Saturday, December 26, 2009

Copenhagen Bar-B-Q or Does the Earth Fry When Environment Talks Fail?

More comments on Copenhagen later, but i found this article of great interest.

The failure in Copenhagen clearly seems to fall into the lap of China. While some might be surprised at this development, I am not. China is too dependent on its environmental suicide-particularly in the form of coal fueled electric plants-as a foundation for its economic power and world leadership, status which its leaders believe to be its manifest destiny in the 21st century.

Chinese leaders have learned well the dictum of Mao Tse Tung, "Talk, Talk. Fight, Fight". Their aim is to sit at negotiating tables without actually accomplishing anything of mutual benefit while simultaneously pursuing their own interests away from negotiations.

It is a hallmark of negotiations with the Chinese that one must be ready sit at the table with them knowing that they are prepared to sit and stall and talk in circles until, to quote Adlai Stevenson, "hell freezes over" or they accomplish all of their goals. Only in regards to the Copenhagen talks, hell won't freeze over. In this case, the earth will have the biggest bar-b-q ever.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Tea Time's Over..

Sometimes you just have to take a break and step back and take things in . Or, to quote that great sage, Yogi Berra, "You can observe a lot by looking". And listening.

It's been almost one year since Barack Obama became president. How is he doing? How are we doing? How is the world doing? In traditional journalism, a synopsis and assessment at the end of a calender year is called a "year-ender". I'll have a lot to say in the coming days as I go through my "year-ender"

A parting note. I welcome any well developed position and I have posted opinions that vary widely from my own. But a note to those people who try to send all sorts of spam through this web site. Notice that none of it gets posted as I moderate all comments and I refuse to post your nonsense. So give it up. You will not succeed.