From Pakistan, Answers Needed about Osama bin Laden (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"Let’s see if we’ve got the numbers straight: Osama bin Laden lived in five houses in Pakistan, fathered four children there, kept three wives who took dictation for his rambling directives to his terror network, had two children born in public hospitals — and through it all, the Pakistani government did not know one single thing about his whereabouts? Can this possibly be true? ... But this isn’t a question for Americans, really. It’s a matter for Pakistani officials."
Signs of a New Tiananmen in China ( Minxin Pei) from The Diplomat
"Pervasive corruption, lawlessness among the ruling elites, and a sense of a loss of direction permeating all levels of Chinese society. The conditions for another Tiananmen may be there."
I don't hear anyone predicting that China is about to go through some political upheaval -- but it seems to me that lately political upheaval seem far more prone to come with no warnings. Based on my readings, the Chinese leadership certainly seem to be taking the prospect of widespread social/political protest quite seriously right now.
In Defense of Drones (Amitai Etzioni) from the National Interest
"If fight we must, drones are the best tool du jour, bar none."
Men in Black (Maureen Dowd) from the New York Times
"How dare President Obama brush back the Supreme Court like that? Has this former constitutional law instructor no respect for our venerable system of checks and balances? Nah. And why should he? This court, cosseted behind white marble pillars, out of reach of TV, accountable to no one once they give the last word, is well on its way to becoming one of the most divisive in modern American history."
Trayvon Martin: The Heart of a Wildfire (Matt Semino) from the Huffington Post
"Spreading like a wildfire, outrage over the shooting death of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin has ignited an explosive national dialogue about the tumultuous and fractured status of race relations in the United States."
Sanford: The New Selma? (David Weigel) from Slate
"“I have yet to hear him be outraged or even defend ‘his city’ when Ben Jealous, head of the national NAACP, went on Meet the Press this past Sunday and stated that the KKK was alive and well in Sanford. … Sanford was on the precipice of changing its long-standing negative image.” Negative, sure, but never as bad as this. There was the time in the late 1970s when the city responded to an order to desegregate a swimming pool by filling the pool in—it would remain segregated, or nobody would use it."
The City of Sanford's Racist Past (Michael Daly) from the Daily Beast
"The city of Sanford was named for a man with racist views who helped bring about carnage in the Congo."
Male Birth Control: New Procedure Is 100 Percent Effective, Reversible from the Huffington Post
"The whole procedure takes about 15 minutes and lasts ten years or more and is more easily reversible than a vasectomy."
Must Women “Civilize” Men? (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"At the root of the conservative war on contraception is a deep-seated anxiety about the traditional family."
Is Louisiana About to Allow Discrimination of Gays in Charter Schools? from the Washington Post
"If a bill that passed a Lousiania Senate committee becomes law, charter schools in the state will be able to refuse to accept students based on sexual orientation or English language skills."
Independent Voters Brighten On The Economy from Talking Points Memo
"Fast forward to April of 2012. Improvement in key economic metrics are having a big political impact, drops in the unemployment rate have made splashes in the media and the stock market has recovered to the level it was at before the Great Recession. And independent voters have started seeing a brighter economic picture."
Calling Radicalism by Its Name from the Editorial Board of the New York Times
"In a blistering speech, President Obama denounced the Republican Party for cruelty and extremism and signaled a tough-minded campaign ahead."
Obama and His Enemies (Amy Davidson) from the New Yorker
"With the results of the Wisconsin, Maryland, and District of Columbia primaries, the choice of a Republican nominee finally looks clear and irrevocable: Mitt Romney. And yet he is the least interesting of the enemies Obama has chosen or will be forced to confront."
Ipsos: 85%-99% Chance of Obama Winning from the Washington Examiner
"Mitt Romney’s slow but seemingly successful trudge to the GOP nomination aside, President Obama is a virtual lock to win a second term, according to a blockbuster election analysis by Ipsos."
Mitt Romney Wins the Wisconsin Primary — and Reaches for His Etch-a-Sketch (Stephen Stromberg) from the Washington Post
"It is — and here an “of course” is well-deserved — hard to watch Etch-a-Sketch Romney and not think about his long record of pandering to those Jacobins in terms much more disconcerting than those he used Tuesday."
Yup. Time for Romney to forget everything he said during the primaries. I suspect he will be especially egregious in saying completely contradictory things in the general -- and barely skip a beat about it.
Republicans Have Lost The Enthusiasm Advantage (For Now) from Talking Points Memo
"The bad news is that at a time when the party is supposed to be rallying around a strong nominee heading into the spring, they seem to be accepting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as that standard bearer, and the numbers show they aren’t excited about it."
George W. Bush: Barack Obama’s Best Friend in the 2012 Election (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"The GOP wants to erase George W. Bush’s ruinous presidency from the nation’s memory, but the Dems shouldn’t let it happen. Michael Tomasky on the gift that keeps on giving."
Watergate Reporting, the Second Draft: Robert Redford to Produce a Documentary About Watergate from the New York Times
"Commissioned by the Discovery Channel, the project, “All the President’s Men Revisited,” will be a two-hour television documentary about the scandal that doomed Richard M. Nixon’s presidency and will explore its effects on politics and the media in the 40 years since. It will have its premiere in 2013 but will be announced by Discovery this week at its annual presentation for advertisers."
WHITE HOUSE NUGGET!!
Come on in! The First Family throw open the doors of the White House for a virtual tour from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The First Family have collaborated with Google Art Project to allow people to take a 360-degree tour of 1600 Pennysylvania Avenue from the comfort of their own living rooms. The initiative - where people can take a virtual tour of the building’s public rooms and zoom in on 139 works of art - was launched today as part of the Obamas' efforts to make the White House ‘The People’s House.’"
ARCHITECTURE NUGGET!!
Just don't add a diving board! The incredible apartments that have swimming pools instead of balconies from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Architects have made a splash with a bold design for new towers in Mumbai featuring swimming pools enclosed in glass instead of balconies. Known as Aquaria Grande, the 37-storey skyscrapers were the result of a collaboration between Hong Kong-based architect James Law and Indian real estate company Wadhwa Group."
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