2011 Food Crisis, Urban Gardening, Social Systems

Dear friends, Food is basic. Lester Brown — founder of both the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute, author of over 50 books on environmental issues, recipient of 26 honorary degrees and a MacArthur Fellowship, and (according to the Washington Post) “one of the world’s most influential thinkers” — has just published a cogent …

Clear-Hold-Build–VN Deja Vu “Destroy to Save”

The Clear-Hold-Build (C-H-B) strategy was first enunciated enthusiastically during the Bush Administration as the new counterinsurgency strategy to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.  Actually, this strategy was merely an unimaginative regurgitation of Marshall Lautey’s “tache d’huile” (oil spot) strategy used to quell native uprisings during France colonial wars at the end …

US Loses Face & Standing with China & Pakistan

NIGHTWATCH Extract China-US: Special comment. International news services broadcast video and translations of Chinese Minister of Defense Liang insulting and hectoring the US, represented by the Secretary of Defense. The Chinese tasked Secretary Gates to defend and to explain to the Chinese why the US sells weapons to Taiwan and conducts naval training in the Yellow …

Journal: Cyber-Counterintelligence Not Intelligent

More jerks advocating their wares….I have taught since the mid 1990’s that the greatest threat to computer security was the insider.  On one hand He/She has access and only need motivation to become hostile.  On the other hand, slovenly attitudes allow others, without access but motivation, to take advantage of the insider…..now all of a …

NIGHTWATCH Extract: Trusted Bodyguard Executes Governor in Pakistan for Being a Blasphemer–Observations on Meaning for Church & State

Pakistan: An elite police commando from the provincial police force who was assigned as a bodyguard for the governor of Punjab Province murdered the governor today in Islamabad. The commando dropped his weapon and surrendered to the police, bragging that he was proud he killed a blasphemer. With that, Pakistan’s political crisis deepened.