It’ll be up to the US Supreme Court to decide the validity of California’s ban on gay marriage. A US Federal appeals court has ruled the ban violates the US Constitution. “…the panel found that Proposition 8 – passed by California voters in November 2008 by a margin of 52
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: Happy Birthday Charlie
Charles Dickens turns 200 today – or he would have were he still alive. With my admittedly plebeian tastes in literature, Dickens and Twain are a complete banquet. “You only have to look around our society and everything he wrote about in the 1840s is still relevant,” said Dickens’ biographer,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Disaster Capitalism Goes Celestial
Eco-sleight of hand may reach stratospheric proportions if Bill Gates and other members of his Club of Billionaires succeed in pushing geo-engineering as the solution to anthropogenic climate change. The allure of geo-engineering is powerful, seductively irresistible to those who are themselves powerful and rich. It’s a multi-faceted gambit. It
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: EU Climate Chief Wants a Fresh Take on Growth
It’s going to happen. We don’t have any other choice. Growth, the crack cocaine of post-war industrialism in the Western World, has (pardon the pun) outgrown its social, economic and even political utility. Now it’s the EU Climate Chief picking up the refrain that growth is our problem, not our
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Summing Up Republicans In One Paragraph
The Miami Herald’s Leonard Pitts has captured the sorry face of today’s Republican party and he did it in just a few lines: Under Reagan, optimism about the future was the Republican brand. But that brand has curdled in the ensuing 30 years and the party that once sold hope
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How to Put Planned Parenthood Out of the Abortion Business
The fundie Right doesn’t hesitate to condemn Planned Parenthood for providing abortion services. Slate’s William Saletan offers a brilliant idea on how to put Planned Parenthood out of the abortion business – send it as much money as you can. Look at the latest annual report from Planned Parenthood Federation
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Russia, China Veto SC Resolution on Syria
Steve Harper’s latest moral mood swing is all about China. He can’t wait to get supertankers full of Athabasca bitumen sailing the vast Pacific to waiting refineries in the People’s Republic. Well, today Steve’s new BFF joined with Russia to take Syria off the hook at the UN Security Council.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Afghanistan Down. Iran Next?
Some time in the next two years the United States will pack up its guns and leave Afghanistan. Like Vietnam, and to some extent Iraq, it will be able to boast that its military was never defeated in battle. Like Vietnam and even more like Iraq, the United States will
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: No Ho Like a Rich Ho
If you’re going to struggle with a hooker so bad she winds up needing surgery, and if you’re busted for forceable confinement of the woman, and if you’re going to get caught by police with illicit drugs, and if the cops are going to find you holding an illegal handgun
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Myth of Free Market Capitalism
Criticize supposed “free market” capitalism these days and that makes you a flag-burning, god-hating, Socialist to some. There are some very wealthy capitalists who spread a bit of their wealth around to fund organizations, like the Tea Party, to get that very message out. It just sounds so much better
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: U.S. to Wrap Up Afghan Combat Mission in 2013
By mid-2013 Afghan security or, arguably its civil war, will again be the responsibility of Afghans. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has announced that he hopes America’s combat mission will wrap up by then as his country’s forces prepare for departure in 2014. Coming in the immediate wake of a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Republicans Just Cannot Help Themselves
They’re complete boneheads, the lot of them. The real contest between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney at times seems to be which of them can talk without jamming a foot or two in his mouth. This time it’s Romney’s turn. After his impressive win in the Florida primaries, MMM, the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: European Youth Reeling
We’re flooded with stories about Greece and the Euro and the European Union leaders and their deals. Blah, blah, blah. What these stories almost always overlook are the real victims, Europe’s young people. They are on the verge of truly becoming a “lost generation.” A report in The Guardian reveals
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Pentagon Ups the Ante on Iran
Count the carriers. One US Navy fleet aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf is routine. Now there are two, the Lincoln and the Vinson. A third is scheduled to deploy to the Gulf in March and a fourth, the USS John Stennis is loitering just days away. The United States
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It May Not Sound Like Much, But…
A welcome advance in boosting disaster risk reduction and preparedness in poorer countries has arrived in the form of a new data service being provided by the World Meteorological Organization. Comprehensive weather data, regional and local, will be made available by the WMO to aid, “Researchers and experts on food
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Americans Foresee Return of Taliban Rule
When the West stops playing whack-a-mole in Afghanistan, the Talibs, with the backing of Pakistan, are poised to return to power. That is the conclusion of a secret US military report, The State of the Taliban, 2012, that has been leaked to the BBC and The Times. Islamabad is supposedly
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Grinch That Failed to Steal Florida
Newt Gingrich warned Floridians that, if he won their state primary, he would be the Republican nominee for president. That was apparently enough to bring an end to the Gingrich rampage that took fire with his win in South Carolina. Early CNN poll results had Romney walking away with just
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Welcome to the Snake Pit
By snake pit I mean the Florida everglades, a former refuge for a wide variety of small mammals now being overrun by introduced pythons. Sightings of prey species such as possums and racoons are down by around 99%. The Obama administration has responded by banning the importation of several species
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Canada’s Made-by-Harper Structural Deficit
To hear Steve Harper tell it, Canada’s finances are a mess. He ought to know, he created the mess. Yes, the federal government has a “structural deficit” that won’t simply go away once the recession ends (whenever that might be). Underlying that isn’t excessive government spending but, as The Globe’s
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: I’ll Get On To That Right Away
A UN report examining population increase concludes that, by 2030, just 18 years from now, we’ll need 50% more food, 45% more energy and 30% more water to meet humanity’s needs. Secretary general Ban ki-Moon said “We need to chart a new, more sustainable course for the future, one that
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