A few weeks back I put up a survey of various nations that were getting into the stealth game with either aircraft or UAVs under development or actually in testing. One reader pointed out I had overlooked Iran’s new stealth fighter. Overlooked, no; omitted, yes. The photos Iran released showed
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: U.S. Cardinals Want the Vatican to Come Clean
American Cardinals are demanding that Vatican managers answer allegations of corruption and cronyism at the very top levels of the Roman Catholic church. They say they want those answers before they’ll agree to vote on the next Pope.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Arms Race Update – Giving New Meaning to "Sub-Prime"
Forget mortgage backed derivatives. That’s so 2008. In 2013, “sub-prime” can refer to the burgeoning international market for submarines, underwater warships. We don’t notice it much in Canada but, world wide, the submarine industry has been very busy and is set to continue growing for many years to come. British
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Let’s Just Call Them Petro-Refugees
“There are a lot of sick people but they don’t have the money to move.” The Tyee’s Andrew Nikiforuk reports on what may become a growing problem, Canadians forced out of their homes by toxic pollution from tar sands operations. “It’s a desperate situation,” said Vivianne Laliberte who moved into
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Gaming Medicaid
Republicans, it seems, are willing to support Medicaid expansion, Obamacare as they call it, providing their side gets a hefty cut. Paul Krugman explains how the Right intends to graft a little graft onto Medicaid and he uses the pretty glaring example of Florida’s governor as an object lesson. When
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Biden Joins Bridge Crossing Marchers in Selma
The rightwing stooges who control the U.S. Supreme Court might be willing to imagine away the reality of racial voter suppression in 2013 America but vice president Joe Biden took shoe leather to their warped fantasy yesterday in Selma, Alabama. US Vice-President Joe Biden and black leaders commemorating a famous
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s Not Extreme Once It Becomes Normal
Britain’s Environment Agency has warned that the country must prepare for increasingly extreme weather conditions. Last year, flooding was recorded on 20% of days and drought on 25% of days, with rivers such as the Tyne, Ouse and Tone going from their record lowest flows to record highest in four
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s Called "Poor Shaming"
Canadians have not yet shown themselves ready for the jackboot conservatism the British endure under their Cameron government but that doesn’t mean we’re immune to it either. The Observer’s Barbara Ellen wrote a cautionary piece that I think all Canadian progressives would do well to digest. The Methodists, the United
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Is Not an Endangered Species?
What is not an endangered species? Try Billionaires. It seems they’re doing just fine. Forbes reckons the world now sports 1,426 (USD) billionaires. That’s up by 210 over the last twelve months, four per week. Besides, who wants to be a mere mega-multi-millionaire anyway? By the way, if you want
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Because Machines Never Fail, Right?
The debate over “KillBots”, autonomous hunter-killer robots, continues but never quite so quickly as the technology itself. It won’t be long before the more powerful nations field their own legions of air, sea and land, even space-based armed, autonomous robots. Why would governments unleash this sort of technology? For the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: British Columbia’s Tumblin’ Crispy Christy Clark
British Columbia’s unelected, unelectable and outgoing premier, Crispy Christy Clark, was nudged ever closer to the exit today – by her own party members. More than a hundred BC Libs met in Surrey this morning to demand Clark resign to let somebody else, presumably almost anybody, lead the government party
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Please, Not In Front of The Children
The U.S. Air Force general responsible for the troubled F-35 light attack bomber programme caused a stir with his blunt criticisms of the principal contractors, Lockheed-Martin and Pratt & Whitney. At an Australian air show, Lt. Gen Christopher Bogdan, left a few contractors’ jaws dropped when he lambasted Lockheed and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Surely There’s Enough of Him to Go Around
Everybody’s got a Mike Duffy problem these days. Prince Edward Island has a Mike Duffy problem. Sideshow Steve Harper has a Mike Duffy problem. The Senate of Canada has a Mike Duffy problem. The government of Ontario has a few Mike Duffy problems. Mike Duffy has a Mike Duffy problem.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Muddled Mind of Lord Prescott
Back when he was Tony Blair’s deputy prime minister he was for it but now Lord/Baron John Prescott says the Anglo-American war on Iraq “can’t be justified.” Prescott says he supported the conquest of Iraq back in 2003 because he’d been told that George w. Bush would sort out the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Divisive States of America
The future of the United States of America looks anything but united. Government “of the people, by the people, for the people” is being dissolved to nothingness in a corrosive soup of corporatism and soaring inequality. The America we once knew was a manufacturing giant that invented and made things
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Australia Orders Another Two Dozen F-18 Super Hornets
Another apparent setback for the F-35 light attack bomber. The Pentagon has informed Congress of plans to sell twelve more F-18 E/F Super Hornets plus a dozen electronic warfare F-18 Growlers to Australia. The two dozen jets, including the electronically sophisticated Growlers, will come in at around $3.6 billion including
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Ugly Problems Loom for F-35 Light Bomber
Australia is becoming nervous about the planned purchase of 100 Lockheed F-35 light strike bombers. The fighter’s soaring costs have produced rising consternation in Australia, with a number of politicians questioning whether the air force can afford to purchase the 100 fifth-generation stealth aircraft it initially intended to buy.U.S. Air
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: This Is Truly Mind Bending
Researchers have found that it’s possible to electronically link the brains of two lab rats even across vast distances. Scientists have wired the brains of two rats together and shown that signals from one rat’s brain can help the second rat solve a problem it would otherwise have no clue how
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Mama, Print Me Up a Gun
The incredible, printed assault rifle. It’s not just good for six rounds any more. Now the whole gun isn’t made through 3D printing. The barrel, for example, is a true, metal component. That doesn’t matter. Barrels are just a machined, metal tube. What is important is the “receiver” or the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Rob Ford is At It Again?
I’m a long way from Toronto, a good long way, and people like mayor Rob Ford make me kind of grateful for that. Distance also let me avoid taking part in any of the commentary on Ford’s recent legal troubles. Besides he emerged out of it seemingly contrite and said
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