Amanda’s Random Rantings

A LIE, Mark Twain said famously, can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. With the offensive reality of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib sequestered thousands of miles away, United States President George W. Bush began his speech at the Purana Qila in Delhi on March 3 with a spectacular falsehood. The U.S., he said, was a “brother” to India “in the cause of human liberty”.

Most importantly, as to the McCain Amendment, which would categorically prohibit cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees by all U.S. personnel, anywhere in the world, the President wrote:

Now what’s required in this hack is a way to capture idea’s, feelings and emotions when the picture is taken and post it as the text of the moblog entry. That would make it the perfect dear-diary solution. Maybe even throw in GPS positioning and speech to text and we have a winner. An idea for a web 2.0 startup ?

Well designed and targeted regulation is one of the central tools used by Government to deliver the social, environmental and economic goals of business and the broader community. However, regulation should only be used where it is needed, and efforts should be made to avoid inefficient regulation and minimise that which may be unnecessarily costly, excessive, or overly complex. Regulations that impose unnecessary burdens can impede competition, productivity, investment and innovation.

A toxic, black sludge (petrochemical and caustic soda cocktail) washed up on the Ivory Coast sickening (and killing) local residents. And true to form, those who are responsible for the spillage of this waste are either denying its toxicity or are working hard to point fingers and place blame on someone else. 

Current Gov Jeb Bush is going to have some green competition in the next election - even from some republican candidates going into the primaries.

Speaking of Alaska (see yesterday’s post) - Republican congressman, Don Young, is trying to put through an amendment that would change the siting criteria for wind turbines. This would effectively shut down the proposed, and extremely controversial Cape Cod wind farm, before it even gets started.