In China, Confidence Clouded by Apprehension (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"The paradox of a rising China - a country that wants to play a bigger role in global affairs but suffers from a combination of lethargy and stage fright - was on display here at a conference with Chinese officials."
Liu Xiaobo: Nobel Peace Prize Widens China Conflict (Gordon Chang) from the Daily Beast
"There was an empty chair at today's Nobel ceremony because of China's crackdown on dissidents. Gordon G. Chang on why the event can't hide the rifts in China's supposedly "harmonious" society. "
Chief Obstacle to Iran's Nuclear Effort: Its Own Bad Technology from the Christian Science Monitor
"Continuing technical challenges mean Iran is still probably 3 to 5 years away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Diplomats should exploit that leverage."
WHO CALLED IT!?!
Wikileaks Cables Expose an Ideological Israel-Iran Conflict (Aluf Benn) from Al Haaretz [of Israel in English]
"The leaked cables reveal that the Israeli-Iranian conflict is about more than the nuclear issue. It is a sweeping ideological conflict. And history teaches that such conflicts end only when one side has been knocked out."
Why the Middle East Needs Back-channel Diplomacy (Mike Herzog) from the Telegraph [of the UK]
"Without the use of a back-channel, the Israelis and Palestinian will not be able to properly engage, writes Mike Herzog."
I SO agree with the general point here. If/when peace comes to the Israelis and Palestinians, it will leave the peoples on both sides DEEPLY unhappy. The concessions each side will have to make will NOT be popular.
Another Nuclear Pact With Russia Close to Approval (Peter Baker) from the New York Times
"While President Obama focuses his energy on pressing the Senate to sign off on a new arms control treaty with Russia, another nuclear pact with Moscow is securing final approval after more than four years with virtually no notice but potentially significant impact."
Stuxnet Worm Still Out of Control at Iran's Nuclear Sites, Experts Say from FOX News
"Iran's nuclear program is still in chaos despite its leaders' adamant claim that they have contained the computer worm that attacked their facilities, cybersecurity experts in the United States and Europe say."
North America: New Energy Kingdom (Neil Reynolds) from the Globe and Mail [of Toronto]
"The American Petroleum Institute reports that the United States produced more crude oil in October than it has ever produced in a single month, “peak oil” or not."
Obama's Silent Majority (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"Liberal commentators and activists and interest group leaders may be seething over Obama, but their rage has not trickled down to the Democratic voters (and, in particular, the Democratic voters who identify themselves as liberals), even though they've been venting their grief for the better part of two years."
Tax Cut Bill: WH, Lawmakers Reach New Compromise from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post
"The White House and key lawmakers cleared the way Thursday night for swift Senate action to avert a Jan. 1 spike in income taxes for nearly all Americans, agreeing to extend breaks for ethanol and other forms of alternative energy as part of the deal."
The Realpolitik Behind the Tax Deal (Robert Creamer) from the Huffington Post
"Behind any big historic political bargain there are usually big, bottom-line self interests. The case of the tax deal negotiated by the Democratic White House and Republican Leadership is no exception."
Selective Outrage: The President’s Liberal Critics Need a Reality Check (Walter Fields) from NorthStar News
"We do understand the tremendous burden that this President carries because of the mess he inherited and the weight of being the nation’s first Black President. It is not the perspective of many white liberals who are now crying foul over Mr. Obama’s tax-cut deal with the Republicans. There seems to be no pleasing them."
Why Obama is Breaking Up with Democrats (David Swerdlick) from The Root
"Obama's not a progressive, Democrats are all talk and 2012 is right around the corner. If you need proof that President Barack Obama got what he absolutely had to out of the tax-cut deal he made with congressional Republicans, listen to the sound of silence coming out of Sarah Palin's Twitter feed."
CMU Study: Sexual Orientation in the Military a Subject Long Researched
"“One of the interesting things we discovered is that the military has investigated the issue of sexual orientation in its ranks for close to 100 years,” said Timothy Haggerty, now director of Carnegie Mellon's Humanities Scholars Program."
Poll: Americans Want Action on the Deficit, but Oppose Most Proposals to Cut It (Bruce Drake) from Politics Daily
"an overwhelming majority of Americans believe it is a major problem and almost none of the most widely mentioned proposals to cut the red ink by reducing spending or raising taxes get majority support from the public."
No surprise.
Obama and the Left, 2012 Version (Michael Tomasky) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Mercifully (and take note, those of you who think the Kos site is full of loonies), "I don't want a primary challenger to Obama" was winning when I cast my vote. This whole talk is deeply silly."
Every Man His Own Historian (Stanley Kutler) from Truthdig.org
"The right’s twist of history to please its backers and fuel its agenda is a vigorous enterprise. Serious history, serious scholarship and serious discussion of facts and ideas are dismissed with tunnel vision. In Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” Humpty Dumpty scornfully said “when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”"
Most Scientists in the Country are Democrats. That's a Problem (Daniel Sarewitz) from Slate
"[Democrats] have convinced themselves that they are the keepers of the Enlightenment spirit, and that those who disagree with them on issues like climate change are fundamentally irrational. Meanwhile, many Republicans have come to believe that mainstream science is corrupted by ideology and amounts to no more than politics by another name. Attracted to fringe scientists like the small and vocal group of climate skeptics, Republicans appear to be alienated from a mainstream scientific community that by and large doesn't share their political beliefs. ... How would a more politically diverse scientific community improve this situation?"
I just had to go off on this one! This guy so misses the point. Most scientists are Democrats because they have been driven out of the GOP! My uncle is a world renowned nuclear physicist. In areas such as foreign policy and economics, he is more aligned with Dick Cheney and the Club for Growth than with any liberal I could name. He had voted Republican most of his adult life UNTIL the 1990s. With Bush 43 he stopped voting with the GOP at all. As was widely reported, under Bush many top gov't scientists (many of them colleagues of my uncle) had political "minders" who escorted them around to make sure they wouldn't say anything that countered the Bush "line" on scientific matters. It was like something out of the Soviet Union! HOW can you expect scientists (a highly networked and collaborative discipline) to look passed that?!
The author of this item also misses a larger point: for 40+ years, since the shellacking Goldwater got in 1964, the conservative wing of the GOP has systematically worked to undercut most of the "knowledge industries" that routinely presented evidence that ran counter to the conservative narrative. The main-stream media was first on their list. But in the 1970s and 1980s they moved on to the social sciences - everything from sociology to psychology and most other ss disciplines besides have been (in the eyes of ideological conservatives) completely discredited. In the 1990s, conservatives moved on to history, environmental studies, and any thing with "global" or "multicultural" in its title. And, with the 21st century, they have moved on to economics. The vast majority of economists turned away from Reagan's "trickle-down" policies years ago and have thoroughly de-bunked the "Laffer curve," the idea that the best economic policy is to simply keep cutting taxes. GOP lawmakers and TV talkers have been in complete denial about this.
And, now they have their sites set on scientists. Whether the issue is evolution, stem cell research, or global warming, it has been CENTRAL to the conservative agenda for lo these many decades to discredit any institutional information sources that counter the underlying narratives that guide decision-making on the right. Instead, what you've gotten over the years is the building up of a right-wing media machine that can be counted on to spout a richly textured conservative counter-narrative, one that NEVER has to confront the peer-reviewed findings of actual scientists, real historians or world-class economists. What you get instead is FOX News, Glenn Beck University, and museums and theme parks devoted to creationism. Scientists have not converted to 21st century versions of LBJ. It has been ideological conservatives who have driven these people away.
2012-Pres.: Can Daniels Contend for the Presidency? (Mona Charen) from RealClearPolitics
"National bankruptcy, on the other hand, "is a mathematical certainty" if we don't change course ... and fast. "The America that we have known is profoundly threatened." It's because the stakes are so high that Daniels has let himself be cajoled into considering a presidential run himself."/10/can_mitch_daniels_contend_for_the_presidency.html
As I have said here many times, Daniels is one of the few GOP potentials for 2012 who Obama needs to watch out for. He comes off as much more authentic than most of the rest. Here's a conservative's take on Daniels' candidacy.
OUTER SPACE NUGGET!!
Best Cosmic Mindblowers of 2010 from National Geographic News
"Wrap your brain around National Geographic News editors' picks of some of the odder astrophysics concepts introduced in 2010."
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