News Nuggets 452

A Llama at an animal park in Longvilliers, France. From Huffington Post.

Chinese Communist Party Veterans Defy Censors with Call for Free Speech from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Former party officials renew attack on 'invisible black hand' after open letter erased from websites."
The open letter in question can be found HERE.  Interesting development.  Change is still a long way off though.

Post-Peace Prize (Timothy Garton Ash) from the Los Angeles Times
"As the West applauds Liu Xiaobo's Nobel, China sees another attempt to impose Western values on it."

Elements of Taliban are 'Ready' to Talk Peace, Key Afghan Negotiator Says from MSNBC
"A former Afghan president who heads a new peace council said Thursday that he's convinced the Taliban are ready to negotiate peace."

This story was bolstered later in the day with this headline:
Push on Talks With Taliban Confirmed by NATO Officials from the New York Times
"The United States is helping senior Taliban leaders attend initial peace talks with the Afghan government in Kabul because military officials and diplomats want to take advantage of any possibility of political reconciliation, Obama administration and NATO officials said Thursday."

What Oman Can Teach Us (Nicholas Kristof) from the New York Times
"Just 40 years ago, Oman was one of the most hidebound societies in the world. There was no television, and radios were banned as the work of the devil…. Visit Oman today, and it is a contemporary country with highways, sleek new airports, satellite TV dishes and a range of public and private universities. Children start studying English and computers in the first grade. Boys and girls alike are expected to finish high school at least."

Stuxnet and the Pentagon's Cyber-Strategy from World Politics Review
"Many analysts predictably speculated that the attack represents a coordinated cyber attack on Iran's nuclear program, which the Iranians deny.The strategic environment may warrant such speculation, but other explanations are also plausible."

Education of a President (Peter Baker) from the New York Times
"While proud of his record, Obama has already begun thinking about what went wrong — and what he needs to do to change course for the next two years. He has spent what one aide called “a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0”."

Build'Em and They'll Come (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"The Singaporean is aghast. He simply can’t believe that at a time when his little city-state has invested more than a billion dollars to make Singapore a biomedical science hub and attract the world’s best talent, America is debating about spending mere millions on game-changing energy research. Welcome to Tea Party America. Think small and carry a big ego."

The New Oil: Should Private Companies Control Our Most Precious Natural Resource? from Newsweek
"Proponents of privatization say markets are the best way to solve that problem: only the invisible hand can bring supply and demand into harmony, and only market pricing will drive water use down enough to make a dent in water scarcity. But the benefits of the market come at a price."

Truth Lies Here (Michael Hirschorn) from the Atlantic
"How can Americans talk to one another—let alone engage in political debate—when the Web allows every side to invent its own facts?"

The Crisis of the Humanities Officially Arrives (Stanley Fish) from the New York Times
"The speculated that it “will be a sad, sad day if and when we allow the humanities to collapse.”  What he didn’t know at the time is that it had already happened, on Oct. 1, when George M. Philip, president of SUNY Albany, announced that the French, Italian, classics, Russian and theater programs were getting the axe."

Tea Party Suppression Campaign Reportedly in the Works (J. P. Green) from the Democratic Strategist
"The primary targets, as usual, would be Latino and African American voters: "We are worried this year that we could see large-scale efforts to challenge voters at the polls," said Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center, a nonpartisan public policy and law institute based at New York University."

Michelle Obama, On the Trail as Mom-in-Chief from the Washington Post
"Her presence on the trail, a welcome one for struggling Democrats in need of money and a reenergized base, adds another layer to Obama's role as first lady - one she, like other first ladies, took to with some reluctance but then seemed to embrace."

HISTORY NUGGET!!
The Tyranny of Metaphor (Robert Dallek) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Three historical myths have been leading American presidents into folly for nearly a century. Is Obama wise enough to avoid the same fate?"

GERMANY NUGGET!!
A Visit to Germany's First-Ever Hitler Exhibition from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"On Friday, the German History Museum is opening postwar Germany's first-ever comprehensive exhibition on Adolf Hitler. Curators went out of their way to avoid creating an homage -- yet they are still concerned about attracting cheering neo-Nazis and angry protesters."