World View: U.S. Military to Air Drop Toxic Mice on Snakes in Guam

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:

• Italy’s election portends trouble throughout Europe
• John Kerry says that Americans have the right to be stupid
• U.S. military to air drop toxic mice on snakes in Guam

Italy’s election portends trouble throughout Europe

In Italy’s parliamentary elections over the week, angry Italian voterssend a clear and unmistakable message to Europe’s leaders: ThatItalians are tired of efforts to raise taxes cut pensions and curbbudget deficits, and are tired of taking orders from Germany. 

Votersfirmly rejected the austerity measures of Mario Monti. Center-leftleader Pier Luigi Bersani got the largest vote, but just a sliverhigher than the vote given to Silvio Berlusconi, who promised to endthe austerity taxes and refund the taxes already collected, and BeppeGrillo, a standup comedian who wants to reject all austerity demandsfrom Europe. T

he rise of Berlusconi from the dead is particularlydisturbing to European leaders, since they blame Berlusconi forcausing the financial crisis in Italy in the first place. Monti hascalled Berlusconi Italy’s “Pied Piper,” leading Italians to theirdoom. 

Italy’s rebellion against austerity bodes ill for otherEuropean countries that have to go further than Italy, particularlySpain and Greece. The worst may be that since the vote was roughlyeven split among Bersani (about 31%), Berlusconi(30%) and Grillo(25%), leaving Monti with just 10%, it seems likely that Italy’sgovernment will be in ungovernable chaos, and a new election will berequired soon. Spiegel and Bloomberg

John Kerry says that Americans have the right to be stupid

John Kerry, the new Secretary of State, is the cockroach who testifiedto the Senate in 1971 that American soldiers regularly raped people,tortured people, cut off their ears and mutilated people, and weredoing these things on a day to day basis. (See “John Kerry and Seymour Hersh trash the armed forces.”.) 

In 2006, he vehemently reaffirmed hisclaim that American soldiers are nothing but rapists and terrorists,and he said: “You know, education — if you make the most of it,you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort tobe smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck inIraq.”

It’s not surprising that Kerry thinks that America soldiers arestupid, in addition to being rapists and terrorists, but now, in atrip through Europe, he’s implying that most Americans are stupid: “In America, you have a right to be stupid, if youwant to be. And you have a right to be disconnected to somebodyelse if you want to be. And we tolerate that – we somehow make itthrough that.”

I can only think that whatever room he’s in, he’s always thestupidest person in the room.

He’s been making one gaffe after another in his Europe trip:

• He refused to back Britain in the dispute over the Falkland Islands.
• In a speech, he referred to the nonexistent nation of Kazakhstan.

I’ve said many times that Hillary Clinton would have been a betterpresident than Barack Obama because she actually knows what’s going onin the world, while Obama does not. But replacing Secretary of StateHillary Clinton with John Kerry brings Washington stupidity to newheights. Daily Mail (London)

U.S. military to air drop toxic mice on snakes in Guam

The U.S. military plans to air drop tens of thousands of dead micelaced with acetaminophen (Tylenol) onto foliage surrounding AndersenAir Force Base, in order to control the population of the brown treesnake. Acetaminophen is harmless to humans but toxic to the browntree snake. 

The snakes are natives of Australia, and came to Guam onboard military boats after WW II. The native bird population isdefenseless against the snake and has wiped out almost all of Guam’snative birds, making most of the species extinct. 

The dead mice willbe fitted with tiny parachutes, so they’ll catch on trees to make themmore attractive to the snakes. The fear is that a similar infestationof brown tree snakes to Hawaii would cause over $2 billion in damageper year. 

 The new mouse drop follows a pilot experiment in 2010 thatworked well. However, activists from PETA (People for the EthicalTreatment of Animals) are expressing outrage that snakes will suffer,though hopefully the snakes at least won’t get headaches. AP and CNN (9/2010) and Russia Today

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