j a c k *

Kudos Where Due…

Here are a couple of awesome things I found on that twisty maze of tubes known as the Internet.  The first is the “Information Challenge” posed by some doofus named Casey Luskin at the Discovery Institute, which for any who don’t know is the main right-wing think tank shilling for “Intelligent Design Creationism,” a.k.a. the GodDidIt Theory.

Or rather the cool thing is the answer.  The “challenge” was:

I request to see how:

    “METHINKSDAWKINSDOTHPROTESTTOOMUCH” 

can evolve into:

    “BUTIMSUREDAWKINSBELIEVESHEISRIGHT”

by changing the first sentence one letter at a time, and having it always retain some comprehensible English meaning along each small step of its evolution. This seems like a reasonable request, as it is not highly different from what Darwinists are telling me can happen in nature.

He thought he was so clever.  At least he could be bothered to find two sentences both containing 33 letters, making his challenge at least logically possible. Never mind that life itself doesn’t require that the genetic code remain the same length or change only one letter at a time, or even remain entirely comprehensible. Let alone have a specific target to evolve towards.

But never mind all that.  It can be done, and in only 44 generations.  It’s interesting to see between generations 33 and 42 how “DAWKINS” shifts from starting at position 8 to starting at position 9.

The second cool thing is this video.  I can only aspire to this kind of rhetoric coupled with a nice British accent, so I’ll just send along the link. If you have ever wondered whether you should respect religion to get along or express yourself forcefully I think you’ll find this interesting.

I didn’t say these two items were related, but if you want to find some connection knock yourself out. I just liked them.

- jack*

Japan’s Yen for Iran’s Black...

Josh Marshall finds some correlation between the stratospheric rise in oil prices and American saber rattling with Iran. While there is no reason to question that there is some connection, the larger question remains why the aggressive posture in the first place, and why the threat of military force?

It’s clear that the neo-cons still largely in charge of our foreign policy have never seen a problem that they didn’t see as a cause to bomb someone. The theory that any challenge can be met with pure force of will has been explained, if you can follow the logic, by such mental midgets as Victor Davis Hansen. The “Shock and Awe” tactic at the start of the Iraq invasion was predicated on a theory about the “Arab” mentality that emphasized obeisance to superior force and strength of will. If we just overwhelmed them with our power to destroy, they would become compliant and submissive.

That theory has turned out to be flawed.

However, neo-con personal insecurity alone is not really sufficient to explain the current round of threats from Cheney, Bush and the Congress. Nor is the much-touted Iranian nuclear program. As those who know tell us, Iran’s nuclear weapons program – if it exists – is many years away from delivering a weapon. The administration’s neglect of North Korea and indifference to Pakistan has also shown that they are not particularly concerned about nuclear proliferation. As such, the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran appears to be no more than a pretext.

Likewise the alleged Iranian presence in Iraq. If anyone is this administration was serious about fixing the situation in Iraq they would have to look no farther than conditions in Iraqi cities and among Iraqi civilians.  This must too be chalked up as mere pretext which also conveniently serves to find a scapegoat for Iraq as well.

So none of the stated reasons pans out.  One gets the sense – given an administration composed of Texas oil men, and with Iran having a lot of oil trade as opposed to North Korea for example which has none – that the latest round of verbal aggression has something to do with oil.  Perhaps so.  Here’s something else that happened but was not widely reported around the same time:

The dollar has sharply plummeted against the yen this afternoon on reports Iran has asked Japan to stop paying for its oil in dollars.

In fact the threat posed by Iran is economic, not military.  Iran has been working for a long time to use its role as an oil broker to undermine the status of the dollar as reserve currency, in the past by threatening to open an independent Oil Bourse, and most recently by lobbying for changes within OPEC itself in alliance with Venezuela.

The theory behind this is that since the end of WWII oil has, by international treaty, been priced in dollars. This makes the US dollar the world’s reserve currency, and puts the US in the de-facto role of imperial power by imposing a “tax” on client states. This tax has fueled US growth and wealth for two generations. Empires maintain their position of power by spending a lot of those taxes on military force which is used to keep client states in line. When Saddam Hussein tried to charge for oil in euros, the US invaded on false pretenses as a demonstration to the rest of the region of the invincibility of American might. We all know how well that went.

I don’t know enough to judge whether this theory all holds together or not. However, it does explain a great deal: the attack on Iraq, the saber-rattling with Iran, our obscene military budgets compared to spending by the rest of the world, even how 5% of the world’s population can sustain consumption of 25% of the world’s resources. It makes sense, which is all the more reason why it’s so frustrating that the only articles that discuss this idea sound like crazy conspiracy websites. But based on the actions of our current leadership, crazy conspiracy might be the only explanation.

- jack*