A Plethora of Linkage

Rightwingsparkle Not Blogging Crises, Day 4


War dogs lap up support

Our treatment of retired war dogs is far better than in the past.
----------

Man in 10 Commandments Case Fears for Safety After Paper Prints Name

He made himself a public figure. I don't see how he can complain.
----------

Maverick Gaddafi calls for borderless Africa

"Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi underlined his maverick reputation Monday by telling African leaders their people's woes would be solved by creating a borderless continent with a single passport."

maverick is a word for it. Not the word I would have chosen

"Asking for foreign aid would lead to humiliating failure, he said."

Can't argue with that, especially since it has been the historical pattern.

""Fifty percent of gold in the world is in Africa, 95 percent of diamonds are in Africa and 95 percent of platinum is found in Africa ... It's a very rich continent, but it is not exploited (by Africans)," he said. "

Resources are good. However the modern post-industrial economy is less dependent on resources. In any given product the value materials is a fraction. Few raw resources are critical, and substitutes are readily available for most applications. Once, coal and iron were fought over as strategic resources, Peru and Spain even fought a war over bird crap. Today only petroleum is a true strategic resource, and even its importance is overstated. Now, minerals and other resources are cheaper than ever, technology allows us to access them more readily and manufacture cheaper or better alternatives.

The point of all this is that many third world nations are put out that their valuable resources don't make them rich. People are what really makes a nation prosperous. Human capital, if you will, as measured by the productivity, education, and skills. Free economies both generate human capital and allow economies based on it to flourish. These third world tyrannies, saddled with corrupt, nepotistic, heavy handed governments will never truly prosper, no matter how much platinum or diamonds or molybdenum they have within their borders.

----------

July Fourth Celebrates America's and the West's Core Values: Reason, Rights, and Science Are What Made America Great

Property Rights.
---------

Real Lesson of Vietnam

"There are lessons here. When the United States has stayed on after fighting dictatorial enemies admittedly for decades in Italy, Germany, Japan, Korea and the Balkans progress toward democracy and prosperity ensued. Disengagement from unresolved messy problems whether from Europe after World War I, Vietnam in 1973, Beirut after the Marine barracks bombings, Afghanistan after the Soviet defeat, or Iraq in 1991 only left murderous chaos or the "peace" of dictators."

The reason the commies won in Vietnam is because of our failure of will. The USSR and supplied the North and we didn't supply the South. The North Vietnamese Army, replete with materiel they didn't have to manufacture themselves and tank crews literally chained into their tanks, invaded. America's shame is letting down our ally, eternally besmirching our honor.

In the aftermath, more people died in the following three years of communist "peace" than died in 14 years of American war.

----------

Remember Afghanistan?

"The media again shows its predictable bias."

----------

Protesters Demand Guantanamo Shutdown

"Some detainees have been held at the camp in Cuba for more than three years without being charged. The U.S. government contends the prisoners are enemy combatants and are not entitled to constitutional protections."

That is correct. Nor are they entitled to Geneva Convention protections.

"The Bush administration "has claimed the power to kidnap men anywhere in the world and hold them, interrogate them, detain them without any process of law," said Meeropol, the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 after being convicted of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union."

What a bizarre world. Not that she is guilty of the crimes of her grandparents, I just wonder why she is quoted. Is she the head of some organization?

-----------

'Life' for raping teacher could mean four years

"An Old Bailey judge told the boy who cannot be named and was aged 15 when he attacked the 28-year-old teacher at Westminster City School, London, last year that he had subjected his victim to a prolonged, persistent, determined and violent rape. "

"But Judge Christopher Moss, QC, added: Life does not mean life. The purpose of such a sentence is not to throw away the key but to ensure you are not released until the relevant authorities can be satisfied you no longer pose a risk to female members of the community. The judge recommended a minimum tariff of nine years but said that, because he had already been in custody for ten months, the boy could be considered for parole in three years and eight months. "

"Two psychiatrists who examined the teenager concluded that he urgently needed treatment as a sex offender and that it was impossible to say when it would be safe to release him."

How about never?
----------

A Great Stonehenge Mystery Solved

Cool.

----------

One more cause to despise the UN.

The UN at 60

"But an even greater scandal at the UN is receiving less publicity: For years, its agencies and programs systematically have been promoting regulations and policies that block the use of safe, effective new technologies that could help solve some of the world's most pressing public health and environmental problems."