| Latest Commentary: | Volume VI, Number 122 |
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Green Zone Government Gives US 6 Months to Dump Blackwater -- The Green Zone Government in Baghdad is still annoyed by the killing of 17 Iraq-Namese by employees of Blackwater USA. The al-Maliki government has just issued a report that demands the US sever all ties to the company within 6 months and that it hand over Blackwater employees who were involved in the Nisoor Square shooting. This may get ugly very quickly, but this is what happens when one outsources the wrong functions. After all, a mercenary will gladly cash a check to kill for an employer, but not to die for one.
Brown to Cut UK Troops in Iraq-Nam to 2,500 -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that the UK will have only 2,500 troops in Iraq-Nam in the spring. This is a reduction from the current 5,500 and from the 4,500 expected by Christmas. What happens to the remaining 2,500 is not yet settled, but Mr. Brown has said that the Iraq-Namese will get control of the final province for which the UK had responsibility, Basra, within the next two months. That suggests the Tommies will be gone from Iraq-Nam by 2009. GI Joe must be envious. American Electric Power Settles Pollution Case -- American Electric Power [AEP] has thrown in the towel on an 18-year-old lawsuit the Environmental Protection Agency, nine states and 13 environmental groups started against it under the Clean Air Act. The basic charge was AEP had illegally modified its power plants and sent acid rain producing chemicals into the air. The company denies doing anything wrong yet will cough up $15 million in civil penalties, $60 million in pollution cleanup costs and $1.6 billion starting in 2017 to upgrade a major coal-fired power plant in southern Indiana. The externalities of AEP’s business are finally being addressed. Colombian Artist Displays Cracked Floor at Tate Modern -- Doris Salcedo is a Colombian artist best known for her sculptures. However, her latest piece might best be described as an anti-sculpture. She has engineered a 500-foot crack in the floor of the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London. It starts as a hairline fracture and grows and splits as it traverses the floor, and wire mesh is embedded in the gap. Calling it “Shibboleth,” she claims it’s about the experience of illegal aliens. Might it not be something else, or maybe just crap? © Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
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