You spelled Banana wrong.

That higher ups in the Vatican are closet cases should be no surprise to anyone. That the mafia would blackmail them is sad and disgusting but no surprise either. That's exactly why gay people have fought bigotry and discrimination. Young people don't remember the bad old days when gay people were blackmailed.

There was a French consortium in the 1890s that was going to build the Nicaraguan canal. They couldn't get the money together in time for Teddy to bull his way into building the one in Panama. Both sites had long been surveyed. The Nicaraguan is shorter, but there is a mountain in between. The site in Panama, while longer, didn't have as much cubic earth to move.

Interesting that the Chinese are resurrecting this. Another incidence of the decline of the American Empire.

a slog rant about the recent pit bull murder of a toddler in 5, 4, 3, 2.....
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/12/us/oklahom…

@3: Decline of the American Empire? Why would anyone in the US be interested in a Nicaraguan canal when we already have hegemonic control over the Panama canal? How many untold of billions of dollars are we supposed to spend to edge out the Chinese in every aspect of global life, just to maintain something as dubiously conceived as our "Empire"?

Gang Nicaragua? Ug, a racing nag.

Sorry, that's the best I've got. We'll have to stick with Panama.

The image of granny shouting curse words while shooting is adorable. I no longer want a gun. Instead I want a granny with a gun.

@8 Granny bare arms.

If the Nicaraguan Canal goes through Lake Nicaragua, it could endanger the country's largest lake and fresh water source. But maybe it doesn't. After all, the Chinese have a spotless environmental record....

Re: Granny. Hmm. I guess her gun actually made her safer. What do you know.

@3 That was Ferdinand de Lesseps, the guy that had done the Suez canal, and it was actually the 1880's (nitpick). My history thesis was originally going to be related to that project, as the faculty advisor had a box of source materials about it. Unlike de Lesseps, I quickly recognized it was a dead end and moved on to a more worthwhile project.

The Chinese are in for a massive boondoggle on this one, if they indeed try to follow through. While there is a need for a mid-Americas passage for chinamax tankers, this will cost many times the original sticker price. And then the Chinese will be stuck with a major investment in a country that will most likely just nationalize it anyhow. It's a sucker play, writ large.

Oh man, Europe making accusations of fascism? That's rich. They should take a look at the own legal system. France doesn't even have presumption of innocence.

Who needs a canal-the future is trans-arctic shipping when a real year-round, ice-free northwest passage gets here.

"America is facist! Now please pay us no attention while we round up and deport/kill all of these Roma and take what they have for spoils."

"In Berlin, where Mr. Obama will speak next week before the Brandenburg Gate, privacy is a highly sensitive political issue and the Prism revelations have stirred a furor."

Really, NYT? A furor? In Berlin?

@17 Angry Germans? What could go wrong....

@6, awesome.