Free Republic

When William Lapp, of US-based consultancy Advanced Economic Solutions, took the podium at the annual US Department of Agriculture conference, the sentiment was already bullish for agricultural commodities boosted by demand from the biofuels industry and emerging countries. He added a twist – that rising agricultural raw material prices would translate this year into sharply higher food inflation. “I hope you enjoy your meal,” Mr Lapp told delegates during a luncheon. “It is the cheapest one you are going to have at this forum for a while.” His warning that a strong wave of food inflation is heading towards the...

Wind turbines continue to multiply the world over. But as they grow bigger and bigger, the number of dangerous accidents is climbing. How safe is wind energy? After the industry's recent boom years, wind power providers and experts are now concerned (about reliability and safety of installed turbines). The facilities may not be as reliable and durable as producers claim. in just a few years. Because energy providers have to purchase wind power at set prices, everyone, it seems, wants in. At the Allianz Technology Center (AZT) in Munich, the bits and pieces from wind turbine meltdowns are closely examined....

Harbinger of collapse The division of the occupied territories encapsulates US-Israeli plans for the region, writes Galal Nassar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recent events in Gaza and the West Bank give poets and writers yet another chance for one of those sad epics that seem to best describe the last century or so of our history, although what has happened in the past few days is far worse, on a moral and national level, than the continued Israeli occupation. The loss of life within less than a week exceeded that of a whole year of the first Intifada, when stone-throwing children challenged the...

The Soviet Union was never comfortable living in the same world with the Vatican. The most recent disclosures document that the Kremlin was prepared to go to any lengths to counter the Catholic Church’s strong anti-Communism. In March 2006 an Italian parliamentary commission concluded “beyond any reasonable doubt that the leaders of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate the pope Karol Wojtyla,” in retaliation for his support to the dissident Solidarity movement in Poland. (Major snip)

Most of the post-election editorial analysis lays the blame for the GOP losses on corruption and the war in Iraq. However, an examination of the results in the Northeast, the "blue" states, discloses the flaw in that conclusion. New Yorkers re-elected Alan Hevesi as state comptroller even though he faces charges of fraud that may end his tenure in office. Andrew Cuomo is the state's new attorney general even though he cannot account for the millions that went missing when he was in charge at HUD and, according to the New York Post, refuses to release his 2005 income tax...

LET US SUPPOSE, for the sake of argument, that the war declared by al-Qaeda and other Islamists is under way. Let us further suppose that thousands of “terrorist” attacks carried out in Islam’s name during the past decades form part of this war; and that conflicts that have spread to 50 countries and more, taking the lives of millions — including in inter-Muslim blood-shedding — are the outcome of what Osama bin Laden has called “conducting jihad for the sake of Allah”. If such war is under way, there are ten good reasons why, as things stand, Islam will not...

As fears grow that General Motors will go bust, management and unions are locked in a mournful embrace. “IN THIS case, it takes three to tango.” So said Rick Wagoner, the boss of General Motors (GM), this week—his re-working of an old cliché, capturing the contortions he is having to perform as he struggles to save the ailing giant of the car industry. Given its shrinking market share, GM would be hard enough to revive were it any firm in any industry. But GM is not any old firm, and designing more sellable cars is arguably the least of its...

General Motors at a Fork in the Road ……And…… A Possible Solution for a Robust Resurgence Jerome B. York Advisor to Tracinda Corporation January 10, 2006 Good afternoon to all of you, and thank you, Stephen (Polk), for that very nice introduction. Needless to say, it’s a real pleasure to be here with a bunch of other folks keenly interested in the auto industry. As Stephen indicated, by coincidence it was almost exactly ten years ago today that I last spoke before this group. And it’s always fun to go back and re-read a speech you gave some years ago...

Russia's Gazprom, the world's largest gas-producing company, has become locked in a commercial battle with Ukraine over the price of the fuel, but it is widely and correctly understood that the Kremlin's hand is behind what is quickly being recognized as the final ascent to the summit of a struggle between "East" and "West" for global power, even for dominance, by virtue of control over strategic energy resources. Why can it accurately be said that such a monumental struggle of global proportions is now heating up? What evidence exists to support the insinuation that the world order is polarizing again...

Wellington Hospital junior doctors told a dying Napier student to walk home to the Newtown flat where her body was found a day later, an inquest has found. Cassandra (Cassie) Ann Laurent, 19, was found dead by flatmates at her Newtown home on July 25, 2003. Wellington coroner Garry Evans found the talented graphic art student died of pneumonia after a series of oversights by unsupervised junior doctors. Cassie had been discharged from Wellington Hospital's emergency department three times in the six days leading up to her death. Each time, she showed worsening flu-like symptoms and stiffness in her limbs...

Delphi Corp.'s proposed wage and benefit cuts have not factored in aid from General Motors Corp., which now gives the bankrupt company alternatives in its union labor talks, chief executive Steve Miller said on Thursday. The company's proposal has met stiff opposition from unions that represent nearly all of Delphi's 34,750 U.S. hourly workers and have formed a coalition to fight the terms, raising the possibility of a production-disrupting strike. "The prospects of additional financial support from General Motors has really changed the nature (of the discussions)," Miller told Reuters in an interview at Delphi headquarters. "The financial assistance will...

To some, turnaround specialist Robert S. "Steve" Miller is a straight-shooter. To others he's a trigger-happy cost-cutter bent on destroying the middle-class lifestyle enjoyed by Midwestern auto workers. Miller, who took over as chief executive of Delphi Corp. in July, may never be a household name like former Chrysler chief Lee Iacocca, but he could leave a larger, more lasting imprint on the U.S. auto industry. The drastic pay cuts he seeks at the auto-parts company could set the pattern for hundreds of thousands of workers and, his critics warn, help sink America's middle class. "The unpleasant truth about the...

Troubled U.S. automakers and their allies on Capitol Hill are seeking billions of dollars in aid from the federal government ranging from health coverage for their workers to extra tax write-offs for themselves. They're also asking for one rhetorical favor: Please don't call the requests a bailout. "I don't view it as a bailout," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said. "We're not looking for a bailout," agreed William C. Ford Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Co. The "B" word has been taboo ever since Chrysler Corp., faced with impending insolvency, sought and narrowly won $1.5 billion in loan guarantees from...

A little humor break for this evening………   Notice the difference a bit of tax policy or subsidy policy can make. Price per US gallon in US dollars.     Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48 Norway Oslo $6.27 Italy Milan $5.96 Denmark Copenhagen $5.93 Belgium Brussels $5.91 Sweden Stockholm $5.80 United Kingdom London $5.79 Germany Frankfurt $5.57 France Paris $5.54 Portugal Lisbon $5.35 Hungary Budapest $4.94 Luxembourg   $4.82 Croatia Zagreb $4.81 Ireland Dublin $4.78 Switzerland Geneva $4.74 Spain Madrid $4.55 Japan Tokyo $4.24 Czech Republic Prague $4.19 Romania Bucharest $4.09 Andorra   $4.08 Estonia Tallinn $3.62 Bulgaria Sofia $3.52 Brazil...

The crime was shocking by any standard — a family of three bound, drugged and shot in the head at close range in their beds. Then, a twist: The killers said it was all a game, and the penalty for losing was death. When they were arrested on May 13, Ronald Ribeiro Rodrigues, a 22-year-old glass worker, and Mayderson Vargas Mendes, an unemployed 21-year-old, confessed to the murder of 21-year-old physics student Tiago Guedes and his parents, Douglas and Heloisa, in Guarapari, a seaside city of 230 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro. They said the killings were part of...

MEDICAL experts have confirmed that Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s opposition leader, was poisoned in an attempt on his life during election campaigning, the doctor who supervised his treatment at an Austrian clinic said yesterday. Doctors at Vienna’s exclusive Rudolfinerhaus clinic are within days of identifying the substance that left Mr Yushchenko’s face disfigured with cysts and lesions, Nikolai Korpan told The Times in a telephone interview. Specialists in Britain, the United States and France had helped to establish that it was a biological agent, a chemical agent or, most likely, a rare poison that struck him down in the run-up to...

(This is an exerpt only. Fair use of copywrited material applies.) US senators' personal stock portfolios outperformed the market by an average of 12 per cent a year in the five years to 1998, according to a new study. "The results clearly support the notion that members of the Senate trade with a substantial informational advantage over ordinary investors," says the author of the report, Professor Alan Ziobrowski of the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. He admits to being "very surprised" by his findings, which were based on 6,000 financial disclosure filings and are due to be...

I am a great fan of the Professor's story of the War of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings is wonderfully written; the last time I read it I found myself reading aloud to myself. The language rings and shimmers. Professor Tolkien agreed with his many critics that the story was too short. The Professor was correct in this, I believe. Another thousand pages would have rounded out the story nicely. I have a question, important to me that I wish the Professor had answered about Orcs. What were Orcs really like? Jackson gives his opinion in Towers where...

I am a great fan of the Professor's story of the War of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings is wonderfully written; the last time I read it I found myself reading aloud to myself. The language rings and shimmers. Professor Tolkien agreed with his many critics that the story was too short. The Professor was correct in this, I believe. Another thousand pages would have rounded out the story nicely. I have a question, important to me that I wish the Professor had answered about Orcs. What were Orcs really like? Jackson gives his opinion in Towers where...

I am a great fan of the Professor's story of the War of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings is wonderfully written; the last time I read it I found myself reading aloud to myself. The language rings and shimmers. Professor Tolkien agreed with his many critics that the story was too short. The Professor was correct in this, I believe. Another thousand pages would have rounded out the story nicely. I have a question, important to me, that I wish the Professor would have answered about Orcs. What were Orcs really like? Jackson gives his opinion in Towers...