News Nuggets 312

The Obamas doing the Easter egg hunt thing again. See the Easter Photos Nugget below.

Obama's First Year: The Top Ten Sound Bites (Video) from Time Magazine

"A look back at some of the most memorable quotes from the first year of the Obama Administration."

Several of these picks are simply stupid!

President Obama: Calm in the Eye of the Storm (Jonathan Capehart) from the Washington Post

"The president insists on talking to the American people and audiences abroad like adults. Much has been made of his professorial mien when doing so. Perhaps that's because he is most professorial when the political stakes are highest."

Drones Batter Al Qaeda and Its Allies Within Pakistan from the New York Times

"The strikes have cast a pall of fear over an area that was once a free zone for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, forcing militants to abandon satellite phones and large gatherings in favor of communicating by courier and moving stealthily in small groups, they said."

Can the Pope Restore the Purity of Catholicism (Timothy Shriver) from the Washington Post

"The scandal facing Catholics today looks a lot like the Watergate scandal that engulfed the United States in the early 1970s. Then, what started as a crime committed by a few burglars slowly escalated to reveal corruption at the highest levels of authority. The White House counsel, senior advisers and others were punished for their roles. In the end, the president of the United States was implicated and forced to resign. Is the Catholic Church on a similar pathway to the resignation of a pope?"

A Woman's Place is in The Church from Newsweek

"The cause of the Catholic clergy's sex-abuse scandal is no mystery: insular groups of men often do bad things. So why not break up the all-male club?"

Cardinal Defends Pope, Denounces 'Petty Gossip' from Reuters via the New York Times

"A leading cardinal defended Pope Benedict at an unusual address at the pontiff's Easter Sunday Mass, saying the Church would not be intimidated by "petty gossip" about sexual abuse of children by priests."

Clueless. One of the interesting aspects of this scandal is how much it shows the disconnect between a hierarchical, essentially 19th-century subculture and the pluralistic, essentially 21st-century flock that prelates say they are leading. Note: there was a very good piece from Sylvia Peggioli on All Things Considered last night. You can catch it HERE. One thing she notes is how THOUSANDS of Europeans are leaving the church in the wake of this scandal.

Pope's Immunity to Prosecution May be Challenged in Britain from the Associated Press via Rawstory.com

"Protests are growing against Pope Benedict XVI's planned trip to Britain, where some lawyers question whether the Vatican's implicit statehood status should shield the pope from prosecution over sex crimes by pedophile priests."

This is the kind of pressure that could force Benedict out. I think if the Pope was actually BARRED from some countries due to issues surrounding the scandal, it would be "Howard Baker-trip to the White House" time.

Black Folks We'd Like to Remove from Black History from The Root

"As happy as we are for the nation to get its yearly reminder that black people do exist in the context of American history, there’s a growing list of characters that has us harking back to Zora Neale Hurston’s famous words: “All my skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.” "

On the Question of White House Kabuki (James Fallows) from the Atlantic

"During the Obama era the pressure for inside nuggets, with the resulting implicit favor-trading, was even greater than normal, because at the moment the market for Obama-insider books was hot. ... Once an Administration begins, however, the available vignettes are more like the five-remove puppet show. They represent administered rather than observed truth."

'No One Forgives Anyone Anymore': An Interview with former Sen (R) Alan Simson from Newsweek

"No one forgives anyone for anything anymore. People get angry just for disagreeing with them. But remember the old AA phrase: if you can't forgive a person, it's like letting them live in your head rent-free."

David Frum: Off the Fence (James Kirchick) from World Affairs Magazine

"This is still the man who coined the phrase “Axis of Evil.” This is still the man who earned the undying enmity of paleoconservatives for his explosive National Review cover story from 2003, “Unpatriotic Conservatives.” You can judge a man by his enemies, and with each passing day, David Frum accumulates more of the right ones."

The Danger in the Extremist Rhetoric of the Tea Party from The Root

"As a youthful admirer of leftist protest movements during the 1960s, I became a connoisseur of violent political rhetoric. Which is to say that I‘m acquainted with the power of angry words to fuel explosive action. And how, like mystics chanting a mantra to enter a mindless trance, extremist activists, on both the left and right, can hypnotize themselves into believing some really crazy stuff."

For a while now, I've noted the interesting parallels between left wing extremism in the late 1960s and early 1970s and right-wing extremism now.

The Tea Party Goes Hollywood from Newsweek

"Conservatives create their own film festival, but will they get the right stuff?"

The Town Hall Dog That Didn't Bite from TalkingPointsMemo

"On their first recess break since passing historic health care reform legislation, members of Congress have not faced anything like the crowds and anger from anti-reform advocates they faced last summer, when guns, shouts and even fist fights became a part of more than a few town hall meetings."

Doctor Against Treating Obama Supporters Admits Not Knowing What's in Health Reform Bill (Alan Colmes) from the Liberland blog.

Normally I don't deal with small-ball stupidly partisan issues like the rantings of this Orlando doctor -- but BOY did Alan Colmes call him out! The transcript is too good to pass up.

"Dr. Jack Cassell, the Orlando urologist who put a sign on his door letting patients know he doesn’t want to have to treat them if they are Obama/health care reform supporters, was on my radio show Friday night, but didn’t seem to know much about the health care bill he’s criticizing."

For Malia and Sasha - Proust Rather Than Asterix Comics from Le Mond [of France in English]

"The Sarkozys brought the daughters of the president of the United States some Astérix comic books. One may wonder if the adventures of these 'Indomitable Gauls who hold out against the invader' will be to the liking of Malia and Sasha. Were there no other books to offer them that would have embodied French genius?"

OMG!! And I thought only the US's right-wing media bitched about this kind of crap!

COLLEGE NUGGET!!

The 50 Most Stressful Colleges from the Daily Beast

"As admissions letters hit mailboxes—and amid growing concern about mental health on campus, The Daily Beast looks at which schools are the biggest pressure cookers."

BIG CRITTER NUGGET!!

Monster of the Deep: Shocked Oil Workers Catch TWO-AND-A-HALF-FOOT 'Woodlouse' from the Globe and Mail [of the UK]

"The beast normally lives 8,500ft under water and this specimen is thought to be the largest giant isopod ever found at this depth."

We saw one of these suckers the other day. The pictures and film are better here.

AUDIO NUGGET!!

The Political Scene from the New Yorker

In this podcast, David Remnick talks about his new book: The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.

"David Remnick on the improbable career of Barack Obama."

Here are more reviews of the book from Newsweek, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

EASTER PHOTOS NUGGET!!

A Gallery of Presidential Easters from the Daily Beast

Several are quite charming.

FOREST NUGGET!!

Forests Growing Back in Eastern US from the Washington Post

"Here, in a forest of woodpecker-holed pine trees, is one of the rarest things in the American environment. A second chance. The United States can now hit "reset" on one of its greatest environmental mistakes: the destruction of the enormous woodland that once canopied the continent from Maine to east Texas."