Nightly Ramble:JAF Edition

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere: The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

This is the JAF Edition. (Just Another Friday)

• Unemployment is up: To the shock of nobody, unemployment is up. This morning’s

James Joyner:

My New Atlanticist essay “Australia Prepares for U.S. Decline” discusses a recent Aussie white paper that is generating much discussion in the foreign policy wonkosphere.  Basically, they see a rapidly rising China and a United States

Hume, last night:

The man who is about to become the United Nations’ lead investigator into Israeli conduct is standing by his comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis. Richard Falk will begin his job

Hume, last night:

The United Nations Human Rights Council was supposed to be better than the old Human Rights Commission, which became famous for bias and hypocrisy. Now the same charge is being leveled at the new body

The council

Scientist Patrick Michaels writes in the American Spectator Thursday that if a major journal reported the planet has warmed twice as much as previously thought it would be front-page news in every paper.

He writes: “But what would happen if

Is anthropogenic global warming a real problem or just an excuse to party?   Robin McDowell, Associated Press: 

BALI, Indonesia — Never before have so many people converged to try to save the planet from global warming, with more than

The New York Times is reporting:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 —New York Times- A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting judgment two years ago

Lest anyone think the Oil for Food business has gone away, The NY SUN will disabuse you of that notion straight away:

A Switzerland-based oil trading company has pleaded guilty to paying $13 million in kickbacks to the Iraqi government

The United Nations official in charge of spreading global hysteria about AIDS admits he lied.   Craig Timberg
Washington Post:

JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 19 — The United Nations‘ top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long

LOL…. This is going to go over huge in Orange County… especially this first para, from the Orange County Register, we see Mark Steyn, this morning…

I don’t believe the U.S. Constitution includes a right to abortion or gay marriage

False Confessions They’ve always been the point of torture, and always will be.

In a CIA sub-station close to al Libi’s jail cell, the CIA’s “debriefers,” who had been talking to al Libi for days after his return from Cairo,

 Linda Hirshman, New Republic, has put yet another liberal face on Adolf Hitler:

Oh, and for you Obama and Edwards supporters, remember the story about the man who didn’t stand up to the Nazis when they came for his