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Early this month the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma convened in New York City. At the Tribunal the testimonies of twelve women outlined atrocities committed by Burmese officials against women during the longest ongoing conflict in the world. Representatives of the witnesses recounted brutal gang rapes, torture and murder committed by Burmese […]

The Irish Oireachtas (Parliament) has been languishing over a Constitutional Referendum on Children over the last 2 years. Over the last decade a number of milestones have been achieved to safe guard the rights of children in Ireland including the publication of the Towards Redress and Recovery – The Ryan Report , by the Commission […]

Bombshell from Iran, on a couple of metaphorical levels: the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, everyone’s favorite bad guys these days,  hacked a couple dozen web sites of human rights activists working in Iran, claiming they were agents for American intelligence services. In Farsi, “rights defender” apparently translates as “American spy”. Then the regime’s increasingly brazen goons arrested 30 […]

Moody’s issues shot across the bow to warn US about expanding Federal debt burden.

Though I tend to stick to climate related topics, new-to-me OECD foreign aid data (via William Easterly’s blog) seemed particularly relevant to draw attention to here. Below is a graph showing all U.S. aid, by recipient, from 2004-2008. It’s like an ugly joke, rendered useless by illegible font and an unapparent color scheme. But with […]

Here’s a story that I wanted to flag to you quickly.  It hearkens back to what I wrote recently about some sublime and ridiculous aspects of offshore wind development.  Regarding the sublime, I reported that the United Kingdom’s Crown Estate had leased offshore areas for a series of massive wind power projects.  What the Crown […]

A CROSS POST By Sean Patrick Murphy Monday, March 15 3:56 pm EST What is refreshing about this documentary is that it is balanced. It is about the 17-year, $27.3 billion lawsuit brought against Chevron for allegedly dumping toxic oil waste in the Amazon sector of Ecuador. The 30,000 residents of the area have filed a […]

In a move that will likely need to be repeated in coming years, the Supreme Court of India ordered a controversial resort in the Andaman Islands to close down pending further deliberations of the Court on the possible effect the resort will have on the endangered Jarawa tribe. The decision came just weeks after the […]

Bibi was defiant in the Knesset, refusing to halt Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.  The Obama administration has turned up the heat, higher than at any time since 1991 when H.W. Bush/Baker withheld loan guarantees because of settlements.  This worries Israeli diplomats.  Hillary is set to give a speech at the AIPAC conference beginning in six days.  High […]

Online criminals stole waaay more money from e-banking accounts than they did from brick-and-mortar analogues. As more and more of our life is online, keep expecting to see somewhat shocking statistics like this. For instance, the iTunes store became the largest music vendor in the world years ago. (‘Cuz that’s where the money is, right?)

The Texas Board of Education voted on Friday to make many substantial changes in the Texas school system’s social studies curriculum. I support many of these changes. Students will be taught that the U.S. is a “constitutional republic” rather than “democratic.”  This is correct.  Students should learn about the ways in which the Founding Fathers […]

What is refreshing about this documentary is that it is balanced. It is about the 17-year, $27.3 billion lawsuit brought against Chevron for allegedly dumping toxic oil waste in the Amazon sector of Ecuador. The 30,000 residents of the area have filed a class action suit against Chevron, which assumed control of Texaco in 2001. […]