Yet the press reports it like it is a bad thing. After all, weather = climate change = bad. It's all proof of the mantra, you see. Here's the headline:
Residents flee monsoon floodsThe story notes that no one has been killed, and that monsoon rains hit most years, and fails to note that the disaster would have been the absence of heavy rainfall. It was not so long ago that Indian officials were getting very nervous that the monsoon might fail this year.
Twice now I've mentioned rumors that the Israelis have been negotiating with the Saudis to use their airspace for a strike against Iran. The first time I raised the issue was on June 22nd. Now western media seem to be finally catching up.
Middle East thinks Obama is full of himself
So says Ehud Ya'ari, a leading Israeli commentator. Also, there's this:"There is quite a degree of cynicism in the Middle East about the reliance of Obama on his own personal charisma, skill [and] power of conviction. People are afraid that he will try too hard with the Iranians, that he will go nowhere and that he will end up strengthening Iran's hands without reaping any concessions."
That may certainly explain the story I read recently (via Instapundit) that a major religious group in Iran has come out squarely against the election result. That story interprets it as a major split within the religious leadership, but perhaps, as Ehud Ya'ari suggests, it is really representative of the fact that they have actually lost control?Ya'ari says Iran has undergone a regime change, but its significance has been disguised by the brutal crackdown on protesters. "The revolutionary guard with their poster boy Ahmadinejad have taken power away from the clerical establishment. The old guard of the Islamic revolution, the people who were the disciples, aides and assistants of [1979 revolution leader Ayotallah Ruhollah] Khomeini have lost power to the new generation of the revolutionary guards who now pick the cabinet and the Parliament." The regime, he says, is keener than its predecessor to assert Iranian power.
