Connections?

I read the comics in the paper every day, and one of the comics is Doonesbury. About a week or so ago he was talking about how large segments of the population believe in all kinds of wacked out stuff and how rationalists are a distinct minority. Then he goes off and spends a few days talking about how Afghanistan is the new Vietnam. I mention this one at lunch and Don mentions the pipeline, you know, the one they were building in the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough. I like this theory because it goes along with my money-is-the-root-of-all-evil theory of Global Domination. Except there is no pipeline. Way back in 1998 there was a agreement in place with the Taliban to build one across Afghanistan and Pakistan to deliver natural gas to India, but that agreement fell apart and a few years later we decided to get involved. So it could be that we invaded Afghanistan to ensure that the pipeline would not get built and so deprive India of a source of cheap gas. Or it could be that we really are there to combat terrorists. Like Jack said, even it the US was not involved, given the general situation over there, it seems unlikely that a pipeline could ever be built, much less be a success. Some people are still talking about building one, but it seems even less likely now.


I was talking to an old friend last night and mentioned that darling daughter is now in Uganda, and this reminds Jody of Darwin's Nightmare. Seems someone introduced Nile Perch into Lake Victoria (the largest fresh water lake in the world, never mind wikipedias claim that Huron and Michigan are one lake. If they were one lake, why do they have two names? Just another example of American's claiming to be bigger and better than everyone else). This fish pushed out the previous residents, destroyed the subsistance fishing industry (can you call substitance anything an industry?) and created a new export industry. So now we have Russian jet air freighters flying in plane loads of arms and ammunition and flying plane loads of fish filets to Europe. Meanwhile the locals can't afford to eat the fish.

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So everything points to Doonesbury.