SAR #15014

Relax, it's not your barrel and it's not your monkey.

The Methane Monster: Where The Wild Things Are: If you are tired of the ICCP's namby-pamby “2°C temperature increase by 2100 if...” cautionary tales, take a listen to some scientists specializing in Arctic methane: “ humans have altered the atmosphere of the earth so drastically as to put our own lives in danger.” And “our climate system is in early stages of abrupt climate change that, unchecked, will lead to a temperature rise of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius within a decade or two, … such a large change in the climate system will have unprecedented effects on the health and well-being of every plant and animal on our planet." Simply this: we are responsible for increasing atmospheric methane from 0.7 parts per million to 1.7 ppm, “which make increases in the global temperature of 4 to 6 degrees Celsius inevitable.”

Potemkin Children: In the Philippines, as part of making the streets presentable for Pope Francis' visit, the cops have been rounding up orphans and other street urchins and chaining them in cages. First impressions are so important...

The Hand That Robs The Cradle: House Republicans, encouraged by Marsha Blackburn (Hater, TN), have passed a bill that will put ICE agents in hospital delivery rooms to whisk the undocumented immigrant mothers of new-born American citizens back to Mexico or wherever before they can breed again.

Smedley Butler II: Former U.S. Navy Admiral and NATO Supreme Commander James Stavridis says that the largest share of support for ISIS comes from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. True, but important people are not supposed to let the proletariat know.

Just In: The drop in the price of copper, oil, coal and iron ore... doesn't bode well for tomorrow or the day after. Commodities – not just oil - at a 12-year low cannot be blamed on fracking. This is a giant sign reading “slow economy ahead!”

Capitalism: Over 50 trademark applications for 'Je suis Charlie' were refused today by the French trademark office. 
 
Loosely Wrapped: Turkish president Erdogan claims 'the West' was behind the Charlie Hebdo attack with the goal of 'blaming Muslims'. Turkey celebrated its support of free speech by raiding a newspaper that dared to report on the government's shipping arms to ISIS – under the pretense of finding copies of the Mohammed cartoons. By the way, signing on to a website that is displaying any of the offending cartoons is now a crime in Turkey. Turkey’s main opposition party, CHP, has called on Islamic countries to adopt secularism in order to end the roots of terrorism, denouncing last week’s deadly Paris attacks and stressing that “killing innocent people has nothing to do with Islam.

Work Around: Russia, in a bid to make Ukraine a moot issue, says the EU must link up to the gas pipeline Russia is going to route through Turkey.

As Expected: David Cameron insists that all communications in the UK must have 'backdoors' for the security services to monitor all of their traffic or face being banned. He assures the public this is necessary to protect freedom of speech. France's celebration of free speech was capped with the arrest of a comedian for something he said.

Equality: In the nation's history, only 4 blacks have been elected to the Senate, yet blacks make up 13% of the country's population. 
 
Poking the Junk Yard Dog: Air France handed out copies of the new Charlie Hebdo on its flights on Wednesday. 
 
Porn O'Graph: Unbalanced, on balance.