Rouhani, Putin, and Erdogan celebrating Mideast victory post-Sochi, Russia (Kayhan Özer / Anadolu)
Once again Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick has the “must read” summary of where things stand vis-a-vis the US, Russia, Iran, and Turkey in the Mideast, post-Sochi.
A useful if less insightful summary is provided by this article in al-Monitor. Predictably for an Arab source, the journalist quotes an anonymous “senior Gulf diplomat stationed in London” who claims that US-Saudi amity
“requires progress on the Palestinian issue. This may very well be the background to the efforts by the Trump administration for a renewal of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, under broad guidelines that should be acceptable to Israel, the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.”
Oh, goodie. Just what Secretary of State Tillerson or Jared Kushner needs — shuttle diplomacy. It’s worked so well in the past.
Prostitutes of the press, US edition
Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and his lawyers want to protect the identity of the firm’s press prostitutes
But the wishful thinking of an Arab journalist becomes a flag of virtue when one surveys some of the practitioners of the same trade in the US. “Fusion GPS, the liberal research firm that funded and distributed the anti-Trump dossier, has paid three journalists for work related to Congress’ Russia probe,” the Washington Times reports. Or was it to report in the press what Fusion GPS fed them? The two law firms working for Fusion GPS are seeking to block the public identification of the three journalists in question. Could it be that prostitutes don’t like to have their day (or night) job become public knowledge?
Then there are the journalists who violate professional standards of objectivity by being virulent partisan activists. Amazon’s Washington Post doesn’t seem to care, which is why we do our shopping elsewhere.
Species extinction is nature’s way: let it be
California Democrats would rather save the Delta smelt from extinction than the state’s struggling farmers and Latino farm workers
But here’s an excellent op ed that managed to get into that otherwise very left and anti-administration newspaper. Its author, the Robert F. Griggs Associate Professor of Biology at the George Washington University, writes that
“Extinction is the engine of evolution, the mechanism by which natural selection prunes the poorly adapted and allows the hardiest to flourish. Species constantly go extinct, and every species that is alive today will one day follow suit. There is no such thing as an “endangered species,” except for all species. The only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves, to create a stable future for human beings.”
Take that, Friends of the Earth!
The latest from beverage meta analysis land
¡No!
Nutritional research and government recommendations have undergone so many flip-flops over the decades that some of us have become understandably skeptical of whatever the latest reports bring. With that caveat, the latest news from the nutritional research community is
- Coffee — yes
- Alcohol — no
What happened to all the recommendations that moderate wine drinking is beneficial to most people? It’s now asserted that the studies that claimed this were biased by an unrecognized selection effect. See here and here.
¡Si!
A meta analysis of coffee drinking, however, concludes that
“Coffee consumption seems generally safe within usual levels of intake, with summary estimates indicating largest risk reduction for various health outcomes at three to four cups a day, and more likely to benefit health than harm. Robust randomised controlled trials are needed to understand whether the observed associations are causal. Importantly, outside of pregnancy, existing evidence suggests that coffee could be tested as an intervention without significant risk of causing harm. Women at increased risk of fracture should possibly be excluded.”
Click here to go to yesterday’s Founders Broadsheet (“Qatar likely state sponsor of Sinai terrorist attack”)
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