"During [Paul Bremer's] first four months on the job, 109 U.S. soldiers were killed and 570 were wounded. In the following four months, when Bremer?s shock therapy had taken effect, the number of U.S. casualties almost doubled, with 195 soldiers killed and 1,633 wounded. There are many in Iraq who argue that these events are connected - that Bremer's reforms were the single largest factor leading to the rise of armed resistance."

So writes Naomi Klein in Year Zero, a remarkable and readable piece about the turmoil in Iraq from an economic perspective. She explains how an experiment in creating a multinational capitalist paradise backfired, resulting instead in a violent insurgency.

"It's quite an accomplishment: in trying to design the best place in the world to do business, the neocons have managed to create the worst, the most eloquent indictment yet of the guiding logic behind deregulated free markets."

From this one perspective, many of the problems facing Iraq today were caused by simple, unfettered greed.
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"Sprawl May Harm Health, Study Finds"
This Washington Post article reports on a study which claims some deleterious effects of suburban sprawl. These are all common sense, it just took someone to document these health hazards for the information to make the news. People in the suburbs walk less, drive more, and the lack of exercise plus car pollution contribute to various health problems. However, the study did not find living in the suburbs harmful to one's mental health.
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It looks to me like Hurricane Jeanne is following a very similar track (can't link directly to track map) to the one Hurricane Gracie followed back in 1959. Hurricane Gracie is remembered for being one of the worst storms ever to hit South Carolina, along with Hugo, Hazel and the storm of 1893. Jeanne has even appeared at the same time of year as Gracie did.

I hope, of course, that the similarities between these two storms end with the time of year and their tracks so far. Between Charley, Gaston, and Ivan, we've already had enough rough weather in South Carolina this hurricane season.
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