I can just imagine the response this article will get from AIPAC and the rest of the neocon bestiary…
Why Iran Should Get the Bomb
Kenneth N. Waltz | Foreign Affairs | July 12
The past several months have witnessed a heated debate over the best way for the United States and Israel to respond to Iran’s nuclear activities. As the argument has raged, the United States has tightened its already robust sanctions regime against the Islamic Republic, and the European Union announced in January that it will begin an embargo on Iranian oil on July 1. Although the United States, the EU, and Iran have recently returned to the negotiating table, a palpable sense of crisis still looms.
It should not. Most U.S., European, and Israeli commentators and policymakers warn that a nuclear-armed Iran would be the worst possible outcome of the current standoff. In fact, it would probably be the best possible result: the one most likely to restore stability to the Middle East.
When President Obama spoke before Congress two years ago he criticized the members of the Supreme Court for their decision in the Citizens United case saying, “I can’t think of anything more devastating to the public interest.” Antonin Scalia sat there shaking his head. Now we know why…
What Sheldon Adelson Wants
Editorial | NYTimes | 23 June 12
No American is dedicating as much of his money to defeat President Obama as Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who also happens to have made more money in the last three years than any other American. He is the perfect illustration of the squalid state of political money, spending sums greater than any political donation in history to advance his personal, ideological and financial agenda, which is wildly at odds with the nation’s needs.
Mr. Adelson spent $20 million to prop up Newt Gingrich’s failed candidacy for the Republican nomination. Now, he has given $10 million to a Mitt Romney super PAC, and has pledged at least $10 million to Crossroads GPS, the advocacy group founded by Karl Rove that is running attack ads against Mr. Obama and other Democrats. Another $10 million will probably go to a similar group founded by the Koch brothers, and $10 million more to Republican Congressional super PACs.
A fw days ago I got a email fm a frnd which i could hardly understand. It was sent fm a blkbry device which is how every1 speaks n rites nowdys. Gd help us!
This Embarrasses You and I
Sue Shellenbarger | Wall Street Journal | 19 Jun 12
When Caren Berg told colleagues at a recent staff meeting, “There’s new people you should meet,” her boss Don Silver broke in, says Ms. Berg, a senior vice president at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., marketing and crisis-communications company.
“I cringe every time I hear” people misuse “is” for “are,” Mr. Silver says. The company’s chief operations officer, Mr. Silver also hammers interns to stop peppering sentences with “like.” For years, he imposed a 25-cent fine on new hires for each offense. “I am losing the battle,” he says.
Move over Eric Clapton. Step aside BB King. There is a 12-year old guitar playing phenom who is about to take over your world. Quinn Sullivan started playing at age 3. This video below shows him at 9 years old opening for Buddy Guy at the Gathering of the Vibes Festival in 2009. You can see more at his website or on YouTube. Mozart with a steel guitar…
This summer we will be hearing endless advertisements, speeches and political chatterboxes talking about the vast sums of money the US government spends on health care, entitlement programs and “welfare”. If you listen to the republicans you could easily think we live in some sort of socialist Sweden with everyone on the dole paid by your taxes. The truth, of course, is somewhat different. This video from Al Jazeera (the “terrorist” network) lays it out pretty clearly…
53¢ of Every $Dollar Goes to War
Dennis Bernstein and Dave Lindorff | Al Jazeera | 18 June 12
________________________________________________________________________________ Dennis Bernstein is an American producer and co-host of the radio news program, Flashpoints Radio on Pacifica Radio. Dave Lindorff is an American investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to Businessweek, The Nation, Extra! and Salon.com. He received two Project Censored awards in 2004 and 2011.
Listening to Richard Feynman is like listening to the Qracle at Delphi. It’s like getting plugged into the universe and actually understanding what’s going on. Indeed his passion and unique ability was explaining the inner workings of the physical universe in a way that mortals like me could understand and appreciate as he did. Explaining electromagnetic field theory, as he does here, his face lights up like a kid who just discovered a map to a long-buried treasure…
Richard Feynman on Light
Richard Feynman | YouTube | 2 Nov 07
________________________________________________________________________________ Richard Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics (he proposed the parton model). For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. He developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. During his lifetime, Feynman became one of the best-known scientists in the world. In a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World he was ranked as one of the ten greatest physicists of all time.
Feynman assisted in the development of the atomic bomb and was a member of the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. In addition to his work in theoretical physics, Feynman has been credited with pioneering the field of quantum computing, and introducing the concept of nanotechnology. He held the Richard Chace Tolman professorship in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology.
If you read news reports about the European economic mess you probably think Greece is a giant ponzi scheme that got caught in the act. This view is understandable because the news media generally avoids pointing the finger at those who bankrolled Greece and the other schemers in Europe’s rapidly collapsing house of cards. Paul Krugman, however, doesn’t hesitate to call a spade a spade…
Greece as Victim
Paul Krugman | NYTimes | 17 Jun 12
Ever since Greece hit the skids, we’ve heard a lot about what’s wrong with everything Greek. Some of the accusations are true, some are false — but all of them are beside the point. Yes, there are big failings in Greece’s economy, its politics and no doubt its society. But those failings aren’t what caused the crisis that is tearing Greece apart, and threatens to spread across Europe.
No, the origins of this disaster lie farther north, in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin, where officials created a deeply — perhaps fatally — flawed monetary system, then compounded the problems of that system by substituting moralizing for analysis. And the solution to the crisis, if there is one, will have to come from the same places.
This may strike you as a bit esoteric but the idea that a robot can grip and pick up virtually any object by using ground coffee and a balloon is pretty remarkable. If you think I’m going bananas here, watch this video…
________________________________________________________________________________ ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century.
