It's Beethoven's 236th birthday today. YouTube (and Andrew Sullivan's blog) has a great tribute someone uploaded.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Not So Quiet on the Western Front
Prensa Latina has news about additional spraying on the Columbia/Ecuador border. Quito authorities, who say anti-drug herbicides have destroyed legitimate Ecuadoran agriculture and created birth defects in the population, issued a public rebuke.
The Military We Need
Mikey Weinstein is a former Air Force JAG officer, and the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It's not all that surprising that the wave of Evangelical influence in the armed services, well, really pisses him off.
"When you have the leadership believing that to be a good soldier, good Marine, good airman or sailor you have to be not just a Christian but the right type of Christian, we're no better than al-Qaida."Salon has a wonderfully frank interview with him on the situation in our military. The situation is alarming, but it's encouraging enough to know that there are folks like him in the service. As a civilian, I can only hope that our armed forces have more of his kind - smart, tough, and dedicated to defending the Constitution against ALL threats, foreign and domestic.
Flowers vs. Drugs
Ecuador's flower trade pact with the US, which seems originally conceived to coax Quito into a longer-term free trade pact, is set to expire. Although a six-month extension has been granted by Congress this month, a longer-term solution is crucial to the economic wellbeing of Ecuador's northern agricultural region.
While President-elect Correa has dismissed the possibility of a free trade pact, he has stated that the anti-drug deal should last "as long as the anti-drug fight lasts." The flower trade brings in $350 million per annum to the country. Since the US passed the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act in 1991, 70 percent of Ecuador's flowers have been sold in the States.
In terms of the drug trade, flowers are one of the few crops that present small farmers with a viable alternative to coca. While the per-pound benefit is nothing close to that of the narcotic, flowers are a semi-luxury crop with a high profit margin. Their introduction as a cash crop has created jobs in Ecuador's northern Cayambe Valley, and in theory prevented or minimized coca production in the region.
My best guess is that the incoming Congress will extend the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act for a longer term. It was created by a Democrat-controlled government and extended in 2001 under Republican watch. Since free trade (beyond some presidential lip service) has been on nobody's agenda of late, it's unlikely that an ultimatum will happen with the proposed FTAA.
Moreover, this is an effective way of creating wealth in an area that may otherwise be swayed toward coca production. This type of action, as opposed to the armed intervention that occurs in neighboring Columbia, seems best suited to areas on the proverbial drug fence. Real solutions, as opposed to violence and crop spraying, should always win the day.
While President-elect Correa has dismissed the possibility of a free trade pact, he has stated that the anti-drug deal should last "as long as the anti-drug fight lasts." The flower trade brings in $350 million per annum to the country. Since the US passed the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act in 1991, 70 percent of Ecuador's flowers have been sold in the States.
In terms of the drug trade, flowers are one of the few crops that present small farmers with a viable alternative to coca. While the per-pound benefit is nothing close to that of the narcotic, flowers are a semi-luxury crop with a high profit margin. Their introduction as a cash crop has created jobs in Ecuador's northern Cayambe Valley, and in theory prevented or minimized coca production in the region.
My best guess is that the incoming Congress will extend the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act for a longer term. It was created by a Democrat-controlled government and extended in 2001 under Republican watch. Since free trade (beyond some presidential lip service) has been on nobody's agenda of late, it's unlikely that an ultimatum will happen with the proposed FTAA.
Moreover, this is an effective way of creating wealth in an area that may otherwise be swayed toward coca production. This type of action, as opposed to the armed intervention that occurs in neighboring Columbia, seems best suited to areas on the proverbial drug fence. Real solutions, as opposed to violence and crop spraying, should always win the day.
Monday, December 04, 2006
The Tale of the Christmas Goat
Every year around Christmastime, the Swedish town of Gavle erects a massive straw goat in the middle of the town square. Since 1966, out of a sense of timeless tradition and true winter merriment, some of those clever Gavle townspeople have burned the goat to cinders.
In the spirit of holiday fun, the town government has engaged these mischievous souls in a game of cat-and-mouse that has been running for years. Hiring guards, emplying fireproofing methods, setting up security cameras... and every year, the goat is toast.
This year, the city claims things will go differently. They claim to have the fireproofing solution. Will the vandals respond in kind? Who knows? At any rate, we can follow all the action at the Gavle Bocken Kamera!
In the spirit of holiday fun, the town government has engaged these mischievous souls in a game of cat-and-mouse that has been running for years. Hiring guards, emplying fireproofing methods, setting up security cameras... and every year, the goat is toast.
This year, the city claims things will go differently. They claim to have the fireproofing solution. Will the vandals respond in kind? Who knows? At any rate, we can follow all the action at the Gavle Bocken Kamera!
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