Sunday, December 8, 2013

Why is Microsoft scared of Chromebooks? | The Verge

Why is Microsoft scared of Chromebooks? | The Verge:

 " 47inShare
"It’s pretty much a brick," says Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison as he rejects a Samsung Chromebook brought in by an actor playing a customer. Microsoft really doesn’t want you buying this thing."

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Friday, December 6, 2013

Obama Gets Real - NYTimes.com

Obama Gets Real - NYTimes.com:

"Much of the media commentary on President Obama’s big inequality speech was cynical. You know the drill: it’s yet another “reboot” that will go nowhere; none of it will have any effect on policy, and so on. But before we talk about the speech’s possible political impact or lack thereof, shouldn’t we look at the substance? Was what the president said true? Was it new? If the answer to these questions is yes — and it is — then what he said deserves a serious hearing."

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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Expanding Social Security

NYT

Are We Alone?

NYT

Scientists Find First Neutrinos from Distant Space | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network

Scientists Find First Neutrinos from Distant Space | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network:

"The world has heard the first faint whispers of the most powerful cataclysms in the universe. Scientists working on the IceCube experiment in Antarctica report that they have found 28 neutrinos that must have come to earth from explosions in the distant universe—the first time scientists have found neutrinos coming from outside our own solar system. We wrote about the detections in the November issue of Scientific American, but the researchers have just now published their results in the journal Science. The results open up a new era of astronomy, allowing researchers to study not just the light from distant objects, but the fundamental particles that they generate as well."

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Monday, October 28, 2013

Fernando Pino Solanas to the Senate!


Fernando Solanas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fernando Solanas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

 "Fernando Ezequiel 'Pino' Solanas (born 16 February 1936) is an Argentine film director, screenwriter and politician. His films include La hora de los hornos (1968), Tangos: el exilio de Gardel (1985), Sur (1988), El viaje (1992), La nube (1998) and Memorias del saqueo (2004), among many others."

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Thursday, October 10, 2013

Paul Krugman

NYT

Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com

Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com:

"I’ve been remiss in not writing anything about Janet Yellen’s nomination to head the Fed; partly that was because I wasn’t sure exactly what to say, and how to explain why I and so many other economists are really happy with her selection."

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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Che Guevara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Che Guevara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

 "Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtʃe É£eˈβaɾa];[7] June 14,[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.[8]"

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Sunday, October 6, 2013

Paul Krugman

NYT

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Egyptian ultras’ fight for existence is a struggle for public space

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Egyptian ultras’ fight for existence is a struggle for public space:

Militant Egyptian soccer fans, a key player in Egypt’s almost three year-old political rollercoaster, are fighting a battle for their existence in the shadow of the military’s campaign to repress the Muslim Brotherhood. At the core of the battle is the military’s desire to crack down on one of the country’s largest civic groups and assert control of stadia in advance of a resumption later this month of the country’s suspended premier league.

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Power Vacuum in Washington

I am a Mexican American, I know the History of my country of origin, and now, I make an analogy with Hitler's ascend to power, and Ted Cruz's shenanigans; together with the recent collapse of the state in Mexico, when the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), lost power to Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), in 2000.

Let's start with what I know better.

At October 2, 1968, forty five years ago, I almost died. When I saw tanks from the balcony of our apartment in Mexico City, I decided not to go to the "Plaza de Tlatelolco", and so, saved my life.

Vacuum is abhorred by Nature, said the Greeks. Power Vacuum, is abhorred by men, I say.

When President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, sent troops in response to student protests, he definitely sealed the fate of PRI. Many students of my generation did not vote for that party anymore. Thirty two years later, they lost the presidential election to PAN's Vicente Fox. There was a problem though, this conservative party had never governed Mexico, and a Power Vacuum developed. Now Chapo Guzmán, controls big swats of territory, in Mexico.

Now let's jump to Germany in the 30s, Franz Von Papen, let Hitler in, thinking he would control the left, he did, but then he took everything else, even the cultural artifacts, as you can see in the upcoming movie, The Monuments Men. 

Ted Cruz, could be the next Adolf Hitler.


Franz von Papen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franz von Papen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

 "Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen ( listen (help·info)) (29 October 1879 – 2 May 1969) was a German nobleman, General Staff officer and politician. He served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934. He belonged to the group of close advisers to president Paul von Hindenburg in the late Weimar Republic. It was largely Papen, believing that Hitler could be controlled once he was in the government, who persuaded Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor in a cabinet not under Nazi Party domination. However, Papen and his allies were quickly marginalised by Hitler and he left the government after the Night of the Long Knives, during which some of his confidantes were killed by the Nazis."

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The Fifth Estate

NYT

Julian Assange in the Movies

NYT

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Welcome to Ted Cruz's Thunderdorme

Warner Bros, via Everette Collection
The nation’s capital in the future is not a pretty sight after having been destroyed in The Political Fight of 2013.
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A PLACE ONCE CALLED WASHINGTON
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Readers’ Comments

AN ape sits where Abe sat.
The year is 2084, in the capital of the land formerly called North America.
The peeling columns of the Lincoln Memorial, and Abe’s majestic head, elegant hands and big feet are partially submerged in sludge. Animals that escaped from the National Zoo after zookeepers were furloughed seven decades ago migrated to the memorials, hunting for food left by tourists.
The white marble monuments are now covered in ash, Greek tragedy ruins overrun with weeds. Tea Party zombies, thrilled with the dark destruction they have wreaked on the planet, continue to maraud around the Hill, eager to chomp on humanity some more.
Dead cherry blossom trees litter the bleak landscape. Trash blows through L’Enfant’s once beautiful boulevards, now strewn with the detritus of democracy, scraps of the original Constitution, corroded White House ID cards, stacks of worthless bills tumbling out of the Treasury Department.
The BlackBerrys that were pried from the hands of White House employees in 2013 are now piled up on the Potomac as a flood barrier against the ever-rising tide from melting ice caps. Their owners, unable to check their messages, went insane long ago.
Because there was no endgame, the capital’s hunger games ended in a gray void. Because there was no clean bill, now there is only a filthy stench. Because there was no wisdom, now there is only rot. The instigators, it turned out, didn’t even know what they were arguing for. Macho thrusts and feints, competing to win while the country lost.
Thomas Jefferson’s utopia devolved into Ted Cruz’s dystopia.
Law and order broke down as police, who were not getting paid, eventually decided to stay home. The fanatics barricaded in the Capitol dug in, determined to tear down what their idols, the founding fathers, had built. Darkness soon devoured the rest of the country.
Unlike Suzanne Collins’s “The Hunger Games,” where the capital thrived as the nation withered, here, the capital withered first, as the federal city shriveled without federal funds. But, in other ways, it mirrors the fantasy dystopias depicted by Hollywood and Cormac McCarthy in his novel “The Road,” “bloodcults” consuming one another in “an ashen scabland,” a “cold illucid world.”
In 2084, there’s little sign of life in the godless and barren lost world. The insurance exchanges are open and the kinks are almost ironed out. But there is no one to sign up. Koch brother drones patrol the skies. A Mad Max motorcycle gang wielding hacksaws roars through the C.I.A., now a field of dead cornstalks, and the fetid hole that was once Michelle Obama’s organic vegetable garden. Will Smith and Brad Pitt are here, hunting aliens and monsters.
The Navy-Air Force game goes on, somehow, and there are annual CrossFit games on the Mall, led by flesh-eating Dark Seeker Paul Ryan, now 114 years old. CrossFit is still fighting the Department of Agriculture’s food pyramid, even though there’s no Department of Agriculture and no food.
A gaunt man and sickly boy, wrapped in blue tarps, trudge toward the blighted spot that was once the World War II monument, scene of the first shutdown skirmishes. They know they may not survive the winter.
“How did this happen, Papa?” the boy asks.
“Americans had been filled with existential dread since the 9/11 attacks, but they didn’t realize the real danger was coming from inside the government,” the man says. “It started very small with a petty fight over a six-week spending bill but quickly mushroomed out of control.”
“Whose fault was it, Papa?” the boy presses.
The man tries to explain: “The Grand Old Party, the proud haven of patriots who believed in a strong national security and fiscal responsibility, was infected with a mutant form of ideology. It was named the Sarahcuda Strain after the earliest carrier. Remember when you saw that old science fiction movie, ‘I Am Legend’? A scientist described the virus that burned through civilization as being like ‘a very fast car driven by a very bad man.’ That’s what happened: In the infected Tea Party politicians, brain function decreased and social de-evolution occurred. They began ignoring their basic survival instincts.
“It’s hard to believe now, but they were fixated on stopping an effort to get health care to those who couldn’t afford it. It eventually led them to destroy all the things they said they held most dear.”
The boy is confused. “They killed America because they didn’t care about keeping Americans alive?” he asks.
The man sits down. His voice grows faint. “Well, they didn’t seem to understand themselves or what they were doing,” he continues. “In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many of the feverish pols believed they were waging the right and moral fight even as G.O.P. party elders like Jeb Bush, John McCain, Karl Rove and James Baker warned them that they were dragging the country toward catastrophe. The Tea Party leaders liked to refer to themselves as the Children of Reagan. But as Baker told Peggy Noonan, Reagan always said, ‘I’d rather get 80 percent of what I want than go over the cliff with my flag flying.’ ”
The boy frowns. “But Papa, didn’t the healthy Republicans realize the infected ones had lower brain functions?”
“Well, son, they knew there was something creepy about the ringleader, Ted Cruz,” the man replies. “His face looked pinched, like a puzzle that had not been put together quite right. He was always launching into orations with a weird cadence and self-consciously throwing folksy phrases into his speeches, like ‘Let me tell ya,’ to make himself seem Texan, when he was really a Canadian.”
The boy looks alarmed. “A Canadian destroyed the world, Papa?”
“Once the government shut down, a plague came, because they had closed the Center for Disease Control,” the man says. “Storms, floods and wildfires raged after FEMA was closed down and the National Guard got decimated.
“Once we went into default, the globe got sucked into the economic vortex. With a lot of the Defense Department, F.B.I., and intelligence community on forced leave, the country became vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Without the C.I.A. to train the moderate Syrian rebels, Syria fell to Al Qaeda.
“After the final American president, Barack Obama, canceled his trip to Asia, that part of the world decided we were weak. China moved quickly to fill the vacuum. Obama grew so disgusted, he spent his final years in office isolated in the White House residence. When he stopped returning the calls of Hassan Rouhani and Bibi Netanyahu, it was only a matter of time before the Middle East went up in flames.
“What is left of the world is being run by Julian Assange from what is left of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and by some right-wing nut in a cabin in Idaho.”
The boy begins to cry. “Papa, stop. You’re making me sad. Are all the good guys gone?”
Looking through the gray skies toward the ashen Lincoln Memorial, where an ape sits in Abe’s chair, the man replies sadly, “Yes, son.”

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Nicholas Kristof

NYT

Maureen Dowd

NYT

Thomas Friedman

NYT

Gail Collins

NYT

JPMorgan Punished

NYT

UN Climate Panel

NYT

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Decision to change date of Qatari World Cup risks political and legal rows

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Decision to change date of Qatari World Cup risks political and legal rows:

"A pending decision in early October by world soccer body FIFA on whether to move the Qatar 2022 World Cup from summer to winter threatens to open debate on whether to deprive the Gulf state of its right to host one of the world’s two largest sporting events and could spark allegations of an anti-Arab bias."

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The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Turkish soccer pitches re-emerge as political battlefields

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Turkish soccer pitches re-emerge as political battlefields:

 "Turkish soccer pitches have reasserted themselves as political battlefields following the death of a protester and the emergence of pro-government football support groups in the wake of mass anti-government demonstrations in June."

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The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Harsh Qatari labor conditions move center stage as FIFA debates World Cup

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Harsh Qatari labor conditions move center stage as FIFA debates World Cup:

 "Controversy over conditions for unskilled and semi-skilled workers in Qatar involved in the construction of World Cup-related infrastructure as well as for flight attendants of Qatar Airways, the 2022 tournament’s likely official carrier, has moved center stage as world soccer body FIFA prepares to debate next week the Gulf state’s hosting of the 2022 soccer tournament."

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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Revolution in Education

NYT

Nicholas Kristof Today

NYT

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Turmoil in Egypt: Learning lessons from the Philippines

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Turmoil in Egypt: Learning lessons from the Philippines:

 "With Egypt deeply polarized politically and religiously, kick-starting a political process capable of bridging divides and creating an inclusive democratic process seems a distant prospect. It will ultimately depend on the likely shrinking over time of the military's popular base and the government's realization that it needs the United States and the European Union to tackle the country's vast economic problems."

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Saturday, September 14, 2013

Thomas Friedman Today

NYT

Maureen Dowd Today on the CIA

NYT

Che Guevara Visited this Place

NYT

Deal on Chemical Weapons

NYT

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Whither the Arab Revolts? – A Response to Ali A. Allawi

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Whither the Arab Revolts? – A Response to Ali A. Allawi:

"I feel compelled to respond to your beautifully written and well-argued epistle to Syed Farid Alatas. I understand your sense of disappointment and betrayal as a result of how events have unfolded in post-revolt Arab nations, but want to take issue with your notions of revolution that lead you to conclude that popular revolts only produce greater suffering, loss of life, mayhem and strife and that civil disobedience is the one available way forward"

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The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: UAE exploits soccer to counter charges of human rights abuse

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: UAE exploits soccer to counter charges of human rights abuse:

"The recent sentencing in the United Arab Emirates of scores of dissidents on charges of plotting to overthrow the government and UAE support for the military coup that ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi has sparked assertions that the country is using its acquisition of Manchester City and a franchise to establish a New York-based Major League Soccer team to polish an image increasingly tarnished by autocratic and counterrevolutionary policies."

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The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Pressure for labor reform in Qatar increases amid calls to move World Cup to winter

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Pressure for labor reform in Qatar increases amid calls to move World Cup to winter:

 "Activists have stepped up calls for a boycott of the 2022 World Cup if Qatar fails to bring conditions for its majority foreign work force in line with international labor standards. The campaign seeks to exploit potential Qatari vulnerability at a time that world soccer body FIFA gears up to decide whether to move the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East and North Africa from summer to winter."

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The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Turkey moves to prevent protests in stadiums and on campus

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer: Turkey moves to prevent protests in stadiums and on campus:

"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has announced a series of measures to prevent soccer stadiums and university campuses from becoming major protest venues as the football season and the academic year begins. In doing so, Mr. Erdogan is taking a leaf out of the playbook of Egyptian military strongman Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and other Arab autocrats who demonize their opponents as terrorists."

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Wahhabism vs. Wahhabism: Qatar Challenges Saudi Arabia (APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING)

Gmail - Wahhabism vs. Wahhabism: Qatar Challenges Saudi Arabia (APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING):

Qatar, a tiny energy-rich state in terms of territory and population, has exploded on to the world map as a major rival to the region’s behemoth, Saudi Arabia. By projecting itself through an activist foreign policy, an acclaimed and at times controversial global broadcaster, an airline that has turned it into a transportation hub and a host of mega sporting events, Qatar has sought to develop the soft power needed to compensate for its inability to ensure its security, safety and defence militarily. In doing so, it has demonstrated that size no longer necessarily is the determining factor for a state’s ability to enhance its influence and power. Its challenge to Saudi Arabia is magnified by the fact that it alongside the kingdom is the world’s only state that adheres to Wahhabism, an austere interpretation in Islam. Qatari conservatism is however everything but a mirror image of Saudi Arabia’s stark way of life with its powerful, conservative clergy, absolute gender segregation; total ban on alcohol and houses of worship for adherents of other religions, and refusal to accommodate alternative lifestyles or religious practices. Qatar’s alternative adaptation of Wahhabism coupled with its lack of an indigenous clergy and long-standing relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the region’s only organised opposition force, complicate its relationship with Saudi Arabia and elevate it to a potentially serious threat.

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Monday, September 9, 2013

Obama Embraces Russian Proposal on Syria Weapons - NYTimes.com

Obama Embraces Russian Proposal on Syria Weapons - NYTimes.com:

 "WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday tentatively embraced a Russian diplomatic proposal to avert a United States military strike on Syria by having international monitors take control of the Syrian government’s chemical weapons. The move added new uncertainty to Mr. Obama’s push to win support among allies, the American public and members of Congress for an attack."

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Naperville Demonstration


Saturday, September 7, 2013

The New Science of Mind - NYTimes.com

The New Science of Mind - NYTimes.com:

"THESE days it is easy to get irritated with the exaggerated interpretations of brain imaging — for example, that a single fMRI scan can reveal our innermost feelings — and with inflated claims about our understanding of the biological basis of our higher mental processes."

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Research Cites Role of Warming in Extremes - NYTimes.com

Research Cites Role of Warming in Extremes - NYTimes.com:

"Scientists have long predicted that global warming will worsen heat waves and torrential rainfalls. In some parts of the world, that is exactly what happened last year, climate scientists reported Thursday."

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Monday, September 2, 2013

Brazil Angered Over Report N.S.A. Spied on President - NYTimes.com

Brazil Angered Over Report N.S.A. Spied on President - NYTimes.com:

"RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s government summoned the United States ambassador on Monday to respond to new revelations of American surveillance of President Dilma Rousseff and her top aides, complicating relations between the countries ahead of Ms. Rousseff’s state visit to Washington next month."

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N.S.A. Said to Have Spied on Leaders of Brazil and Mexico - NYTimes.com

N.S.A. Said to Have Spied on Leaders of Brazil and Mexico - NYTimes.com:

 "RIO DE JANEIRO — The National Security Agency's spy program targeted the communications of the Brazilian and Mexican presidents, and in the case of Mexico's leader accessed the content of emails before he was elected, the U.S. journalist who obtained secret documents from NSA leaker Edward Snowden said Sunday."

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Sunday, September 1, 2013

Love for Labor Lost

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It wasn’t always about the hot dogs. Originally, believe it or not, Labor Day actually had something to do with showing respect for labor.
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman
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Readers’ Comments


Here’s how it happened: In 1894Pullman workers, facing wage cuts in the wake of a financial crisis, went on strike — and Grover Cleveland deployed 12,000 soldiers to break the union. He succeeded, but using armed force to protect the interests of property was so blatant that even the Gilded Age was shocked. So Congress, in a lame attempt at appeasement, unanimously passed legislation symbolically honoring the nation’s workers.
It’s all hard to imagine now. Not the bit about financial crisis and wage cuts — that’s going on all around us. Not the bit about the state serving the interests of the wealthy — look at who got bailed out, and who didn’t, after our latter-day version of the Panic of 1893. No, what’s unimaginable now is that Congress would unanimously offer even an empty gesture of support for workers’ dignity. For the fact is that many of today’s politicians can’t even bring themselves to fake respect for ordinary working Americans.
Consider, for example, how Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, marked Labor Day last year: with aTwitter post declaring “Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.” Yep, he saw Labor Day as an occasion to honor business owners.
More broadly, consider the ever-widening definition of those whom conservatives consider parasites. Time was when their ire was directed at bums on welfare. But even at the program’s peak, the number of Americans on “welfare” — Aid to Families With Dependent Children — never exceeded about 5 percent of the population. And that program’s far less generous successor, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, reaches less than 2 percent of Americans.
Yet even as the number of Americans on what we used to consider welfare has declined, the number of citizens the right considers “takers” rather than “makers” — people of whom Mitt Romney complained, “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives” — has exploded, to encompass almost half the population. And the great majority of this newly defined army of moochers consists of working families that don’t pay income taxes but do pay payroll taxes (most of the rest are elderly).
How can someone who works for a living be considered the moral equivalent of a bum on welfare? Well, part of the answer is that many people on the right engage in word games: they talk about how someone doesn’t pay income taxes, and hope that their listeners fail to notice the word “income” and forget about all the other taxes lower-income working Americans pay.
But it is also true that modern America, while it has pretty much eliminated traditional welfare, does have other programs designed to help the less well-off — notably the earned-income tax credit, food stamps and Medicaid. The majority of these programs’ beneficiaries are either children, the elderly or working adults — this is true by definition for the tax credit, which only supplements earned income, and turns out in practice to be true of the other programs. So if you consider someone who works hard trying to make ends meet, but also gets some help from the government, a “taker,” you’re going to have contempt for a very large number of American workers and their families.
Oh, and just wait until Obamacare kicks in, and millions more working Americans start receiving subsidies to help them purchase health insurance.
You might ask why we should provide any aid to working Americans — after all, they aren’t completely destitute. But the fact is that economic inequality has soared over the past few decades, and while a handful of people have stratospheric incomes, a far larger number of Americans find that no matter how hard they work, they can’t afford the basics of a middle-class existence — health insurance in particular, but even putting food on the table can be a problem. Saying that they can use some help shouldn’t make us think any less of them, and it certainly shouldn’t reduce the respect we grant to anyone who works hard and plays by the rules.
But obviously that’s not the way everyone sees it. In particular, there are evidently a lot of wealthy people in America who consider anyone who isn’t wealthy a loser — an attitude that has clearly gotten stronger as the gap between the 1 percent and everyone else has widened. And such people have a lot of friends in Washington.
So, this time around will we be hearing anything from Mr. Cantor and his colleagues suggesting that they actually do respect people who work for a living? Maybe. But the one thing we’ll know for sure is that they don’t mean it.

NASA spots giant black hole rejecting food | Cutting Edge - CNET News

NASA spots giant black hole rejecting food | Cutting Edge - CNET News:

"You might think of black holes as voracious eaters that suck up everything in sight. But astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found that the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy is actually quite sloppy when it comes to its culinary habits."

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Robert Fisk: Once Washington made the Middle East tremble – now no one there takes it seriously

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Watershed. It’s the only word for it. Once Lebanon and Syria and Egypt trembled when Washington spoke. Now they laugh. It’s not just a question of what happened to the statesmen of the past. No one believed that Cameron was Churchill or that the silly man in the White House was Roosevelt – although Putin might make a rather good Stalin. It’s more a question of credibility; no one in the Middle East takes America seriously anymore. And you only had to watch Obama on Saturday to see why.  
For there he was, prattling on in the most racist way about “ancient sectarian differences” in the Middle East. Since when was the president of the United States an expert on these supposed “sectarian differences”? Constantly we are shown maps of the Arab world with Shiites and Sunnis and Christians colour-coded onto the nations which we generously bequeathed to the region after the First World War. But when is an American paper going to carry a colour-coded map of Washington or Chicago with black and white areas delineated by streets?
But what was amazing was the sheer audacity of our leaders in thinking that they could yet again bamboozle their electorates with their lies and trumperies and tomfooleries.
This doesn’t mean that the Syrian regime did not use gas “on its own people” – a phrase we used to use about Saddam when we wanted a war in Iraq – but it does mean that our present leaders are now paying the price for the dishonesty of Bush and Blair.
Obama, who is becoming more and more preacher-like, wants to be the Punisher-in-Chief of the Western World, the Avenger-in-Chief. There issomething oddly Roman about him. And the Romans were good at two things. They believed in law and they believed in crucifixion. The US constitution – American “values” and the cruise missile have a faintly similar focus. The lesser races must be civilized and they must be punished, even if the itsy-bitsy tiny missile launches look more like perniciousness than war. Everyone outside the Roman Empire was called a barbarian. Everyone outside Obama’s empire is called a terrorist.
And as usual, the Big Picture has a habit of taking away some of the little details we should know about.
Take Afghanistan, for example. I had an interesting phone call from Kabul three days ago. And it seems that the Americans are preventing President Karzai purchasing new Russian Mi helicopters – because Moscow sells the same helicopters to Syria. Well, how about that. The US, it seems, is now trying to damage Russian trade relations with Afghanistan – why the Afghans would want to do business with the country that enslaved them for eight years is another matter – because of Damascus.
Now another little piece of news. Just over a week ago, two massive car bombs blew up outside two Salafist mosques in the north Lebanese city of Tripoli. They killed 47 people and wounded another 500. Now it has emerged that five people have been charged by the Lebanese security services over these bombings and one of them is said to be a captain in the Syrian government intelligence service.
His charge is “in absentia”, as they say, and we all like to think that men and women are innocent until proved guilty. But two sheikhs have also been charged, one of them apparently the head of a pro-Damascus Islamist organization. The other sheikh is also said to be close to Syrian intelligence. Typically, Obama is so keen on bombarding Syria for gassing that he has missed out on this nugget of information which has angered and infuriated millions of Lebanese.
But I guess this is what happens when you take your eye off the ball.
It reminds me of a book that was published by Yale University Press in 2005. It was called The New Lion of Damascus by David Lesch, a professor at Trinity University in Texas. Those were the days when Bashar al-Assad was still being held up as the bright new broom in Syria.
“Bashar,” Lesch concluded, “is, indeed, the hope – and the promise of a better future.”
Then last year – by which time the West had abandoned its dreams of Bashar – the good professor came up with another book, again published by Yale. This time it was called Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad, and Lesch concluded: “He (Bashar) was short-sighted and became deluded. He failed miserably.”
As my Beirut bookseller remarked, we must await Lesch’s next book, tentatively entitled, perhaps, Assad is Back. Why, he may well last longer than Obama.

Band of Brothers

Now another book. There’s a remarkable memoir just out of an Englishman teaching in Pakistan. Robin Brooke-Smith was principal of Edwardes College outside Peshawar and his story – his book is called 'Storm Warning: Riding the Crosswinds in the Pakistan-Afghan Borderlands' -- is the almost unbelievable one of running a college amid Taliban country. Yes, he had threats and warnings and all kinds of vicious backbiting within the academic community but he maintained college standards and on the school’s hundredth anniversary – it was founded by Sir Herbert Edwardes of Shropshire – he even managed to get the band of the Irish Guards to play in college in full dress uniform.
My favourite moment came when Brooke-Smith received a phone call from the British defence attaché in Islamabad, telling him that there had been specific warnings that the school might be attacked (by the ubiquitous ‘terrorists’, of course). Did this mean that the band was not coming, Brooke-Smith asked? I loved the following reply from the defence attaché:
“No, absolutely not, they are still coming. The band is an active military unit of the British army. They have just finished a tour of duty in Bosnia. Their band playing is a sideline. The bandsmen are all professional serving soldiers.” And the Irish Guards went to Peshawar and played their marches in bandit country and that was in April of the year 2000.
And now, it sure makes Cameron look a puny man.