hell’s handmaiden

Not to blow my own horn but ….

Many experts view climate change as a “threat multiplier” that intensifies instability around the world by worsening water shortages, food insecurity, disease, and flooding that lead to forced migration. That’s the thrust of a 35-page report (PDF) by 11 admirals and generals this week issued by the Alexandria, Va.-based national security think tank The CNA Corporation. The study, titled National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, predicts:

“Projected climate change will seriously exacerbate already marginal living standards in many Asian, African, and Middle Eastern nations, causing widespread political instability and the likelihood of failed states…. The chaos that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide, and the growth of terrorism.

Once, long ago after playing Jr. High football for two weeks– a sport about which I cared little and for which I was just about in every way unsuited–, after suffering through hot afternoon of severe hay fever on the football fields, after two week of staying up to midnight to finish my homework only to wake at 6:30 for school, after this I walked into the football coach’s testosterone sweat stench soaked office and quit the team. I do not remember how long he kept me in that office berating me, telling me it is not my choice anyway but instead is my dad’s decision, and pontificating upon the grand virtues of football. Football makes a man a man. Football teaches you honor, teamwork and integrity. Football… Football… You’d think the whole of western civilization rested upon its strong shoulders.

I post this not as a joke, for those of you who might be tempted to laugh at sexual harassment. I point it out to illustrate how close we are to the rest of the animal world, and how close they are to us.

“The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts. We are afraid that they will sexually harass us,” said Mrs Njeri.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Monkey misery for Kenyan women villagers

I knew. I just knew. As soon as I saw the headline on my RSS reader, I knew that the ‘rocker’ in question was god-damned Ted Nugent.

LiveLeak.com - Ted Nugent Goes Off On Obama And Hillary!

Nugent makes great music, or he used to at least. I can’t help it. He sounds great. But he is personally a bloody lunatic. I learned this years ago, and much to my surprise, when he got a spot on a local radio station in Austin for a couple of weeks. That was agonizing.

Pretentious. Arrogant. Cocky. Prick.