Former Intelligence Agents Weigh In On George Tenet’s Book

“Michael F. Scheuer, the founding head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, is the author of ‘Imperial Hubris’ and ‘Through Our Enemies’ Eyes’” and Ray McGovern, a twenty service year CIA analyst, weigh in on George Tenet’s recently released book.
Neither is the least bit impressed, to say the least. Tenet’s book (which I [...]

Straussian Psychopaths

Raw Story reports that same group of hubris-ridden Straussian “intellectuals” which launched their ideologically driven Iraqi adventure, and funded al Queda and other Jihadists groups fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, during the Reagan and Bush I administrations also facilitated the Pakistani development of nuclear weapons.
These folks are anxious to go to war [...]

Habeas Schmabeas

Laura Rozen, at her informative blog War and Piece, has linked to “Habeas Schmabeas” produced by the great NPR program “This American Life”, which is unavailable to me here in Xalapa.

Habeas Schmabeas provides a glimpse into what Incurious King George and his courtier are doing in your name to “enemy combatants” in Guantanamo, which is [...]

Meet Suzy

Here is Suzy leaning on the railing of the terrace of her home in Playa Baracoa, Cuba. The terrace abuts an estuary where a river enters the Straights of Florida.
I will be staying in Suzy’s house for the entire month of July.

The First of the D.C. Madam’s Customers to Fall From Power

Talking Points Memo reports on an ABC report of the first of the “DC Madam’s” customers to be outed. “Randall Tobias, until about four o’clock this afternoon the head of the US Agency for International Development and Director of US Foreign Assistance at the State Department.”
Read Tobias’ quotes and you will probably be [...]

Cuban Elementary Schools Outperform Those of Other Latin American Nations

Here’s an interesting article addressing Cuban elementary school education and Cuban children outperforming low income students from other Latin American nations.

A Propitious Occurrence

I have commented here more than once how very fortunate I think I have been in my life. I have generally taken a go with the flow approach to life, going with my instincts as it were. When I have decided upon a particular matter, buying property for instance, I have taken the [...]

Obama Campaign Rhetoric

“In today’s globalized world, the security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people. When narco-trafficking and corruption threaten democracy in Latin America, it’s America’s problem too. . .”
So exclaimed Barack Obama in a recent “foreign policy” address, necessitated in his presidential campaign, I think, by the persistent media criticism [...]

Colbert & Sean Penn Meta-Free-Phor-All

This is hilarious. Don’t miss it.

Bananas

As I indicated in my description of the trip to Coyopolan, during the return trip we stopped at Sr. Cordoba’s banana/coffee farm to harvest a few bunches of bananas.

The photo above is a shot of a portion of the farm from which the underbrush has been recently cleared and the coffee bushes  trimmed.

I have seen [...]

Trip to Coyopolan

Last week I responded with an email message to an internet ad for the sale of the Ranchito Coyopolan, a 3 hectare property in the pueblo of Coyopolan. A couple days later I received a response to my message from an architect in Coatepec, a city a bit South of here. Subsequently we [...]

A Visitor

 
I spotted this visitor crawling across my living room floor last evening.

Perpetrators of Hate Crime Made to Pay Dearly

I posted a link in late February to a story by Pamela Colloff, in The Texas Monthly about the beating of Billy Ray Johnson, a mentally disabled African American, by a group of drunken, young Caucasian fellows. Johnson was found “unconscious on a fire ant mound and had suffered a serious concussion and [...]

A Metaphysical Rumination

The other day I was talking to a gringo neighbor and at one point, though I don’t recall what elicited the subject, he asked me if I believed in the concept of reincarnation.
My answer was that all things in the universe are composed of essentially two elements, matter and energy. The human body is, [...]

Paul Wolfowitz

If you’re interested, here’s a good piece from the Cornell Alumni Magazine on Wolfowitz’s formative years in Ithaca and at the Telluride Association residence at Cornell, where Leo Strauss acolyte Allan Bloom daily held court for “his ideal ‘blank slates’–gifted but [...]

More Jardin Botanico

Bougainvillea is omnipresent in Xalapa, as it also is in Merida.

I don’t know what type of plant this is which grows attached to trees, but very many of them were blooming.

A fairly typical view of the expanses of the lawn areas planted with trees.

The entrance to the garden.

More Jardin Botanico

A blooming lily in a small pond attached to one of the institute’s buildings.

An interesting flower on some sort of palm.

There is a nice collection of indigenous Pines and Cedars.

I don’t what type tree this is but I think the flowers are spectacular.

There is a nice three level pond system fed by a spring.

Jardin Botanico

I’ve been in Xalapa eight months now and just today got around to visiting El Jardin Botanico Clavijero del Instituto de Ecologia, located just on the edge of Xalapa along the old highway to Coatepec. I think for the best show of flowering trees visiting a couple of weeks earlier would have been [...]

Big Green Insect

I encountered this fella lurking just outside my apartment door this morning as I left on a morning shopping venture.

The thing was perched on the door jamb of my apartment door when I returned.

Canadian Immigration Officials Rely On Wikipedia Entry To Detain Scholar

The ability of anyone to modify a Wikipedia entry can prove dangerous when relied upon by an ignorant immigration official unaware that Wikipedia information is often unreliable.
The following was taken from Middle East scholar Juan Cole’s excellent blog  “Informed Comment”.
The Circle Closes In: A shameful campaign
By Taner Akçam
For many who challenge their government’s official version [...]