Dr. C: The Unpleasant Exclusivity in Our Educational System
Wolraich: The Grim Possibility Of War With Iran
Heat Win Game Six, Disappointing Nation of Heat-Haters
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Dr. C: The Unpleasant Exclusivity in Our Educational System Wolraich: The Grim Possibility Of War With Iran Heat Win Game Six, Disappointing Nation of Heat-Haters |
Shuts & |
I am reading the book by that name, by Carol Dweck, and am recommending it to fellow denizens and others I know.  [Read more]
Ok, so now she's in.
Many progressives I talk to adopt the view that "what can she do? She's just one senator." [Read more]
Isaiah J. Poole, "Message to Obama: Go Bold on Jobs or Go Down In Defeat", Campaign for America's Future, yesterday.
....Obama is failing to communicate a compelling economic agenda for change. The Tuesday night town hall debate may be the president's last chance to position himself as the change agent that the voters demand. And the key to doing that is convincing voters that it is he, not Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who will move the country toward a full-employment economy. [Read more]
Any that you have seen, or would like to see, out there?
Here are a few possibilities popping into my head of late:
Email I received today, from a group, Bold Progressives:
Billionaire New York mayor Mike Bloomberg calls himself "independent." But he shows no independence from Wall Street bankers.
Last year, he cracked down on Occupy Wall Street. Yesterday, he endorsed Republican Senator Scott Brown against Wall Street's biggest foe -- consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren. He's even pulling together other rich donors to raise money for Brown.
I am wondering if Romney's candidacy may provide about as good an opportunity as may be had to expose the ugliness and wrongheadedness of the Randian worldview upon which that candidacy is based, centered as it is on worship of the presumed "job creator" class whether in particular cases its members create, destroy or outsource jobs.
A timely but possibly too mature and adult work that confronts this worldview head-on with one grounded in reality is The Self-Made Myth, and the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed, by Brian Miller and Mike Lapham, published this year. It features mini-bios of many successful entrepreneurs who, unlike the Romneys and the Donald Trumps of the world, retain the awareness, character and honesty to acknowledge many essential factors beyond their own hard work, commitment, and talent--including specific forms of support made possible by, yes, their government--without which they would not have succeeded.  [Read more]
I used to think...and now I think...
Also, what prompted you to change your mind?
I don't have anything eloquent or profound to say on this. You don't make the war and peace decisions. I don't romanticize what is often an array of considerations why you enlisted any more than I do for other public servants I also feel a large sense of gratitude towards, day in and day out--including teachers and other school employees, firefighters, emergency workers, and, yes, the police, disfavored by some here not just now in the wake of Occupy events but generally. None of us, in public service or not, is perfect or are saints.  [Read more]
The Economist's September 24 print edition has a cover story called "Hunting the Rich": http://www.economist.com/node/21530104
Awhile back I made a cultural comment about victim envy--how everyone, no matter how relatively well off, seems in our day to want to portray themselves as a victim for political advocacy purposes. [Read more]
Reuters, June 19, 2013
CAIRO - Egypt's tourism minister tendered his resignation on Tuesday over President Mohamed Mursi's decision to appoint as governor of Luxor a member of a hardline Islamist group blamed for slaughtering 58 tourists there in 1997.
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil did not accept the resignation of Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou, who remains in the post for now. However, the move pointed to a split in government over an appointment that one critic called "the last nail in the coffin" of the tourism industry.
Mursi appointed Adel Mohamed al-Khayat, a member of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, as Luxor governor this week, a move seen as a sign of a deepening political alliance between the once-armed group and the...
By Robert Mackey, The Lede @ nytimes.com, June 18, 2013
Includes lots of images and videos.
Last Updated, 6:57 p.m. As my colleague Simon Romero reports from São Paulo, more than 200,000 Brazilians filled the streets in cities across the country on Monday to protest the high cost of living and lavish spending on soccer stadiums ahead of next year’s World Cup, in demonstrations that have intensified as images of police brutality against peaceful protesters spread on...
How Obama's pick to lead the FBI tried to put the brakes on the NSA's surveillance dragnet.
By Marc Ambinder, Foreign Policy, June 18, 2013
[....] Comey, who is said to be President Obama's choice to be the next director of the FBI, has never publicly disclosed exactly what he refused to sanction when he was briefly acting attorney general during Ashcroft's hospital stay, but people briefed on the program who have spoken to Comey say it was the legal rationale giving the NSA quick access to un-sifted telecom and service provider-collected metadata that "drove him bonkers," not the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. There was just no way, Comey thought, to justify an effort that simply...
'Peace and reconciliation' milestone comes after US drops request for formal rejection of al-Qaida as precondition to talks
By Dan Roberts in Washington and Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul, guardian.co.uk, 18 June 2013
[....] White House officials say they believe the Taliban delegation at the talks represents the movement's leadership, and includes more radical groups such as the Haqqani network. Officials said the US would have a direct role in the talks starting starting this week in Doha, but the substantive negotiations over the future of Afghanistan would then be led by the Afghan government.
"The core of this process is not going to be US-Taliban talks – we can help the process – but the core is going...
According to some well-placed Israeli commentators, the best Israel can hope for is that Assad holds on but only just. That would keep the regime in place, or boxed into its heartland, but sapped of the energy to concern itself with anything other than immediate matters of survival.
In closed-door discussions, analyst Ben Caspit has noted, the Israeli army has put forward its “optimal scenario”: Syria breaking up into three separate states, with Assad confined to an Alawite canton in Damascus and along the coast.
A long war of attrition between Assad and the opposition has additional benefits for Israel following the decision by Hizbullah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to draft thousands of fighters to assist the...