law of unintended consequences, CHINA'S REVOLUTION, Part 2, Ft. Hood, Mumbai,

The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people—and especially of government—always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended. Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it.

The Ft. Hood Massacre Is George Bush's Fault By Thom Hartmann -If Al Gore (or even Ralph Nader) had been President in 2001, the Ft. Hood massacre almost certainly wouldn't have happened. Because George W. Bush was president, it did.

CHINA'S REVOLUTION, Part 2 : Revolutionary lessons - The strength of China as the financial crisis recedes is testament to how its government has learnt from the successes and failures of past revolutions and continues to resist internal and external pressure to open its economy further to the outside world. - Henry C K Liu This is the second article in a multi-part series.

Afghans fear infiltration from Iran - Every day, scores of refugees return to Afghanistan from Iran through a small, poorly supervised border town in Herat province. Most of them have been kicked out by Tehran, which, say helpless border police, is also sending across both Afghan and foreign fighters to join the Taliban-led insurgency. - Zia Ahmadi and Mustafa Saber

SPDY: Google Protocol May Make Web Twice As Fast - By The Huffington Post News Editors
In a somewhat obscure post on the Chromium blog, the development branch of their Chrome (Chrome) browser, Google (Google) reveals they've been working on a new protocol dubbed SPDY for "SPeeDY" for its goal of making the web faster.

Palin Book EXCERPTS Released: Read Them By The Huffington Post News Editors
NEW YORK — The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin: The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family. In Palin's new memoir, "Going Rogue," she confirms reports of tension between her aides and those of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain. The vice presidential candidate confirms that she had wanted to speak on election night, but was denied the chance and says she was kept "bottled up" from reporters during the campaign.

Colin Powell To Obama On Afghanistan Troop Decision: "Take Your Time" By The Huffington Post News Editors - In an interview with Roland Martin on the Tom Joyner Morning Show this morning, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell revealed that he recently advised President Obama to take his time in devising his strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Hannity: Jon Stewart Was Right About Protest Footage (VIDEO) By The Huffington Post News Editors - Fox News' Sean Hannity responded to Jon Stewart Wednesday evening after the Daily Show host called out the network for using old footage from a larger September 12, 2009 "Tea Party' protest to illustrate a much smaller health care rally on Capitol Hill last week.
Speaking directly to the camera, Hannity said that it pained him to admit it, but Stewart was correct."

Complacency creeps back in Mumbai - Life is buzzing again in Mumbai, almost back to normal nearly a year after Pakistani-trained gunmen ran rampage there killing more than 200. But there are doubts the city has learnt from the violent attacks. Regular government pledges of vigilance and anti-terrorism conferences may help create some sense of urgency, but the sight of under-trained, dozing policemen does not. - Raja Murthy

Hope? By info@bravenewfilms.org on rethink afghanistan
Note: Derrick Crowe is the Afghanistan blog fellow for Brave New Foundation / The Seminal. Learn how the war in Afghanistan undermines U.S. security: watch Rethink Afghanistan (Part Six), & visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog. Two very hopeful stories broke this evening that show that the non-escalation factions in the Obama Administration can play the leaking game, too. First, we have this Washington Post [...]

The rise of Rimland? - Energy deals across Southwest Asia - such as between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey - are redrawing international relations for years to come, bringing full circle the region's post-Ottoman Empire history. On the periphery, and crucially, lie Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. - Robert M Cutler