Just prior to the inauguration, The Brookings Institution released a briefing book, “Big Bets and Black Swans,” examining the key foreign policy challenges President Obama faces as he begins his second term. The section on the Eurozone, written by Justin Vaiesse and Thomas Wright — identifies a potential euro failure as a “black swan” — […]
Bite me. You might as well go outside and shout it loud, because there isn’t enough DEET in your medicine chest to fend off the bloodlust of Culex pipiens, Anopheles, Aedes vexans, and dozens of other species of infected mosquitoes blanketing the United States. And West Nile virus season has just begun—consider August 2012 a preview.
Don’t get me wrong. Health organizations, federal, state and local, have spent buckets of money on nice-looking, easy-to-understand websites that calmly advise citizens to douse ourselves with bug spray, wear light, long-sleeved clothing (think Out of Africa), eliminate standing pools of water, and, of course, just stay inside the damn house until the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sounds the all-clear.
All good. But hardly sufficient.
West Nile virus—how it got here, how it travels, how it kills, and how health officials could, but often fail to mount the most effective responses—is a complicated story, a cautionary tale, some would say, about power, ego, bureaucracy, preparedness, ignorance, incompetence, and disparate champions whose voices routinely go unheard and whose counsel is too often ignored.
Right now, the highbeams are on Dallas, Texas, ‘Ground Zero’ for West Nile—and Mayor Mike Rawlings has indeed declared a state of emergency in the municipality. As the number of victims escalates, however, so does the anxiety of state and local officials, as well as the complaints of constituents, who’ve begun to question and criticize the city’s response to the health crisis….
Yesterday’s Review section of the Sunday New York Times carried an “analysis” piece by journalist Scott Shane, “The Moral Case for Drones,” which was really more in the nature of a news story reporting that a group of political scientists and moral philosophers believe there is in fact a strong moral case to be made […]
Here are the week’s must read articles: “Good Leak, Bad Leak” By Uri Friedman Foreign Policy A brief but informative look at the various leaks during the Obama administration and their political and legal implications. “Understanding Cyberspace is Key to Defending It” By Robert O’Harrow Jr. Washington Post In the aftermath of Stuxnet and its […]
In my past two blog posts, I discussed new polling on Americans’ foreign policy views and the U.S. domestic reaction to the Chen Guangcheng case. This week, I highlight Gallup findings on how the rest of the world evaluates U.S. leadership. I look forward to hearing your thoughts! In the race to November, professional political […]
I’ve written a good number of times here about how I admire what the Obama Administration has achieved in the teeth of vigorous – some might say fanatical – opposition from Republicans on the Hill and elsewhere, as well as from Democrats too, mostly those beholden to the fossil fuel special interests. (Here are some […]
CAFE – That stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. What President Obama announced today was a much higher federal requirement, negotiated with the car companies, for more miles per gallon on average for cars sold in the United States. As we know, Lower Gasoline Consumption = Lower GHG Output. How much? Billions of tons of […]
The Kim mafia has been in the news quite a bit lately, and every time Kim Jong-Il makes a headline, China gets uncomfortable. Great Leader Kim is somewhat akin to the the late U.S. mafia boss, John Gotti Jr., he makes far too many newspaper headlines, a spotlight that makes his friends uneasy. As […]
Cambodia – In a never ending quest to irritate his larger neighbor, Thailand, Cambodia’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen, is considering allowing former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to move there. Despite the fact he is wanted on criminal charges in Thailand, ranging from tax evasion to treason. Thaksin was deposed in a bloodless 2006 coup […]
Myanmar – There seems to be a lot in the news lately concerning the “hermit kingdom” of the south. On Monday, the Burmese PM met with U.S. Senator Jim Webb, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific. Webb, in a continuation of the new pragmatic Obama foreign policy for SE Asia, […]
Shawn W Crispin has an interesting article in Asian Times concerning the Vietnamese government’s latest freedom of speech crackdown that has specifically targeted bloggers who had publicly expressed anti-Chinese sentiment. Hanoi fears it cannot control the more than two million Vietnamese based blogs, a common source of uncensored news. While a general fear of the […]