News Nuggets 1244

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Madagascar Day Gecko on Maui.  From National Geographic.

The Geezers Are All Right (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"The truth is that the long-term outlook for Social Security and Medicare, while not great, actually isn’t all that bad. It’s time to stop obsessing about how we’ll pay benefits to retirees in 2035 and focus instead on how we’re going to provide jobs to unemployed Americans in the here and now."

Blind to the Past -- and the Future (Charles Blow) from the New York Times 
"As a new effort at comprehensive immigration reform inches its way forward in the Senate, dissent from many conservatives is revealing their true contempt for, and fear of, the possibility that demographic groups who look different from their base will accrue power."
My suspicion is that in the hearts of a large segment of the GOP base is the view that any immigration bill is unacceptable that (a) allows ANY pathway to citizenship for undocumented/illegal aliens and (b) doesn't send "those people" back where they came from.  (Note: "those people" includes virtually all Latino voters whether they're here legally, illegally, or even if they are already naturalized citizens.  I do not think Tea Party types make any real distinction).  Moreover, in their hearts I think most GOPers link this illegal immigrant issue with the GOP's dire demographic problem.  Solve one (using a & b above) and you'll solve the other.  Indirectly, I think this counter-productive thinking will ultimately kill any chances for immigration reform.

The Grand Old Party Needs A Reboot (Cynthia Tucker) from National Memo 
"The political party of Abraham Lincoln is in trouble, threatened with irrelevance, even extinction. Its weaknesses are legion. ...  In a larger sense, the GOP is at war with reality — a reality of fewer white voters, myriad family structures and challenges that demand scientific solutions. Until it makes peace with reality, it cannot recreate itself as a winning party."

Americans Oppose Affirmative Action for Race, If You Only Ask White Americans from the Atlantic
"What do polls show about racial preferences in college admissions? Don't take the overall number at face value."

Colonoscopies Explain Why U.S. Leads World in Health Expenditures from the New York Times
"While the American medical system is famous for expensive drugs and heroic care at the end of life, a more significant factor in the nation’s annual health care bill may be the high price tag of ordinary services."

Report: How GOP Lost Young Voters from Politico
"The College Republican National Committee on Monday will make public a detailed report — the result of extensive polling and focus groups — dissecting what went wrong for Republicans with young voters in the 2012 elections and how the party can improve its showing with that key
demographic in the future. It’s not a pretty picture. In fact, it’s a “dismal present situation,” the report says."

Ted Cruz’s Personality Problem (Jonathan Bernstein) from Salon
"Ted Cruz has sharp elbows. He’s already managed to annoy several senators, including Republicans, and sparked what appears to be a full-on feud with Sen. John McCain. He also wants to be president of the United States. Do those things go together? The political scientist John Sides thinks it’s going to be a problem:"

Obama's Data Team Totally Schooled Gallup (Joshua Green) from Businessweek 
"As David Plouffe, then a senior White House adviser, explained in my story, the data team’s models proved to be much steadier and more accurate than even the traditional tracking polls the campaign was also conducting. A number of Obama vets repeated this claim to me, so I asked them to provide some evidence to back it up, and they did."

Wisconsin Unemployment Bill Would Let State Into Unemployed People's Bank Accounts from the Huffington Post
"Under the legislation, at least once every three months the state's Department of Workforce Development would send financial institutions information on people who improperly received unemployment insurance. The information on such "unemployment debtors" would include "names,
addresses, and social security numbers," according to the bill text. If the debtor has an account with the bank, then the institution would tell the state the account type, number, and balance."

Inside The Meltdown At America’s Most Conservative, Most Christian Political Consulting Firm (McKay Coppins) from Buzz Feed
"Rex Elsass built a Republican empire on his faith, but he found himself battling his closest allies over his immortal soul."

EMPLOYEE REVIEW NUGGET!!
Al Qaeda Leaders Lash Out at Lazy Terrorist in 10-page Letter over Insubordination, Failure to File Expense Reports from the New York Daily News
"The bizarre document accused Moktar Belmoktar, who broke off from the group, of not stepping up to buy weapons or to pull off spectacular attacks."

JILTED LOVER NUGGET!!
Woman Dumps Cheating Boyfriend by Leading Him on Hunt for All his Belongings She's Hidden from the Daily Mail [of the UK] 
"Breaking up is so very hard to do goes the old Burt Bacharach song, yet the writer of this letter seems to have done rather a good job of compartmentalizing her emotions as she writes to her lover to inform him that it’s all over."

PREHISTORIC GEOGRAPHY NUGGET!!
The Age Where You Could WALK from New York to Morocco! How Countries of Today Would Look 300 MILLION Years Ago from the Daily Mail [of the UK] 
"A new map of Pangaea, the supercontinent from 300 million years ago, shows where modern day countries would have been located in the ancient land mass.  The East Coast of the United States would have bordered North Africa while America's Gulf Coast was nestled against Cuba, according to the graphic representation that outlines the political borders of nation states."

WORLD WAR I NUGGET!!
Remains Found at the Site of the Village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, which was Destroyed During the Battle of Verdun from the Daily Mail [of the UK] 
"It is believed that the location where the men were found was a first-aid station blown apart by a German artillery shell"

OBITUARY NUGGET!!
Jean Stapleton, TV’s Beloved Edith Bunker from ‘All in the Family’ Dies at 90 in NYC from the Washington Post
"Jean Stapleton, the stage-trained character actress who played Archie Bunker’s far better half, the sweetly naive Edith, in TV’s groundbreaking 1970s comedy “All in the Family,” has died. She was 90. Stapleton died Friday of natural causes at her New York City home surrounded by friends and family, her children said Saturday."

MEDIEVAL HISTORY NUGGET!!
The Director of the Theater of Horror: What was It Like to be an Executioner in the 16th Century? (Joel F. Harrington) from Slate
"This is an excerpt from The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century, written by Joel F. Harrington and out now from Farrar, Straus and Giroux."

DOG PHOTO NUGGET!!
Porch Dogs from Slate
"Exactly what it sounds like."

HOPE-FOR-PAWS DOG RESCUE NUGGET!!
Rescuing Bethany - a Sick, Homeless Dog's Inspiring Transformation from Hope-for-Paws