October 5th was NASA’s 50th birthday.
NASA’s Golden Anniversary
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Daily Archives: October 6, 2008
North America At Night
Hiring the Fox: http://ping.fm/a5cnc
Hiring The Fox
It’s entirely possible that I’m missing something here, but with all the fuss about mortgage-based securities bailouts and the plans for the Treasury to purchase same and hold them until the values increase, etc., it occurs to me to wonder who is going to make that happen?
These are some really exotic, complicated instruments. About the only people who really understand them, their intricacies and the surrounding issues well enough to set values on them for purchase are those who have been dealing in them — who have demonstrated clearly that they aren’t competent to do so, being the ones who created this mess to start with.
Isn’t this going to mean that we’re going to have to hire incompetent (or unprincipled) foxes to herd the hens back in the henhouse? Isn’t there an explicit conflict of interest here?
The Peace Train
Alaska and Aerial Killing of Wolves
WoodMoor Village Zendo has the following remarks about La Sarah’s wolf-killing hobby, along with a chilling video.
I don’t know where other Buddhist bloggers stand on this issue, but it seems a clear one to me even without a disposition toward Buddhist ethics. It doesn’t seem to me that Alaska would be a place where such indiscriminate killing of wolves would be the least necessary to either control their population (an argument often made for other animals), or to protect human interests (property, livestock, etc.). Moreover, the methods used are cruel in the extreme:
WoodMoor Village Zendo: Alaska and Aerial Killing of Wolves
I stopped hunting many years ago, and it’s been a long time since I unnecessarily and knowingly killed any living thing with a face. Even when I was into blood sports, however, I knew what every conservationist worth his Eddie Bauer vest knows today: predators are absolutely necessary to the chain of life, and it’s really rare for the predator/prey balance to be so disturbed that it is necessary to take out the guys at the top of the food chain. On the rare occasions when that occurs, the predators usually starve and the prey survives in sufficient numbers to reproduce when conditions are right.
Except for humans. We seem well on the way to doing a good job of offing ourselves, but it seems we’re also quite likely to take a lot of the rest of the planet with us. Ah, well. Maybe the cockroaches will do a better job.
Wipe your shoes, Sarah. Your history seems to be sticking to them.
The Republic of T. and The Buddha Diaries both lead today with an article by Robert Mackey for Huffington Post, discussing Sarah Palin’s shameful attempt to defame Barack Obama because of his association (on a civic panel) with William Ayers, former Weather Underground member back in the ’60′s.
Well shame on you, Sarahcuda. Seems you aren’t exactly lily-white yourself when it comes to much closer associations. As Lt. Col. Mackey writes,
There is a big, big difference between a limited association with someone who had committed a crime 40 years before, and being married to a man who supports the destruction of the United States. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-mackey/terrorists-secessionists_b_132010.html
Make-Believe Maverick
I have no problem with this story, as opposed to the questionable one entitled “My Holiday With John McCain.” It will be published in the October 16 issue of Rolling Stone.
This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather.
t r u t h o u t | Make-Believe Maverick
