DAYLEE PICTURE: A fisherman at dawn in Phatthalung Province in Thailand. From National Geographic.
"A dispute between China and the Philippines has dragged on this week, beginning when Manila's biggest warship attempted to arrest Chinese fishermen accused of illegal entry to Scarborough Shoal off the Northwestern Philippine coast. Three Chinese warships responded, ordering the Filipino vessel to leave and claiming Chinese sovereignty. Chinese and Filipino diplomats have been attempting to resolve the dispute peacefully."
The $7 Billion Dollar Warship Built to Maintain America Naval Supremacy Over China in the 21st Century from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The $7 billion guided-missile destroyer is at the cutting edge of technology and now deemed vital for defence following President Obama's Asia-Pacific pivot. Featuring a radical wave-piercing hull known as a 'tumblehome', the odd looking ship incorporates stealth technology that makes the 600-foot, 14,500 ton warship seem like a fishing vessel to enemies."
Stuxnet Worm Reportedly Planted by Iranian Double Agent Using Memory Stick from ARS Tecihnica
"The Stuxnet computer worm used to sabotage Iran's nuclear program was planted by a double agent working for Israel. The agent used a booby-trapped memory stick to infect machines deep inside the Natanz nuclear facility, according to a report published on Wednesday."
Artful Dodgers (Joshua Keating) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The 6 countries where everyone runs the other way when the tax man comes knocking."
Supply and Demand: Inside India's Prostitution Business from The Caravan: A Journal of Politics and Culture
"Polina is a high-end sex worker—an escort, as she prefers to say. She works with a Delhi-based escort agency, whose hastily-designed website promises customers a “girlfriend experience” with a woman “who is an absolute delight”; two hours with one of the agency’s models costs 20,000, while an entire night retails for 30,000. “Escorts in Delhi are available at very cheap rates..."
Can 'Caring Across Generations' Change the World? (Laura Flanders) from the Nation
"A new campaign unites caregivers and care-receivers with a revolutionary vision."
Paul Begala on Hillary Clinton’s Coming Run for the White House in 2016 (Paul Begala) from the Daily Beast
"Speculation about 2016 just won’t die. But she’ll only have a shot if she’s learned the painful lessons of the disastrous 2008 campaign."
How Hillary Clinton Got Hot After Years of Being Stuck With a Cold Image (Howard Kurtz) from the Daily Beast
"Her popularity is up, her guard is down, and her image as a shrew is a relic of the past. What’s changed for the secretary of State—and what are the implications for 2016?"
On The NRA’s Nightmare Nation (Mayor Michael Bloomberg) from the Daily Beast
"The NRA wants to create a nation where disputes are settled by guns instead of gavels, and where suspects are shot by civilians instead of arrested by police."
Political Scientist: Republicans Most Conservative They've Been In 100 Years (Frank James) from NPR
"Keith Poole of the University of Georgia, with his collaborator Howard Rosenthal of New York University, has spent decades charting the ideological shifts and polarization of the political parties in Congress from the 18th century until now to get the view of how the political landscape has changed from 30,000 feet up. What they have found is that the Republican Party is the most conservative it has been a century."
Liberals and Conservatives Don’t Just Vote Differently. They Think Differently (Koren Shadmi) from the Washington Post
"...at a time of unprecedented polarization in America, we need a more convincing explanation for the staggering irrationality of our politics. Especially since we’re now split not just over what we ought to do politically but also over what we consider to be true."
Why Republicans Need a War on Religion (Tina Dupuy) from the Statesman Journal [of Oregon]
"This party used to be better at getting traction with these wedge causes-they-call-wars. This has been their modus operandi to pummel artists, single mothers, monogamous gay couples, pot smokers, public employees and other subversives for decades: They create a fake crisis, say it will kill us all and then repeat it until our ears bleed. How have they fumbled manufacturing a war on religion?"
Tell Us More about Romney’s ‘Private’ Views (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post
"Fred Barnes included this fascinating sentence: “According to a Romney adviser, his private view of immigration isn’t as anti-immigrant as he often sounded.” What exactly does that mean? Does it mean Romney said things that he doesn’t really believe? What are we supposed to make of a candidate who takes certain public positions to court one group of voters — and then tries to reassure an entirely different group of voters by leaking the fact that he doesn’t really believe what he said to win votes from the first group?"
Rosen vs. Romney: A Faux Girl Fight (Kathleen Parker) from the Washington Post
"The fact is, Ann Romney has never held a job outside the home and, inarguably, doesn’t have the same experience as those scrapping to feed their families. But this has no bearing whatsoever on her ability to empathize with the challenges of others or whether she is attuned to women’s concerns."
A VERY fair assessment of the Rosen-Romney nutiness!
Rep. Todd Akin Mourns Inability to Impeach Obama Over Nothing (Hunter) from Daily Kos
"Again, what is remarkable is that there just seems to be no lower bound on how outlandish the Republican Party can become, or how gullible, or how conspiracy-addled. People grumbling about impeaching the president for purely partisan reasons is the new normal. People ranting about
"communists" in Congress is normal. Birtherism is now normal."
An exceptionally partisan rant (one that happens to reflect many of my own views on the topic) about Rep. Akin's thoughts on "impeaching Obama".
BIOGRAPHER NUGGET!!
Robert Caro's Big Book from Esquire Magazine
"Robert Caro has spent thirty-eight years writing the biography of one man. The fourth volume of that work, like its three predecessors a giant achievement and certain best seller, is about to be published. But Caro is not done. The world and all that's in it has changed, and still Caro is not done."
No comments:
Post a Comment