Journal: Conflict Over Resources–Over the next 20 years, demand for food and energy will rise by half

The Madagascar model Nov 13th 2009 From The World in 2010 print edition By John Parker Conflicts over natural resources will grow In the world’s earliest written legal code, dating from 1790BC, Hammurabi, the king of Babylon, laid down rules governing the maintenance of irrigation systems and the amount of water people could take from …

Review: Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect

Erudition Demanding Concentration–Need Lay Chapter or Pamphlet October 12, 2009 Paul A. Rahe This is an extraordinary book offering a very detailed and superbly integrated examination of the consistencies and differences among Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Tocqueville, both to illuminate precisely what was in the Founding Father’s minds when they sought to create a Republic of, …

Review: The Resilient Earth–Science, Global Warming and the Future of Humanity

Pushes the Re-Set Button on Both Gore and Lomborg October 3, 2009 Doug L. Hoffman and Allen Simmons The more I read, the less I know and the more frustrated I grow with the insanity of academic, government, corporate, and non-governmental stovepipes of knowledge in isolation. Right up front this book, read crossing the Atlantic …

Review: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Potential Straw to Break the Camel’s Back September 19, 2009 Chris Hedges I disagree with those who dismiss this book, however erudite their claims. The author first impressed me with American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Reading this book on the heels of Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in …