The Crisis in Global Problem-Solving (Steve Walt) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Our inability to cope with a rising number of global challenges is not due to a lack of knowledge or insufficient resources, but rather to the inability of existing political institutions to address these problems in a timely and appropriate way. ... Describing how to fix this problem is beyond the scope of a single blog post, but let me suggest three potential remedies. "
It's Greek to Me: What the Greek Crisis Says About the Future of the EU (Steve Walt) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"It seems to me that this crisis is a serious body blow to the European Union itself. The EU can point to plenty of successes over the years, but the combination of continued expansion and the creation of a common currency back in 1995 now looks like an exercise in hubris. "
Who would have guessed? A Steve-Walt two-fer!!
NYC Mayor: Al-Qaeda Not Behind NY Car Bomb from Yahoo News
"Authorities in New York said Sunday that Al-Qaeda was not behind an attempted car bombing of Times Square and that police had several strong leads, including camera footage of a suspicious man leaving the scene."
Drilling, Disaster, Denial (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"For those who remember their environmental history, the catastrophe in the gulf has a strangely old-fashioned feel, reminiscent of the events that led to the first Earth Day, four decades ago. And maybe, just maybe, the disaster will help reverse environmentalism’s long political slide — a slide largely caused by our very success in alleviating highly visible pollution. If so, there may be a small silver lining to a very dark cloud."
I've been thinking the same thing myself. One of the only blessings of this catastrophe is that it hit exactly in the place one could view as the "Drill, Baby, Drill" heartland: East Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. It even crossed my mind last night that there is something almost Biblical (in the nasty Old Testament sense) about this event. God's punishment for those who view his natural creations with contempt. I'm not a very religious person -- but this oil spill certainly makes one think.
Animal Cleanup After Oil Spill: A Lengthy Process from Discovery News
"When it comes to organizing efforts to rescue wildlife affected by oil spills like the one in the Gulf of Mexico that made landfall in Louisiana late Thursday, timing is everything. Training is essential for volunteers, who could themselves suffer health problems if they should come into contact with the oil."
Oil Spill Wildlife Rescue: Why Some Animals Receive Priority Care from Discovery News
"Wildlife experts who are working on rescue efforts associated with the Gulf oil spill aftermath inform Discovery News that they anticipate triage systems will be established at refuges, beaches and other areas where animal victims of the spill are expected."
Tech Used to Clean Up Oil Spills from Discovery News
"Oil spill clean up crews are already on the job, doing their best to contain the oil, disperse it, burn it or skim it. Some of the technologies employed for such a task are developed and improved upon at Leonardo, N.J.-based Ohmsett an large-scale oil spill test facility maintained and operated by the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service."
The Biggest Oil Spills in History from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The growing slick of crude menacing the Louisiana coast is big trouble, but the world has seen much, much worse."
Vatican Seeks 'Transparency' But We See Through That (Eugene Cullen Kennedy) from the National Catholic Reporter
"Fr. Lombardi must have chosen a safe place to stand lest lightning should strike him as he unveiled a trio of goals you would need the Hubble telescope to find in the Vatican’s handling of its greatest sadness since the sixteenth century. Catholics see right through this call for sudden and unaccustomed virtue in church dealings. This is deathbed repentance after the near death experience of sex abusing clergy being exposed for exposing themselves all over the world."
Perhaps a wee bit of cynicism creeping into our NCR headlines these days.
Who Can Mock the Church? (Nicholas Kristof) from the New York Times
"As I’ve noted before, there seem to be two Catholic Churches, the old boys’ club of the Vatican and the grass-roots network of humble priests, nuns and laity in places like Sudan. The Vatican certainly supports many charitable efforts, and some bishops and cardinals are exemplary, but overwhelmingly it’s at the grass roots that I find the great soul of the Catholic Church."
Can We Talk About Faith, Not Religion? (Martha Woodruff) from the Washington Post
"I am a person of faith who is not religious. By this I mean that while I live in partnership with God, the great Whatever, I claim no knowledge of God's relatives, nature and modus operandi. I believe that everything about God beyond the simple fact of Its existence and availability is beyond my understanding and so beyond the scope of my words. I make no claim to wisdom of any kind about God, only to experience with God."
I'd have to say Woodruff's sentiment here captures well my own spirituality.
Three-Way Race in the UK (Simon Schama) from the New Yorker
"In place of the first-past-the-post system, which has made it impossible for third parties to break through in significant numbers, some sort of proportional representation could be put to a national referendum. The popular response to this collapse of worm-eaten certainties has been an un-British surge of mass exhilaration."
There's more to this article than this quote suggests.
Tory Lessons for Republicans (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"In today's GOP, someone like Cameron would be condemned as a big-government sellout and buried under a mountain of tea bags. For even as the news in Britain focused on Cameron's comeback courtesy of his effort to detoxify the Conservative Party brand, the political news here was Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's decision to abandon the Republicans and run for the U.S. Senate as an independent."
BIRD NUGGET!!
British and Irish Golden Eagles are Genetically Uniform from Plant Earth Online
"The golden eagles in the British Isles are all part of one genetically similar population. This means that the species can be reintroduced in Ireland with eagles from Scotland and that the main conservation challenge will be safeguarding their habitat, not promoting genetic diversity."
This reminds of the story about cheetahs which can be found HERE.
AMERICAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
Founding Amateurs? (Gordon Wood) from the New York Times
"If one wanted to explain why the French Revolution spiraled out of control into violence and dictatorship and the American Revolution did not, there is no better answer than the fact that the Americans were used to governing themselves and the French were not."
MILITARY BOOK NUGGET!!
The Pentagon Book Club from the Nation
"Petraeus's writings then and his efforts since raise serious questions about just who he believes has suffered most because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, what role he has played in that misery and the lessons he has drawn from the carnage. Given the Crusaders' cheery (and bizarre) conclusions that Petraeus turned the bloody US war in Iraq into a victory and that his "surge" there offers a template for similar success in Afghanistan, one also worries what dubious lessons the next generation of Crusaders will draw from him and his "better wars."
This long-form review is an exceptional exploration of the wrong lessons the military and neo-cons took from Vietnam. The author thoroughly dissects the right-wing's "stab-in-the-back by the politicians" interpretation that has been conservative gospel for more than a generation. An outstanding piece!
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