Dog poo into methane to power park lights

Park Spark explains how.

Judge overturns deep water drilling moratorium in Gulf

The White House will appeal.

Rolling Stone article on McChrystal now online

The Runaway General

Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House

McChrystal

Maybe he’ll get fired, maybe not. But for a general to make comments like that shows, I think, how badly the Afghanistan war is going.

Abstaining from bad sects

Sectarianism, left cadre organizations, and ultra-leftism too often create a squabbling, ineffective, sometimes fanatical left, filled with schisms and splinter groups. Chip Berlet explores this in an article written in 1999 but just as true now.

An excerpt.

Ultra-leftism is an egocentric form of mythopoetic martyrdom whereby practitioners anoint themselves as the beleaguered guardians [...]

Hank Williams III. Country Heroes

Three generations, and the talent is still there big time

Organized crime as superpower. Corporations as street gangs

It’s getting sooo hard to tell the crime lords from the CEOs.

The UN reports that global organized crime makes tens of billions in profits each year while Zero Hedge makes the case that too many corporations act like street gangs

Crazy COIN Strategy: US-Pakistani Nuclear Deal

A new RAND report recommends a US-Pakistan nuclear deal, modeled after a similar agreement with India, as part of the US counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. And that’s just crazy. [...]

Water wars, Texas style

Water War. Flickr user azrainman

The century old Rule of Capture in Texas, which says landowners can pump as much water as they want, is being challenged in court. Water wonks are watching this potentially landmark case closely.

Our water laws are a confusing, contradictory mish-mash. In California, water is apportioned carefully and pumping [...]

Drugs, border violence, and alternative solutions

Last December, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said $352 billion in criminal money was laundered and kept the financial system afloat during the worst of the crisis.

“In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was [...]