TEN BEST NUGGETS OF THE WEEK!!
1. Burma: The Land of Lady Liberty (Geoffrey Hiller) from Foreign Policy Magazine"A photographer returns to Burma to find a nation transformed."
2. America's Pacific Logic (Robert D. Kaplan) from Stratfor Global Intelligence
"From my travels I have seen that this has led to the use of the term "Finlandization" throughout Southeast Asia, whereby China, through the combination of its economic and military power, will undermine the sovereignty of countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, all of which are de facto or de jure U.S. allies."
3. Companies Prepare for a Fossil-Free Future from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"Drivers may hate rising gas prices, but some companies are delighted as they watch the oil price soar. Firms like BMW and Airbus which are leaders in fuel efficiency actually benefit from expensive oil. They are just two of a growing number of companies that are already developing technologies for a post-fossil-fuel world."
4. In Search of Sustainable Swagger (Roger Cohen) from the New York Times
"The world needs to find a balance between the extremes of developing-world optimism and developed-world moroseness."
5. Hello, Cruel World: What the Fate of One Class of 2011 Says About the Job Market from the New York Times
"The 1.7 million members of the Class of 2011 witnessed, within the four-year span of their college careers, one of the greatest bull markets in United States history and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Last spring, they shed their caps and gowns and joined a kind of B.A. bread line. ... Though the statistics still show that a college degree correlates with both higher income and lower unemployment in the long run, diplomas didn’t seem very valuable when they were handed out last May."
6. Christianity in Crisis (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Beast
"Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Ignore them, writes Andrew Sullivan, and embrace Him."
7. In Florida, a Death Foretold (Israel Wilkerson) from the New York Times
"Americans tend to think of the rigid stratification of caste as a distant notion from feudal Europe or Victorian India. But caste is alive and well in this country, where a still unsettled multiracial society is emerging from the starkly drawn social order that Dollard described. Assumptions about one’s place in this new social order have become a muddying subtext in the case of Trayvon Martin"
8. The Right’s Stealthy Coup (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"Right before our eyes, American conservatism is becoming something very different from what it once was. Yet this transformation is happening by stealth because moderates are too afraid to acknowledge what all their senses tell them. Last week’s Supreme Court oral arguments on health care were the most dramatic example of how radical tea partyism has displaced mainstream conservative thinking."
9. Obama's Organizational Advantage on Full Display in N.H. (Scott Conroy) from Real Clear Politics
"Almost three months after his resounding victory in the New Hampshire primary launched Mitt Romney toward the Republican nomination, his former campaign headquarters here is empty. ... About a half-mile down the road on Maple Street is another campaign office that has been bustling with activity since it opened in October."
10. Why Conservative GOP Voters Aren’t Giving Up on Rick Santorum (Michelle Goldberg) from the Daily Beast
"The more the Republican establishment pushes Mitt Romney, the more alienated the religious right becomes. Why the party’s hard-core base isn’t coming around."
Now, for the regular news nuggets of Sunday, April 8th. Happy Easter everyone!!
HILARIOUS WHITE HOUSE EASTER NUGGET!!
What a howl!! Some people are having way too much fun at the executive mansion these days!
Announcing the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll Ticket Lottery from the White House
"Bo, The First Dog, announces the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll Ticket Lottery."
China’s Military Rise: The Dragon’s New Teeth from the Economist [of London]
"A rare look inside the world’s biggest military expansion."
The Other Arab Spring (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"Environmental pressures, not just political and economic ones, stirred change in the Mideast."
U.S. Sees Gains on Iran Intelligence as Boost to Confidence and Access (Joby Warrick and Greg Miller) from the Washington Post
"Hundreds of missions by stealth drones have filled in blanks on Iran’s nuclear program, giving U.S. officials unprecedented insight into Iran’s nuclear efforts."
It has long been my view that US intelligence on Iran's nuclear program has been exceptional.
Top 50 Things Accomplished by President Barack Obama from Alternet
"A look back at Obama's first term."
You Can’t Cut Spending Without Cutting Spending (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"Of course, even Ryan’s supporters should see the problem here. If these cuts are too unpopular to detail, then they’re going to be too unpopular to pass. If the only way to defend Ryan’s budget is to beat back any attempts to make it specific, then it’s an empty, useless document."
America Loves a Vigilante. Until We Meet One (Ann Hornaday) from the Washington Post
"Of the countless stories we tell ourselves, the American myth of the solitary enforcer of justice may be the most tenacious, beloved and — as the story of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin has so grievously demonstrated — distorting."
Republicans Just Don’t Get It (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"As the GOP continues to repel women voters, can you blame President Obama for opening his arms to greet them?"
National Review Fires John Derbyshire (Dylan Byers) from Politico
"The National Review has fired longtime columnist John Derbyshire following an article he wrote for an online magazine that was widely viewed as racist. "[Derbyshire's] latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible,""
It is SO rare that one sees right-wing talkers really come out and condemn one of their own. What's predictable is that hard-core right wingers will now throw fits because this guy was fired.
Stop Romanticizing the Tea Party Movement (Conor Friedersdorf) from the Atlantic
"In theory, it stands for traditional virtues and against unchecked government. In practice, it elevates absurd charlatans that even GOP primary voters reject."
Why Marco Rubio’s Vice-Presidential Stock Is Overvalued (Michael Crowley) from Time Magazine
"I suspect Rubio may understand that his political stock is overvalued, at least in this context. He’s an impressive young talent. But the assumption that Rubio can have a magic-wand effect over Latinos for the Republican ticket may be simplistic:"
TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
Will You Miss DVDs When They're Gone? from the Huffington Post
"The latest indication that a disc-less future is already here comes in a study released last week by trade publication IHS Screen Digest (available behind a paywall here). According to the study, streaming viewing of movies will overtake disc viewing this year."
ANOTHER TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
New Device Makes Wheel Chairs Obsolete from wimps.com
Looks like a real breakthrough device! "Obsolete"? Maybe not. They don't show this thing outdoors.
WHITE HOUSE HISTORY NUGGET!!
White House Easter Egg Roll 2012: History Of A Great Tradition (PHOTOS) from the Huffington Post
"More than 35,000 people are expected to take part in the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll, being held on Monday. This year marks the 134th anniversary of the event, which used to be held on the Capitol grounds until the late 1870s when Congress, worried about damage to the grass, passed a law ending this tradition. President Rutherford B. Hayes moved the roll to the White House lawn in 1878."
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