When it came time for Switzerland to decide between an angry US Internal Revenue Service and its own constitution, the good people in Bern made the only decision they could: they forgot the details of the bank secrecy provision of their constitution and decided to turn over four thousand names of American UBS clients. Tax [...]
Archive for the ‘Middle East’ Category
Swiss Principles
Posted in Corruption, Foreigners, Middle East, Transportation Policy on August 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Black Gold
Posted in Industrial Policy, Mexico, Middle East, Military, Transportation Policy on August 18, 2009 | 15 Comments »
Brazil has announced that it wants the national oil company, Petrobras, to control all future deep-sea oil resource development. Ever since Lazaro Cardenas nationalized Mexico’s oil reserves it has been the dream of oil-producing nations to control the wealth beneath their lands. Two can play that game. But it takes courage and communication, and I [...]
Silk Road
Posted in Africa, China, Foreigners, Germany, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Russia, South Asia, War on Terror on July 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »
And then the riots were in China: This shouldn’t be surprising. It just is.
Depart, I Say
Posted in George W. Bush, Middle East, Military, Obama, War on Terror on July 6, 2009 | 2 Comments »
In my sluggish attempt to read all of the Pulitzer Prize winners for General Nonfiction (damn you, Douglas Blackmon), I came across this from Norman Mailer’s The Armies of the Night. When reading it, consider that it was written in 1968, and at that point more than half the names on Maya Lin’s wall were [...]
Jane, You Ignorant Slut
Posted in Middle East, Military, War on Terror on April 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Jane Harman (D-CA), the minority leader of the House Intelligence Committee before the 2006 midterm elections, should have a special appreciation for the NSA’s signals intelligence ability. After all, she was one of the folks who approved the government’s warrantless wiretap program. War on Terror and all. Well, the good folks in Fort Meade have [...]
Lousy Taste
Posted in Middle East on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Curious decision in T-shirt design: Israel’s military condemned soldiers for wearing T-shirts of a pregnant woman in a rifle’s cross-hairs with the slogan “1 Shot 2 Kills,” and another of a gun-toting child with the words, “The smaller they are, the harder it is.” For its own sake, Israel will sooner or later need to [...]
Hobbies, Not Principles
Posted in Energy Policy, Foreigners, Middle East on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
How quickly they fall into line when something threatens their business: The Swiss government said Friday it would cooperate on cases of international tax evasion, breaking with a long-standing tradition of protecting wealthy foreigners accused of hiding billions of dollars in the Alpine nation. The government insisted it would hold onto its cherished banking secrecy [...]
Still Going
Posted in Foreign Policy, Middle East, Military on January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Remind me Why we are still in Iraq. Why we still insist on keeping Iraq as one country. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/30/world/IRAQ-ELECTIONS-PRIMER.html No one seems to argue for going back to this set of maps (http://unimaps.com/africa1914/index.html) and a great deal of effort went into breaking up this (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/ussr_time_82.jpg). Today the mainstream of international opinion seems to accept as [...]
Negotiating With Yourself
Posted in Middle East on January 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Hard to imagine a more fitting last agreement for the Administration that would not talk to anyone it didn’t like: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011602207.html The fighting in Gaza is going to end because Israel and the US sign something? Were we smuggling weapons? Have to hand it to Israel for ending its war right on schedule – bit [...]
Gaza
Posted in Foreign Policy, Middle East on January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It is hard to have any sympathy for Hamas. The Islamic Resistance Movement has not done much to indicate any desire to live in peace with its neighbors – Egypt as well as Israel, while we’re at it – and, as self-appointed representatives of the Prophet, have been rather unconcerned with the welfare of their [...]
