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Saturday, October 2, 2010

News Nuggets 446


The egg clusters of frogs in a spring-fed mountain lake in Hungary.  What an evocative image! From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT MIDTERM ELECTIONS NUGGET!!
Print it out and carry it around … for those disenchanted Dems who ask why they should support their party in November.
So You Don't Like President Obama.  You Still Need to Vote from Salon

"Many Democrats and Progressives (especially those who registered in the last Presidential election) have signaled their intent to boycott the upcoming midterms in November.  This would be a terrible mistake."

Asia's New Cold War from Time Magazine
"The row has pulled relations between East Asia's two great powers to its lowest ebb in years, showing just how delicate the balance of power remains in a region that from 1894 to 1953 suffered from near constant war."

A related story is:
Woken Up to a Stirring Dragon (Michael Auslin) from the Wall Street Journal via RealClearWorld

"Beijing's interest in asserting territorial claims throughout its neighborhood is longstanding, but the fact that others are increasingly paying attention-and standing up to China-is new. How China's leadership reacts to the ensuing conflicts in the coming months may well determine how peacefully the entire region develops over this decade."

Tangled by China Ties: Why Moscow Should Beware of Beijing (Owen Matthews) from Newsweek
"Long term, however, the structure of these deals will entrench all that’s most flawed about the Russian economy."

Why Don't Palestinians Adopt Nonviolence? (Jonathan Chait) from the New Republic
"From the Palestinian perspective, Israel is a colonial state that was suddenly dropped on their head as a result of European crimes. Most Palestinians seem to think, like Helen Thomas said, that the fair solution is for the Jews to go back to Europe. I obviously don't see things that way, but I understand why Palestinians do."

Gandhi adopted nonviolence in the face of British colonialism.  While an interesting point, I'm not sure how well it holds up. 

Midnight Shopping on the Brink of Poverty (Jamie Tarabay) from NPR

"Last year, 3.7 million Americans joined those already living in poverty, meaning families of four living on just under $22,000. That's 14 percent of the population."

California Downgrades Pot Possession to Infraction from the San Francisco Chronicle
"Citing the need to reduce spending on prosecution and courts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure that makes marijuana possession an infraction, on par with traffic and littering tickets."

With Tyler Clementi's Death, Let's Try Friending Decency (Kathleen Parker) from the Washington Post
"We should add an urgent call to renew respect for privacy. As a community of decent people, we have to rally ourselves to stop the insanity of narcissism and exhibitionism that inculcates the broader notion that nothing is off-limits."

The Radical Right Returns (Paul Starobin) from National Journal
"The Radical Right, as the Birchers and their kinfolk were known, is back. The movement has returned, if not to the center of American politics, then to some worrisome place not all that far from the mainstream. … But the bill of personal indictment against Barack Hussein Obama the man -- that is, the particular spate of accusations that cast him as somehow un-American -- is absurd."
A long-form examination of the mainstreaming of radical thought.

Movement of the Moment Looks to Long-Ago Texts from the New York Times
"The Tea Party is a thoroughly modern movement, organizing on Twitter and Facebook to become the most dynamic force of the midterm elections. But when it comes to ideology, it has reached back to dusty bookshelves for long-dormant ideas.  It has resurrected once-obscure texts by dead writers — in some cases elevating them to best-seller status — to form a kind of Tea Party canon."

Next thing you know, they'll be citing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The Terrible Election Race Race (Gail Collins) from the New York Times
"Which state is having the most appalling campaign season?  Wow, so much competition."

GERMANY NUGGET!!
Eastern Germany on the Road to Western Prosperity from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]

"Almost two decades since East and West Germany merged, a new study shows that eastern states are catching up with their western neighbors. The standard of living in the former East Germany has improved significantly since the fall of the Wall, though it still trails the west."

CREEPY PLACES NUGGET!!
The World's Creepiest Places from the Huffington Post

"Here are our picks for the creepiest places on the planet. Some, such as Japan's Aokigahara Forest, maintain closely associated with the present-day macabre, while others, like Scotland's Loch Ness, are frequently disregarded as pure folklore...but then again, no one knows for sure."

MOVIE NUGGET!!
"Leaving": Why Isn't Kristin Scott Thomas a Movie Star? from Salon

"'Leaving' has got something none of those movies about middle-aged women finding love has: the amazing Kristin Scott Thomas, who keeps appearing in roles that seem bound to win her the Oscar she's deserved for so long, but inevitably don't. (She's been nominated only once, for "The English Patient" in 1997.)"
I share the critic's high regard for Thomas.

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