You call this "Push Back"?

What is hard to understand are the reviews of Woodward's book, "Obama's Wars", speaking approvingly of how Obama "pushed back" on the Generals and civilian militarists advising him -- this based on concessions he won on paper which are totally unenforceable. Instead of giving the war makers everything they want immediately he'll just have to give them 80 percent down with the rest due when they report that "good progress has been made but we need to do more or all that we have accomplished so far will be wasted and Al Qaeda will be triumphant and a worse threat than ever". Who, except for the President, doesn't see that coming? Obama did not "push back" in any meaningful way. He only kicked and scratched a bit as the Generals pinned him to the floor.

Fight global warming with white paint?

I am not a scientist, ("IANAS"), but I do have more science in my education than most non-scientists and have been a science aficionado since early childhood so I will venture an opinion that global warming is a real and serious threat despite claims to the contrary by certain deniers, (rather suspiciously associated with right wing politics). I further believe that too much time has been lost for the danger to be much mitigated solely by overdue attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will need "geo-engineering" countermeasures. This risks unanticipated and unintended consequences, but that has become unavoidable.

I was pleased to see the suggestion of US Energy Secretary Steven Chu that warming can be reduced by coloring roofs and roads white or other highly reflective hues. Especially in major cities the many flat black tarred roofs produce "heat islands" raising the local temperature several degrees. It should be harmless enough to reverse this unnatural effect, although there would be side effects. For example, there tends to be more rain downwind of such heat islands than upwind so rainfall might even out if the heat islands were weakened or eliminated.

Someone interested in researching an investment idea might want to find out who makes paint suitable for painting rooftops white as well as finding out where the paint manufacturer gets the pigments for the paint.