500 acres of ancient redwood forest returned to tribes

Well, the topic of giving the Kurds their own country in Northern Iraq has been bantered around for quite a while. I’d say it’s time to make an executive decision and get this done ASAP. Now is the perfect time. If the Kurds had their own country along with oil contracts from multinational conglomerates, they could finally build their own civilization. Huge numbers of Kurds in Turkey would migrate to the new country, alleviating Turkey of a non-melting segment of their population, perhaps relieving tensions and instability.

The United States dropped 44% in a single year in the World Press Freedom Index. That is not good news.

Nigel Farage may have been known to the political pundits for several years but to the man in the street he seems to have sprung into prominence only in the last few months. He looks like the man in the pub, and speaks like the man in the pub, so what he says sounds like good old-fashioned common sense to those who can hear. However, Bertran Russell warned us that common sense was not so common, so are we in danger of being misled by the man in the pub with the loudest voice, or should we all be trying to listen to what is being said?

For thousands of years there has always been bloody conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lessons learned from history should have been a clue to what the United States should have done previous to the first Gulf War. And, yet after three wars, thousands of American lives lost with ten’s of thousands of Americas wounded, and trillions of American dollars wasted latter, those regions are more unsettled than ever.

The U.S. threatens to fine a French bank $10 billion. France plans to sell two warships to Russia. There is no connection.