Chilean quake carnage

EDITOR’S CHOICE: The February 27 earthquake in Chile cracked bedrock, unleashed a lethal tsunami and killed over 800 people. At 8.8 on the Richter scale, it was the seventh largest on record. But even more unsettlingly, one NASA Geophysicist believes that massive jolt moved our planet's axis by at least three inches thus shortening the days' time by a 1.26 millionth of a second. A recent Businessweek article by Alex Morales “Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis, NASA Scientist Says” provides details

"CHEATER IN THE EURO- FAMILY"/Focus

EDITOR’S CHOICE: Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggests the organization provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. China and Russia have called for dumping the dollar – but not for the yuan, ruble or yen -- and have proposed using the IMF’s internal accounting unit special drawing rights, or SDRs. Several decades ago the IMF tried to use a “basket” of currencies to replace the dollar but that didn’t work. Then of course there is the euro, which reports say hedge funds are betting will collapse. It is plagued by the the economies of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain (PIIGS), all of which have incurred even more debt than Obama. Now Germany is refusing to bail Greece out and Athens isn’t amused. Experts say there is no alternative to the dollar, and at a minimum, the euro could lose as much as a third of its value in the very near future. And – is the U.S. headed inexorably down the Greek road? One Senator thinks so.

The American Interest Online

POPULIST REVOLT: The msm has declared the Tea Party movement as one comprised of know-nothings, crazy birthers, IRS plane bombers, Christian fundamentalists, flat-earthers and racists -- a morally and intellectually contemptible force of “reactionaries.” Liberals would have you believe that the conservatives and independents in the new cause long for an older, safer and whiter America -- a more orderly place where their old fashioned values were unchallenged, one in which ethnic minorities and gays weren’t in their faces, and in general life looked more like “Ozzie and Harriet.” But closer to the truth, the movement is the latest upsurge of an American populism that has historically sided with the left and the right, but which over again has upended American elites, restructured our society and forced through deep political, cultural and institutional changes that from time to time the country needs -- and which the ruling elites cannot or will not deliver.

Wesley Pruden

EDITOR’S CHOICE: Wesley Pruden writes in the Washington Times that the global warming consensus may be unraveling permanently. That doesn’t mean man-made impacts on the environment can be ignored – but Al Gore’s absurd contention that the “debate is over,” is anything but over.

The Green Gestapo/International Society for Individual Liberties

EDIT0R’S CHOICE:  The issues of who is right about the environmental questions surfacing now have to do with a great deal more than clean air. Al Gore and the Green Gestapho would deny you a lot more rights than to cause pollution – the ultimate goal is to put the government in total charge of your life. The AUDI motor company’s idea of an environmentally-correct America, to judge from the TV commercial it spent several million dollars to air during the Super Bowl, is one in which homeowners could be arrested for using incandescent light bulbs, customers choosing plastic bags at the supermarket would be manhandled by the Green Police, and anyone tossing an orange peel into the wastebasket could find himself in the beam of a searchlight, hearing a voice bark through a loudspeaker: “Put the rind down, sir! That’s a compost infraction.”

Gitmo Bay Facility

EDITOR’S CHOICE: All the polls show that among the hundreds of bone-headed ideas that the community organizer has had, the worst was the decision to close Guantanamo Bay and give all of America’s enemies full U.S. citizenship. That was supposed to placate all of his friends around the world, who are now LOL about his absurd naiveté and bowing to all manner of dictators. Now even members of his own party are going to put a stop to it.

A massive disconnect/Soxfirst.com

EDITOR’S CHOICE: Perhaps the most significant political element today is the near-total disconnect between the President, his advisors, the mainstream press, and the Democratic leadership in Congress and the vast majority of Americans. The liberal establishment simply doesn’t believe that anyone in this country is smart enough to make decisions on their own. In short, everyone is so stupid that they must be told what to do and how to live, and turn over their money to a far wiser government. Any disagreement is delusional or crassly politically motivated. That was Stalin’s model, and we saw how that turned out. Now, to the ruling class’s shock, Americans aren’t about to buy into the program like obedient ACORN workers, SEIU organizers or Harvard undergrads. If you haven’t seen it, we reproduce here an excellent explanation by Gerard Alexander that appeared in the Washington Post on Feb. 7. If you doubt the premise, realclearpolitics.com carried a headline from Slate right next to this piece that said, “Blame the Childish, Ignorant American Public.”

RT.COM

EDITOR’S CHOICE: Amid the hysteria over man-made global warming, there is real concern that the world may be entering a new “Little Ice Age.” Even as Obama and the Democrats want the world economy shut down to protect the environment, many scientists now believe that solar cycles may be dictating a new period of global cooling. Some contrarians are looking at financial moves that could help cash in on the changes -- that may end up freezing us all to death.

Al Gore and IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri (now under fire) display Nobels/ The American Interest online

EDITOR’S CHOICE: Due to flawed science and even worse politics, the global warming movement as we have known it may be dying. The demise of the crusade has some important political and cultural consequences. In the U.S. it is scored Sarah Palin 1, Al Gore 0. The global warming meltdown confirms all of the populist suspicions about an arrogantly clueless establishment invoking faked science to impose off-the-wall social mandates on the long-suffering American people -- fully backed by a mainstream media that is totally in the tank.

IntelliTech Microsystems' Kestreleye

DEFENSE: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) never seems to sleep in its attempts to better prepare and protect the American soldier in combat (CD 12/5). Here are some of its latest new tricks, some that make the news and some that don’t. Drones over Pakistan are in the headlines most every day, but there are two others including satellites for the grunts and new protection for their armored vehicles.