Recent News

1. The Nepalese riots are getting worse
2. Video: War games targeting Iran; Bush hasn't ruled out nukes
3. Iraq has a full government! Bush delights in it.
4. The Iran-Russia enrichment deal to go through.
5. Italy's government goes on
6. Army suicides up
7. Junior officers blame generals, not just Rumsfeld.
8. The Falun Gong protester may get six months?!
9. Crackdown on hiring illegal workers.

1. The Nepalese police are still violent, and the protesters aren't slowing down as the political party leaders said the King's offer wasn't good enough. I pray for no more bloodshed.
2. War games I understand, on the chance that Iran actually has a decent military nuke program running. But why can't we rule out using nuclear weapons ourselves? That'd be a great legacy to leave for our nation: "First country to use nuclear weapons offensively!"
3. al-Maliki's acceptance by all the major parties has paved the way for the filling of all high-level government posts; everybody spoke out against at least some violence. Sectarian lines are still highly visible, though, and likely to continue causing trouble. Meanwhile, Bush is hoping to emphasize this good news to justify the invasion.
4. Iran is correct; assuming they aren't conducting military nuclear research they do have the legal right to nuclear power under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Better in Russia than Iran itself.
5. Conservative Berlusconi still refuses to concede while the victorious leftist coalition is fighting over who gets what. It almost makes the 2000 US elections look tame!
6. It's not actually certain the military suicide rate is related to Iraq because it tracks closely with civilian rates in that age group. Veterans groups are using it as an opportunity to speak out on post-traumatic stress disorder.
7. This New York Times piece says debate has sprung up after several retired generals called for Rumsfeld's resignation. There's no clearly dominant viewpoint among the junior officers interviewed: some extend the blame to the generals, others want to put it as high as President Bush. Very few are actually arguing for resignation, though.
   Personally, this whole episode is very interesting for the questions it raises about civilian control of the military and how much the military can talk back. I think I'm okay with the military calling for resignation as long as it doesn't start naming preferred replacements.
8. According to the Washington Post, Wenyi Wang, the Falun Gong practitioner who interrupted Chinese President Hu Jintao's White House speech, may get 6 months of jail time. That's disgusting.
9. The Homeland Security Deparment has dedicated 171 agents to work against employers who hire illegal immigrants. It's not nearly enough to be effective; opponents wonder if they're just trying to blunt conservative criticism. It's the first time in 20 years these employment laws have been enforced at all.

Recent News

120,000 Nepalese protesters
CIA leaker fired
USA wants arms embargo on Iran; Russia equivocates
More messes in Palestine
California is paying the Army to repair levees?
Iraq has a new Prime Minister candidate
Underage sex doesn't have to be reported

• 120,000 Nepalese protesters seem to have made a great deal of progress (though they claim it's a sham), as the king has promised to return the government to the structure it held before his seizing dictatorial powers. Even given all the violence, I'm glad to see this happening.
• A CIA officer has been fired over leaks. So far, I agree with the CIA's steps. She's a known leaker and a security risk at some level. If she gets prosecuted for leaking, I'll be less happy about it.
• The Bush Administration called for an international arms embargo against Iran -- especially Russia, which is selling Iran some Tor missiles. I'm surprised the administration hadn't already done this; Russia says there's not yet any proof Iran is working on weapons.
• I just don't know what to say about Palestine. I suppose Hamas is reacting as one would expect, but I wish they'd show more of their charitable side now that they're in government. Still, at least they're spending the money they do have on services instead of the military (bottom of the Fox article).
• President Bush has granted Governor Schwarzenneger a waiver allowing California to pay the Army Corps of Engineers to repair some levees, though California may be expecting the money back. I didn't know California had any levees, though, so my question is where they are.
• In light of the new nominee, it looks like Iraq may have a working government soon. Yay! Unfortunately, the nominee is an exile, and has been since 1980.
• A judge rules that healthcare providers aren't required to report all underage sex if they don't believe it was a case of abuse. I've not thought enough about this one to have an opinion yet, other than to say that underage (or, indeed, premarital) sex is a Bad Thing.

Papers up

I've now finished putting up all of my old humanities papers. They're not exactly entertaining reading, but even the badly-written one (or two?) are at least informative. They were all written before I started blogging, so I've placed them as posts dated to when each paper was finished.

Creation

I've just created Greg's 42. Why? Because in last night's sleep-induced haze it seemed like fun, and a blog is a good excuse to pay more attention to the news. Of course, it's only a good excuse if people actually read it, so if I've managed to con you into checking this out, you should keep reading it--the information will be good for you, and your readership is good for me!
So, welcome to Greg's 42 -- if you're one of the 2 blog readers who hasn't read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it translates to "Greg's answer to everything" -- in which I will discuss (in roughly this order) politics & news, science, my life, and random books or games I've lately experienced.
Also going up will be the papers I write for my humanities classes (at my college, "humanities" means "not natural science," though because I'm also going for a government major in cooperation with another nearby school most of them will be political in nature), many of which are interesting or provocative enough to be interesting.