TEN BEST NUGGETS OF THE WEEK!!
1. America's War Mistakes (Santiago Wills) from Salon"President after president has fallen into similar traps when it comes to conflict. An expert explains why."
2. Officials: ‘Flame’ Created by Israel, U.S. to Slow Iran from the Washington Post
"Computer virus was designed to collect intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon."
3. Is That Really Just a Fly? Swarms of Cyborg Insect Drones are the Future of Military Surveillance from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"... the real high-tech story of surveillance drones is going on at a much smaller level, as tiny remote controlled vehicles based on insects are already likely being deployed."
4. Turning Our Backs on Britain's Fallen: How a New Generation Believes it was Just U.S. Troops that Won World War Two Thanks to Hollywood (Max Hastings) from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
The title is a little misleading. Hasting's main point is that the UK is entering an era where World War I remembrance will be commonplace everywhere across Europe -- except the UK.
"Most French museums, not to mention school history books, make it sound like the Americans and the Resistance did it all. Millions of French people have seen Hollywood’s D-Day epics; only about six recognise our part. But I fear the same is becoming true among our own people."
5. Don’t Look Down (Frank Bruni) from the New York Times
"Somewhere between Nik Wallenda’s first step onto a tightrope over Niagara Falls and Greece’s most recent retreat from the brink, it hit me: teetering needlessly on the precipice of disaster wasn’t just the story of the weekend. It’s the story of our days. Cliff dwelling has become the modern way of life."
6. Still Running from Rodney King (Rich Benjamin) from Salon
"Upon his death, he still personifies the disgust some white conservatives have for black men. ... If young black men hold Rodney King as an icon – a stand-in representative of their complaints — do white Americans fed up with cities see him as the opposite, the proxy of black dysfunction, the deserving recipient of his fate?"
7. Why Women Still Can’t Have It All (Anne-Marie Slaughter) from the Atlantic
"It’s time to stop fooling ourselves, says a woman who left a position of power: the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed. If we truly believe in equal opportunity for all women, here’s what has to change."
8. Is It a father’s Job to Teach his Kid to Fight? (Joel Stein) from the Washington Post
"...I find Father’s Day to be a good time to reflect on my relationship with my dad and blame him for all my shortcomings. But I can’t blame him for the fact that I don’t know how to fight. My dad was eager to teach me."
9. Bullies on the Bus (Charles Blow) from the New York Times
"Those boys are us, or at least too many of us: America at its ugliest. It is that part of society that sees the weak and vulnerable as worthy of derision and animus. This kind of behavior is not isolated to children and school buses and suburban communities. It stretches to the upper reaches of society — our politics and our pulpits and our public squares."
10. Don’t Blame the Candidates, Blame the News Media (Ezra Klein) from the Bloomberg News Service
"What was the news value of “the private sector is fine”? Did it augur a change in administration policy? It did not. In fact, the news conference was all about Obama’s renewed call for support for the economy. Did anyone in the news media really think that Obama believes the economy -- public or private -- is growing as he’d like it to be? No. Rather, the news value was derived from journalists hypothesizing that Republicans would use Obama’s statement to attack the president. This quickly became a self-fulfilling prophecy..."
Now, for the regular news nuggets of Sunday, June 24th.
Turkey Vows 'Necessary' Action Against Syria for Jet Shootdown from Reuters via the Huffington Post
"Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Saturday his country would take "necessary" action against Syria for the downing of a Turkish military jet, but suggested that the aircraft may have unintentionally violated the Syrian airspace."
Leading Syrians Prepare to Defect from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"Members of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle 'making secret plans to defect' as Syria air force colonel abandons attack mission and flies MiG to Jordan."
Chinese Data Mask Depth of Slowdown, Executives Say from the New York Times
"As the Chinese economy continues to sputter, prominent corporate executives in China and Western economists say there is evidence that local and provincial officials are falsifying economic statistics to disguise the true depth of the troubles. Record-setting mountains of excess coal have accumulated at the country’s biggest storage areas because power plants are burning less coal in the face of tumbling electricity demand. But local and provincial government officials have forced plant managers not to report to Beijing the full extent of the slowdown, power sector executives said."
For regular readers of the News Nuggets, this should come as no surprise. We've been tracking this story for several years now. The real question is: just how much have they been presenting false economic data to the world? My guess: a lot!
Sandusky Guilty Verdict: What's Next for Jerry (Diane Dimond) from the Daily Beast
"As Sandusky sits under suicide watch at a county jail, his lawyers have vowed an appeal. Diane Dimond on what the former coach has to look forward to in prison—and back in court."
Political Scientists Are Lousy Forecasters (Jacqueline Stevens) from the New York Times
"Political scientists are defensive these days because in May the House passed an amendment to a bill eliminating National Science Foundation grants for political scientists. ... It’s an open secret in my discipline: in terms of accurate political predictions (the field’s benchmark for what counts as science), my colleagues have failed spectacularly and wasted colossal amounts of time and money."
TOO TRUE!!
The Argument for Taking on Student Debt: High School Graduates are Screwed (Laura Clawson) from Daily Kos
"A look at the (un)employment outcomes of recent high school graduates (PDF) who haven't gone to college makes it easy to see why people take on so much debt to go to college."
WATCH: The Obama Speech That Could Lock Down The Hispanic Vote (VIDEO) (Henry Decker) from the National Memo
"President Barack Obama brought down the house at his speech to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) this afternoon, receiving several standing ovations and providing a clear reminder of why he holds an overwhelming lead over Mitt Romney among Latino voters."
It’s Not Mitt’s Party (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"Top GOPers keep stepping on Romney's message, because they're not sure he'll be leading them after November."
Bain Capital Horror Stories Continue to Haunt Mitt Romney’s Campaign (Caroline Bankoff) from New York Magazine
"The double-edged sword that is Mitt Romney's career at Bain Capital will not stop causing image problems for the candidate. This time, it's a pair of articles chronicling the private equity firm's outsourcing of American jobs and methods for draining money out of the failed companies it controlled."
HOLLYWOOD IN THE SILENT ERA NUGGET!!
Blunt Memories of Celluloid Life (Janet Maslin) form the New York Times
"Louise Brooks, a popular actress of the early 20th century, left poison-tipped essays collected in “Lulu in Hollywood,” about the moviemaking machine that gave her a career."
BOOK NUGGET!!
A Very Scandalous Victorian Diary: Kate Summerscale’s “Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace” (Lucy Scholes) form the Daily Beast
"At the height of Victorian England, a middle-class wife’s scandalous diary of her supposed affair grabbed headlines and exploded propriety. Lucy Scholes speaks to the author of a new book about this forgotten but fascinating story."
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