Another grisly paramilitary attack in the Colombian oil zone of Putumayo, in the Amazon basin along the Ecuadoran border. From the local Asociación Minga, Aug. 9 via the Colombian human rights network Red de Defensores (translation by WW4 REPORT):

On Aug. 5, 2006, near nine at night, a group of approximately 50 men, armed with rifles, some dressed in camouflage uniforms, other with camouflage pants and black t-shirts, their faces covered with bandanas or hoods, and wearing armbands emblazoned with the letters AUC, entered the cock-fighting ring [gallera] Las Heliconias, located in the hamlet [vereda] Villa de Leiva, district [corregimiento] La Carmelita, municipality of Puerto Asís, department of Putumayo, where a communal festival was taking place.

Trees, it seems, can be ideological. But the ideology, as Grace Slick once sang, "doesn't mean shit to a tree." Or, as Gertrude Stein might have had it, a tree is a tree is a tree. In other words, even if it is a Zionist symbol, it is still holding down topsoil and protecting groundwater. And the fact that forests are burning in this arid part of the planet is not a good thing, no matter what side of an international border they are on, or what they symbolize. From the New York Times, Aug. 8 (emphasis added):

The carnage in Lebanon has pushed Gaza from the headlines. But lest we forget... From Reuters, Aug. 8:

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have seen a significant increase in war casualties with severe injuries over the past month and are running out of medical supplies, British medical aid agency Merlin said today.

How perversely ironic. Last Wednesday, Aug. 2, was Tisha b'Av, the Jewish holiday commemorating the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, as well as several other calamities in Jewish history. Yet this year, Tisha b'Av came as Jews were inflicting a calamity on their Lebanese neighbors, and Israel's chief rabbis issued a decree officially exempting soliders fighting on the front from having to fast for the holy day. (YNet, Aug. 1) Meanwhile, the paradox of Tisha b'Av falling in the middle of the assault on Lebanon (and the near-forgotten Gaza Strip) has jacked up the always-high level of paranoia at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. From YNet, Aug. 2:

From El Universal Aug. 8 via Chiapas95:

OAXACA- Police fired bullets into the air to clear more than 100 protesters outside Oaxaca state's economy secretariat - the latest violence in a wave of confrontations that have scared many tourists out of the historic city in southern Mexico.

Talk about your great moments in bad timing. Will we hit the much-feared $100 per barrel before the year is out? From Bloomberg, Aug. 8 (links and emphasis added):

Oil traded near a three-week high in New York on concern BP Plc's pipeline closure in Alaska will cut off supplies from the largest oil field in the U.S. for months.

It certainly is comforting to remember that global warming is just a myth. Not rational, mind you, but definitely comforting. From the Washington Post via Newsday, Aug. 7:

WASHINGTON - Heat waves like those that have scorched Europe and the United States in recent weeks are becoming more frequent because of global warming, say scientists who have studied decades of weather records and computer models of past, present and future climate.

A note of irony. From IMEC News, July 31:

In an official report, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Israeli soldiers took 600 Palestinian residents prisoners since the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from a military post in the southern Gaza Strip last month.