A Simple Prayer

Moloch Most Slimy,
Please keep Professor Dangerous from ever being elected or promoted to
any position that would keep him from commenting on politics.

This is darling (bless his heart), but...

In that but lies the rub.

C

Craaack

And another one out of the park.
Pepe Escobar has been en fuego* lately.

C

*Pardon my lame ass attempt.

Silk Knot

Pepe Escobar has a deep piece up at TomDispatch.

A taste:

Westerners seem to forget that the Middle Kingdom and Persia have been doing business for almost two millennia. (Does “Silk Road” ring a bell?)

It's very linky and analysis dense.

C

Happy New Year

And I will leave you with words from Wolcott

As you reach the later innings of allotted time, “keeping up” seems ever more quixotic and a case of diminishing returns...

Drum Roll, Please

The Guardian has some great physicist quotes up about the Higgs Boson.

So I'd like several Higgs particles, Higgsinos, some ghostly stuff, and a pony.

Did I mention that they are aware of all internet traditions?

C

Balls

Here is what this page had as a banner on 21 Nov., 2011

http://english.ucdavis.edu/

The faculty of the UC Davis English Department supports the Board of the Davis Faculty Association in calling for Chancellor Katehi’s immediate resignation and for “a policy that will end the practice of forcibly removing non-violent student, faculty, staff, and community protesters by police on the UC Davis campus.” Further, given the demonstrable threat posed by the University of California Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to the safety of students, faculty, staff, and community members on our campus and others in the UC system, we propose that such a policy include the disbanding of the UCPD and the institution of an ordinance against the presence of police forces on the UC Davis campus, unless their presence is specifically requested by a member of the campus community. This will initiate a genuinely collective effort to determine how best to ensure the health and safety of the campus community at UC Davis.

Update in 30 days

Subbed out

Douche-hat is Jimbo's metier, but his points refer to deeper issues.
A taste:

Sure, why not? Might we just take a moment to mention, here, that this is more-or-less what the FBI was up to forty years ago, and most of our efforts since then have gone into creating some Half-Plausibly Deniable Universe in which Dirty Hippies were 50% of the problem back then, and 100% of the Losers. We're still being policed by Bull Connor; its just that today he's got a better PR department.