Global Warming is just a liberal conspiracy

See the changes in what are termed "Hardiness Zones" - areas where specific types of trees grow best, based on overall temperature trends. The link will bring you to the 2006 numbers. Then press "reset" and "play" to see how tha that has changed in the past 15 years.

http://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm

Also, I've been catching up on news pieces I missed this year, as I tend to read the news rather than watching it. Read the transcript of this elegant piece by Keith Olbermann on NBC - you can click to watch the video, as well.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15147009/

There's something wrong with the world today

I don't think additional text will help this story:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2511686,00.html

Ramallah Burning?

I suppose, logically, it was only a matter of time before the violence in the Gaza Strip spread outwards to the West Bank, and thence to Ramallah. But it is both heartbreaking and maddening to hear that it has finally happened. The irresponsibility of the world in failing to resolve this conflict (or even to take steps in the direction of resoution) will wind up with much farther-reaching consequences than I think anyone sees today. The Times has more detail than WashPost today.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2507122,00.html

I know I've said before that answering the question of Palestine is a necessary condition for so much else in the Middle East, and that answer is more needed now than ever. There is a very tightly woven political web, and the question of the Palestinian Territories and Israel is central, if not to practicality, to the hearts and minds of the entire region.

To do this, though, the question of Israel must move from a fruitless (and moot) debate about existence, and into a more productive one of coexistence. There is a seeming aversion to real debate on both sides of the aisle - with a few significant exceptions, who deserve commendation. The terrorists, the hawks and the lobbyists, by choosing to use blunt instruments instead of subtlety, have lost the ability to listen, and have let the chance for peace elude them.

If people don't stop and listen to each other, they will continue to spiral downwards, and violence benefits no one. Not the Palestinians, not the Israelis, nor Egypt or Jordan, and ultimately not even Iran or Syria. And not the US.

Git'n Into Gitmo

This is a very interesting piece from Seton Hall Law School outlining and analyzing the criteria used by the government to determine enemy combatant status for Guantanamo detainees. http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf

Their analysis, as well as the WashPost article that references it, is rather frightening. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/11/abbott_and_costello_go_to_gitm.html

On an unrelated note (as much as anything is unrelated today), I had the chance to listen to Tom Friedman come speak at our offices today. Check out his column in the NYT tomorrow, as I think it'll be interesting (not about us, but interesting nonetheless).

Eat your heart out, John Le Carre

So, I haven't had much chance to post lately, which is why I haven't written about the new twisty, turny, cold war-evoking spy drama that is unfolding in London lately. For anyone who hasn't been paying attention, Alexander Litvinenko, the one-time Russian spy, was poisoned with a rare (i.e. government-sponsored?) radioactive isotope about a month ago.

Following his death last week, all sorts of interesting new connections have developed between Litvinenko, the FSB, the Italian SISMI, and another former Russian intelligence officer. To add to the already complex mix, Yegor Gaidar, the former Russian PM, is also a suspected victim of poisoning.

I just can't wait until someone puts all this in a book...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2481876_1,00.html