THIS MODERN WORLD

Lisa Derrick at Firedoglake has a collection of good organizations to give to money for Haiti. Registered nurses can volunteer to go in an effort being organized by the union National Nurses United.

As George W. Bush said about 9/11, “Through my tears I see opportunity.” It turns out that now, according to the Heritage Foundation, similar opportunities are available after the catastrophic Haitian earthquake:

Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S.

In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region…

While on the ground in Haiti, the U.S. military can also interrupt the nightly flights of cocaine to Haiti and the Dominican Republic from the Venezuelan coast and counter the ongoing efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to destabilize the island of Hispaniola. This U.S. military presence, which should also include a large contingent of U.S. Coast Guard assets, can also prevent any large-scale movement by Haitians to take to the sea in rickety watercraft to try to enter the U.S. illegally.

Meanwhile, the U.S. must be prepared to insist that the Haiti government work closely with the U.S. to insure that corruption does not infect the humanitarian assistance flowing to Haiti. Long-term reforms for Haitian democracy and its economy are also badly overdue.

Good to see that, in the midst of the today’s confusion, someone’s focusing on what really matters: making sure America’s 210 years of superhuman cruelty toward Haiti continue without respite.

(Thanks to David Rosnick for sending this.)

AND: Another of Heritage’s anti-experts on Haiti, Ray Walser, referred to Haiti’s capital in National Review as “Port of Prince.” (Click below.) He’s since corrected it, thus invalidating my theory that all Heritage employees have the part of the brain removed that produces shame.

The frog and the scorpion: a traditional parable revised.

Charles Davis has written a great article for Carbon Control News:

Under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, overseas military activities are generally exempt from regulation…

A 2008 report from Oil Change International that estimated the carbon footprint of the Iraq war found it responsible for “at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.” Ranked as a country, “it would emit more CO2 each year than 139 of the world’s nations do annually.”

I honestly had no idea wars were completely unregulated in this way (and as the article makes clear, will continue to be even under the best possible international agreements). So we have wars to control the oil that causes global warming, and then global warming will inevitably cause more wars, and then those wars will themselves help cause more global warming. And they told two friends, and they told two friends, and eventually earth was inherited by super-intelligent cockroaches.

Anyway, read it all. I think the best we can hope for is the super-intelligent cockroaches will power their civilization with technology that produces huge amounts of boric acid. Then at least we won’t feel like the planet’s only morons.

The first TMW of the new decade, here.

Q: Do you believe that you are smart enough, incisive enough, intellectual enough to handle the most powerful job in the world?

A: I believe that I am because I have common sense. And I have, I believe, the values that are reflective of so many other American values. And I believe that what Americans are seeking is not the elitism, the kind of a spinelessness that perhaps is made up for that with some kind of elite Ivy League education and a fact resume that’s based on anything but hard work and private sector, free enterprise principles. Americans could be seeking something like that in positive change in their leadership. I’m not saying that has to be me.

Click thru for the answer, if you need to.