Katy Perry and Russell Brand to divorce

Russell Brand filed for divorce from Katy Perry in a Los Angeles court earlier today citing irreconcilable differences. It is odd coming not a month after Mr Brand said this on the Ellen Show: "I am really happily married. I am married to Katy perpetually. Until death do us part was the pledge. I am still alive." Apparently the pair spent Christmas apart, Mr Brand in Cornwall, England with family and the popstar in Hawaii with friends. The photograph at bottom is Mr Brand's hand without a wedding ring in London. Reportedly he has not worn one for two days now.

US war with Iran imminent?

Look at Mr Ahmadinejad in his office in this photograph. His eyes are glazed over (can he even see out of them?), notice the near permanent smile etched into his face, checking to see perhaps whether his French suit is of the perfect cut. One can be forgiven for wondering how intoxicated he is. What has he been smoking, or injecting, or rectally inserting, or eating or in what combination has he been doing these things? The evidence his mind is springboarding off his left nut has been clear for years. But now he wants to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to the threat of sanctions on its oil exportation is downright senseless. "Irrational behavior" it has been called by the US State Department, as the Strait of Hormuz is the passageway for Iran's own oil exports of 2.2 million barrels a day. 80 % of Iran's hard currency comes from exported oil.

But should we be surprised by irrational statements from Mr Ahmadinejad? He once said there were no homosexuals in Iran, that the holocaust never happened and he refuses to acknowledge Israel as a state. He says Iranians have established Islam across the world and that they are politically active everywhere they go. He once said that in Iran you couldn't lose your job for speaking your mind. The lunacy of his statements goes on and on and we needn't be reminded of the extent of it all over again. We know the man is simply a lover of provocative phrases, as he is of political power and of his international celebrity. Some might call it infamy.

Mr Ahmadinejad has been asking for war with the US for years and now he may finally get it. But more likely not. Any action by the US would most likely be a military strike from the air similar to what we saw in Libya. Moreover, it may not even be an openly acknowledged strike but a covert one given Mr Obama's propensity to secret military and paramilitary operations (much like President Carter's own love of clandestine affairs). Perhaps the strike is already underway. The US does have an acknowledged and heavy presence in neighboring Syria, in Djibouti, as well as Naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Expect more mysterious explosions at Iranian nuclear facilities in the near future. And while Iran may say they will close the Strait of Hormuz the world knows that in reality they aren't even capable of that (as if it were a good idea for Iran in the first place).

America, becoming a third world country?

According to CNN, the employment rate in the US for youths aged 16-29 is now 55.3 %. The article linked this to the fact that Mr Obama's approval rating with American youth is less than half. Is Mr Obama to blame? Probably not. Is he capable of making a change to these drastic figures? No. Presidents get saddled with  responsibility for all sorts of things they, in reality, have no control of; that is a well known fact. Nonetheless, they are ceaselessly blamed for what they cannot control. About the only thing Mr Obama can control in this picture is whether or not he runs for reelection. Perhaps the smart thing to do would be to not run again. He has garnered a few considerable accomplishments in these grim times. Though, understandably, their level of importance to the average American is not high: he authorized and oversaw the demise of Osama bin Laden; controversially, he decided on military action in Libya (or perhaps his hands were tied and it was decided for him) which resulted in Mr Gaddafi's eventual demise, he ended the Iraq war (though many would say this took him far too long), and he brought into play a highly controversial health care bill. Still, on the most important issue, that of the economy, he has done nothing to improve matters (again, it is questionable as to whether he can do anything).

With over half our youth unemployed and unpaid student loans now surpassing unpaid credit card debt, the massive tragedy of America's broken economy is not easily disguised. And this inevitably brings up questions of the United State's gravely uncertain future. Is the nation on its way to unemployment rates rivaling those of third world countries, many as high as 80 %? Possibly. Does anyone in America, politicians, businessmen, academics, think tanks or anyone else, have a viable plan for the nation's recovery? Not one we have seen.

Veena Malik nudity getting more traffic than OBL's death

Bollywood star Veena Malik's nude FHM cover is getting more online traffic in Pakistan than Osama bin Laden's death according to the Washington Post. Here are the pics: 

As American foreign policy evolves

Brent Scowcroft of The Scowcroft Group and the Council on Foreign Relations said in 2008:

"There have been three general trends in America on this issue. The first I would call the Washington-John Quincy Adams trend, in which we saw ourselves as the shining city on the hill. We believed democracy was the way to go. We were an example of man's ability to live in peace and harmony with his fellow man. If others wanted to adopt our system, fine. But, as John Quincy Adams put it, we go not in search of monsters to destroy. We're the well-wishers of all who seek freedom and liberty. We're the guarantors only of our own.

"The second trend began with Woodrow Wilson, who found the Washington-Adams foundation too constraining and believed we needed to be evangelizers of democracy. There's been a debate ever since about whether we accept countries as they are and work with them, or try to turn them into democracies.

"The third takes place after 9/11 with the Iraq War. It constitutes of an emendation of the Wilsonian ideal. It's now our goal or our mission to spread democracy, if necessary even by force. The Europeans, on the other hand, possibly from their experiences with colonialism, are much more modest in what to do."

America's original attitude toward democracy and the world was what made the nation popular in the world. Other states emulated us if they wished to and that was fine, that is what this sort of democratic freedom is about. With the Wilsonian ideal came the beginning of the nation's descent into what it has become today. George Bush II and the clique behind him brought the true downfall caused by the new American arrogance. The USA could not contain its newfound superpower status, it had to exert it on others. She sought revenge for what she considered previous affronts to her all powerful image when she could, most notably in Iraq and Libya as well as elsewhere on a smaller scale.

As Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski say in the 2008 book "America and the World," a world power is in its decline when it has to repeatedly declare its supremacy to the world, as exhibited by America's current GOP candidates in all their talk of "American exceptionalism."

The US is no longer elevated so far above the rest of the world in terms of economic and military power with the rise of China and the Asian powers. America is losing its grip, mainly through its own arrogance and preoccupation with its own power. Osama bin Laden was well acquainted with the meaning of Sun Tzu's lesson in dealing with an enemy: "The best strategy in dealing with an opponent is to let him defeat himself." Since 9/11, America has done exactly that. In the name of "national security," liberty after liberty has been repealed (e.g. the Patriot Act, the TSA, etc.).

And the US is trying to shove this insanity it still calls "freedom" down the throats of the entire rest of the world from China to Iraq and it wonders why it perceives so many "problems" in the world. If the whole rest of the world  doesn't look like you no matter how much you try to remold it in your image of course you're going to see problems everywhere, you will make enemies of everyone, it will cost you trillions and in the end you will have nothing and be broken. Look at the United States now, does it not resemble a broken power that increasing has less and less?

Brzezinski calls much of the world "useless eaters" and says things like "it is easier today to kill a million people than to control them." In all appearance, Scowcroft agrees with Brzezinski's every word. They both laugh about the general ignorance of the American population as to world affairs. With attitudes and ideas like this among those who have dominated foreign relations for decades is it any wonder that American foreign policy is in shambles?

Evidence Obama is losing his mind

 

Mr Obama attempts to celebrate Hanukkah, but starts it on the wrong day. Why attempt to celebrate the tradition of a religion that is not your own if you're going to completely disregard that tradition, essentially making it into something else that it was never intended to be? Have you ever seen a Muslim celebrate Easter, let alone celebrate it on the wrong day? Have you seen a Hindu with a Christmas tree?

Mr Obama has claimed to be Muslim and Christian, but I have never before seen him claim to be Jewish. Is he simply trying to make a backwards statement to a rich and powerful Jewish cabal, saying in essence, "I am one of you," or is he even thinking at all? Following is a list of statements this president has made that put him in league with George W Bush for lack of presence of mind.

We know Mr Obama drinks, smokes (though smoking is not known to cause such mental lapses), and is sleep deprived. But is the combination of these factors, along with the intoxication of political power, enough to make someone so lose their bearings and sense of reality as is presently and continuously exhibited by Mr Obama?

He often does not know where he is, even what country he is in, he forgets what religion he professes to be part of, forgets (or doesn't know) simple and obvious things about history, cannot read plain and simple English (as when he pronounced corpsman "corpse-man"), and et cetera. Is the man under so much mental strain that he can no longer perform such simple tasks as these? What does this say as to his ability to carry out tasks of much greater responsibility, tasks that he must engage with on a daily basis as POTUS? This would lead any rational person to ask whether or not Mr Obama is actually fit for the job.

Mr Obama prances around with a cocksure attitude, convinced of his own dubious charm and unconcerned whether others buy into the imagined world of idealism in which he immerses himself. No matter where he is, Mr Obama conducts himself with the attitude of a little kid in a candy store, uncaring and blissfully unaware of anyone but himself. This is the essence of a man whose soul has been consumed by delusions of grandeur, by the potentially all-corrupting power of the office of US president. Bigger men in the past have been able to handle it, or at least feign the humility that would imply they were able to handle it. But Mr Obama exhibits no such restraint or self control.

The unfortunate thing is that he is as dead to the world as the world is dead to him. This is his tragedy and this is why all that he does registers with such a false note. He has no control over the actions his government takes. Case in point, Mr Obama was as unable to stop the United States from going into Libya as he was to shut down Guantanamo Bay or as he was to end the wars when he came into office. Impotence is his biggest problem and yet he carries on as though he were all powerful, all the while forgetting what continent he's on, what religion he claims to belong to or even some basic truths about capitalism and democracy. He's nothing more than simply another George Bush II. A man with mental problems who became president.

Here's the evidence of his loss of coherence:"When I meet with world leaders, what's striking -- whether it's in Europe or here in Asia..." -mistakenly referring to Hawaii as Asia while holding a press conference outside Honolulu, Nov. 16, 2011

 "We're the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad." —Cincinnati, OH, Sept. 22, 2011

 "We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you're providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy." —on Wall Street reform, Quincy, Ill., April 29, 2010

 "One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy Corpse-Man Christian Brossard." –mispronouncing "Corpsman" (the "ps" is silent) during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2010 (The Corpsman's name is also Christopher, not Christian)

 "The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries." --Tampa, Fla., Jan. 28, 2010 

"UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems." –attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009

 "The Cambridge police acted stupidly." —commenting on a white police officer's arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Mass., at a news conference, July 22, 2009

 "The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system." --in remarks after a health care roundtable with physicians, nurses and health care providers, Washington, D.C., July 20, 2009

 "It was also interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There's a lot of -- I don't know what the term is in Austrian, wheeling and dealing." --confusing German for "Austrian," a language which does not exist, Strasbourg, France, April 6, 2009

 "No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." --making an off-hand joke during an appearance on "The Tonight Show", March 19, 2009 (Obama later called the head of the Special Olympics to apologize)

 "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances." --after saying he had spoken with all the living presidents as he prepared to take office, Washington, D.C., Nov. 7, 2008 (Obama later called Nancy Reagan to apologize)

 "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." -- defending his tax plan to Joe the Plumber, who argued that Obama's policy hurts small-business owners like himself, Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2008

 "What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith..." --in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, who jumped in to correct Obama by saying "your Christian faith," which Obama quickly clarified (Watch video clip)

 "I'm here with the Girardo family here in St. Louis." --speaking via satellite to the Democratic National Convention, while in Kansas City, Missouri, Aug. 25, 2008

 "Let me introduce to you the next President -- the next Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden." --slipping up while introducing Joe Biden at their first joint campaign rally, Springfield, Illinois, Aug. 23, 2008

 "Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee -- which is my committee -- a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon." --referring to a committee he is not on, Sderot, Israel, July 23, 2008

 "Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change." --Amman, Jordan, July 22, 2008

 "How's it going, Sunshine?" --campaigning in Sunrise, Florida"On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.""Hold on one second, sweetie, we're going to do -- we'll do a press avail." --to a female reporter for ABC's Detroit affiliate who asked about his plan to help American autoworkers (Watch video clip)

 "I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go." --at a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon (Watch video clip)

 "Why can't I just eat my waffle?" --after being asked a foreign policy question by a reporter while visiting a diner in Pennsylvania

 "It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." --explaining his troubles winning over some working-class voters

 "The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society." 

"Come on! I just answered, like, eight questions." --exasperated by reporters after a news conference 

"You're likeable enough, Hillary." --during a Democratic debate

 "In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy inKansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed." --on aKansas tornado that killed 12 people

 (From http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/barackobama/a/obama-isms.htm.)

Iran displays downed US spy drone

Iran released footage of the recovered US spy drone, believed to be lost during a CIA spy mission over Iran. The reaction in the US has been minimal, the official US government reaction - nothing at all. The drone was shown in an undisclosed location and it appeared to be well intact.

The Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel is believed to be capable of speeds of up to 500-600 mph and is solely a reconnaissance drone as it is not equipped with missiles or bombs as are the MQ-1 and MQ-9 Predator drones.

A US official speaking on the condition of anonymity to Reuters said he believed the Iranians could not determine anything about the mission the aircraft was flying when the brought it down, but he did not say why he thought that.

What is clear is that China and Russia could effectively reverse engineer the aircraft and utilize the developments in stealth technology as well as in infrared sensor and camera technology, technology both countries have been unable to develop to this degree on their own.

According to Newsweek, the Obama administration would not consider bombing the recovered plane or sending in the military to recover or destroy the plane because that would be "an act of war."

RQ-170 stealth drone downed in Iran

"The Beast of Kandahar"

Iran claims to have in its possession an RQ-170 Sentinel drone, a drone of the stealth variety made by Lockheed Martin. According to an unnamed US official it was flying a CIA mission. Iran claims to have brought it down near its eastern border.


According to the LA Times, the Sentinel has the capability to "sniff out" nuclear weapons, "listen in" on cell phone communications and has highly developed sensor and camera technology. Along with this, it is apparently coated in a material that absorbs radar thus rendering it invisible to radar.

Clearly, this stealth technology was all for naught when the "Beast of Kandahar" was brought down in Iran last week. Author Peter W Singer ("Wired for War") said, "It carries a variety of systems that wouldn't be much of a benefit to Iran, but to its allies such as China and Russia, it's a potential gold mine."

Others have said it is not so dangerous for the US as American stealth technology has been in the hands of Russia and China for years and there is nothing recoverable on this aircraft that would be truly groundbreaking for Iran or her allies.

The RQ-170 is a generation ahead of the MQ-1 and MQ-9 Predator drones that are merely propeller powered aircraft, and is widely believed to have a host of classified technology not present on the older drones. The CIA, Pentagon, White House and congressional intelligence oversight committee refused to comment on the incident.

The LA Times reported that the drone is programmed to self-destruct if necessary to save classified technology from falling into enemy hands, but according to Iranian officials the wreckage is mostly intact and the plane did not self-destruct as Iran claims it hacked into the aircraft's controls and took it over. Of course, we may never know the truth of the incident.