US spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has already cost at least $3.2 trillion, and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, far higher than previous estimates, according to a new study released by Brown University.
The study tries to account not just for the direct costs of the war, but for indirect expenses such as ongoing medical care for wounded veterans. It was carried out by Brown's Watson Institute for International Studies.
The findings contrast with the much lower estimate of war spending offered by US President Barack Obama during his address on Afghanistan last week.
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So, as we take away grandma and grandpa's health care, tell me again why Bush and Cheney shouldn't be in prison?
Takes one to know one!
Unliked Pundit Mark Halperin Is Suspended From TV, World Happy Now
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In 2003, we saw a president who wanted to prove something to his father to resolve his childhood conflict take us into a completely unnecessary war, one which has cost us trillions in national wealth and thousands of lives.
Today we have a president so invested in proving he is no threat to the mainstream that he is going to inevitably allow the nation to succumb to a renewed recession -- or worse, simply because of his own need to belief that he can somehow transcend deep-seated differences.
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-think-we-all-know-how-this-is-going.html
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There is an article in the current issue of Scientific American that looks at the two previous periods of global warming.
Those two periods are now known as the Cretaceous Hothouse and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). The Cretaceous Hothouse didn't result in extinctions, the PETM resulted in some extinctions. Most species adapted.
Could that play out now? Probably not. The Cretaceous Hothouse lasted for millions of years and the planet warmed up at a very low rate, basically one quarter of one ten-thousandths of a degree per hundred years. (0.000025C per century). The PETM lasted for thousands of years and the planet warmed up at a rate of a quarter of a tenth of a degree per hundred years (0.025C per century).
Now, however, the globe is warming up at a rate of at least a degree per century and may accelerate to 4C per century. There are signs that the warming rate is too fast for many of the species on the planet to adapt.
Climate change may not be solvable. It should be solvable, but it requires cooperation on a global scale and I just don't see that happening. We can all shift to driving plug-in hybrids with power generated from wind/solar/tidal plants (and burning hydrogen produced using power from those plants) and it won't make a bit of difference as long as China keeps building coal-fired power plants at the rate of one a week. And if the planet warms up enough that the Arctic permaforst starts melting, then we may have started a thermal avalanche.
Humans are conducting a global science experiment and we have no other place to go if we have triggered a catastrophe. It's as though we have been playing with matches inside a locked house.
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The crime: Alledgedly disrespecting a police officer.
DAYTON, Ohio (CN) - Dayton police "mistook" a mentally handicapped teenager's speech impediment for "disrespect," so they Tasered, pepper-sprayed and beat him and called for backup from "upward of 20 police officers" after the boy rode his bicycle home to ask his mother for help.
It took twenty cops to Taser, pepper-spray and beat the snot out of one mentally disabled teenager?
Brave cops they have in Dayton. True justice would end in a multi-million dollar settlement and a number of cops in prison for this. The first will probably happen anyway. The second, not so much.
Rob Allen's reaction is interesting:
I'm getting sick and tired of all these stories like this. I've gone from wanting to be a cop to developing an involuntary distrust of officers in only a few short years. From what I can see, police are losing sight of who they are and where they get their authority from (hint, Officer Friendly, it's not the shiny badge). I still believe the majority of cops are good people, but the good ones can't just sit back and continue to let this happen.
He'd have developed that "involuntary distrust" a lot sooner if he were a minority, be it racial, ethnic or sexual. But be that as it may, Rob is exactly right in his point that the police, and yes, that means the guys on the street, not just the rat bastards in Internal Affairs, need to start cleaning up their own shithouse. At the very least, they need to stop covering up for their asshole brothers in blue.
Beating the shit out of mentally handicapped boy for no goddamn reason other than he has a speech impediment? That's acceptable to you boys in blue?
Rob is right about another thing: If over 20 cops show up to "get some" at the expense of a retarded kid, then layoffs are in order, for clearly Dayton has too many cops.
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Fox News Tells 'Corporate Jet Owners Are The Real Victims' Side of Story
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Because this shit takes its toll "Three more American soldiers were killed this week, the United States military announced Thursday, bringing the combat-related deaths for United States forces in Iraq to a monthly toll not seen since 2008. ... The deaths occurred Wednesday in southern Iraq. A military spokesman confirmed that the soldiers were killed by enemy attack. Recently, the increase in casualties has been attributed to rocket or mortar attacks on American bases by Shiite militias. American convoys have also come under increasing threat from improvised explosive devices. Militants have stepped up their attacks, the military said, so as to claim credit for pushing out the American forces, who are to withdraw by the end of the year. ... The casualties are particularly striking given the diminishing numbers of American forces and their reduced combat role. Fewer than 50,000 troops remain, compared with more than 160,000 at the height of the war. ... Fifteen American soldiers have been killed in June, 14 of them in hostile incidents. According to icasualties.org, an online database, this was the highest number of combat fatalities since June 2008, when 23 soldiers and Marines were killed."
You want them to stop killing themselves? End the freaking wars!!!!
The Army is restricting the use of certain prescription drugs, and Fort Campbell will adopt the new policy starting next week. ... The use of some pain killers and anti-depressants will be limited in an attempt to curb substance abuse. ... A 2010 report from the Army's Suicide Prevention Task Force says that prescription drugs are involved in almost one third of active duty suicides. Two years ago, Fort Campbell had the highest suicide rate of any Army post. ... Army prescriptions were previously not time limited, but the new policy makes them valid for only six months. The number of refills allowed for each drug will also be controlled."
From the CityPages:
The rules set up by Mall of America officials for Sarah and Bristol Palin's book signing yesterday seemed to have been written in anticipation of an army of fans.
"'Camping out' is not allowed," the rules read. "Beginning at 5 a.m., guests will be allowed to line up."
But there was no teeming crowd of rabid Palinites at 5 a.m. And less than a half hour into the appearance of Bristol, Sarah and Todd Palin, the crowd had dwindled to a trickle of latecomers.
Palin has also dropped down to single digits among likely voters in a new Fox News poll. Can we say that America has finally started to quit Sarah Palin? Because we can't say it any other way. [CityPages]
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War Number Four. Or is it Five? Nope - Number Six! "A US drone aircraft is reported to have fired upon two senior members of al-Shabab, the Islamist anti-government armed group, in Somalia last week, marking the first time a US unmanned plane has been used for such an attack inside the country. The strike, said to have been carried out on June 23, is believed to have targeted a convoy of fighters belonging to al-Shabab, which is fighting to overthrow Somalia's weak Transitional National Government and impose Islamic law. The attack was not immediately identified as a drone strike, but a senior US military official familiar with the operation told the Washington Post newspaper on Thursday that it had come from such an aircraft. The strike would make Somalia the sixth country where the US has reportedly used drones to conduct air strikes."
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"I am deeply disappointed that Rhode Island will establish civil unions in our state. The concept of civil unions is a social experiment that promotes an immoral lifestyle, is a mockery of the institution of marriage as designed by God, undermines the well-being of our families, and poses a threat to religious liberty. [snip] Can there be any doubt that Almighty God will, in His own time and way, pass judgment upon our state, its leaders and citizens, for abandoning His commands and embracing public immorality? I encourage Catholics to pray for God's patience, mercy and forgiveness in these distressing times." - Bishop Thomas Tobin, of the Providence Catholic Diocese. Kim K. gets X-ray to prove her butt's real
I can't believe I've accused American cable news of being stupid and shallow.
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