Piracy
The cable television news outlets have gone almost wall-to-wall now in their coverage of the Somali 'pirate' attack, but here's a perspective on the standoff they're not giving us, courtesy of ace reporter and author Jeremy Scahill. And here's Scahill's latest from this afternoon.Failed states don't come much more failed than Somalia, and the U.S. has hardly been engaged with this country except as the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean to its north and east serve a transport route for getting oil to the West.
Scahill's book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army", is a must-read also.
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I'm not quite finished on the gay marriage topic in Iowa. This sparkling editorial in the New York Times on Wednesday almost made me want to get married, to run out and marry the first man or woman I saw in the street-- just to say that I got married in Iowa.
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Even that stalwart of conservative talk radio, prig Dr. Laura, has come out publicly for gay marriage. Apparently she's just into the two-parent thing. I actually happened to be watching Larry King when she made these comments. That's quite rare. I don't think I've watched that show since Tammy Faye Baker died.
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"The Ed Fallon Law" was passed in Iowa during this legislative session to prevent political candidates from using campaign contributions to pay family members as campaign staff, but evidently it's OK if Governor Chet Culver uses his campaign donations to pay for a personal trip to the Masters golf tournament.
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This photo of Cardinals greats Stan Musial and Albert Pujols, "The Man and El Hombre," snapped just before Monday's opener, should really take home the Pulitzer.
posted by CM @ 4:05 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for your take on one aspect of this year's dumber bills, Chris. And I hadn't realized the Governor used campaign funds to go to a golf tournament. Where's the bill to plug THAT loophole?
Ed
Must be too late in the session.
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