Thoughts on the World Opinion and analysis of current events: Politics, global warming, alternative energy and more. A realistic, moderate (but slightly left leaning) look at the world. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 21 0 52 1665

Articles from Thoughts on the World

Republican Youtube Debate: Best Quotes 2007-11-28 20:01:00 “…the way Ronald Reagan did it.”Rudy Giuliani“Ronald Reagan used to talk about that.”Ron Paul“[Ron Paul’s attitudes toward Iraq] That kind of isolation caused WWII.”John McCain, which came with both boos and cheers“I came in with Ronald Reagan.”Duncan Hunter“I was the third ranking official in the Reagan justice department.”Rudy Giuliani“Not to follow Hillary Clinton to the left, but the path Ronald Reagan blazed.”Mitt Romney“There is move towards a North American Union… Our national sovereignty is under threat.”Ron Paul“The first thing I would get rid of is the Internal Revenue Service.”Mike Huckabee“I was wrong.”Mitt Romney“Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office.”Mike Huckabee“None of us believe we should go pluck out our eye.”Mike Huckabee “…after September 11th”Rudy Giuliani“Not bad to have a Republican that can beat Bill Clinton.”Rudy Giuliani“When I was mayor of New York City the Yankees won 4 championships. ... Youtube

The Annapolis Conference: More Hurtful Than Helpful? 2007-11-27 18:04:00 Yes, then Israelis and Palestiians appear to be finally making some progress. But it is hard to be optimistic. Beyond the Cusp (a fantastic blog/blogger) takes a cold, hard look at reality. What happens if Annapolis does succeed? He goes on to make 3 main points: 1. Implementation of the agreement would be extremely difficult 2. Once Israel withdraws from the Palestinian territories (which will be certainly part of the agreement), Hamas will take power from Fatah and declare any agreement invalid. 3. If the agreement appears unsuccessful, Iran and/or Syria could take advantage of the situation and could possibly invade Israel, leading to a regional war.Hits the nail on the head. ...

Fart Offsets 2007-11-26 16:26:00 Written in correlation with Thoughts on Global Warming, Thoughts on the World, and The Statistics Monster.Humanity is facing quite a serious epidemic: farts. Humanity’s gaseous eating habits are causing methane and CO2 to be released into the atmosphere. Your buttocks are like factories wearing pants.The average human farts 12-18 times a day. That means, every day, the average human produces 45 milliliters of CO2 and 35 milliliters of methane. Methane, by the way, is 25 times as potent of a greenhouse gas as CO2.That is a lot of gas. Therefore, my friends, I have come up with a solution to our flatulence-epidemic.Every time one farts, one must turn off one lightbulb for thirty seconds to offset the greenhouse gases produced by one’s anus.Simple as that. We don’t even need oversight or regulation. Just keep track for yourself, like the guy in the picture. ...

[POLL] Should Australia Sign the Kyoto Protocol? 2007-11-25 16:47:00 Should Australia Sign the Kyoto Protocol?free polls ...

Australia: The First Election Decided Because of Global Warming 2007-11-24 18:44:00 300th postToday, Australians went to the polls and voted for a new direction. They voted out the incumbent, John Howard, and voted in Kevin Rudd.The opinion is held wisely that Howard was voted out because of his failing economic policies – wait, excuse me, I’m being handed a note by my producer. It appears that – no! Howard’s economic policies were hugely successful! High economic growth, low unemployment, relatively low interest rates, tax reform, a more flexible workplace, zero Government debt, excellent international credit rating, strong investment in defense force funding, the list continues. This is strange…Why was Howard voted out? Because of global warming. Australia is the only major industrialized country other than the U.S. not to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Howard was the staunchest backer of the Bush administration’s environmental policy. Australians seem to be very displeased not with the economic direction of their country, but the environmental direction.Why? ...

To Return, or not to Return? 2007-11-23 19:42:00 Nawaz Sharif has announced that he will return to Pakistan on Sunday, begging the question: will General Musharraf allow him to stay?Last time Sharif attempted to return, he was promptly shipped back out. Then, Musharraf had not declared martial law, was on good terms with Benazir Bhutto, and was not politically isolated.Does that make Musharraf more likely to kick out Sharif once again? On one hand, Musharraf seems increasingly desperate to hold onto power. On the other hand, the General needs to placate the West in order to continue receiving our support. What will Musharraf do?Decisions, decisions… ...

Happy Thanksgiving 2007-11-22 20:28:00 Hope you enjoy this crummy happy holiday post. ...

Russian Opposition Presidential Candidate Shot 2007-11-21 19:56:00 Russia gets worse by the day. Coming out today: Russian opposition candidate shot.Farid Babayev, who will lead the regional list for the liberal anti-Kremlin Yabloko party was in a serious condition in hospital, RIA novosti news agency reported after an unidentified gunman fired on him in the regional capital Makhachkala.This comes as Putin continues his maneuverings that will essentially allow him to stay in power indefinitely. He has dissolved parliament recently, and appointed a close ally prime minister. He has promised to take part in parliamentary elections, with victory assured. He will be elected prime minister. From there, Putin will either sap powers from the presidency making the prime minister’s office the most important one (which has no term limits, by the way), or will manipulate the lame-duck president from the shadows. ...

Kosovo Independence Worries E.U. Leaders and Sets European Precedent 2007-11-20 19:25:00 Yesterday I wrote that “Kosovo declaring independence would be bad, because it would anger Russia, who the U.S. needs to help sanction Iran at the Security Council.”One thing I didn’t mention at all throughout the article is another reason some are concerned about Kosovo declaring independence. Countries of the E.U. are worried that, should Kosovo break away, it will set a precedent for break away regions in their own countries. Specifically:• Catalonia (Spain)• Basque (Spain)• Ossetia (Georgia)• Abkhazia (Georgia)• Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan)• Transnistria (Moldova)Not mentioned on this list, but making many more headlines than these regions, is Kurdistan. Though the countries which Kurdistan has ‘citizens’ in are not part of the European Union, the Kurds will be affected just as strongly by a declaration of independence. ...

Russian Manipulation in Kosovo and Iran 2007-11-19 19:40:00 Kosovo partial official results confirm Thaci win This is very interesting. Hashim Thaci, besides being the newly elected prime minister of Kosovo, is the president of the political party PDK, Democratic Party of Kosovo. But what is even more interesting is that he headed an ethnic-Albanian guerilla group, the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought for independence from Yugoslavia and Serbia in 1990’s. In other words, he is very much an Albanian nationalist. Kosovo has said it will declare formal independence in December if a deal cannot be reached.So Kosovo might gain independence. What’s the big deal? The region of Kosovo exists in Serbia, which Russia supports extensively. Russia is very much pro-Serbian, and has made its position very clear to both the E.U. and U.S. The U.S. Russia has given special attention to because the U.S. has a large amount of influence over Albanians. Once again, so the Russians care. What’s the big deal? Well, it’s kind of a big deal that the Russia ...

Quote of the Day 2007-11-19 14:30:00 “There seems to be a pattern here. It takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush.”-Hillary Clinton ...

[POLL] Who Won the Nevada Democratic Debate? 2007-11-18 16:02:00 The consensus seems to be Edwards flopped, Obama didn't attack enough, and by default, Hillary won.Who won the Nevada Democratic Debate?free polls ...

Quote of the Day 2007-11-17 13:17:00 I speak, therefore I am annoyed.-Me ...

Nevada Debate: Expect Hillary to be Attacked 2007-11-15 16:24:00 Expect Hillary to be attacked. Over and over again. Obama and Edwards will be gunning to kill at tonight’s debate.Hillary has a solid 20+ lead, and those numbers are not going anywhere. After not so successfully attacking Clinton at the last debate, they will be trying even harder to expose her flaws.Especially since illegal immigration is a huge issue in Nevada, Clinton will be attacked on her position on driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. This will be the primary source of ammo for Clinton’s opponents.Most likely, Clinton will also be assaulted for planting questions at a campaign stop.I think it will be interesting to see if Hillary will respond with the whole boys-are-attacking-me thing. ...

We Really Need to Fix This... 2007-11-13 18:30:00 Seeing that Veteran's Day was this weekend, I'll leave this post at this:Later Army test finds more mental health issuesU.S. soldiers are significantly more likely to report mental health problems six months after returning home from combat than on initial assessments, Army researchers said on Tuesday.Soldiers reported greater concern about interpersonal conflicts, post-traumatic stress, depression and alcohol problems in the second mental health screening, the researchers said.They also found that one in five active-duty soldiers and almost half of reserve soldiers were receiving or in need of mental health services after combat. ...