Capitalism is not sustainable by its very nature. It is predicated on infinitely expanding markets, faster consumption and bigger production in a finite planet. And yet this ideological model remains the central organising principle of our lives, and as long as it continues to be so it will automatically undo (with its invisible hand) every single green initiative anybody cares to come up with.

In other words the self-interest and greed of corporations must work against those solutions that can mitigate the effects of climate change and peak oil. This is proven, so far as it goes, by the actions of Bushco and his corporate cronies.

Anybody can see that the red areas on the map are, for the most part, rural and suburban, places, or non-places, as J.H. Kunstler would say. They are where extensive motoring is mandatory. We also know that our liberal political base is largely in cities and towns where alternative transport most likely exists. But is it a stretch to infer a cause and effect relationship between driving and libertarianism, toryism, or even republicanism?

Meanwhile, as widespread election fraud is being reported, calls for new elections are getting louder. The Guardian says Iraq is disintegrating with power shifting to Islamic fundamentalists.

Let's go below the fold and read about Bush's policy shift and if it comes too late.

From the Moonie, I mean Washington Times:

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To find out what this has to do with bird shit and why Bush already has troops in place at a new airbase 200 miles from the border for a new Bolivian war of intervention, please go below the fold.

Operation Miracle has brought daily planeloads of the poor from across Latin America and the Caribbean to Havana for surgery. Most of them arrive nearly blind; but all will be able to see perfectly before they leave. Cuban doctors provide the free eye surgery, Venezuela the dollars that make it possible. The surgery treats cataracts and other eye conditions.

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Sometimes the absurdity of a columnist leaves me speechless. Take this column from yesterday's WSJ by Holman W. Jenkins Jr.. All I can do is shake my head in wonder.

First he writes a fake letter from Toyota (please see my post on his past column); yesterday he came out with this:

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The US and Latin America actually have little in common beyond geography and the US's long history of aggression and domination. The US has sent troops to Latin America 87 times according to Instances of Use of Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2001 and other sources. We may never know how many times the US has interfered there covertly, how many assassinations we have paid for, how many governments we've toppled.

But the tide is turning. The spirit of Che Guevara, the charismatic revolutionary leader who is still a hero and an inspiration to many Latin Americans, is gaining strength.

Go south of the border for more.

Micro cars were developed in Europe and became popular after World War II. It was a time of collapsed economies and fuel shortages. That's much like what we might expect after peak oil. I remember seeing some of these cars as a boy growing up in Warsaw.

The reason for the micro car was economy. They used little fuel and tiny tires. In some countries their small engines allowed them to be driven on a motorcycle license, which is easier to get in many European countries. In Britain any three-wheeler qualified as a motorcycle.  And all microcars were easy to park.

The BMW 600 was popular in Germany

Continued.

I've noticed a lot of advances in solar power in the last couple of months and I thought you might be interested. There are solar panels for the roofs of cars, solar trains (sort of), and lots more below the fold.

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Like many of my father's friends he had a scarred face and that old world dignity rarely encountered on this side of the Atlantic. I had met such men before. They would kiss my mother's hand and click their heels softly, not brashly like the German officers on television, but in a way that conveyed respect and grace. But this man was different; he commanded my father's respect like no one I'd ever seen. My father had dined with Kennedy and Johnson, but he never spoke of them as he did of Jan Karski. They were mere presidents; Karski was a hero.

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In Iraq, or in some CIA prison it's a good bet that some innocent man is being tortured. He may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time; perhaps he was just born into the wrong family. Perhaps he also has a six-year-old son. What could he be thinking?

As many of us here try to keep the issue of torture alive in the blogosphere, the question of the causes of torture must arise. Why do seemingly normal people inflict pain on others? Do we train our soldiers to be cruel, or do the cruel become soldiers, or are we all cruel? Do our leaders really have so little regard for humanity, or do they believe that the end justifies the means? Is this a subject that no one wants to read about; are we in denial?

The title of this post is a quote from a Guardian by Professor Joanna Bourke; more of that article is quoted later.

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On October 25, 05 the American Civil Liberties Union released an analysis of new and previously released autopsies obtained under the freedom of information act and death reports of detainees held in U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom died while being interrogated. The documents show that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation and to hot and cold environmental conditions. According to the documents, 21 of the 44 deaths were homicides.

A CommonDreams.org article by Peter Phillips takes the corporate media to task for failing to cover this story, "at least 95percent of the daily papers in the US didn't bother to pick up the story".

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