Full Bore to the Vanishing Point
http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/10/posting-a-little-late-this-morning.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+clusterfucknation+%28Clusterfuck+Nation%29
This was the week when the US housing fiasco got even more extra-special interesting as the Bank of America suspended mortgage foreclosures in twenty-three states. The real estate industry in America just got a whole lot more desperate on Friday.
Tools of the mind
A Canadian researcher is studying a novel American preschool curriculum to see how it might help Canadian children get ahead
Exercising self-control keeps children from taking dangerous risks, embarrassing themselves or hurting other people’s feelings. And it allows them to pay attention and stay on task. Working memory is required to retrieve information and relate it to the present, and cognitive flexibility enables children to solve problems and think outside the box.
US 'should delete its logos' on aid to Pakistan
A group of 11 prominent charities is preparing a letter calling on the US to remove logos on American-funded assistance in Pakistan.
The letter, signed by charities including Save the Children, Oxfam, and World Vision says that such "branding" of aid jeopardises their neutrality.They say that this is especially dangerous in a country with numerous anti-American militants.
International charities have for several years refrained from using their own logos in Pakistan because of the security risk.
However the US government, through USAID, requires non-governmental organisations that receive funding to "brand" aid with the agency's handshake logo and the words "from the American people" in local languages.
Aid agencies say that the safety of partners and beneficiaries is at stake
USAID have yet to comment on the proposed letter, but a blog written by the organisation's Mark Ward says that it is "highly sensitive to the risks of branding in environments where one's association with foreigners can turn a humanitarian worker into a target".Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan Fueling the Taliban, Senate Report Concludes
http://harpers.org/archive/2010/10/hbc-90007702
By Scott Horton
“Our reliance on private security contractors in Afghanistan has too often empowered local warlords and powerbrokers who operate outside the Afghan government’s control and act against coalition interests,” said Committee Chair Carl Levin (D., Mich.), echoing the report’s major conclusions. “This situation threatens the security of our troops and puts the success of our mission at risk.” Indeed, it reveals what those on the ground have long observed: private security contractors often work at cross purposes with U.S. counterinsurgency policy.
MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/733203--mps-vote-public-inquiry-into-afghan-detainees-tories-ignore
The Harper government, citing national security concerns, has been fiercely resisting attempts to fully probe the sensitive issue of whether Canada met all its international legal obligations in the handover of Afghan prisoners captured by Canadian troops.
Diplomat Richard Colvin sparked the storm when he testified that he repeatedly sounded the alarm in 2006 that abuse of prisoners was endemic in Afghan prisons, and that Canada wasn't able to monitor what happened to detainees after they were handed over.
"If Stephen Harper simply ignores the will of Parliament, expressed by a majority of elected members, to have a public inquiry, I think he's showing contempt for Parliament and contempt for the Canadian people who elected that majority to the House – and that he prefers instead to cover up the truth," said NDP Leader Jack Layton.
Afghanistan going "from worse to worse"
http://www.straightgoods.ca/2010/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=871&Cookies=yes
A year after her last visit to Canada, the outspoken former member of Afghanistan's parliament risks her life every day by speaking out against the three threats to her people: warlords, the Taliban and outside occupiers.
Afghan MP Malalai Joya on NATO In Afghanistan
Haley Barbour Will Decide the Fate of the Scott Sisters
the Scott sisters’ supporters have made their case a difficult one for the governor to simply ignore, which is how he deals with most clemency requests.
Torturehttp://www.stumbleupon.com/discover/torture
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