News Nuggets 639

Some Rapture humorist has some fun!  See the story from the Daily Mail of the UK.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"Syrian democracy activist who was stopped at a Syrian Army checkpoint the other day. He reportedly had a laptop and a thumb drive on the seat next to him. The Syrian soldier examined them and then asked the driver: “Do you have a Facebook?” “No,” the man said, so the soldier let him pass. You have to feel sorry for that Syrian soldier looking for a Facebook on the front seat, but it’s that kind of regime. Syria really doesn’t know what’s hit it — how the tightest police state in the region could lose control over its population, armed only with cellphone cameras and, yes, access to Facebook and YouTube."

Obama Draws the Line (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"The president got 78 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008. Perhaps those words will cost him some of those votes — although sentiment toward Israel among American Jews is slowly shifting. But true friends are critical friends. And the American and Israeli national interest do not lie in the poisonous Israeli-Palestinian status quo."

Obama's Bold Move on 1967 Borders for Israeli-Palestinian Talks from the Christian Science Monitor
"President Obama had to push concrete US positions to get the Israelis and Palestinians on board the freedom train in the Middle East."

Obama and Netanyahu: Are They Really Bickering? (Michael Hirsh) from National Journal
"It’s all in the code. The words themselves don’t mean much. And therein lies a lot of misunderstanding over whether President Obama really broke new ground on Mideast peace this week, or whether he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu truly disagree."

Divisions Are Clear as Obama and Netanyahu Discuss Peace from the New York Times
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told President Obama on Friday that he shared his vision for a peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and then promptly listed a series of nonnegotiable conditions that have kept the two sides at an impasse for years."

Bin Laden’s Gone. Can My Son Come Home? (Frank Lindh) from the New York Times
"I love my son. I enjoy our periodic visits and our weekly telephone calls, but this visit felt different. “If Bin Laden is dead,” I kept thinking, “why can’t John come home?”"

Venezuela Denies Presence of “Any Foreign Military Installations” while U.S. Media Repeats Accusations from Venezuela Analysis [in English]
"On Wednesday Venezuelan Vice President Elías Jaua strongly rejected claims by a German publication that his government has allowed for an Iranian military presence in Venezuelan territory."

Old Soviet Nuclear Site in Asia Has Unlikely Sentinel: The U.S. from the New York Times
"Twenty years after the Soviet Union collapsed and tens of thousands of soldiers abandoned their posts at this remote site in northeastern Kazakhstan, the footprints of another great power — the United States — are increasingly visible."

In Uk, Police Uncover Evidence of Hundreds More Hacked Phones from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The true extent of investigator Glenn Mulcaire's activities only now becoming apparent as Operation Wheeting continues."

French Women 'Stunned' By Public Misogyny Following DSK's Arrest from the Huffington Post
"Angry French feminists say local media have been awash with male chauvinist comments since the arrest of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges he attempted to rape a New York hotel maid."

Power and Seduction: The US and France Still Worlds Apart from Le Monde [of France in English]
"Just as the Dominique Strauss-Kahn storm hits, a well-timed book by an American reporter in Paris tries to make sense of the French codes of power, sex and gender. A review by Le Monde's New York correspondent."

Jon Stewart Debunks Ben Stein's Defense Of Dominique Strauss-Kahn (VIDEO) from the Huffington Post



Tennessee Senate Approves Ban On Teaching Of Homosexuality from the Huffington Post
"A bill passed Friday by the Tennessee Senate would forbid public school teachers and students in grades kindergarten through eight from discussing the fact that some people are gay."

Rapture Ready: The Science of Self Delusion (Chris Mooney) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Why Harold Camping's flock won't give up the faith, whatever happens on Saturday."

How Republicans Are Convincing Themselves That A Debt Default Wouldn’t Be So Bad — And Why They’re Wrong (Brian Beutler) from Talking Points Memo
"Congressional Republicans are falling under the spell of an unorthodox group of financial experts who dispute the views of their peers and say that the U.S. could default briefly on debt payments without major, lasting consequences to the U.S. economy and international markets."

Romney's Work Beginning to Pay Off (Lincoln Mitchell) from the Huffington Post
"Romney has done his work relatively quietly while the decisions by Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee not to run and the disastrous beginning to Newt Gingrich's quixotic bid for the White House have received considerably more coverage in recent weeks. Of these three stories, Huckabee's decision not to run is the most significant."

Mitch Daniels Won’t Run for President in 2012 (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels won’t seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, a decision that could well throw the field open to other late entrants."
The NY Times has more of the story HERE.

Jon Huntsman's Long Game (Jonathan Chait) from the New Republic
"The GOP electorate in 2012 is angrier, Huntsman more dismissive of his own party than Lieberman was, and he starts from a position of obscurity rather than, like Lieberman, front-runner status. Huntsman won't win. I don't think he's deluded enough to think he can win the nomination."

Tough Week for Tea Party Ends with Fizzling Rally from The State [of South Carolina]
"Trump’s decision to not enter the GOP presidential race left local Tea Party leaders stewing about the way they had been treated. But about 30 people were on hand Thursday to thank Gov. Nikki Haley, lawmakers and activists for their work to require more on-the-record Legislative votes. It was all part of a tough week for the state’s Tea Party movement."
The photos here are priceless!

2012 Courting Fuels Tension Between GOP Factions from the Associated Press via Huffington Post
"Some leading Republicans are trying to entice a more established candidate to jump into the presidential race, a courtship that's aggravating tensions between tea partyers and the GOP's traditional business wing, a deep-pocketed source of financial support in the campaign."

Fantasy Island: Are Republicans Losing Their Grip on Reality? (Jacob Weisberg) from Slate
"At a press conference last week, someone asked Chris Christie for his views on evolution vs. creationism. "That's none of your business," the New Jersey governor barked in response. This minor incident, which barely rated as news for a few political blogs, offers a glimpse of Christie's personality, which seems increasingly grumpy and snappish. But it says even more about the current state of the national Republican Party, where magical thinking trumps rationality, and even to acknowledge basic realities about the world we live in runs the risk of damaging one's political future."

In WI, Wisconsin Election 2012: Ideology An Issue For State GOP In Senate Race from the Huffington Post
"Wisconsin Republicans looking to win a U.S. Senate seat that's been in Democratic control for more than 50 years are facing an ideological identity crisis as they wrestle with what type of candidate they want to field for the open spot."

Arnold Schwarzenegger has TWO OTHER Secret Love Children Claims Jane Seymour from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Actress Jane Seymour has claimed Arnold Schwarzenegger has at least two more illegitimate children that he has kept secret from the world."

BRITISH HISTORY NUGGET!!
Left Behind: Why Don’t the British Teach Their Students About Imperial History? (Simon Akam) from the New Republic
"Seeing the fanfare attached to the royal trip—and listening here at my current base in Africa to the careful explanations to the wider world on the BBC World Service of just what it meant—I was struck by what a poor job we as a nation do when it comes to teaching our own history of empire. There is no British Imperial History 101, so to speak."

OLD HOLLYWOOD NUGGET!!
The Genius of Buster Keaton (Jana Prikryl) from the New York Review of Books
"More than fifty years have passed since critics rediscovered Buster Keaton and pronounced him the most “modern” silent film clown, a title he hasn’t shaken since. In his own day he was certainly famous but never commanded the wealth or popularity of Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd, and he suffered most when talkies arrived."