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cincinnatus_c
Currently at Toronto Pearson: 17. High today: 20. EC says 34 for tomorrow, which would be ... rather odd.
Also in the back yard today:
That wasp is--I think--an organ pipe mud dauber; they hunt spiders to paralyze them and lay their eggs in them. When that garden spider assumed fighting posture there it backed off, but they are not totally averse to biting off more than they can chew, as you can see here.
One stray thought on Syria: the US periodically kills people in Yemen with missiles fired from drones. For example, this article concludes: "a Yemeni Defense Ministry official said that 34 people had been killed in 12 drone strikes since July 28." I'm pretty sure (but what am I supposed to do, look it up or something?) there has never been any Congressional vote on US military intervention in Yemen. I'd be shocked if more than 20% of Americans even know about it. Obviously the practical difference is most likely more or less entirely made by matters of global realpolitik, but I wonder what principled difference can be found between the two cases. The most obvious one is that in Yemen the US is intervening on the side of the state; in Syria it would be intervening against it. (Of course, as the sudden wrench in the narrative I'm seeing in the media this week has it, intervention in Syria would be intervention on the side of al Qaeda, whereas in Yemen it is intervention against al Qaeda. Right there, realpolitik runs up against principle inside a big ball of spin.) Is that a difference you'd want to make a principled difference?
Also in the back yard today:
That wasp is--I think--an organ pipe mud dauber; they hunt spiders to paralyze them and lay their eggs in them. When that garden spider assumed fighting posture there it backed off, but they are not totally averse to biting off more than they can chew, as you can see here.
One stray thought on Syria: the US periodically kills people in Yemen with missiles fired from drones. For example, this article concludes: "a Yemeni Defense Ministry official said that 34 people had been killed in 12 drone strikes since July 28." I'm pretty sure (but what am I supposed to do, look it up or something?) there has never been any Congressional vote on US military intervention in Yemen. I'd be shocked if more than 20% of Americans even know about it. Obviously the practical difference is most likely more or less entirely made by matters of global realpolitik, but I wonder what principled difference can be found between the two cases. The most obvious one is that in Yemen the US is intervening on the side of the state; in Syria it would be intervening against it. (Of course, as the sudden wrench in the narrative I'm seeing in the media this week has it, intervention in Syria would be intervention on the side of al Qaeda, whereas in Yemen it is intervention against al Qaeda. Right there, realpolitik runs up against principle inside a big ball of spin.) Is that a difference you'd want to make a principled difference?
