The Flashlight, January 12-18, 2008
THE FLASHLIGHT, January 12-18, 2008
No Peace without Justice, no Justice, without the Facts
US News: The Economy
NYTimes 1-18. Stocks fell on Thursday by 3.7% for the day and 9.2% since the beginning of the year. The housing debacle is worse now and pulling down the whole economy. President Bush promised a stimulus package of one-time tax rebates of about $800 for low and middle income families who are likely to spend them rather than save them.
Paul Krugman said that the must fundamental cause of the crisis was the failure of the government to update banking regulations. He blamed Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman. He predicted that the next year or two might be very unpleasant.
NY Times 1-14. Worries about the economy are now at the top of American voter concerns.
2008 Primaries
PBS, W Post 1-15. Mitt Romney won the Michigan primary with a plurality of 39%. McCain was second with 31%.
Minneapolis Bridge Disaster
Washington Post 1-18. A design flaw caused the collapse of the forty-year-old bridge in Minneapolis last summer, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The gusset plates, which hold together the diagonal beams of the bridge frame, were not thick enough. There was no redundant element in the structure to replace the failed gusset plates. The critical moment probably came when heavy reconstruction vehicles and materials were joined by rush hour traffic pressing on the structure. The structural fault could not have been detected by routine inspections.
Iraq
NYT 1-13. After months of American pressure, the Iraq Government announced that former Baathist officials might apply for government jobs.
Az-Zaman, Baghdad. 1-10. This Iraqi journal disputed the claim that security is still improving in Baghdad. Three Christian churches, in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk, were bombed almost simultaneously. Also attacked have been US supported Arab Sunni militias, government targets, and the US Marines. The journal denounced the lower casualty figures of the Iraqi Government as lies.
NYT 1-17 Editorial. The Iraqi Government announced that it will not extend the UN mandate for US presence in Iraq beyond the end of 2008. The Bush Administration is now negotiating with the Government to extend the American presence possibly up to 2018. The Times called for Congress to intervene so that the hands of the next president will not be tied.
Israel/Palestine
CNN 1-10. President Bush stated that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in the 1967 War must cease by the end of this year. He also said that the Palestinian Authority must put an end to “terrorist infrastructures.”
Newsweek 1-21. Bush said that a Palestinian state is “long over-due.”
Haaretz (Israel) 1-18. The UK Zionist Federation is campaigning to improve negative British public opinion and the British media with regard to Israel. The Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, made a speech on Wednesday at the School for Oriental and African Studies in London, a “bastion of anti-Israel criticism.” He was greeted by kaffiyeh-wearing protestors. Attenders had to pass a meticulous security check before entering the auditorium. No limit was placed on the harshness of the questions directed to the Ambassador. The Ambassador argued that Israel is like David fighting Goliath.
Science
W Post 1-17. A California company announced that it had cloned human stem cells and converted them to human embryos. This was a big step forward to replacing tissues in critical organs, thereby treating spinal injuries, Alzheimer’s disease, et al.
Book Review
David W. Anthony. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. Princeton University Press, 2007. As a result of meticulous research of archaeological findings, linguistics, horses’ teeth, et al. The author has concluded that the original home of the Indo-Europeans, ancestors of peoples from India to the western edges of Europe, and from the Arctic to the southern edges of Europe and Iran, was the Pontic-Caspian steppe in the southeastern part of the Ukraine. He says that Proto-Indo-European, a reconstructed dead language, was spoken here from c. 4500 to 2500 BC (BCE, or before the common era).
In this original homeland the Indo-Europeans tamed horses enough to ride and drive them, making possible the herding of large numbers of cattle, sheep, and other horses. It also made possible the raiding of agricultural settlements and the abodes of rival tribes. The Indo-Europeans used wagons pulled by cattle to transport their tents, food, and water, and thus penetrate deeply into the grasslands of the steppe. They also invented the chariot toward the end of the third millennium BCE. (They borrowed the wheel from the Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia, who invented it.) Armies on horseback did not appear until the time of the Assyrians, about the eighth or seventh centuries BCE.
The importance of this book is that it serves to refute that long established theory of Colin Renfrew, who argued that Anatolia (now Turkey) was the original home of the Indo-Europeans. The new findings of David W. Anthony tend to support the long held counter-theory of J. Mallory and Marija Gimbutas.
Indo-European culture was patriarchal and patrilocal. Its religion was mainly focused on male sky gods. The peoples of Europe preceding the Indo-Europeans mainly worshipped goddesses. The Indo-Europeans conquered them, using their horse-based forces. To this day, all the upper classes of Europe and the Near East have ridden on horseback.
No Peace without Justice, no Justice, without the Facts
US News: The Economy
NYTimes 1-18. Stocks fell on Thursday by 3.7% for the day and 9.2% since the beginning of the year. The housing debacle is worse now and pulling down the whole economy. President Bush promised a stimulus package of one-time tax rebates of about $800 for low and middle income families who are likely to spend them rather than save them.
Paul Krugman said that the must fundamental cause of the crisis was the failure of the government to update banking regulations. He blamed Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman. He predicted that the next year or two might be very unpleasant.
NY Times 1-14. Worries about the economy are now at the top of American voter concerns.
2008 Primaries
PBS, W Post 1-15. Mitt Romney won the Michigan primary with a plurality of 39%. McCain was second with 31%.
Minneapolis Bridge Disaster
Washington Post 1-18. A design flaw caused the collapse of the forty-year-old bridge in Minneapolis last summer, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The gusset plates, which hold together the diagonal beams of the bridge frame, were not thick enough. There was no redundant element in the structure to replace the failed gusset plates. The critical moment probably came when heavy reconstruction vehicles and materials were joined by rush hour traffic pressing on the structure. The structural fault could not have been detected by routine inspections.
Iraq
NYT 1-13. After months of American pressure, the Iraq Government announced that former Baathist officials might apply for government jobs.
Az-Zaman, Baghdad. 1-10. This Iraqi journal disputed the claim that security is still improving in Baghdad. Three Christian churches, in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk, were bombed almost simultaneously. Also attacked have been US supported Arab Sunni militias, government targets, and the US Marines. The journal denounced the lower casualty figures of the Iraqi Government as lies.
NYT 1-17 Editorial. The Iraqi Government announced that it will not extend the UN mandate for US presence in Iraq beyond the end of 2008. The Bush Administration is now negotiating with the Government to extend the American presence possibly up to 2018. The Times called for Congress to intervene so that the hands of the next president will not be tied.
Israel/Palestine
CNN 1-10. President Bush stated that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in the 1967 War must cease by the end of this year. He also said that the Palestinian Authority must put an end to “terrorist infrastructures.”
Newsweek 1-21. Bush said that a Palestinian state is “long over-due.”
Haaretz (Israel) 1-18. The UK Zionist Federation is campaigning to improve negative British public opinion and the British media with regard to Israel. The Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, made a speech on Wednesday at the School for Oriental and African Studies in London, a “bastion of anti-Israel criticism.” He was greeted by kaffiyeh-wearing protestors. Attenders had to pass a meticulous security check before entering the auditorium. No limit was placed on the harshness of the questions directed to the Ambassador. The Ambassador argued that Israel is like David fighting Goliath.
Science
W Post 1-17. A California company announced that it had cloned human stem cells and converted them to human embryos. This was a big step forward to replacing tissues in critical organs, thereby treating spinal injuries, Alzheimer’s disease, et al.
Book Review
David W. Anthony. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. Princeton University Press, 2007. As a result of meticulous research of archaeological findings, linguistics, horses’ teeth, et al. The author has concluded that the original home of the Indo-Europeans, ancestors of peoples from India to the western edges of Europe, and from the Arctic to the southern edges of Europe and Iran, was the Pontic-Caspian steppe in the southeastern part of the Ukraine. He says that Proto-Indo-European, a reconstructed dead language, was spoken here from c. 4500 to 2500 BC (BCE, or before the common era).
In this original homeland the Indo-Europeans tamed horses enough to ride and drive them, making possible the herding of large numbers of cattle, sheep, and other horses. It also made possible the raiding of agricultural settlements and the abodes of rival tribes. The Indo-Europeans used wagons pulled by cattle to transport their tents, food, and water, and thus penetrate deeply into the grasslands of the steppe. They also invented the chariot toward the end of the third millennium BCE. (They borrowed the wheel from the Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia, who invented it.) Armies on horseback did not appear until the time of the Assyrians, about the eighth or seventh centuries BCE.
The importance of this book is that it serves to refute that long established theory of Colin Renfrew, who argued that Anatolia (now Turkey) was the original home of the Indo-Europeans. The new findings of David W. Anthony tend to support the long held counter-theory of J. Mallory and Marija Gimbutas.
Indo-European culture was patriarchal and patrilocal. Its religion was mainly focused on male sky gods. The peoples of Europe preceding the Indo-Europeans mainly worshipped goddesses. The Indo-Europeans conquered them, using their horse-based forces. To this day, all the upper classes of Europe and the Near East have ridden on horseback.
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