News Nuggets 1222

DAYLEE PICTURE: A close look at winter ice in rural Sweden.  From National Geographic.

Life in America Unraveled for Brothers from the Wall Street Journal 
"The two Chechen brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombing set about building American lives after coming to the U.S. about a decade ago. ... But a close examination of the Tsarnaev family's life in the U.S. shows a hopeful immigrant trajectory veering off course."

How String of Events Involving Tsarnaev Brothers Unfolded from the Washington Post
"As their photographs spread rapidly across the Internet, the Tsarnaev brothers decided to make their move. Not waiting for police to find them, they gathered guns and homemade explosives for what became a final, bloody rampage on a community still in shock from the bombing three days before."

'I Don’t Understand Them,' Bombing Suspect Said of Americans from FOX News 
“I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them,” the older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shootout with police hours after the pair was identified as suspects, told a photographer in 2009."
Shockers!!  Actual original for-real news reporting from Fox News!

Older Bombing Suspect ‘Was Up to No Good,’ Cousin Says from the Boston Globe
"A relative of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects said he repeatedly warned the 19-year-old fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev about the bad influence of his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed overnight in a shootout with police. A picture has begun to emerge of 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev as an aggressive, possibly radicalized immigrant who may have ensnared his younger brother Dzhokhar — described almost universally as a smart and sweet kid..."

This Is A Religious War, Ctd. (Andrew Sullivan) from The Dish
"Muslims under theocratic rule assume that if those cartoonists weren’t speaking for our government, than our government would silence them. It’s just an example of how these two governing philosophies, ours and that of say Saudi Arabia or Iran, can’t coexist peacefully. ... this kind of violence will continue for as long as the separation of church and state is a foreign concept to so much of the world."

Our Boston Is Now the World (Howard Fineman) from the Huffington Post 
"As if we needed any further proof, this week in Boston proves that there is no "over there." Ours is not a planet in which distance matters; nor does the passage of time. It may be that centuries-old grievances are erupting worldwide like volcanic lava."

Pyongyang Palace Intrigue from the New York Times
"North Korea’s recent nuclear brinkmanship is a sign not of strength but of weakness. No matter how hard this Communist dynasty tries to conceal this fact from the outside world, problems at home — especially strains within the regime itself — are an important factor behind its aggressive external behavior."

China's Victim Complex: Why are Chinese leaders so paranoid about the United States? (Ely Ratner) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Senior Chinese officials claim, even in private, that the United States masterminded a number of actions against China in the region ... Alas, this argument runs counter to both reality and U.S. strategy. The United States has de-escalated tensions by responding to crises in the South China and East China seas with intense, high-level U.S. diplomacy."

China Is a Real Threat to Russia (Dominique Moisi) from Les Echos via Real Clear World [translated from French into English]
"... the more Russian leadership feels weak, the tougher it is - inside and outside the country - with its citizens or foreign powers. This is a self-defense reflex ... To justify this evolution, Russian leaders use an emotional weapon - humiliation."

AMERICAN-MEDIA-MISSING-THE-STORY NUGGET!!
'Like 1930s Germany': Greek Far Right Gains Ground from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"Nowhere else in Europe are neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists profiting as greatly from the financial crisis as in Athens. As they terrorize the country with violence, the police stand back and prosecutors are powerless."
The shadow of fascism is now clearly in view and expanding in Europe.  Americans and the US media need to WAKE UP to what's happening there.

Barack Obama's Lesson for David Cameron and Ed Miliband - Beware the Polls (Nate Silver) from the London Evening Standard
"As Labour holds on to its lead, the polling guru of the 2012 US race warns that time is running out for the Tories."

Part-Time Work Becomes Full-Time Wait for Better Job from the New York Times
"These almost invisible underemployed workers do not count toward the standard jobless rate of 7.6 percent. A broader measure, which includes the involuntary part-timers as well as people who want to work but have stopped looking, stands at 13.8 percent. “There’s nothing inherently wrong with people taking part-time jobs if they want them,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago. “The problem is that people are accepting part-time pay because they have no other choice.”"

When Our Kids Own America (Gene Demby) from NPR
"America's seismic demographic shift is upending life in our suburbs, cities and our popular culture. So why are we still clinging to the same stories to make sense of these changes?"

Boy Scouts Propose Lifting Ban on Gays, but Only for Youth from Reuters 
"The Boy Scouts of America on Friday moved to partially lift its long-standing ban on gays, with a decision that would allow openly gay youth members but continue to bar gay adults in one of the largest youth serving organizations in America."

Romney Strategist: We Were Two Years Behind Obama (Sean J. Miller) from Campaigns and Elections
"During a panel at C&E’s CampaignTech conference in Washington on Thursday, Jones said his team needed between nine and 24 months to catch up to Obama’s online organization. Part of the reason they were so far behind was staffing."

Could the NRA's Big Victory Backfire? (John Cassidy) from the New Yorker
"...the N.R.A. decided to go for an all-out victory, making a mockery of representative democracy. In the long run, this outrage could easily backfire on the N.R.A. and its allies."