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Have we learned nothing from history?
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With Skis in July
The number of Americans moving to Canada was greater last year than in the previous thirty, says the Association for Canadian Studies.
The survey found that 10,942 Americans came to Canada in 2006, compared to just over 9,262 in 2005. In 2000, 5,828 came to the country.
While twice as many Canadians went to the States than Americans came to Canada, that ratio diminished between 2005 and 2006.
In 2006, 23,913 Canadians went to the U.S., resulting in a net loss of 12,971 to Canada when compared to the Americans coming to Canada.
But in 2005, the net loss to Canada was 14,668.
“When looking at the differences over the past few years in the real numbers between the two countries, Canada is undoubtedly narrowing the brain drain,” the study said.
Remember what was going on more than thirty years ago?
Shakespearean Daily Diss
“If you be mad, be gone: if you have reason,
be brief.” —Twelfth Night, 1.5.200-1
Shipbuilding
While I’m on vacation, construction is proceeding apace on The Maiden, a cardstock model ship. Updates more or less daily, so that I can have this done by the weekend. Here’s a mini I just painted, also for Blood & Roses.
Shakespearean Daily Diss
“He’s grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster.”
—Troilus And Cressida, 3.3.262-63
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Not content with waging a war that kills a half-million or more Iraqis, we had to do it with depleted-uranium munitions. The result, according to Iraq’s environment minister, has been an increase in new cases of cancer.
As a result of “at least 350 sites in Iraq being contaminated during bombing” with depleted uranium (DU) weapons, Nermin Othman said, the nation is facing about 140,000 cases of cancer, with 7,000 to 8,000 new ones registered each year.
Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League, she also complained that many chemical plants and oil facilities had been destroyed during the two military campaigns since the 1990s, but the ecological consequences remain unclear.
“Our ministry is fledgling, and we need international support; notably, we need laboratories to better monitor air and water contamination,” she said.
The first major UN research on the consequences of the use of DU on the battlefield was conducted in 2003 in the wake of NATO operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Montenegro. The UN Environment Program (UNEP) said in its report after the research that DU poses little threat if spent munitions are cleared from the ground.
Why they hate us, part eleventy-jillion. The damage we’ve done won’t be fully appreciated for decades, and may last centuries.
Maybe Someday
The Pentagon has begun talking about thinking about coming up with a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, should Congress ever find the courage to force an end to the occupation, or should aliens ever replace President Bush with a sufficiently intelligent and compassionate duplicate:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is making contingency plans for a gradual U.S. withdrawal of troops from Iraq, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who called the planning a “priority.”
In a letter delivered on Tuesday to Sen. Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat and presidential candidate who tangled with the Pentagon to learn whether such plans exist, Gates said he was actively involved in drafting them.
He said he would work with the Senate Armed Services Committee to find a way to keep senators informed about the “conceptual thinking, factors, considerations, questions and objectives associated with drawdown planning.”
“You may rest assured that such planning is indeed taking place with my active involvement as well as that of senior military and civilian officials and our commanders in the field,” Gates said. “I consider this contingency planning to be a priority for this department.”
Note: no actual troops were withdrawn in the making of this story.
And Stop Asking
Since US reconstruction efforts are failing to provide reliable electric power to Baghdad residents, the Bush Administration’s reponse has been to discontinue status reports:
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Baghdad residents could count on only “an hour or two a day” of electricity. That’s down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this year.
But that piece of data has not been sent to lawmakers for months because the State Department, which prepares a weekly “status report” for Congress on conditions in Iraq, stopped estimating in May how many hours of electricity Baghdad residents typically receive each day.
Instead, the department now reports on the electricity generated nationwide, a measurement that does not indicate how much power Iraqis in Baghdad or elsewhere actually receive.
The change, a State Department spokesman said, reflects a technical decision by reconstruction officials in Baghdad who are scaling back efforts to estimate electricity consumption as they wind down U.S. involvement in rebuilding Iraq’s power grid…
The State Department’s new method shows that the national electricity supply is 4% lower than a year ago, according to the July 11 report.
The Bush answer to everything is to hide the evidence.
Shakespearean Daily Diss
“Look, he’s winding up the watch of his wit; by and by
it will strike.” —The Tempest, 2.1.12-13
Shakespearean Daily Diss
“God grant we never may have need of you.” —Richard III, 1.3.76
