One of Greenpeace’s most senior executives commutes 250 miles to work by plane, despite the environmental group’s campaign to curb air travel, it has emerged.
Pascal Husting, Greenpeace International’s international programme director, said he began “commuting between Luxembourg and Amsterdam” when he took the job in 2012 and currently made the round trip about twice a month.
The flights, at 250 euros for a round trip, are funded by Greenpeace…
Operation Empty Chair
It’s hard not to conclude that the administration’s Syria policy is a sub-set of its Iran policy. Many people were baffled for a long time, including me, that the president didn’t seem to see Syria strategically, as a way to weaken Iran. Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis said that toppling Bashar al-Assad would constitute the most severe blow against the Iranian regime in 25 years. A number of administration officials seemed to recognize the same thing–from former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and ex-CIA director David Petraeus. Only the president seemed to not recognize that or to see Syria in a strategic framework. What we now realize is that the president does see Syria in a strategic framework. He sees that the Syrian regime is an important ally of the Iranians and doesn’t want to be seen toppling the regime for fear of angering the Iranians.
He’s on the other side.
It’s Probably Nothing
Supreme Court Limits EPA On Greenhouse Gases
How quaint. They’re issuing “rulings”.
The Sound Of Settled Science
“When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal”
“The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cancelled its longtime relationship with an email-storage contractor just weeks after ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer crashed and shortly before other IRS officials’ computers allegedly crashed.” Basically, the Daily Caller – doing the legwork that our legacy media apparently cannot – determined that Sonasoft offered email backup services from 2005 to 2011 (Sonasoft certainly claimed that). A couple of weeks after Congress started requesting Lois Lerner’s email records from the IRS, Lerner’s computer crash – and, shortly after that, the IRS let their contract with Sonasoft lapse.
Related – “The IRS tea-party audit story isn’t Watergate; it’s worse than Watergate. The Watergate break-in was the professionals of the party in power going after the party professionals of the party out of power. The IRS scandal is the party in power going after the most average Americans imaginable.
Eat the Rich. Or At Least Smash Their Homes.
People just aren’t mixing in ways Urban Studies lecturer Peter Matthews wants. Therefore it’s time to consider a “physically radical intervention”:
The idea that we must demolish large areas of high-value owner-occupied housing and replace it with high density, socially-rented housing is still way off the agenda. Maybe it is time this changed.
You see, what we need – good and hard – is some “deliberate urban degeneration.”
The Children Are Our Future
And that’s why I’m converting a bear trap into a giant chastity belt.
Reader Tips
Tonight the Reverend Gary Davis enjoins you to Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
More Pavilions At Folkfest
Moderate multiculturalism: Swedish health officials have revealed a stunning scale of female genital mutilation at a school where every girl in a single class had been subjected to the procedure.
A Preview of Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Tactics?
There are lots of truly strong women who don’t shrivel when someone makes a joke about them. Then there are those who excel at playing the victim card whenever it’s convenient. Here’s an example from the UK. James Delingpole has a more detailed explanation.
Quebec Public Employees ‘Hard’ at Work
Earlier this week in Montreal, a bunch of public sector employees decided to have a marshmallow roast … or something like that. Matt Gurney shares his thoughts:
The protest in front of Montreal’s city hall was illegal. And not just on a technicality, as many protests are, if they run afoul of noise ordinances or local curfew and trespass laws. Those rules are routinely overlooked in the interests of protecting our right to gather and demonstrate, as it should be in a free society. No, this Montreal protest included more serious crimes — such as setting a fire — which was clearly intended as an act of political intimidation.
It’s appalling that the fire was set at all, but the truly troubling thing is that local police were present and did nothing. They had every right to intervene — indeed, they had a duty. Montreal has in place a controversial law known as Bylaw P6. Put in place during the “Maple Spring” student protests of 2012, the bylaw makes it illegal for protesters to cover their faces and mandates that police be notified in advance of a protest, and that such notice include the intended location or route for the event. The protest outside city hall did not comply with the bylaw. And then, of course, there’s the fire setting thing, too.
12 Trademarks
Declared Less Offensive Than Redskins.
The Latest From The Clinton Camp
“Blame Barack” begins: The Benghazi Deception
“Organic” Is The Latin Word For “Grown In Pig Shit”
Genetic Literacy Project: How your food would look if not genetically modified
Not One Of Us
Want To See Something Really Scary?
No, that’s just mildly entertaining. This is really scary.
Reader Tips
Now that the World Cup is in full swing it might be a good time for a little Philosopher Football.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Strange Happenings in the U.S. Presbyterian Church
The leaders of the Presbyterian Church in America had an interesting vote yesterday:
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday became the most prominent religious group in the United States to endorse divestment as a protest against Israeli policies toward Palestinians, voting to sell church stock in three companies whose products Israel uses in the occupied territories.
The General Assembly voted by a razor-thin margin — 310-303 — to sell stock in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. Two years ago, the General Assembly rejected a similar divestment proposal by two votes.
Is it too far fetched to think that a future vote will have them divesting themselves of everything Canadian, blaming the oil sands as the reason?!
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans
Via Planet Gore;
A sophisticated network of metal thieves has targeted some 20 French wind turbines in a new looting trend, scaling the near 40-metre-high structures and stealing up to one tonne of metal from a single engine, Le Figaro reported Wednesday.
Citing an anonymous police source, the daily newspaper said the ring stole metal from wind farms in sparsely populated areas, where they had less chance of being caught.
Eh. Aren’t they all?