News Nuggets 976

Lake Walchensee in southern Germany.  From the Christian Science Monitor. 

The Hawks' New Flight Pattern (James Traub) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"... it was George W. Bush who made a mess of Iraq, and then dumped the mess on his successor. And the Obama administration's failure to persuade the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to permit a residual U.S. force to remain beyond 2011 may be a misfortune, but it's hardly a calamity."

The World is Misreading Obama on Iran (David Rothkopf) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"... in the end, as dangerous as an attack might be militarily and politically, if the President believes there is no other alternative to stopping Iran from gaining the ability to produce highly enriched uranium and thus manufacture nuclear weapons, he will seriously consider military action and it is hardly a certainty he won't take it."

In Syria, Growing Evidence of Insurgency from the Washington Post
"... the violence here, though still relatively small-scale, seems to signal a transformational moment in what is proving to be the most intractable and complex of the Arab revolts."

Highway to Homs (John Pedro Schwartz) from Foreign policy Magazine
"A motorcycle ride across Syria, a country descending into chaos. "You are not American. You do not speak," Mahmoud warns me as we walk toward the souqs and hail a taxi. Bilal climbs into the front seat and directs the driver to Bab al-Sebaa, a district in the south of Homs, Syria, and the three of us drive off."

To Fix Housing, See the Data (Joe Nocera) from the New York Times
"One expert’s data-driven approach to the housing crisis makes it clear that mortgage modifications that reduce principal are the only thing that will work."

Gabrielle Giffords Declares Intent to Return to Congress from the Atlantic
""I will get stronger. I will return," Rep. Gabrielle Giffords writes in her and her husband Mark Kelly's forthcoming memoir, the Associated Press reported after they got hold of a copy. That affirmation, which the AP describes as a vow to return to Congress, comes in the last chapter of the book, Gabby, which was primarily written by Kelly."

Car Rams Protestors at OccupyDC (Josh Marshall) from Talking Points Memo
"Occupy protestors tried to blockade the Koch Brothers backed conference (Americans for Prosperity) put on today in DC — blockade in the sense of keep people from leaving the convention hall. Then someone drove a car into protestors acting as this sort of human blockade."

A Machiavellian Model for Obama (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"As one Kennedy aide recounted, “Jack preferred killing a politician to wounding one. ‘A wounded tiger,’ he always said, ‘was more dangerous than either a living or dead one.’” Reading these pages brought to mind the current president, who too often handles his tigers with stroking or submission."

This Time, How About a Debate of Substance? (George Will) from the Washington Post
"...perhaps certain candidates can be compelled to expand upon, and improve upon, what they have been saying about foreign policy and about the role of the judiciary in American democracy. ... What is the candidates’ objection to Obama implementing the status-of-forces agreement that his predecessor signed in 2008?"

Cain Rises in Post-ABC Poll Despite Scandal; Most Republicans Dismiss Allegations from the Washington Post
"Businessman Herman Cain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are running nearly even atop the field of 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows, with most Republicans dismissing the harassment allegations that over the past week have roiled Cain’s campaign."

The Post-Racial America of Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan (Colbert King) from the Washington Post
"Conservative pundits remind blacks of “their” place."

Don’t Call Herman a Monster (Charles Blow) from the New York Times
"Cain isn’t a regular candidate, and this isn’t a regular race. He is the anti-Obama, and that absolves him from his multiplying errors and inoculates him against his enemy’s poison arrows. The fact that Cain obviously isn’t presidential timber holds little weight with those who view the current resident of the White House as, at best, unqualified and, at worst, illegitimate."

HIGHER ED NUGGET!!
Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard) from the New York Times
"...middle and high school students are having most of the fun, building their erector sets and dropping eggs into water to test the first law of motion. The excitement quickly fades as students brush up against the reality of what David E. Goldberg, an emeritus engineering professor, calls “the math-science death march.”"

GERMAN HISTORY NUGGET!!
A House That Bismarck Built: A Review of Bismarck: A Life by Jonathan Steinberg (Jacob Heilbrunn) from the National Interest
"... a patriarchal monarchy had itself become almost impossible to reconcile with the resurgent national movements that Bismarck had once attempted to co-opt. The ineptitude of these regimes was exposed by the demands of modern warfare."

WORLD WAR II BOOK NUGGET!!
The Beginning of the End: A Review of The Battle of Midway by Craig L. Symonds from the Wall Street Journal
"What he takes issue with is the idea—latent, he believes, in most of the popular accounts—that the outcome at Midway was a matter of luck."