“We are at the beginning of a great storm that is about to sweep the country,” predicts Abduh Rehman, who directs the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. He’s not referring to the current Taliban insurgency in Pakistan, but to the madrasas that poor Pakistani families are increasingly relying on to feed and house their children….Continue Reading…
Mexico may still be in lockdown mode, but I suspect American fears of swine flu are ebbing. Alas, we may have only a short reprieve before pandemics starting hitting with regularity, warns epidemiologist Larry Brilliant in the WSJ weekend edition: In our lifetimes, or our children’s lifetimes, we will face a broad array of dangerous…Continue Reading…
So is this what it comes down to in environmental debates, who is more successful at manipulating the public? As the N.Y. Times reports, EcoAmerica has been conducting research for the last several years to find new ways to frame environmental issues and so build public support for climate change legislation and other initiatives. Among…Continue Reading…
Yesterday, this NYT magazine piece won a National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent to the Oscars. What timing.
If Petraeus has his timeline right and things go from bad to unthinkable in Pakistan, choosing between a military dictatorship or the Taliban will be a no-brainer. But it sounds like there’s no guarantee of even having that choice. According to this Fox news report, Patraeus believes that the Pakistani army is” superior” to the…Continue Reading…
Every penny ante blogger with big dreams latched on to this piece in the WSJ a few weeks ago, specifically this line: It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year. Forget it. Clay Shirky, who has major cred, writes that the WSJ piece is “worthless as a…Continue Reading…
Looks like we got ourselves a long-term situation in Pakistan. As Tod Preston points out, among the many challenges confronting the nation””including a growing Taliban insurgency“”one significant problem remains largely undiscussed: its rapidly expanding population. In his post at The New Security Beat, Preston notes that Pakistan’s population nearly quadrupled from 50 million in 1960…Continue Reading…
“A Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bar has ingredients from nine countries in it.” So much for that bandwagon I’ve been meaning to get on.
The N.Y. Times carried this front-page headline (and sub-hed) today: Containing Flu Is Not Feasible, Specialists Say They Urge a Strategy of Mitigating Effects How long before we see an identical hed and sub-hed, with just one word change: Containing Flu Climate Change is Not Feasible, Specialists say I’m not suggesting, just wondering…
So the Indispensable One is telling his choir to ignore a prestigious, internationally respected journal that has just devoted much of its current issue to climate change, which contains articles by these guys. Predictably, Rommians are grateful for the Indispensable One’s directive: Great post. Saved me a couple hours. You are the best. Hey, you…Continue Reading…