News Nuggets 1251

DAYLEE PICTURE: An Eastern Screech Owl in Georgia.  From National Geographic.

Heavy Pressure Led to Decision by Obama on Syrian Arms from the New York Times
"...when Mr. Obama agreed this week for the first time to send small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebel forces, he had to be almost dragged into the decision at a time when critics, some advisers and even Bill Clinton were pressing for more action. Coming so late into the conflict, Mr. Obama expressed no confidence it would change the outcome, but privately expressed hope it might buy time to bring about a negotiated settlement."

The Security-Industrial Complex: The Culture of Secrecy in Washington has Become Absurd (David Rohde) from the Atlantic
"An odd thing is happening in the world's self-declared pinnacle of democracy. No one -- except a handful of elected officials and an army of contractors -- is allowed to know how America's surveillance leviathan works."

The U.S. Should Help Mideast Moderates (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post
"What is America’s strategy in the Middle East? That question is more urgent as the Obama administration finally moves to arm the Syrian opposition. The United States needs a framework that connects its policy in Syria with what’s happening in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey and elsewhere in the region."

The Martyr’s Cause (Anne Applebaum) from Slate
"Edward Snowden wants to be seen as a martyr. But is he?"

What Sweden Can Tell Us About Obamacare (Robert Frank) from the New York Times
"They have spent their lives under a system in which most health care providers work directly for the government. Like economists in most other countries, they tend to be skeptical of large bureaucracies. So if extensive government involvement in health care is indeed a recipe for doom, they should have clear evidence of that by now. Yet none of them voiced the kinds of complaints about recalcitrant bureaucrats and runaway health costs that invariably surface in similar conversations with American colleagues."

When Work Disappears (Megan McArdle) from the Daily Beast
"It's impossible to look at what's happening to the bottom half of American society and not worry.  ...  Some of it is economic, the disappearance of steady employment that allows people to do the bourgeois work of planning for the future.  ... A community cannot insist that its members work hard and plan for the future if there are no jobs available; the resulting erosion of work and education ethics makes unemployment worse. "

On Civil Liberties, Comparing Obama With Bush Is Easy — And Mostly Wrong (Joe Conason) from National Memo
"... anyone paying attention has known about this program since 2006, when USA Today first disclosed its existence. The most important difference today is that Americans are no longer too frightened by the constant “terror alerts” of the Bush administration to consider the boundaries of surveillance and security.  Rather than hyping the terrorist threat, like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, President Obama has repeatedly framed a calmer — if equally resolute — attitude toward Islamist extremism."

Evangelicals to GOP: Don't Betray Us on Abortion from Politico
"...social conservatives in town this weekend for the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference said the GOP would be making a grave mistake to ignore the hot-button culture-war issue. To the contrary, they believe it’s key to the party’s fortunes in the 2014 midterms and beyond."

GOP’s John McCain Problem (Jonathan Bernstein) from Salon
"The reason he still speaks for them on foreign policy: They hate substance and literally have no other "experts""

Poll: America’s Confidence in Congress Falls to Record Low from Time Magazine
"A new Gallup poll shows that just 10% of Americans have confidence in Congress, the lowest among any institution since 1973."

From Fox News to Rush: Secrets of the Right’s Lie Machine from Salon  
"Conservative media plays by its rules, and bends truth to back whatever argument they’ve decided to make that day."

House GOP Revolt Against Immigration Reform Begins (George Zornick) from the Nation
"... lurking in the background is an even more difficult fight in the House, where the Republican caucus is much more hostile to reform. House members are beholden to smaller, more conservative districts, and there are no leaders calling for reform analogous to Republicans Marco Rubio and John McCain in the Senate."

The Fringe Factor: Rape Still Won't Get You Pregnant (Caitlin Dickson) from the Daily Beast
"Rape still won't get you pregnant, Obama owes Oklahoma an apology for spending on climate change research, and other bold statements from our fearless political leaders this week."

The Grand Old Party is Stuck on Stupid (Crystal Wright) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"After losing the 2012 presidential election the "GOP establishment" from former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich and every white man in between acknowledged that the party must make "the tent" more welcoming to minorities and women – where the votes increasingly are. So what does the GOP do? It keeps headlining white men behaving badly."

Speaking of "stuck on stupid" -- case in point:
W.Va. Backlash Emerging Over Education Standards from the Associated Press via the Intelligencer Wheeling News Register
"West Virginia is sticking with new standards for math, reading and writing in public schools, but faces opposition fueled by the tea party movement, which believes the benchmarks are part of an attempted federal takeover of local education authority."
This is nutty ON SO MANY LEVELS!!  God forbid that your kids should read at a certain level by the time they reach fourth grade!!  What do you mean trying to force my child to develop subversive skills like ... critical thinking!?

The Not-So-Good Old Days (stephanie Coontz) from the New York Times 
"The idyllic 1950s and ’60s? Wages went further, but rights and opportunities for many were severely limited."

SUCCESSFUL LIFE NUGGET!!
A Call for a Movement to Redefine the Successful Life from the New York Times
I was intrigued when I was told that a conference was being held on the very issue of redefining success. And, separately, that American Express had recently released a study showing that Americans were thinking of success in different ways than in the past. “The Third Metric: Redefining Success Beyond Money & Power” was the conference presented last week ..."