy in the Middle East…..so I will be limited in the time that I am able to write and post.  Most of my time will be spent putting together a plan for the class and some research…..I start this adventure on 04Jan2016……

And while I am there I will audit a course on American Foreign policy…never hurts to be refreshed in your knowledge……that is if you desire knowledge….if not just listen to Right wingers and be stuck in 1920’s…..

There will be posts everyday just not as many as I usually post….plus I will answer all comments just maybe not as quickly as before….so please do not fret there will be a reply coming.

I want to thank all of my followers for their time and attention to In Saner Thought…..it is always a joy to interact with each and every one that cares to do so…..and I want you guys to know that I appreciate your patronage of IST.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to let me know….I am always open to my readers…..

Never fear…Chuq is near!

Who Will Fight the Islamic State?

I had a restful weekend…..now it is time for the important stuff that makes our little planet go round…..

Every body concerned agrees that we can only defeat ISIS with a ground action….the problem is NO one wants their troops to be the ones pulling the action.

Lots of macho BS going around and lots of big talk and big promises but still NO one wants to do the heavy lifting……

So the question becomes……if ISIS is to be defeated…..then…..who will do the fighting?

Originally posted at TomDispatch. In the many strategies proposed to defeat the Islamic State (IS) by presidential candidates, policymakers, and media pundits alike across the American political spectrum, one common element stands out: someone else should really do it. The United States will send in planes, advisers, and special ops guys, but it would be […]

Source: Who Will Fight the Islamic State? – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

How About a Brew-Ski?

I admit it….I do enjoy enjoy a good dark beer….I prefer either Modelo Dark or a Sam Adams Boston lager…..the rest is like making love in a canoe…..f*cking near water.

I also find some of the thousands of beers released every year a bit much…..I do not want a beer made from pecans or apples or that taste like a orange….I want my beer to taste like beer.

I appears that we Americans are falling out of love with our old stand bys from years past……..

Americans still love beer—it’s a $100 billion industry in the US—but there are some beers we’re just not that into anymore, particularly as specialty and craft beers become more popular. 24/7 Wall St. runs down 10 beers falling out of favor with Americans:

  • Budweiser: Yes, the King of Beers itself saw a 26% decline in sales between 2009 and 2014, putting it in the 10th spot on the list. In addition to rising craft beer sales, Americans’ growing taste for light beer likely also contributed.
  • Natural Light: Despite the aforementioned demand for light beer, Natty Light saw a 26.6% decline in sales from 2009 to 2014, putting it at No. 9 on the list. Perhaps not surprising, considering RateBeer.com users rank it the worst beer in the world.
  • Miller Genuine Draft: Jumping toward the top of the list, MGD comes in at No. 3 with a whopping 54.5% decline in sales from 2009 to 2014. MillerCoors is actually closing the plant that first brewed MGD.
  • Milwaukee’s Best: The No. 2 beer on the list saw a 55.7% plunge from 2009 to 2014. 24/7 Wall St. thinks part of the problem might lie in the fact that the beer is marketed specifically to men.
  • Bud Select: Coming in at No. 1—not a good thing, in this case—is one of Budweiser’s low-calorie offerings. Bud Select saw a 60.4% decline in sales between 2009 and 2014, despite the popularity of light beers. Bud Light, on the other hand, remains popular.

Click for the complete list.

There are some constants if life that I demand…these are onion taste like onion….coffee to taste like coffee and beer to taste like beer…there is one more but it is not for mixed company…..

Oh Brother! Another Theory!

My weekend begins and I am so happy to be away from the mind numbing effect of constant news up-dates…..a few days to relax the mind and ignore the clutter……

Stonehenge!  It seems that there is a new theory pertaining to this historic structure….no I am not talking about one of those crazy things that the Ancient alien nuts would have you believe….this is a real theory (sort of)…….

Stonehenge may reside in England, but it “was a Welsh monument from its very beginning.” So says Professor Mike Parker Pearson in reference to what is a big step forward in our understanding of Stonehenge, reports the BBC. His team’s research, published Monday in the journal Antiquity, establishes the source of the monument’s “bluestones,” the smaller of its stones, which for nine decades were known to generally hail from the Preseli Hills in Wales. Now, scientists say they know exactly where in Wales they came from: the “spotted dolerite” bluestones hail from Carn Goedog, while the “rhyolite” were extracted from Craig Rhos-y-felin, reports Phys.org. The burnt hazelnuts and charcoal that persist as remnants of millennia-old campfires at the quarries further flesh out the tale of the rocks.

“We have dates of around 3400 BC for Craig Rhos-y-felin and 3200 BC for Carn Goedog, which is intriguing because the bluestones didn’t get put up at Stonehenge until around 2900 BC,” says Parker Pearson per Phys.org. “It could have taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, but that’s pretty improbable.” His theory: The stones were put to use in a local monument, which was latter disassembled. His team suspects the remnants of that monument could sit between the two quarries; “we may find something big in 2016,” says one scientist. If they do, Parker Pearson believes it could reveal “the mystery of why Stonehenge was built and why some of its stones were brought so far.” One theory he shares with the Guardian: that it’s a “monument of unification, bringing together people from across the many parts of Britain.

Or maybe they thought the stones were…….pretty.

Well it is a better theory than the one that it is somehow connected to cute little grey guys from space……but I still want someone to tell me how they lifted those stones into place.

Any thoughts?

US Aid: The Sick Game

Many Americans including myself have bitched about the aid we give to some countries….not all….just the ones we have some sort of problem with for whatever imagined reason…..

Recently I was having an exchange with my friend over at Lines By Liming on aid that we have sent to Africa over the years…..while I did not agree with him on his responses I did start to think about that aid and did some checking….especially the exports we send to Africa in the form of food aid.

The US exports food and grain to those countries in Africa…..this aid is genetically modified so that the seeds cannot be used to raise their own crops…in other words the seeds are sterile.  This aid sits in receiving yards undistributed because the governments will not give this aid out because the grain may somehow be fed to hungry livestock and that livestock has a large market in the EU….the problem is the EU has a strict policy against genetically modified anything….so the farmers cannot sell their meat and in turn they need more aid to exist.

Basically, the US is making it impossible for the aid to get to the people that needs it….all because of wanting to eliminate the competition…..agri-business is playing a sick game.  So some of this aid goes to waste….to guarantee that more aid will be needed and bought by governments that have trade deals with the US.

This could lead to many misunderstandings when the reports flood in about the aid that the US has given has gone undelivered…..but the story will be that the natives are too lazy to even use the aid they are given….a great story….but completely false.

News You Will Never Hear

In the western world there is news and then there is NEWS……the first is what you get on cable TV and the other is what the rest of the world gets to read and hear….

For months now I have had a running debate about Muslims and most of their argument is boiled down to…..you never hear any imans condemning terrorism”…..I believe that everyone is acquainted with that argument…..

Well I know this will go NO where because it does not fit the BS that some want to pass off as intellectual thought……but at least I know they are wrong and now….you do to……

Every year in northern India, Muslims gather in Ajmer for the Urs festival to remember the death of Moinuddin Chishti, a Sufi Islamic cleric and scholar. This year, around 70,000 clerics who attended issued a fatwa condemning terrorism, but you’ll never hear about this from the conservative media or politicians who are trying to whip up hatred toward Muslims.

Source: 70,000 Muslim Clerics Issue Fatwa Condemning Terrorism

Like I said I do not expect to see this anywhere on the Right wing blogosphere because those people would rather spread their hatred than get to the truth….

Period!

 

‘Lil Kim’ Thumps His Chest

Remember awhile back when some in Congress made an ass of themselves over the nuke deal with Iran?  We heard every scenario possible of what will happen when they get the bomb…..we only have a very limited life expectancy according to some….

I heard some news yesterday that is a bit scary…..but I have not heard any other of these doom and gloom Congresspeople on a subject that is far more in the here and now than some perception of what could happen if…….

I know….what the hell is the old professor going on about, right?

North Korea is known for talking tough when it comes to its nukes, and remarks made by Kim Jong Un Thursday fanned the flames. While touring a museum dedicated to his father and grandfather, the self-proclaimed Supreme Leader suggested that North Korea now has a hydrogen bomb. Grandfather Kim Il Sung “turned [North Korea] into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation,” said Kim, per the government’s state news agency, via the CBC. What’s worrisome, if true, is that hydrogen bombs are a much more powerful weapon than atomic bombs, the Washington Post notes.

But, as the CBC reports, it’s difficult to parse truth from fiction when it comes to North Korea: Previous assertions that remain unverified include claims that it has fired a missile from a sub and that it’s able to make mini nukes, per the Post. So not everyone’s convinced that Kim’s words are much more than rhetorical swagger. “It’s hard to regard North Korea as possessing an H-bomb,” a research fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute notes to CNN. “I think it seems to be developing it.” A weapons expert at Romania’s Babes-Bolyai University is more straightforward: “I think that’s virtually impossible,” he tells the Post.

We know already that North Korea has the nuke and now he, Lil Kim, is bragging about an H-bomb…….maybe that should be a bigger worry than a “maybe”….of course we could pass it off as him thumping his chest and making stuff up….but do we want to chance that?

Will the Neocons go batcrap crazy?  Or will this just fall through the cracks because it is not a threat to Israel?  My guess it will be shrugged off as no big deal…….What should we do?

Is There A Fundamental Flaw In Iraq?

All the news is about those damn “terrorists” and when that is not being taunted in the media it is Syria and the battle against ISIS……Iraq has slipped from the headlines (for now) for it is considered not as important as Trump trying to eliminate Muslims from our shore to chest thumping about some wacko killing people to protect babies…..but there is still a war being fought in Iraq and people are still dying…..

The problem there is that NO one has any idea what the hell is going on….are the militias fighting for freedom…..are the Kurds fighting for Iraq……is Iran fighting Sunnis……is Turkey trying to expand its territory?  No one has any idea of what is happening in Iraq…..but they all know what must be done….problem is that no one knows who is who or what is what……..

I read an op-ed by Michael Knights that is a good summation of the situation in Iraq…..(the only thing I disliked about the piece was the use of the term “boots on the ground”…..these are humans being sent to their possible death at least we can do is call them “troops” and not compare them to footware)……

The commotion over sovereignty shows that many of the factions in Iraq have more urgent priorities than defeating ISIL.

Source: Playing politics with boots on the ground – Al Jazeera English