Anyone following the international news concerning the nuclear lust of Myanmar’s military dictators has to ask the obvious question. How does a tiny, poor country in southeast Asia afford the equipment, the materials and the expertise to field a nuclear weapon program? The answer, of course, is oil.

From The Irrawaddy:

Major Western energy firms are helping finance the Burmese military regime”s nuclear power ambitions, a US-based human rights organization has alleged.

The widely reported development by the regime of a nuclear reactor is being made possible by oil giants Total of France, Chevron of the US, Thailand”s state-owned oil and gas developer PTTEP, and numerous other companies from China, India, South Korea and elsewhere, said EarthRights International.

“How could Burma, Southeast Asia’s poorest country, possibly afford to finance a nuclear program?” asks the organization”s senior consultant, Matthew Smith.

“The answer involves the military regime’s partnerships with multinational companies, including some of the world’s largest and best known oil firms from the US, France, Japan, China, India, Thailand and elsewhere,” said Smith, writing in the US- based Internet newspaper, The Huffington Post.

The main source of income from Burma”s huge gas reserves is at present coming from two offshore fields in the Andaman Sea, operated by Total and Chevron, but much more is soon to be tapped from another field being developed by South Korean and Indian state companies.

Are Total and Chevron responsible for how Myanmar’s generals spend the money? Not legally, but how do you feel knowing that every time you fill up at a Chevron station you’re helping to fund the nuclear weapon aspirations of Myanmar?

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX),Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part ):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash, twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation” warning light. [Better known as the Check Engine light. JH]

I love the next one!

7. The airbag system would ask Are you sure? before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna, while scratching your butt.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You’d have to press the Start button to turn the engine off

PS – I’d like to add that when all else fails, you could call ‘customer service’ in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!

Previously…

Yesterday I left a comment on a story by Henry Gomez on the primary race for the County Council District 7 seat. Henry wrote about three candidates who have close ties to sitting Cleveland City Councilmembers, but in the comments an anonymous writer using the moniker Gayperson, took the opportunity to continue the murmuring campaign against Tim Russo who is running for the District 7 seat, but is not mentioned in Henry’s story.

Likewise, I took the opportunity to reply to Gayperson’s comment so as to not allow his murmuring of false information stand. My comment disappeared. It might have been a computer glitch. It might have been another commenter flagging my comment as Inappropriate. It might have been the Plain Dealer exercising its right to moderate its site.

I don’t know.

So this morning I reposted and took screen captures.

Check out the story. Look for the comment. If you don’t find it, ask what happened to it.

Via Sherry Chandler…

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don’t they make the whole plane out of that stuff?

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Don”t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.

-from Prayers And Sayings Of The Mad Farmer, p. 56

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.

Is Kurt Campbell too busy? Perhaps. The U.S. Campaign for Burma and Senator Jim Webb both think so and are lobbying for a special envoy to Myanmar to replace Campbell who is the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs to focus solely on relations with the Myanmar’s military dictators.

From The Washington Times:

“Kurt Campbell has been very attentive to Burma, but he has a lot on his plate. We need someone who makes Burma their first priority,” said Jennifer Quigley, advocacy director for the U.S. Campaign for Burma. “For us, 2010 is an incredibly critical year in Burma and it makes it that much more important to have a special policy coordinator.”

In a June 8 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Jim Webb recommended Eric John, U.S. ambassador to Thailand, for the special envoy position.

“Ambassador John has spent many years in East Asia, and has long experience in dealing with the North Korean regime on issues that might be similar to those we will be facing in Burma,” wrote Mr. Webb, Virginia Democrat who recently canceled a trip to Myanmar over reports that the junta was trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Nothing fixes our attention so much as a whiff of stray uranium.

Subject: AMA On Health Reform

The American Medical Association has weighed in on the new Health Reform Proposals:

The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves. The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.

The Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception. Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted. The Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!” while the Pediatricians said, ‘Oh, Grow up!’

The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it. Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing. The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, “This puts a whole new face on the matter.”

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea. The Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.

In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes in Washington.

Previously…

Earlier today I commented on my own post of the British Petroleum Coffee Spill video and pondered a what if.

Everyday supertankers enter the Gulf of Mexico headed for terminals along the coast to off load their cargoes of crude oil. The giants of the fleet carry more than 300,000 metric tons each, or 2.25 million barrels of ecological disaster.

The Somali pirates have shown us how ridiculously simple it is to capture one of the behemoths.

At 50,000 barrels a day, one tanker would be the equivalent of 45 days worth of the current British Petroleum attack on the southern coast of the United States.

Want a Baueresque scenario? How about pirates who dump the cargo of four or five super tankers simultaneously a few miles off the coast?

Tick, tock, tick tock.

1251: Combine teabagging with cornholing and what do you get?

0740: Cuyahoga County Council’s District 7 race showcases clash of Cleveland city councilmen

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Don’t pray for the rain to stop.
Pray for the good luck fishing
when the river floods.

From Prayers And Sayings Of The Mad Farmer, p. 56

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.

I remain unconvinced on the efficacy of international scrutiny and non-military actions against regimes such as Myanmar’s military dictators bent upon clinging to power, but as I’ve often noted, conversations are what build communities so the most recent action by Slovakia is welcomed.

From Mizzima:

The formation of a United Nations commission of inquiry into alleged crimes against humanity committed in Burma during the course of the country”s decades long civil war and political standoff has gained a further advocate.

During a June 8, 2010, debate of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Slovakia became the fourth government to support such an inquiry, joining the ranks of Australia, the Czech Republic and United Kingdom.

Rosha Fedor, the Slovak representative, in justifying Bratislava”s decision, told the congress, “[T]he first national elections in Myanmar [Burma] could have served as a window to national reconciliation, respect for human rights, and democracy, but on the contrary, the new electoral law fell far below international standards, seriously undermined the rights of expression, assembly and association, and discriminated on the basis of political opinions.”

The troubling bit is that of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, only the United Kingdom has signed on.

Netanyahu at his best.

Even those who aren’t particularly sympathetic to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, could get a good measure of satisfaction from this interview with British Television during the retaliation against Hamas’ shelling of Israel.

The interviewer asked him: “How come so many more Palestinians have been killed in this conflict than Israeli’s?” (A nasty question if there ever was one!)

Netanyahu: “Are you sure that you want to start asking in that direction?”

Interviewer: (Falling into the trap) “Why not?”

Netanyahu: “Because in World War II more Germans were killed Continue Reading »

Roldo Bartimole writes:

Mayor Frank Jackson did a somewhat strange interview with National Public Radio host Scott Simon, no stranger to Cleveland.

Jackson had an opportunity to sell the city in a piece entitled “How Cleveland Could Rise Again.” However, his sights seemed to be set on the rebuke he received recently by City Council on a non-bid deal that didn”t pass the muster.

Simon, as a reporter out of Chicago during the late 1970s, made a number of trips here to cover the hectic administration of Mayor Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich attracted so many out-of-town reporters that he likely filled more hotel rooms than the city”s sports teams. But that”s another story.

Suffice to say that Simon is a lover of cities and often of Cleveland in particular.

Simon, long the host of Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR, asked Jackson “…what kind of short urgent speech he gives to convince businesses to come to Cleveland.” Sounded like a good softball opener for the mayor.

Jackson replied, “That”s a salesman and a politician. I don”t do those kinds of things. I need to get into some details. I”ll try to coral them, you know, and monopolize some time. But it”s basically things are in flux. Things are in constant transition, and the old way of doing things will dig us deeper in a hole. We have to do things differently.”

The subject matter pretty much centered on the Mayor”s thrust to attract new businesses here. At the center was his flawed attempt Continue Reading »