SAR # 8127

Reports of Malthus being wrong were apparently incorrect.
L. Bryan

The path to madness: Defense Secretary Gates: "What has been called the 'Long War' [Bush's War on Terror] is likely to be many years of persistent, engaged combat all around the world in differing degrees of size and intensity. This generational campaign cannot be wished away or put on a timetable. There are no exit strategies."

Compassion: Faced with raising wheat prices, Kellogg, Sara Lee, and Interstate Bakeries are sending their employees on a march to Washington to demand a reduction in US wheat exports. As for the hungry overseas, let them eat mud cakes.

Tweedle Dum: JPMorgan CEO James Dimon does not expect the US financial crisis to end soon. He also declined to speculate on the depth and length of the recession. It is not, he claimed, the company's job to make bets about the future. Wow. I thought that was exactly what an investment firm did.

You've Been Warned: Researchers have developed a system for detecting latent prints on human skin. Wear gloves.

How Bat Can It Be? Bats in the caves and mines of the Northeast are dying by the thousands of a mysterious illness. Last year, four caves within 7 miles were infected, now it is over 25 caves covering 135 miles. Bats migrate and mingle during the summer. If this illness is contagious, millions more bats could die next year. Who cares? You do; bats eat insects, thousands of tons of crop-infesting and human-biting insects.

Tactics: The US complains that the home-boys in Sadr City, fighting for the survival of their families, are "hiding in the civilian population" rather than standing out in the street to be shot down. Wonder what the Saderists say about the about the cowards who "fly" Predator drones from an air-condtioned bunker near Las Vegas?

Federal Faith: Bush honored the high school graduates of Greensburg, KS, a tornado destroyed town of 1350, "who learned the meaning of faith" Faith and federal aid. So far $41 million - $30,370 for each resident. So far. Wonder how much a black, Democratic community destroyed by wind and water would get... Oh. Right. New Orleans.

Assurance: The CEO of Nestlé, the world's largest food company, predicts a struggle between the food and biofuel industries over arable land and fresh water. There is not "sufficient water to produce all the crops." And, he said, "There will be a fierce fight for arable land."

Real World Politics: US politicians are threatening to block arm sales to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, &tc, if they do not pump more oil and lower the price. But China is quite willing to pay the price and deliver the weaponry for whatever oil they can get, including "our" oil.

Foreign Aid: In Somalia troops opened fire as tens of thousands rioted over high food prices; two were killed. Wonder if we'd do better shipping food there than we seem to be doing with random cruise missiles.

Salmon Says: The West Coast salmon fishery has collapsed, as historically low numbers of salmon are returning to spawn. Hundreds of thousands of Chinook formerly returned to the Sacramento River every year. This year fewer than 60,000 showed up. Remember cod?

History: Word now is we invaded Iraq so we could practice urban warfare against a pick-up team of civilian militia who had opposed Saddam's government, and to defend of a bunch of Iranian-backed Iraqis who want us to go home. Right?