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Is Governor Schweitzer’s Future “Limitless”?

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Fighting With Tools - Apr. 03 (Opinion) - “Cannabis technology” is all the rage, but Montana’s Governor is being asked to turn back the clock on drug law reform — patients and activists across the country wait on pins and needles for a decision from this self-styled rancher-turned-politician.

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America, the Cold War, and the Taliban

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Namit Arora - Mar. 30 (Opinion) - Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Cold War was raging hot in many parts of the world. The US funded proxy wars all over the globe, including (but not limited to) Laos, Cambodia, Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Iran, Nicaragua, Granada, Libya, Cuba, and perhaps the most significant of all: Afghanistan. The CIA euphemistically called these “low-intensity conflicts” but they were, in effect and tactic, no different from state-sponsored terrorism. The meteoric rise of Colombian drug cartels coincided with US Cold War operations in Central America, especially Nicaragua. Cocaine trafficking (most destined for the US) soon brought dividends to the Contras and made Pablo Escobar one of the richest men in the world.

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Why America Needs to Bring Its Rich to Heel

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - Mar. 16 (Opinion) - Sociology trumps mythology. We have one of the lowest rates of inter-generational social mobility of any industrial country. Income and wealth have become more not less concentrated in the hands of the American rich – all this at a time when some like the Obamas have achieved a good measure of their dreams in ways that are not only undeniable but laudable.

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The President-Elect and India

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

3 Quarks Daily - By Martha Nussbaum - Nov. 18 (Opinion) - the letter speaks of future cooperation that will "tap the creativity and dynamism of our entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists," particularly in the area of alternative energy sources, but never mentions a future partnership in the effort to eradicate poverty and illiteracy. This silence, unlike the first, cannot be explained by politeness, since Singh has devoted a great deal of attention to issues of rural poverty, and it is plausible to think that he could have gotten a lot further had he had more help from abroad.

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Still Not Wise

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

3 Quarks Daily - By Beth Ann Bovino - Nov. 10 (Opinion) - Most Americans continue to rely on the government to provide for their retirement. But with everyone unsure about future Medicare and Social Security benefits, including our politicians, Americans are doing little to increase their wealth before retirement. More retirees may seek more post-retirement work to cushion the blow, a so-called bridge job in early retirement. Unfortunately, health and labor market conditions often prevent even those who intend to work from doing so. In addition, in a weakening economy, bridge jobs could be harder to find.

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Protein Computer Games: Me Fold Pretty One Day: Scientific American

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - Oct. 14 (Not sure) -

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Barack is Black: That's a relief!

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Ram Manikkalingam - Jul. 14 (Opinion) - Obama ran a successful post-racial campaign in a US that is not post-racial. He ran that for three reasons. The first is a pragmatic political one. As a Black candidate in what is still a White majority America, he cannot win as the Black candidate. The second is a moral one - ultimately for the US to have racial justice they also need to get beyond race -- both as a basis for discrimination and as a basis for redress -- to a world where race matters less. And finally he was able to run a post-racial campaign for personal reasons -- his mother is White American and his father is a Black Kenyan . But Obama's success at running a post-racial campaign in what is perceived as a racial US has made it easier for his opponents to portray him as foreign.

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Carrots for the General

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Edward B. Rackley - Jun. 23 (Opinion) - In the case of Burma under General Than Shwe and his military junta, no carrots have been tried, to my knowledge. Sticks in many shapes and sizes have been brandished and swung, to little effect. Economic sanctions, asset freezes, arms embargos and travel bans are currently in effect by the US and EU. I posed the question to a Burmese dissident last week. He reflected a moment, then smiled and said, 'A missile launch pad in Thailand, that's all we need'. No sticks, no carrots, just elimination: everyman's fantasy. Were regime change so easy!

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Those Chickens: The Economic Crisis and America's Poor and Struggling

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - May. 06 (Opinion) - Banks made greater profits on sub-prime loans because they could charge working class and near-power households more for their mortgages. They sold them in packages at higher prices to customers eager for extra profits. Everybody made out - except those purchasing the mortgages. Disaster was just around the corner.

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The Mufti and the General

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Ram Manikkalingam - Apr. 21 (Opinion) - I was impressed with the Mufti. He had summarized a quite complex debate into a very succinct articulation of the tension between Islam and the West. But there was still one question nagging me about his answer. How different is violent extremism from extremism without violence. Don't the two go hand in hand? Isn't extremism the first step to violent extremism? And to fight violent extremism, shouldn't one also fight extremism. The Mufti's toleration of Muslim extremism, even when he disagreed with it, sounded misplaced to me, given his resistance to violent extremism.

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The Gift Horse: Philanthropy and the Public Interest

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - Apr. 07 (Opinion) - A dollar passed to a homeless person, a dollar to kids selling candy for their band, or another to a Salvation Army soldier on a street corner at Christmas time - these little gifts signify our compassion. Sure, sometimes we think "there but for the grace of God," or treat the gift as fulfilling an obligation to help our social inferiors. Compassion however tenuous is the basis for our actions.

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Senator Clinton and the ABCs (Anybody but Clinton)

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - Feb. 11 (Opinion) - Obama is the "Hail Mary" pass of American politics because our political system has no game plan, no plays to move the country toward mending its ways and sorting out how to become a decent society of equal opportunity and a good neighbor abroad. Its elite of which the Clinton are proud members has little intention of pulling American ambitions and power back from their world struggle for resources and military dominance. Americans, one senses, are finally tired of fighting for Standard Oil (we call it Exxon now) and fighting daily struggles for affordable medical care and education for their kids. They want a Social Security retirement they can count on, and would I think be interested in stopping the spending of its blood and treasure for imperialism and repression abroad.

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The Peace Process Delusion

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

3 Quarks Daily - By Saifedean Ammous - Dec. 31 (Opinion) - A serious pandemic of delusion is gripping the world. Ground Zero for the spread of this scourge was in Annapolis, Maryland in late November. Within hours, millions of otherwise intelligent people started exhibiting the symptoms of this horrible affliction: uncontrollable optimism, abrupt failure of reasoning, oblivious disregard of reality, and a deeply religious faith in a fictional 'Peace Process' that will be the New Messiah that will deliver the world from all evil.

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Why Governments should do nothing about climate change (except one thing)

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:53:06 -0800

3 Quarks Daily - By Saifedean Ammous - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - All government efforts at subsidizing research, mandating blending-specifications or installing emissions standards are probably futile but more likely counter-productive. Further, even if such measures could potentially prove positive, politically, they are likely to distract from the need to establish a proper market/tax system, which is the only way to solve the carbon crisis we face.

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The Price of Wheat in Russia, Or Everyday Inflation and Us

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:46:48 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - Sep. 24 (Opinion) - We've got it bad, and that ain't good. But as usual, poor people here and abroad have it worse. Poor people in the US spend more of their income on food. Though the majority receives food stamps, large increases in food costs hit them harder and can run ahead of new food stamp funding increases. Though the average American spends just 3.6% of after tax income on gas, people in the lowest income bracket in 2005 spent 9% of their after-tax income on gas. The more one spends on life's basic necessities - those items not included in the core inflation index - the more vulnerable one is to inflation as a whole.

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The Prince of Poets: Arab Poetry's Answer to American Idol

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:48:14 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Saifedean Ammous - Sep. 10 (Opinion) - Imagine an American TV network deciding to take the American Idol format and apply it to poetry; lining up poets to read their poems in front of temperamental judges while the nation gets out its mobile phones to vote for its favorite poet. One can be sure the show would not survive the first commercial break before the chastened executives pull the plug on it and replace it with yet another series on the Life and Times of Nicole Ritchie. Yet, that was exactly the formula for the latest TV sensation to take Arab countries by storm.

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While the Watchman Sleeps: Fraud in Today's America

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:43:27 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - Aug. 27 (Opinion) - the watchman is asleep, drugged and nearly done in by 31 years of neoliberal rule. That's right Clintonites and those who still feel sorry for Jimmy Carter. Oh, and you irreconcilable Nixon-haters (yes, me still, I admit), recall that he helped start Medicaid, the last Great Society program of the last century. After Nixon then, and for 31 years, the foxes have run the federal chicken coup, and they have cleaned out the hens that once laid the golden eggs of protection and regulation. The malicious and ideological government haters, the industry lobbyists running departments that regulate their industries, and flimflammers that pretend that self-regulation is really regulation, have made sure that even if the federal government wanted, it could not protect us from the fraud and the theft of our well being now in full swing.

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Biofuels: All You Need to Know for a Bar Discussion

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:52:11 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - Aug. 13 (Opinion) - There is an enormous amount of news reports, analysis, discussion and media attention given to biofuels. One is first struck by the incredible variety of opinions expressed on the matter; from over the top excitement hailing biofuels as the answer to all of the world's environmental, economic, social and political problems, to severe criticism that views biofuels as an ultimate evil that will have a profoundly negative impact on forestation, food supply, poor-country economics and just about everything else.

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Pitching Prescriptions and Patient Empowerment

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:44:58 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - Jul. 30 (Opinion) - The pharmaceutical industry in the United States and worldwide is a big business. That's why its critics (and now some Wall Street analysts too) call it "Big Pharma." In the United States last year, the pharmaceutical industry grossed $275 billion. To put this figure into perspective, consider that the American people spent more on pharmaceutical drugs than they did on new cars last year. Product "promotion" is key. No doubt you have noticed pharmaceutical representatives in your doctor's waiting rooms. Young, clean-cut, always smiling, they are the detailers hoping to get a word in with the doctor before she sees you. Blandishments include those free samples, "starter kits," of drugs your doctor passes on to you. Big Pharma spent $6.7 billion in 2006 on detailing, and another half a billion dollars a year advertising in professional journals. They spent $4.8 billion on consumer advertising. In all, Big Pharma spent $12 billion to push its products.

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The other Lonestar state

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 09:56:38 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Edward B. Rackley - Jul. 23 (Opinion) - After a couple of rain-soaked days and nights in Monrovia, Liberia's capital and on record as one of the world's wettest cities, it was time to venture out for a quick run. There is no green space in Monrovia, only piles of human waste and decades of accumulated debris from buildings rocked by fourteen years of civil conflict. The decline is accelerated by the pounding rainy seasons and years of neglect. Utterly evaporated is the Monrovia described in Graham Greene's Journey without Maps: "a life so gay, with dancing and the cafés on the beach." From my lodgings in a dilapidated convent near the beach, I thought I might head in that direction. I've always associated coastlines with escape and was needing one now.

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Preventing More Lal Masjids

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:32:17 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Pervez Hoodbhoy - Jul. 16 (Opinion) - For a state that has not shied from using even artillery and airpower on its citizens, the softness on the mullahs was astonishing. Even as the writ of the state was being openly defied, the chief negotiator appointed by Musharraf, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, described the burqa brigade militants as "our daughters" with whom negotiations would continue and against whom "no operation could be contemplated". But this still does not prove that the fanatics were deliberately set up, or that radicalism and extremism is a fringe phenomenon. The Lal Masjid mullahs, even as they directed kidnappings and vigilante squads, continued to lead thousands during Friday prayers. Uncounted thousands of other radically charged mullahs daily berate captive audiences about immoralities in society and dangle promises of heaven for the pious.

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Why the Right of Return Matters to Palestinians

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:34:09 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - Jul. 16 (Opinion) - Whenever peace is discussed, the majority of Israelis and westerners (and many Arabs) automatically assume that in order for there to be peace, the Palestinians need to give up their right of return. Israel has to remain a Jewish state, they argue, and giving Palestinians a right to return would mean no more Jewish majority, which would bring about a system of governance not based on religious exclusivity. It always amuses me when people make this argument with a straight face. Instead of ethnic cleansing and expulsion--an unquestionable evil--being used as an argument against a religiously exclusive racist state, the presence of the religiously exclusive racist state is used as an excuse for the propagation of ethnic cleansing and expulsion.

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Alien Life May Be "Weirder" Than Scientists Think

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 08:14:27 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - Jul. 08 (Opinion) - Instead of thriving on water, extraterrestrial organisms might live in a sea of liquid methane. Or instead of getting energy from the sun, they might thrive on hydrochloric acid. These possibilities could revolutionize future space missions in search of life elsewhere in the solar system, says the report, issued today by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

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The New Plessy versus Ferguson and White Privilege

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:17:16 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Michael Blim - Jul. 02 (Opinion) - There is something odious about privilege. In this case, white privilege. On June 28, the Supreme Court ruled in Parents Involved in Community Schools versus Seattle School District No.1 that using race as the sole criterion for assigning children to one elementary school or another violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Chief Justice Roberts writing for the plurality of the Court set down their ruling is stark terms:

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Did Bernard Kouchner really endorse the Iraq War?

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 08:57:36 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Alan Koenig - Jun. 25 (Opinion) - Kouchner had long decried the tyrannical horrors of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and he often berated the international community for not coming together to remove the dictator, but he repeatedly opposed the American invasion. This shouldn't be a terribly complicated position, and Kouchner first put it in print in early February of 2003 when he coauthored a "manifesto" entitled Neither War Nor Saddam in which he opined that the "solution to Saddam will take time," that "it can not proceed at the same time as military pressure," and the United Nations should call together a conference to bring more international pressure on Saddam.

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