UP-FRONT POLITICAL NUGGET!!
How Conservatives Lost Their Moral Compass (Neal Gabler) from Politico
"There is a reason we have never previously had a hatemonger like Rush Limbaugh enjoy popularity for as long as he has. The reason was shame. ... Surely when a group can publicly cheer a man’s death for not having health insurance, the sense of shame is gone. It faded not only because liberals had subverted it by casting it as a conservative scheme to corset society, but because conservatives managed to delegitimize it."
Some of you may recall Gabler as the author of an award-winning biography of Walt Disney.
BLAST-FROM-THE-PAST POLITICAL NUGGET!!
Without showcasing it, I linked to this long-form 1995 story last week. It provides extraordinary insight into Ginrich's background and ... mental state. A MUST-READ!
The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich (Gail Sheehy) from Vanity Fair
"From the cauldron of his childhood—the father who abandoned him, the manic-depressive mother who loved him too much, the stepfather whose anger shaped the family—Newt Gingrich emerged with a heroic need that became his mission. Just a few samples: "I found a way to immerse my insecurities in a cause large enough to justify whatever I wanted it to.” ... In the spring of 1977, she was in Washington to attend a census-bureau workshop when Gingrich took her out to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. He met her back at her modest hotel room. “We had oral sex,” she says. “He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, T never slept with her.’” Indeed, before Gingrich left that evening, she says, he threatened her: “Tf you ever tell anybody about this, I’ll say you’re lying.’”"
Israeli Jet-Sized Drone Crashes During Flight from the Associated Press
"The Israeli military says a drone that can fly as far as Iran has crashed in central Israel on a routine experimental flight. ... The Heron TP drone is also known locally as the Eitan. It has a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making it the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet. It is the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel's military arsenal."
Out of Afghanistan: Incredible Stories of the Boys Who Walked to Europe from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The country is so dangerous it's no wonder so many leave, travelling alone across the Middle East in search of a new life."
An amazing, long-form look at young Afghans' flight to Europe!
Obama’s Lean, Mean SEAL Machine (Daniel Klaidman) from the Daily Beast
"The rescue of two aid workers in Somalia and the president’s bold, new strategy."
US Calls on Pakistan to Release Doctor who Helped Find Osama bin Laden from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Al-Qaida chief's location in Abbottabad was established with help from Shakil Afridi, says US defence secretary Leon Panetta."
The Austerity Debacle (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"It turns out that by one important measure — changes in real G.D.P. since the recession began — Britain is doing worse this time than it did during the Great Depression. Four years into the Depression, British G.D.P. had regained its previous peak; four years after the Great Recession began, Britain is nowhere close to regaining its lost ground."
For Poor Whites, Charles Murray Does It Again (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"Big government has created a new lower class of lazy, shifty, low-IQ folks, he argues. But this time, they're white."
Obama: The Most Polarizing President. Ever. (Chirs Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"...we are simply living in an era in which Democrats dislike a Republican president (and Republicans dislike a Democratic one) even before the commander in chief has taken a single official action. The realization of that hyper-partisan reality has been slow in coming for Obama. But in recent months, he seems to have turned a rhetorical corner..."
What Americans Mean When They Say They're Conservative (Conor Friedersdorf) from the Atlantic
"The word is invoked to refer to a number of surprisingly diverse worldviews -- and politicians take advantage of that.
Who in God’s Name Is Mitt Romney? His Greatest Passion is Something He’s Determined to Keep Secret (Frank Rich) from New York Magazine
"Romney is in some ways more exotic and more removed from “real America” than Obama ever was, his gleaming white camouflage notwithstanding. Romney is white, all right, but he’s a white shadow. He can come across like an android who’s been computer-generated to be the perfect genial
candidate."
A Florida Bush Stays Silent, and to Many, That Says a Lot (Jeff Zeleny) from the New York Times
"As the center of Republican politics has once again returned to Florida, with Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich making final appeals to voters across the state on Sunday, Mr. Bush has been noticeably — and, several friends say, purposefully — absent from the conversation."
Romney and Gingrich Set the GOP on a Path Toward Self-Destruction (John Batchelor) from the Daily Beast
"A GOP professional laments the “slime and dirt and muck attached not only to the two candidates but also to the party itself.”"
Romney's Problem is Romney: He Doesn't Deliver Red Meat to the Rank and File (Jack Kelly) from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Mr. Romney's stump speech is insipid pap. He says nothing that offends, consequently nothing that motivates or inspires. In debates, he has qualified his answers so carefully that "he comes across as a wimp," said Boston radio talk show host Howie Carr."
GOP Insiders Rise Up to Cut Gingrich Down to Size (Charles Babington) from the Associated Press via ABC News
"The gathering criticisms are bitingly sharp, as if edged by a touch of panic, a remarkable development considering the target once was speaker of the House and will go down in history as leader of the Republicans' 1994 return to power in Congress."
Newt May Be Mad and Mental Enough to Fight On Long After Florida (John Heilemann) from New York Magazine
"Pledges to continue the fight unabated in the face of harsh and/or humiliating outcomes are staples of presidential campaigns. ... in Gingrich's case, he might be serious, so much has he come to despise Romney and the Republican Establishment that has brought down on him a twenty-ton shithammer in Florida, and so convinced is he of his own Churchillian greatness and world-historical destiny."
Newt: Mitt Can Have Florida But This Is Going All The Way To The Convention from the Huffington Post
"The conservatives clearly are rejecting Romney. He is nowhere near getting a majority. And the fact is, once you get beyond Florida, these are all proportional representation states, and he’s not going to be anywhere near a majority by April,” Gingrich explained..."
Newt Gingrich Responds To Mitt Romney's 'Carpet-Bombing' Ads By Going Nuclear (Jon Ward) from the Huffington Post
"Newt Gingrich stepped out of church Sunday morning and launched some of his most vitriolic attacks on Mitt Romney to date in the Republican primary, seeking to recover lost ground in the polls two days before primary voting ends here on Tuesday. "I believe the Republican Party will not nominate a pro-abortion, pro gun-control, pro-tax increase moderate from Massachusetts," the former House speaker said."
Newt Gingrich’s Deep Neocon Ties Drive His Bellicose Middle East Policy (Wayne Barrett) from the Daily Beast
"If elected, Gingrich would be the first American president to emerge from the dark think-tank world born in the Reagan era that gave us the Iraq war and lusts now for an Iranian reprise. The Daily Beast closely examines Gingrich’s long-time association with this discredited cabal."
Good News and Bad News for Gingrich in Florida (Ronald Brownstein) from the National Journal
"He's probably going to lose Tuesday, but he could emerge a stronger contender."
COMPUTER NUGGET!!
Why Apple Should Start Making a 3D Printer Right Now (Ross Andersen) from the Atlantic
"Hobbyists and tinkerers are testing out the future with a technology that you're probably going to have sooner than you think."
E-BOOK INFORMATION NUGGET!!
On Amazon, An Uneasy Mix Of Plagiarism And Erotica from NPR's All Things Considered
"She decided to take a closer look at her competition. Cruz was clearly prolific and successful. She had 42 titles, 41 of which were erotica stories. But one title seemed out of place. It was called Dracula Amazing Adventure. Sharazade, who worked as a college professor, says she felt there was something odd about the ebook. "I took a sentence from the description and put it in between quotes and dropped it into Google, and Bram Stoker's Dracula came up." Shar says. "It was word for word Dracula." It didn't stop there. Shar says she found instances of plagiarism in every single book published by Cruz, mostly from the website Literotica, where people can upload stories for free."
HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY NUGGET!!
The Thrill of Blaming Others from Salon
"We've always loved scapegoats, in politics and our own lives. Now science offers a new glimpse into its appeal."
No comments:
Post a Comment