AMY PASCAL VS BRIAN WILLIAMS

amy pascal got fired for telling the truth. Brian Williams will get fired for lying.

Why people think that emails are private is beyond me.  But the leaked Sony emails were hilarious and entertained a nation for weeks

Brian williams on the other hand seems to have lied and as often the case gets trapped by it and fact and fiction merge. Now there may be more lies about Katrina

A real shame.  The truth would have been just fine

Amy was also fired so Michael Lynton could keep his job.  At least for now

HOW TO PUNISH RUSSIA FOR MALAYSIAN FLIGHT 17

while the forensics have just begun, while being hindered by both the separatists and the russians, it seems clear that Russia is responsible in a significant way. while it is clear that no one is going to intervene militarily in a direct way; there is another way

298 people were killed. their lives had value. Russia and any person or affiliate should be sued in every court on the planet; including UN related courts. look what a couple of hedge funds did to Argentina in the courts. and that was over a few bonds. here we have murder. and just to make it interesting, one of those killed was a top HIV researcher. why not a class action law suit on behalf of all current and future AIDS patients for damages?

time to act against Putin

WHAT ISRAEL SHOULD SAY AND DO ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN YOUTH THAT WAS KILLED

the death and likely murder of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem is both horrific and unacceptable.  it follows the equally horrific and unacceptable kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths. personal, vigilante justice is not justice; it is murder. Israel is committed to finding those responsible for killing the three Israelis and the state of Israel will mete out justice. equally,  we are committed to finding out what happened to the Palestinian youth and who is responsible and bringing those responsible to justice, whether they be Israeli or otherwise.

our hearts go out to the families of all.

COLLEGE INTOLERANCE; ISLAM AND HYPOCRISY

Brandeis uninvited Ayaan Hirsi Ali from receiving an honorary degree recently. the reason given was she had said some mean things about Islam. one phrase was "a destructive, nihilistic cult of death". another talked about being at war or going to war with Islam.

a few thoughts. first, this woman has a Wikipedia page and tons of press. she does happen to be a refugee from Somalia and is a former PM in the Dutch parliament. not shabby credentials. but anything she said in the past was in the public record so those geniuses at Brandeis could have read such and maybe not invited her in the first place. it is bad form to invite and then rescind.

but going further. i am not sure she was far off; at least about the nihilistic cult of death part. not much after this affair there are two major events that juxtapose nicely

in Pakistan, i woman was stoned to death in from of a court house by her family for marry a man that she loved instead of going into an arranged marriage to her cousin. to make it even more perverse, her husband had killed his prior wife 6 years ago so as to be free to marry Farzana Parveen. how sick is that

then in Sudan, Meriam Yehva Ibrahim was sentenced to death for being Christian. death. for claiming to be something other than Muslim as her father was muslim and that apparently defines her under Sharia law

so the sensitive, little liberals at Brandeis chased away a champion of women's rights while the Islam she denounces stoned one woman and sentenced another to death. do the women of Brandeis have any idea what their lives would be like under Sharia law?

very disheartening

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME: CAN WE AGREE ON ONE THING?

I awoke this morning at 530am; or really 630am now that we have "sprung forward". it was pitch black. i normally get up between 600am and 630am. the days have been getting longer such that there is some light at 630. i was encouraged. not pitch black.

whats the point?

i now have to change a zillion clocks.

there is a lot of literature on the subject. Wikipedia is decent. but ask yourself this seeming commonsense question

when the days are naturally getting longer, why make them even longer and later

when days are naturally getting shorter, why make them even shorter and earlier?

OBAMA threatens. PUTIN invades

As per my last post, Obama , the EU and the Ukraine should have let yanukovich leave in peace and picked up the phone and told him that their interests in Crimea were safe

They didn't

Then, he of the red line in Syria proposes a new line in Ukraine and warned Putin not to invade, Putin laughed and is now invading

Nobel Peace Prize?

AFTER SOCHI; WILL PUTIN'S TANKS ROLL IN?

after spending $50 Billion dollars of the governments and a bunch of oligarch's money on an ok Olympics, the last thing Putin wanted was for Ukraine to distract from his headlines. but the best laid plans...

he after all had a lot to do with it. the western narrative of east vs. west is too facile; it is undoubtedly more complicated. Ukraine was in fact headed toward a relationship with the EU and i cant prove it but it sure seems likely that at the last minute,Putin showed up
with both threats and inducements ($15B) and Yanukovich abruptly  pulled   out of the EU deal into a Russian deal. the was likely the precipitating event but there were other issues such as the appropriation of power by Yanukovich by forcing a change in the constitution and corruption.

i actually don't think this was a US manipulation. i don't think we have the skills or the balls to pull it off. i think the Ukrainians actually wanted their country back. Putin has dreams of a greater russia, like Islamist's have dreams of reestablishing the Caliphate and even israel has some who believe in a greater israel. beware any one with dreams of a "greater" anything. tears and bloodshed will follow

anyhow, back to the title. Putin invaded Georgia on trumped up pretexts. why not in Ukraine? if you look at a map Ukraine is important. it is between Poland and Russia, the former used to be under the thumb of the USSR but escaped and is now attached to the EU. Ukraine has both energy and agricultural assets and is strategic. if they "lose" Ukraine, greater russia is less great.

now i dont know what happened to the talk about a tri-tripartite arrangement where an independent Ukraine trades with both the east and the west?                                                                                                        
it will be interesting. if putin goes in, no one will stop him. certainly not the US who wouldn't even supply a no fly zone or act in any way in Syria after a very red line was crossed when Assad used chemical weapons on civilians. and neither will the EU. so it will come down to does he want the bad pr?

pretty said state of affairs

lets hope for the best