This week’s rant of the week is Abu Muqawma on the F-22.

From the AP….

Nothing says summer in Iowa like a cloud of dust behind a combine.

But what may be a fact of life for farmers is a cause for concern to federal regulators, who are refusing to exempt growers from new environmental regulations.

It’s left some farmers feeling bemused and more than a little frustrated.

“It’s such a non-commonsense idea that you can keep dust within a property line when the wind blows,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee who still farms in northeast Iowa.

Under rules imposed in 2006, rural areas would be kept to the same standards as urban areas for what the Environmental Protection Agency calls “coarse particulate matter” in the air.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council had petitioned the government to provide an exemption to farmers. They argued that evidence of harm caused by dust in rural areas hasn’t been determined.

But the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington ruled Tuesday that the EPA had already provided the evidence necessary to determine farm dust “likely is not safe.”

You might as well give up on being a law abiding person because everything is against the law.

From the Times…

Islamabad’s capitulation to the Taleban over the Swat Valley has raised fears that the Pakistan route, which accounts for 75 per cent of supplies, could soon be closed.

“The Taleban know if they make a pincer movement they can choke off that access completely,” Mr Neill said. “The options for the US are closing rapidly.”

That is why, for the first time, people are thinking the unthinkable: Iran. Last week a US Nato commander said that individual member countries could seek supply routes through Iran.

The US, when it went into Afghanistan, did not predict the turn of events in Pakistan. The search for new roads may force it to entertain alliances every bit as unexpected.

The article also describes how the attacks by the Pakistani Taliban have cut down on the supplies available to be sold in the PX stores.

From Spiegel….

Pakistan is capitulating to the Taliban in the picturesque Swat Valley, where the Islamists plan to introduce Sharia law. Now the militants’ triumph threatens to encourage radicals throughout the region.

The defeat was celebrated as if it had been a victory. The chief minister of the North-West Frontier Province greeted a delegation from the local Taliban. The Taliban officials, with their long beards and turbans, had come to the governor’s office to sign a treaty. After arriving in large limousines, the men were seated on velvet armchairs and served food on silver trays.

Then the pious foes of the government in Islamabad were given a coveted piece of Pakistan as a gift.

Read the whole thing if you have not been following this story.

From the Telegraph….

Syria is rebuilding its chemical weapons capability, according to satellite images analysed by Jane’s Intelligence Review.

Any suggestion that Syria is enhancing the offensive potential of its chemical munitions threatens to provoke a new round of hostilities with Israel as it will be treated as an additional threat to Israel’s existence.

I don’t see how a company that can do all this (or train people to do all this) can be called a mere security company.

It is interesting to speculate what this vast increase in the number of people who are skilled in close quarters combat means for the future. Heck, there are plenty of places that will teach civilians a lot of these skills even if they have no connection to the government.

Close quarters combat is the true martial art of our age (in the original meaning of the term) and it is worth remembering that most martial arts were perfected in times of utter chaos that followed the breakdown of authority.