Month: September 2002

Ted Rall vs. Wendy Chamberlain

Glenn Reynolds posted a link today to a massively stupid article by Ted Rall rehashing the lame conspiracy theory that the war in Afghanistan is really about oil. There are so many things wrong with Rall’s version of this conspiracy theory, that it’s difficult to know where to begin. So let me just stick to one of the early targets in Rall’s essay, former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlain. Here’s what Rall says about Chamberlain,

U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain met with PakistanÂ’s oil minister to discuss reviving the old Unocal deal on the third day of the bombing campaign, October 10, 2001. This was when the U.S.-aligned Northern Alliance still controlled just five percent of the country and defeat of the Taliban was still anything but guaranteed.[xxiii]

[xxiii] Frontier Post, Peshawar, Pakistan, October 11, 2001.

If you do a Google search on Wendy Chamberlain and Unocal you will find hundreds of left wing web sites repeating this claim. Rall makes an apparent error in his citation, though. Every other left wing conspiracy site puts this story as appearing in the Frontier Post on October 10, 2001, not on the 11th.

Unfortunately, the Frontier Post does not apparently maintain archives of its web site, so tracking down what the Frontier Post actually wrote about Chamberlain’s meeting is not easy. However, doing Google searches I ran across a web discussion group where someone had the entire text of the Frontier Post’s October 10, 2001 story on Chamberlain’s meeting. Here it is:

From The Pakistan Frontier Post

ISLAMABAD: The US Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain paid a courtesy call on the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Usman Aminuddin here Tuesday and discussed with him matters pertaining to Pak-US cooperation in the oil and gas sector.

During the meeting the Petroleum Minister briefed the US Envoy on the ongoing and future development activities in the oil, gas and mineral sectors, privatization process, salient features of the new onshore and offshore exploration policies and opportunities for the prospective investors.

Usman Aminuddin said that the government was attaching high priority to the promotion of these vital fields of the economy aimed at accelerating socio-economic progress in the country.

He said that Pakistan is endowed with the fifth largest coal reserves in the world and the government is focusing specific attention to exploit them as soon as possible with a view to reduce the heavy dependence on oil and gas.

The Petroleum Minister said that a number of US oil and gas companies were successfully operating in Pakistan and were playing a tremendous role in the oil and gas exploration activities.

He invited the US investors to increase their participation in the petroleum and coal sector activities for the mutual benefit.

Usman Aminduddin also briefed the Ambassador on the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline project and said that this project opens up new avenues of multi dimensional regional cooperation particularly in view of the recent geo-political developments in the region.

Ms Wendy Chamberlain said that the United States attaches great importance to its relations with Pakistan.

She informed that the US Government had lifted a number sanctions ton Pakistan which would help revive it s national economy.

The Ambassador expressed the hope that the US investors would avail the opportunities in the oil, gas and mineral sectors of Pakistan.

Rall casts the article as claiming that Chamberlain met with the Petroleum Minister to talk about reviving the Unocal pipeline project, whereas the Frontier Post article is quite clear that this was a general meeting about petroleum and coal-related issues where the Pakistani Petroleum Minister raised the issue of the pipeline and apparently had to brief Chamberlain on the details of that proposal. Reading between the lines, Chamberlain appears to have been noncommittal (and for good reason — the pipeline is a nonstart for business reasons even with the Taliban out of the way).

Now, Rall could conceivably be referring to some other article the Frontier Post published about Chamberlain’s meeting. He should either produce that article or withdraw his claim about Wendy Chamberlain plotting to restart the Unocal pipeline project.

Source:

Peshawar Frontier Post article.

Mixed Results from Study of Swedish and Norwegian Vegetarians

A study of 2,041 Swedish and Norwegian 15 and 16 year olds found mixed results from the small number of such teens who were classified as “low meat eaters” including vegetarians.

The studies main finding was that the subgroup identified as consuming little or no meat were not healthier than the teens in the group who were not “low meat eaters.” Such teens were just as likely to smoke, drink alcohol, or do drugs as their meat consuming peers. Their was also no statistically significant difference in their weight, body mass index or opinion about their weight.

Ironically, health issues were actually more important to the omnivorous teens than to the vegetarian and near-vegetarian subgroup. The “low meat eating” subgroup also reported being depressed more frequently than did the omnivorous teens.

The researchers had a number of speculations about the differences, but the bottom line is that they’re studying so few vegetarians and near-vegetarians that the best the researchers could offer is speculation. Most such studies end up like this, surveying a large group of individuals and then subsequently producing studies on the small number of vegetarians. It would be interesting to see a large scale study of vegetarian teens.

Source:

Teens who eat less meat no healthier than others. Reuters, September 10, 2002.

British Hunters Threaten Militant Actions

The British newspapers The Sunday Mercury and The Times (London) both ran stories this week featuring supporters of fox hunting threatening to carry out Animal Liberation Front-style actions if the government goes ahead and bans fox hunting.

Here’s how the Times summed up the various ideas being put forth by some pro-hunting extremists,

One plan is to immobilise a motorway by covering a stretch with a ton of pop rivets that would slash vehicle tyres. Other ideas include dumping sand into sewers to block drains, and pouring dye into Welsh reservoirs that supply the Midlands. Severn Trent Water has stepped up its security. Such action, and a massive campaign of civil disobedience, is expected to follow any government announcement to ban or curtail hunting. The hotheads are operating under the loose banner of The Real Countryside Alliance and have issued leaflets and a poster with a Green Union Flag and slogans such as “rural rebellion” and “free country.”

The Sunday Mercury reported that some pro-hunt acts of violence had already occurred. According to that newspaper,

Four Labour MPs, including junior agriculture minister Elliot Morley, have had their constituency offices attacked by a group of militant pro-hunt supporters — believed to be from the RCA — led by a balaclava-clad woman. It has also been blamed for defacing the famous hillside white horses in Oxfordshire and North Yorkshire with giant graffiti figures of huntsmen and hounds.

Aside from the fact that this sort of nonsense is indefensible, like animal rights terrorism it will prove self-defeating. These sorts of actions do not gain sympathy for a cause, but only further alienate people who might agree with hunters and marginalize the fox hunting movement. Mainstream groups should denounce these sort of tactics.

Sources:

‘We’ll attack water supply’. Paul Malley, The Sunday Mercury, September 15, 2002.

Hunt hotheads plan disruptive action. Valerie Elliott, The Times (London), September 16, 2002.

20th Annual World Farm Animals Day

Farm USA’s Alex Hershaft recently distributed a press release announcing the 20th annual celebration of World Farm Animals Day. The release had an odd title, “Activists bring the slaughterhouse to America’s streets.” Is that some sort of commentary on the movement’s penchant for terrorism and destruction? Hershaft has, after all, made it clear that activists who espouse violence are more than welcome at his annual animal rights convention, and no sort of criticism of such activists will be permitted therein.

The press release was filled with several dubious claims, but smartly avoided publishing any statistics on the number of farm animals killed in 1983, when the event began, to 20 years later

When World Farm Animals Day began in 1983, Americans ate a total of 180.9 pounds of meat per capita every year. For 2003, the USDA projects Americans will eat 193.6 pounds of meat per capita. But, of course, for farm animals the situation is (from Farm USA’s perspective) far worse.

Beef consumption during those 20 years declined from 74.2 pounds in 1983 to an estimated 62.0 pounds in 2003. The problem, of course, is that this means total chicken consumption skyrocketed from 34.5 pounds in 1983 to an estimated 53.3 pounds in 2003 — and it takes a lot more chickens to provide that additional 18.8 pounds of meat than it does cattle. The total number of farm animals has exploded just in the United States.

Yet, according to Farm USA,

Growing awareness of the adverse health consequences of meat consumption, including the largest recall of ground beef contaminated with E. coli, is driving consumers to meat alternatives offered by mainstream producers in local supermarkets.

Certainly there is a rise in the popularity of vegan and vegetarian products, but Farm USA makes the mistake of associating that with a total rejection of meat, which is simply not happening (my family, I suspect, is typical — we buy plenty of meat substitutes along with our chicken and turkey).

Moreover current estimates put the total number of farm animals worldwide as likely doubling this century as the per capita incomes in the underdeveloped world increase to developed world levels.

Farm USA also makes this odd warning about foot and mouth disease,

The foot-and-mouth and mad cow epidemics have devastated the European meat industry and threaten to have a similar effect in the U.S.

But, of course, the foot-and-mouth and mad cow epidemics have been a boon for American animal agriculture which has been exporting meat to make up for the problems in Europe. Neither Mad Cow nor foot-and-mouth have yet to rear their heads in the United States despite the wishful thinking of some animal rights activists.

It won’t be too long before Hershaft is issuing the press release for the 30th and then the 40th and so on observances of World Farm Animals Day.

Source:

Activists bring the slaughterhouse to America’s street. Farm USA, August 25, 2002.

Dave Winer on Conflict of Interest

Watching the principals involved go back and forth over RSS 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, whatever.0, is certainly entertaining. Imagine what these people could do if they didn’t have to spend all that time fighting with each other?

Anyway, le’affair RSS has devolved into threats of lawsuits, discussion of doing Winer’s bad ticker in with bad food, and other assorted silliness.

Now, I don’t know much about (actually I don’t know anything) about the various technical issues surrounding RSS, but I do have a little experience with media ethics. And for once I find myself in complete agreement with Winer — this story about RSS aggregators for The Guardian is the sort of thing that would result in someone getting fired at most newspapers (at any respectable newspaper).

As Winer notes, this is more advertising than news copy and the author praises people in the article whom he has a relationship with. You can get away with writing puff pieces about your friends at some college newspapers, but at most newspapers that would be strictly forbidden.

Winer writes,

The Guardian requests an apology. For what? They ran a tainted review. [Ben] Hammersley is a participant in the debate over the future of syndication technology, yet he wrote a review for the Guardian where that was not disclosed. Now, either Hammersley didn’t tell them, or they don’t care, or British newspapers run ads without saying they’re ads. Whatever it is, this whole thing stinks. How dare they bully me into silence.

Winer’s absolutely right. Either Hammersley didn’t disclose or The Guardian thought it was irrelevant. Either way it’s lousy journalism.

Gullible People

I’m really taken aback by the number of people who are posting this alleged misdirected e-mail.

Okay, I’ll grant there is a remote chance it is legitimate, but it has all of the hallmarks of a hoax.

And yet dozens and dozens of people — especially the more-skeptical-than-thou webloggers — are posting this e-mail as if it must be true without any apparent attempt to verify it (a Google search on the individuals in the e-mail turns up nothing). It’s like it’s 1995 all over again.

What’s next? Are these folks going to be warning us about the Good Times virus? Gee, somebody sent it to them in an e-mail, it must be true.

Aaaargh.