The Egyptian Inkblot
The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt continue to be a fascinating ink blot. Peak oil is now another instigator being thrown into the volatile mix. (It’s not clear to me if declining oil reserves would count as as trigger or underlying cause.)
As Andrew Revkin noted earlier this week, “everyone with an agenda seems to be able to find it reflected” in the unrest sweeping through the Arab world. However, one of the catalysts being claimed that didn’t make his list are the recent WikiLeaks embassy cables, which the New York Times and several other publications mined for revealing and titilating nuggets. In his cover story for last week’s NYT magazine, Bill Keller, the top editor at the Times, asserted:
WikiLeaks cables in which American diplomats recount the extravagant corruption of Tunisia’s rulers helped fuel a popular uprising that has overthrown the government.
Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi shares this belief.
But back to the peak oil link now making the rounds. Here’s the popular environmental website TreeHugger, starting to connect the dots (garbled grammar and all):
It may not seem on the surface of it all that the revolution sweeping the Middle East in the past few weeks only has a tangential green connection, but if you look just beneath the surface–as more people are beginning to do–that connection is right there.
I’m all for making connections, but be careful of digging too deep, or you could end up going down this rabbit hole.
Interesting essay by forty-ish conservative Richard Ramsey on the alarming politicization of his aging parents from watching Fox News in general and Glenn Beck in particular.
“Over the past couple of years, I’ve been keeping track of a trend among friends around my age (late thirties to mid-forties). Eight of us (so far) share something in common besides our conservatism: a deep frustration over how our parents have become impossible to take on the subject of politics. Without fail, it turns out that our folks have all been sitting at home watching Fox News Channel all day ““ especially Glenn Beck’s program.”
http://www.frumforum.com/fox-geezer-syndrome
Glenn Beck seems to believe things are going to get quite a bit worse. I don’t – but time will tell.
That’s the first time I’ve seen Glenn Beck speak at length about anything. (I think I’ve only ever seen short clips of him crying.) How can someone that incoherent have such a following? Scary stuff. And who does he think is coordinating this implosion? Will I have to tune in next week?
Futurism. A profession for the insane.
PS- he sounds even creepier with music,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdkGE5bItyE