Strynevanten Lake in Norway. From National Geographic.
Third Iranian Diplomat Defects in Europe, Group Says from the Associated Press
"A third Iranian diplomat upset with Tehran's post-election crackdown on dissidents has defected in Europe — this time in Belgium, an opposition group said Monday. The announcement came just hours after the No. 2 man at Iran's mission in Helsinki said he will seek asylum in Finland."
Six Mysteries of North Korea's Succession Drama from Foreign Policy Magazine
"As Kim Jong Il starts looking for the exit, false predictions and wild rumors abound. Need some help sorting through them?"
The Salesman; A Profile of Joe Biden (Mark Bowden) from the Atlantic
"Experienced, emotional, marked by personal tragedy and political setback, Joe Biden is in many ways the antithesis of the president he serves. But his stock has risen steadily in the West Wing, and with the Democrats poised to lose much of their leverage in the midterm elections, the vice president’s unique skills and attributes may prove ever more crucial to his administration’s success."
The Least We Can Do (Michael Kinsley) from the Atlantic
"Self-absorbed, self-indulged, and self-loathing, the Baby Boom generation at last has the chance to step out of the so-called Greatest Generation’s historical shadow. Boomers may not have the opportunity to save the world, as their predecessors did, but they can still redeem themselves by saving the American economy from the fiscal mess that they, and their fathers and mothers, are leaving behind."
Science Scorned (Editorial) from the Editorial Board of the journal, Nature
"The anti-science strain pervading the right wing in the United States is the last thing the country needs in a time of economic challenge."
Post-9/11, We're Safer Than We Think (Fareed Zakaria) from the Washington Post
"After the attacks, the world's attitude changed dramatically, and the series of security measures instituted since then have proved effective. Take one example: sealing cockpit doors has made it highly unlikely that an airplane could ever again be used as a missile."
The New McCarthyism: Palin, Gingrich, and US Paranoid Politics (Peter Beinart) from the Daily Beast
"The politics of mosques and Korans show America to be in the worst spasm of paranoia and bigotry since the Cold War. Peter Beinart on the political roots of the enemy within."
Fallout of the GOP Split Over Tax Cuts (Max Fisher) from the Atlantic
"President Barack Obama's plan to extend all the tax cuts but those for the wealthiest 2 percent of households, while Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have insisted on extending all the cuts. If a new bill is not passed, all the cuts will expire. What does this disagreement mean for the tax cuts, for the Republican party, and the coming elections?"
Tea Party Backlash Looms for Republicans Over Budget (Benjamin Sarlin) from the Daily Beast
"If the GOP retakes Congress and doesn’t immediately take on the Tea Partiers’ top issue, the national debt, they face a backlash that could cost them the support of the movement—whose expectations are sky high."
Did President Obama Psych Out John Boehner? (Stephen Stromberg) from the Washington Post
"The strategy's results also depended on Boehner's reaction. Substance aside, if the minority leader appeared to win a rhetorical joust with Obama -- or at least to hold his own -- he could make the contrast between himself and the House Democratic majority more positive while making the president look small. Instead, Boehner seems to have flinched in the attention Sunday"
In Del., GOP Comes Out Swinging Against Tea Party from the Washington Post
"It's the "tea party" vs. the GOP in Tuesday's Senate primary in Delaware, where a popular moderate is suddenly under siege from a little-known conservative who in any other year might have been relegated to the footnotes of 2010's election records."
NIXON NUGGET!!
Jack Anderson's Nixonian Tactics (Howard Kurtz) from the Washington Post
"There was a time in Washington when Jack Anderson was a hero, the columnist who kept unearthing Richard Nixon's dark secrets, a Pulitzer winner who revealed the administration's secret tilt toward Pakistan in its war against India. But Anderson's reputation would have been shredded had anyone learned that he paid off the source who slipped him the classified documents on Pakistan"
EDUCATION NUGGET!!
Report: More Women than Men in US Earned Doctorates Last Year for First Time from the Washington Post
"For the first time, more women than men in the United States received doctoral degrees last year, the culmination of decades of change in the status of women at colleges nationwide."
Even as the value of the PhD is tripping into the dumper. A sad convergence.
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