Mark Casey Online

• Time has a great piece on the recent uptick of hope and achievement in the African continent, as well as the harrowing pockets of extreme violence that still threaten the continent’s fragile economy and political systems.
• In less significant news, the University of New Hampshire has released a new study proving that winters in New England, which are notoriously severe, have warmed and lightened significantly in the last 30 years, namely the post-Global Warming awareness era.
• Researchers are developing new drugs that may promise to “Vaccinate” against addiction–effectively canceling the addicting and, ahem… “appealing” effects of drug and alcohol abuse.
• John McCain does well in opinion polls against “The Democrats”–far better than any other Republican candidate, though the GOP is still at a major disadvantage. Thanks, Dubya!
• Pakistani Prez Musharraf tells the United States to “stay out” after the NYT reported that the CIA was thinking of starting covert initiatives against Al Qaeda, wherever they are. Of course, Bill Maher and I (and select others) have argued all along that that’s how you fight terrorism, not by blowing up airports in Baghdad. So… good job, CIA, I guess?

Yesterday, the board of housing development in New Orleans confirmed their decision to tear down four lower-income housing developments–consisting of over 4,000 homes–to make way for spanking new developments of “mixed income” (read: upper middle class) housing. Mayor Ray Nagin said that the decision is “moving forward” for New Orleans.

Of course, Nagin is half right. Building new homes, across the income spectrum, is crucial for the development of New Orleans. But tearing down four thousand homes and building four thousand more is the opposite of moving forward, or backward: it’s just stagnation.

And as always, those who have nothing will end up losing the most.