News Nuggets 616

 The shadow of a great oak in Sweden's Natural Reserve of Sandemar near Stockholm.  From National Geographic.

QUOTE OF THE DAY!!

On those who worship the "free market"

"Whereas formerly we were patients, parents, neighbors, citizens, congregants  and so on, now in most of life we're just consumers.  This crimped conception  flows directly from the modern American propensity to deify the free market.

While reducing us to consumers, free market fundamentalism also corrodes,
corrupts or demonizes all other basic social instruments, like effective
government programs and regulations.

The deification of the free market cannot coexist with a robust concern for the  common good and a dignified regard for what it means to be human."

Richard E. Sclove
Amherst, MA
Letter to the Editor, New York Times

The Riddle of Barack Obama and the Shifting Sands (Richard Spencer) from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"America's relationship with the Middle East is changing – and Egypt is its test case, says Richard Spencer."

Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad About to Resign? (Meir Javedanfar) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"After the snub of having a minister he fired reinstated by the Ayatollah the Iranian president may sulk himself into resignation."

Fatah and Hamas: Tectonic Plates Start to Shift from the Guardian [of the UK]
"A future environment composed of free Egyptians, Jordanians and even possibly Syrians could well fashion Israel's borders."

Same Guys, New Jobs: Why Obama's Reshuffling of his National Security Team Makes Sense (Fred Kaplan) from Slate
"So the rumors of recent weeks, about the impending shuffles in President Obama's national-security team, turn out to be true. And under the circumstances, it's hard to imagine a shrewder set of moves, both politically and substantively."

A More Assured President Shifts from 'Name Brands' to the Obama House Brand… (David Rothkopf) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The overall message here is reassuring. While important issues remain to be resolved by this not-so-new team, it doesn't take an insider's eye to see that this president is internalizing and effectively applying the lessons of his first couple years in office even as he signals important, and smart, redirections in U.S. national security policy."

Don't Mean To Be Rude, But The Economy Sucks (Henry Blodget) from Business Insider
"In the past couple of months, a disconnect has developed between the perception of the US economy and the reality."
I put forward ust this sentiment the other day in reference to David Brooks' column.

Honoring Those Who Said No from the New York Times
"IN January 2004, Spec. Joseph M. Darby, a 24-year-old Army reservist in Iraq, discovered a set of photographs showing other members of his company torturing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. The discovery anguished him, and he struggled over how to respond. “I had the choice between what I knew was morally right, and my loyalty to other soldiers,” he recalled later. “I couldn’t have it both ways.”"

Josh Marshall's New Taxonomy of Birtherism from Talking Points Memo
"...there's a vast sociological literature demonstrating that after the central prediction of apocalyptic cults goes unfulfilled many of members of the group will not give up but rather intensify their belief. And so it goes with birtherism in the aftermath of the release of President Obama's 'long form' birth certificate."

A New Era of Accusation and Innuendo from Politico
“There are no more arbiters of truth,” said former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. “So whatever you can prove factually, somebody else can find something else and point to it with enough ferocity to get people to believe it. We’ve crossed some Rubicon into the unknown.”

The Roots of Birtherism Go Beyond Race (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"Let's be clear: Birtherism itself has everything to do with race. It encourages -- and feeds off  -- emotional, culturally driven resentment of President Obama, a sense that he's not "one of us." But as Obama seeks to put all of the zany conspiracy theories to rest for good, it's worth remembering that there's a broader phenomenon that birtherism grew out of: the right's instinctive, aggressive rejection of Democratic presidents."

Rand Paul Has 'Birther' Demand for Trump: Prove You're a Republican from The Hill
"While speaking at a breakfast with New Hampshire Republicans one day after "The Donald" visited the Granite State, Paul riffed off the potential GOP presidential candidate's "birther" questions. "
Touche! I never associated Paul with this kind of wit!

What's Next For The Birthers? (Basically, More Birtherism) (Jason linkins) from Huffington Post
"Implacable Birtherism and all of its attendant annoyances will roll on, in some cases evolving, but never dying off. The only question is: In trying to kill it, do you make it stronger? For the moment, it appears that the birther true believers are just going to keep on believing."

What Birtherism Teaches Us About Polling: An Expert's Take (Chris Good) from the Atlantic
"How doubts over Obama's origins could change the way we look at surveys -- the most dominant metrics in American politics."

Today is certainly THE DAY for on-the-loose lunatic behavior!
Oklahoma GOP Lawmaker Sally Kern: ‘Blacks’ Don’t Work As Hard As White People from Think Progress
“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”
Believe it or not, this lawmaker has said things WAY more whacky than this.  see the link.

Total Recall in Wisconsin from MSNBC
"Today, the Committee to Recall Robert Cowles submitted over 25,000 signatures -- more than the required 15,960 -- to the state’s Government Accountability Board, becoming the ninth recall drive of state senators the board is reviewing that could eventually trigger a recall election. Of the nine, six target Republican state senators like Cowles, and three target Democratic state senators."

BELATED EASTER NUGGET [for the somewhat skeptical]!!
Bart Ehrman Talks About Authorship and the History of the Bible (VIDEO) from the Commonwealth Club of California
The always thought-provoking (and provocative) Prof. Ehrman discussing his latest book,
"Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are"