By Katelyn Fossett, ForeignPolicy.com, Dec. 10, 2013

On Monday, Saudi authors Yasser Bahjatt and Ibraheem Abbas learned that their science fiction book, which shot to the top of the best-seller list in Saudi Arabia, had been banned from sale in Kuwait and Qatar. The episode was familiar: in late November, Saudi Arabia's Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice yanked the book from shelves for a thorough examination in response to concerns over inappropriate content. The book, called Hawjan, is a fantasy/sci-fi story with religious themes that spurred rumors [....]

"There is almost no science fiction in the region -- it does not exist as a genre," Bahjatt told Foreign Policy. After seeing the immense popularity of Hawjan, he stressed that the dearth can't be attributed to a lack of demand and instead blamed it on the restrictions of conservative Islamic society. "In the past two decades in the region, imagination has been systematically shut down ... I think part of it might be religious. Rather than go ahead and try to [understand] religion on their own, people started relying on scholars to tell them."

It was this "shutdown" of imagination -- and its implications for progress and innovation -- that initially compelled Abbas and Bahjatt to start their Arab science fiction group and publishing company [....]

Growing body of research shows how efforts backfire in sneaky ways: we fail in our best efforts because of our best efforts

By Oliver Burkman, theguardian.com, 11 Dec., 2013

• Stigmatising obesity makes overweight people eat more, not less
• Supporting a good cause on Facebook makes people less likely to give money or time
• Awareness campaigns get forgotten by the people who need them most

I can't remember the last time I saw LBJ's name mentioned in a mainstream news or news analysis article as having contemporary relevance.

Huffpo might have just taken a piece from The Onion but...

There might be a budget; a formal budget taking us through next year and beyond?

This looks like a big deal to me!

We must take heed and see how this comes out.

Everybody is going to bitch; but it looks pretty good for me.

Of course I have not read the three thousand page bill yet...but still!

There is a remote possibility that House and Senate Democrats may be able to craft a bill that lowers cuts in the Food a Stamp Program. The cuts in the program would in essence be the result of an administrative fix. If the fix can be agreed, people would not lose current Food Stamp benefits. The negotiations are part of the discussions on the farm bill.

Obviously, the great limiting factor is the Republican Hose and Senate members. There would have to be enough Republican House votes to allow the bill to pass. There is a glimmer of hope that Food Stamp benefits would not suffer the expected loss associated with the previous Republican proposals.

Hillel is one of the rabbis in the Jewish tradition most associated with the spirit of questioning, argument, and debate. Indeed, so intense and multiple were his disagreements with Shammai that a saying emerged from their disputes: “The one law has become two.”

So it seems entire appropriate for the Jewish students of the Swarthmore College Hillel to have adopted the following resolution,

Jacob Zuma will deliver keynote address in first leg of what has been described as the biggest funeral in history

By David Smith in Johannesburg and Monica Mark in Cape Town, The Guardian, 9 Dec., 2013

[.....] For dignitaries attending the memorial, not least Obama and Castro, a potential diplomatic minefield awaits. But Zelda la Grange, Mandela's personal assistant for more than a decade, told Reuters: "Tomorrow, people should all be honouring their relationship with Madiba. If it means shaking hands with the enemy, yes, I would like to see that. That is what Nelson Mandela was and actually is – bringing people together despite their differences." [....]

The government will be seeking to avoid a repeat of the disarray around last year's centenary celebrations of the African National Congress (ANC). African leaders were reportedly forced to go shopping when they found no food or bedding at their accommodation. Ugandas president, Yoweri Museveni, apparently had to send for some grilled chicken from Nando's.

Chabane said 91 heads of state and government had confirmed their attendance by noon on Monday but dismissed predictions that officials would be overwhelmed [.....]

Oh David Cay Johnson, love the research, pretty sure no-one will talk about it.

By Robert Pear, New York Times, Dec. 9, 2013

WASHINGTON — For months, the Obama administration has heralded the low premiums of medical insurance policies on sale in the insurance exchanges created by the new health law. But as consumers dig into the details, they are finding that the deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs are often much higher than what is typical in employer-sponsored health plans.

Until now, it was almost impossible for people using the federal health care website to see the deductible amounts, which consumers pay before coverage kicks in. But federal officials finally relented last week and added a “window shopping” feature that displays data on deductibles.

For policies offered in the federal exchange, as in many states, the annual deductible often tops $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a couple. [.....]

By contrast, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average deductible in employer-sponsored health plans is $1,135.

“Deductibles for many plans in the insurance exchanges are pretty high,” said Stan Dorn, a health policy expert at the Urban Institute. “These plans are more generous than what’s prevalent in the current individual insurance market, but significantly less generous than most employer-sponsored insurance." [....]

Many people buying insurance on the federal and state exchanges are expected to qualify for subsidies. But in the first month, for reasons that are not clear, only 30 percent qualified. The others must pay the full premium and will be subject to the full deductible.

Most people shopping in the exchanges are expected to choose bronze or silver plans, which provide less generous coverage than most employer-sponsored plans [....]

A Canadian asked and Will Wilkinson responded with the most obvious follow up question: Why not Mexico, too?

Such a merger makes perfect sense. No two countries on Earth are as socially and economically integrated as the U.S. and Canada. They share geography, values and a gigantic border. Their populations study, travel and do business together and intermarry in great numbers. If they were corporations (or European states), they would have merged a long time ago. And each has what the other needs: The U.S. has capital, manpower, technology and the world's strongest military; Canada has vast reserves of undeveloped resources.

[...]

Canadians have traditionally bristled at the thought of falling under the sway of the U.S., but without a deeper cross-border partnership, we face some grim existential challenges. With its small, aging population and relatively small economy, Canada lacks the resources to develop and defend its gigantic piece of real estate. Through a series of aggressive buyout attempts and transactions, China has targeted Canada's resources and empty landmass. In 2007, Russia used a small submarine to symbolically plant its flag on the ocean floor beneath the North Pole and underscore its claim to a large swath of the resource-rich Arctic, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushing the U.N. to affirm his claims to the region.

[...]

All those creepy Muslim organization names look the same to me, and in this case, a woman's foundation probably came within 2 letters of being a terror org - which is within 1 or 2 degrees of freedom, so Ban Her! She's a Witch!

Yes, the plot looks remarkably like Terry Gilliam's Brazil, except they haven't whisked her off to Gitmo (yet) to drill her teeth in an interrogation room.

But as a caveat to those who think metadata doesn't matter, yes, government fuckups have wings that fly far. History notes that government surveillance usually errs in ways beneficial to them, not in ways beneficial to the public or their targets. "Err on the side of caution" doesn't bode well for this lady's rights, and as is typical, the government doesn't even want to disclose in public what law and evidence it thinks it's following - 

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."

Ha! Just kidding! We're not prosecuting, we're just kicking her out of the country. No harm, no foul. Syke!

By Paddy Agnew, Irish Times, Dec. 6, 2013

In a surprise move, the Holy See yesterday announced that Pope Francis is to assemble a panel of experts to advise him on the problem of clerical sex abuse. This Vatican Child Protection Commission represents arguably the first concrete proposal to emerge from the so-called “G8” Council of Cardinals who have been meeting with the pope in Rome this week.

Originally appointed in April by Pope Francis to help him both govern and reform the Catholic Church, the G8 council is only now getting down to serious work [....]

As far as the composition of the commission’s panel of experts goes, it seems likely that the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, will be nominated, given his extensive track record in dealing with the problem in the Dublin archdiocese. Another obvious panel member may well be the Maltese bishop Charles Scicluna, the former Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [....]