News Nuggets 1247

DAYLEE PICTURE: A Crinoidia Sea Feather at the Loyalty Island of Ouvea in New Caledonia.  From National Geographic.

Europe’s Social Contract, Lying in Pieces (David Unger) from the New York Times

"As fringe parties gain power, liberal democracy is in jeopardy on the Continent."

McManus: Obama's Foreign Policy Reset (Doyle McManus) from the Los Angeles Times

"The appointment of Susan Rice as national security advisor suggests a shift from defense to offense."

Fixing the Digital Economy (Jaron Lanier) from the New York Times

"A decentralization of power coincides with an intense concentration of power. This apparent contradiction makes perfect sense once one understands the nature of modern power."

Birth of the Surveillance State (Michael Hirsch) from the Atlantic 

"Since 9/11, Congress and the executive branch have collaborated on the creation of a new national security apparatus."

Comparing Two Secret Surveillance Programs from the New York Times 

"New details about two government programs used by the National Security Agency to gather telephone and Internet data provide insight into how surveillance programs that began under George W. Bush have been used under President Obama."

Why Americans Don’t Fear the NSA (John Dickerson) from Slate

"When it comes to protecting us from terrorists, we trust our government will do the right thing. ... the president supported the NSA activities as soon as the news broke. Since polls show the public trusts him on the issue of fighting terrorism above all other issues, his fast and forceful defense may cause people to give him the benefit of the doubt."

Stop Freaking Out About the NSA (William Saletan) from Slate

"The government’s phone surveillance isn’t Orwellian. It’s limited and supervised."

Obamacare Is Killing the GOP: Republicans' Obsession with the Law Will be the Party's Undoing (Noam Scheiber) from the New Republic

"To put the problem in Marxian terms, Obamacare has become the opiate of the GOP. By its own admission, the party must broaden its appeal to Latinos, gays, and young voters. It needs an economic agenda that encompasses more than tax cuts for the rich and brutal spending cuts. ... And yet, when party leaders so much as broach these liabilities, conservatives revolt and the leadership caves, appeasing them with an issue whose political utility peaked two-and-a-half years ago."

The GOP’s Huge, Growing Modernity Gap (Lloyd Green) from the Daily Beast 

"Republicans’ problem with young voters isn’t about stray stupid comments, writes Lloyd Green, but its retrograde approach to technology, culture and modernity."

Senate Republicans Divided On Moving Obama's D.C. Circuit Nominees from the Huffington Post

"None of the Republican senators said flat-out that they were prepared to block any of the D.C. Circuit nominees, but some stayed vague when asked about the prospect of doing so."

A Reform Conservative Manifesto (Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry) from Forbes Magazine

"Reform conservatives are people who agree to and tell various stories about the American scene over the past few decades, and what those stories mean for the future of the Republican Party and America. What are these stories? There are two big stories: one about politics, and a more important one, about America."

Andrew Sullivan responds to Gobry's column.

Southern Conservatives Revive Calhounism—Tyranny of the Minority (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast

"A bill in South Carolina that would effectively nullify the Affordable Care Act is the latest sign of the modern Republican Party’s drift from the ideas that animated its creation, writes Jamelle Bouie."

GIRL IN AFRICA NUGGET!!

The REAL Mowgli: Incredible Images of the Little Girl who Spent the First Ten Years of her Life Growing Up in the African Bush from the Daily Mail [of the UK] 

The full French documentary can be found HERE.

WORLD WAR I HISTORY NUGGET!!

Before the Fall: What Did the World Look Like in 1913? (Jacob Heilbrunn) from the Daily Beast

"In 1913 the great royals of Europe gathered for a wedding, a year later they were at war. What happened? Jacob Heilbrunn on Charles Emmerson’s new history of the world tottering on the brink of madness."