More on US-made cluster bombs....

Oh yes. Terrorists hate America because it's spreading freedom.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — The State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, two officials said.

The investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties.

[snip]

Several current and former officials said that they doubted the investigation would lead to sanctions against Israel but that the decision to proceed with it might be intended to help the Bush administration ease criticism from Arab governments and commentators over its support of Israel’s military operations. The investigation has not been publicly announced; the State Department confirmed it in response to questions.

[snip]

The Lebanese government has reported that the conflict killed 1,183 people and wounded 4,054, most of them civilians. The United Nations reported this week that the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon from cluster munitions, land mines and unexploded bombs stood at 30 injured and eight killed.

Dozen of Israelis were killed and hundreds wounded in attacks by Hezbollah rockets, some of which were loaded with ball bearings to maximize their lethality.

Officials say it is unlikely that Israel will be found to have violated a separate agreement, the Arms Export Control Act, which requires foreign governments that receive American weapons to use them for legitimate self-defense. Proving that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah did not constitute self-defense would be difficult, especially in view of President Bush’s publicly announced support for Israel’s action after Hezbollah fighters attacked across the border, the officials said.

[emphasis all mine]

Notice, the famed NYT doesn't give the breakdown of civilians vs soldiers for casualties.

Could that be because, according to the AP, the Israeli toll as of August 20th was 39 civilians vs 118 soldiers killed?

Whereas, 743 Lebanese civilians, 34 soldiers and 68 Hezbollah militants (total 854) had been officially killed by August 20th.

In other words, the "terrorists" seemed better at avoiding civilian casualties than the US-supplied and supported "good guys."

Complete story here.

Oaxaca rocks…!

I just stumbled across this story. I’ve heard nothing about it in recent weeks even though the city occupation has been going on since May! Talk about a de-facto news blackout. I guess for the MSM, nothing in Mexico's worth reporting unless it involves drugs, illegal immigrants or the American economy.

…Some 40,000 teachers, as well as leftists, student groups and anarchists have set up hundreds of roadblocks, seized the city's central plaza and covered businesses, homes and historic buildings with graffiti. They refuse to give up until the governor resigns.

The group leading the protests said Thursday it would accept an offer from President Vicente Fox's government to negotiate an end to the conflict, but only if state officials were not included.

Oaxaca city, the capital of a state of the same name, is ordinarily one of Mexico's premier tourist destinations. But the U.S. State Department has said rising political violence might make Oaxaca too risky for Americans to visit.

Protesters have hijacked some city and charter buses and burned others, taken over radio and television stations, blocked government buildings and forced many businesses here to close. Two protesters have been shot to death.

Blaming those deaths on state forces, demonstrators have begun burning piles of tires at night to keep police away and organizing groups of men armed with clubs to patrol the city in an effort to protect their movement.

Radio stations they have seized broadcast unconfirmed reports of new shootings nightly. At any hint of danger, protest leaders ring church bells, calling their supporters from their beds to the streets.

[snip]

Construction worker Ricardo Acevedo, one of about 300 people blocking a major intersection, said many here are also angered by the state's sale of forests outside the city to private companies who have cut down thousands of trees.

``This is a movement of thousands and thousands of people,'' said the 44-year-old. ``We don't have guns, just a lot of heart. But our hearts can hold out for a long time.''

Indeed they can!

I travelled to Oaxaca in the spring of 1973 with three hippy friends. I was a 21-year-old American innocent abroad, long blond hair, voluptuous body, entirely clueless about politics, history, geography, not to mention, my progress through the world. We were strolling in the main plaza when a leftist demonstration appeared, complete with militant chants and banners of Lenin and Marx. Without warning, someone threw a brick or rock, shattering the large plate-glass window of the hotel behind us. In the blink of an eye, the sidewalks emptied of people. I was left standing there, my jaw hanging open, when one of my older friends grabbed me by the arm and yanked me away to the safety of a side street.

Apparently, the Oaxacan revolutionary spirit hasn't dimmed in 33 years. More power to them!! May their dreams of economic and social justice come true.

Complete story here.

Fenno the Kitten

This cute lil squeeky guy reminds me so much of a kitty, Percy, my ex and I had. May his fuzzy little kitty being rest in peace. His markings were very similar to these, only in grays rather than oranges. What a sweetie he was!! And this wee one, too. (HT to Nicole!)

Maybe a computer could do just as well....

Funny, isn’t it? While the MSM has been focussed on the competition emanating from the blogosphere, the real threat has been sneaking up behind them in the form of computer software.

Moreover, considering its regurgitation of celebrity scandals, sensationalist sex crimes, sports and Republican talking points, a computer might do as good a job as many American newspapers.

A new service from Thomson Corp.'s Thomson Financial issues articles generated by computer software, using templates and "a rich thesaurus ... so no two stories are exactly the same," said Andrew Meagher, the company's director of content development.

[snip]

After a company issues its quarterly earnings report, a human types in the raw data, and the computer compares the information with analyst forecasts compiled by Thomson Financial's First Call service. Software then produces a story stating whether earnings exceeded or fell short of expectations.

Software also monitors minute changes in analysts' outlooks on various companies and can generate articles based on company or industry trends, Meagher said.

After stories go out, humans sometimes expand on them with phone calls and additional analyses, Meagher said, adding that no computer can capture nuances reported in press releases and on conference calls. [emphasis mine]

Well, not yet..

Like Stephen Colbert said before the White House Correspondents Association dinner, "But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home."

At the rate it's going, in the near future the White House Press Corps will roll in, record, spell-check, and print.

Complete story here.

What makes humans different…?

There’s an interesting thread at Effect Measure on what separates humans from the natural world. I particularly like this comment by HatTrick:

What separates humans from the rest of the natural world? Well, which species, other than man, is stupid enough to decide that it's best to be lead by the dumbest, most malicious, and weakest example of their kind?

This makes me feel tragically separated from the rest of the natural world.

Indeed....

I’ve always suspected this….

The "fresh air" smell of a lot of air fresheners is really the smell of pollution according to a paper from scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. That's because 1,4 dichlorobenzene (1,4 DCB), found in air fresheners, toilet bowl cleaners, mothballs and various "deodorizing" products, also causes modest decreases in lung function.

I never have liked so-called “air fresheners.” Ditto for “feminine hygiene” products, scented tp, most colognes, all antiperspirants, and many deodorants. If the air smells bad in the house, open a window. For certain odours, light a match, candle or incense. ;)

As for antiperspirants, a person sweats for a reason. The idea of blocking an essential bodily function seems particularly ill-advised. Especially using a product that almost always contains aluminium, a metal suspected by some as a factor in the onset of Alzheimer’s.

Complete post at Effect Measure.

( Photograph: Scott Peterson/Getty)

Case in point….

When the guns went silent in Aitta Shaab, a war-ravaged village close to the Israeli border, three children skipped through the rubble looking for a little fun.

Hurdling over lumps of crushed concrete and dodging spikes of twisted metal, Sukna, Hassan and Merwa, aged 10 to 12, paused before a curious object. Sukna picked it up. The terrifying blast flung her to the ground, thrusting metal shards into her liver. Hassan's abdomen was cut open. Merwa was hit in the leg and arm.

"We thought it was just a little ball," said Hassan with a hoarse whisper in the intensive care ward at Tyre's Jabal Amel hospital. In the next bed Sukna, a ventilator cupped to her mouth and a tangle of tubes from her arms, said even less.
Her mother watched anxiously. "The Israelis wanted to defeat Hizbullah," said Najah Saleh, 40. "But what did these children ever do to them?"

[snip]

Israel turned to cluster bombs in the last week of the war, apparently frustrated at the failure of conventional weapons to rout Hizbullah fighters from their foxholes. Mine-clearance teams are finding evidence pointing to their provenance: the US, the world's largest cluster bomb manufacturer, which gave Israel $2.2bn (£1.2bn) in military aid last year.

In Nabatiye, 15 people were injured in just one day along a bomb-strewn road. In Tibnin, 210 bombs were found around the town hospital. "That's about as inappropriate [a use of cluster bombs] as you can get," Mr Clark said.

[snip]

Many share the blame equally between Israel and the US. "It's like we are living in a prison," said Aisa Hussain, 38, a Yahmour resident who has ordered his children to remain inside his house.

Strolling through the village he pointed to yet another tiny black canister perched under a tree. "You see what America is sending us," he said bitterly. "This is their idea of democracy.”

America is just winning allies throughout the Middle East!

Complete story here.

Why aren’t these weapons banned...?!

According to Wikipedia , despite calls from humanitarian organisations and some governments the use of cluster bombs is still legal under international law. Belgium is the only country to date to have issued a ban on their use, transportation, export, stockpiling, trade and production.

Civilians are dying and being maimed by these hideous bombs, scattered throughout southern Lebanon by Israeli artillery shells in the latest conflict.

Again, from Wikipedia :

The area affected by a single cluster munition, also known as the footprint, can be as large as two or three football fields....depending on type and their use, between 1% and 40% of the bomblets do not explode on impact. …cluster bombs are not banned by any international treaty and are considered legitimate and effective weapons by many NATO governments.

Children are often the victims. Curious by nature, they're attracted by unusual objects they encounter in the ruins that have become their playgrounds, not realizing until it's too late that these are actually explosives.

Israel is not alone in this crime against humanity. The US and British use cluster bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Words fail me...