Twitter Message Of The Day

Harry Shearer summarizes our national priorities in 140 characters or fewer:

Twitter message by Harry Shearer, April 2, 2013

I've remarked a time or two just how bizarre and self-contradictory our spending priorities have been. Still, I think the point about solar is particularly telling. It's by no means certain, but it seems to me that if we had continued on with conservation and alternative energy in the 1980s, instead of deciding that the best course was to engage in continual war in the Middle East in the name of keeping our oil options open, we probably wouldn't have had an Al Qaeda problem or the last four wars to deal with. Or is it five? I lose track sometimes.

Taylor Marsh On Egypt And The Modern Electonic Press

Caption: Northeast Egypt as seen from STS-58 Most Western news agencies don't give us a much closer view than this.

Image credit:


Events in Egypt appear to be reaching a boiling point. Taylor Marsh wrote this earlier today:

When Al Jazeera English became available in parts of the U.S., like the Beltway, it was a seminal event as far as I am concerned. It’s the most important channel not enough people are watching, a tiny part of that because it’s not available everywhere. It’s the first successful channel to connect the Arab world while blasting what is happening into America, which the U.S. media ignores at our peril and they do so because it doesn’t pay and we’re such a navel gazing country most don’t understand the repercussions of our own ignorance.

EGYPT: Al Jazeera and White House Mixed Messaging in the Age of Wikileak Cables, Twitter and Facebook

Which sums up the Middle East and our relationship to it pretty well, I think, except for our constantly interfering in the place to advance our own interests. That combination is a dangerous one, given how volatile things are there, and how much both we and Europe depend on the oil that flows out of that region.

Taylor's article is well worth reading. Her comments on Al Jazeera are spot on. These days, it seems to be the only truly honest news network on TV. One observation I've made from watching it is that they have a habit of hiring local reporters nearly everywhere they cover routinely. Reporters from America are American, reporters from Africa are, if not from the particular countries covered, at least clearly from that part of the world. It's certainly the only one that's been paying real attention to what's going on there, rather than seeing it through the eyes of one particular region's prejudices and interests.

UPDATE (Jan. 29): Added the picture finally. For some reason, the Blogger software wasn't uploading the right picture yesterday.