Politics

A desperate push to win re-election, since his little stunt in Congress didn't seem to work. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/on-final-day-of-campaign-netanyahu-says-no-palestinian-state-if-he-wins/2015/03/16/4f4468e8-cbdc-11e4-8730-4f473416e759_story.html He has somehow managed to become less popular than the radical groups he is fighting against. Everyday, more and more people are blaming Israel for the state of the Palestinian situation. Now!! is the time in history.

Fascinating, Captain. Amazing but true: America is only four presidents lives old When President Obama was born (1961), President Herbert Hoover was still alive (1874-1964). When Hoover was born, President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) was still alive. When President Johnson was born, President John Adams (1735-1826) was still alive. And just like that, we've connected present day to the Founding Fathers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/12/amazing-but-true-america-is-only-four-presidents-lives-old/?tid=sm_fb

How wartime Britain planned to give the US a copy of Magna Carta British Library papers reveal plot to relinquish Lincoln cathedral Magna Carta to persuade America to enter second world war: 'After all, we possess four copies' http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/11/wartime-britain-planned-us-copy-of-magna-carta

Fascinating. Mutation, Selection, And Vertical Transmission Of Theistic Memes In Religious Canons John D. Gottsch The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205 jgottsch@jhmi.edu Abstract 1 - Introduction 2 - First Evidence of Memes 3 - First Theistic Memes in Religious Canons 3.1 - Epic of Gilgamesh 3.2 - Enuma elish 3.3 - Law Codes 4 - Theistic Memetic Creation of the Hebrew Canon 5 - Theistic Memetic Mutation in Creation of the Christian Canon 6 - Theistic Memetic Mutation in Creation of the Islamic Canon 7 - Discussion References Abstract A study of ancient and modern Near Eastern …

And away we go. Supreme Court Sets Date For Same-Sex Marriage Arguments Audio of the proceedings will be made available the same day AP (WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments over same-sex marriage on April 28 and make audio of the proceedings available later that day. The gay marriage cases mark the only time this term that the court has agreed to the quick release of audio recordings. But the court is continuing its ban on providing video of its sessions or even live-streamed audio. The arguments on gay marriage have been allotted two-and-a-half hours on the final Tuesday in April. Audio and the transcript of the proceedings should be available on the …

Well, this gets interesting. Alabama judges halt gay marriages State supreme court spurns previous federal rulings and says it is obliged to uphold state law, which defines marriage as between a man and a women http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/04/alabama-judges-halt-same-sex-marriages

Putin's net-worth is $200 billion says Russia's once largest foreigner investorCNN’s FAREED ZAKARIA GPS features an interview with Bill Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, formerly Russia's largest foreign investor, and a once supporter of President Putin. He also describes the dynamics between power and wealth in Russia, claiming that during “the first eight or 10 years of Putin's reign over Russia, it was about stealing as much money as he could. And some people, including myself, believe that he's the richest man in the world, or one of the richest men in the world, with hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth that was stolen from Russia.” TEXT EXCE…

Did Mr. Putin just fall off the wall? http://news.yahoo.com/video/poroshenko-nemtsov-planned-reveal-russian-184008882.html Rest in peace Mr. Nemtsov

Report from a very disillusioned former insider. Where Journalism Goes to Die Glenn Greenwald, Pierre Omidyar, Adnan Syed and my battles with First Look Media. By KEN SILVERSTEIN February 27, 2015 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/ken-silverstein-the-intercept-115586.html#ixzz3T4aMOZpf

This I want to see. CULTURE Why Inside the Commons is the funniest comedy of the year Whitehall farce: Sir Robert Rogers plays to the camera in Inside the Commons By Benji Wilson 9:00AM GMT 07 Feb 2015 When I heard that a BBC camera crew had been granted warts-and-all access to the Palace of Westminster for a documentary series, Inside the Commons, my first thought was, thats a lot of warts. My second thought was what on earth were the politicos thinking? Why would they let the veteran political film-maker Michael Cockerell in at all? In the run-up to an election, and at a time when respect for politicians runs somewhere alongside respect for Seventies DJs, how wa…

Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour wins Oscar http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/23/edward-snowden-documentary-citizenfour-wins-oscar

Bill Maher's opening bit on Friday night's "Real Time With Bill Maher" was centered around former New York City Mayor Rudy Giulianis recent accusation that President Obama doesnt love America. "It's very personal," Maher said. "The full quote actually is 'I do not believe the President loves America. He doesn't love you, and he doesn't love me.'" "Oh poor Rudy," Maher continued. "He's got fame. He's got money. But what he's never had is the love of a strong black man." Maher then revealed that Giuliani had written a book about his desire to be loved by Obama entitled, "Fifty Shades of Black." Before reading an excerpt from the book, Maher threw in a barb directed at O…

What’s Great About the Great Society A new history say a lot of what we think we know about Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society is wrong. For starters it was a group effort with a huge assist from the Greatest Generation. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/20/what-s-great-about-the-great-society.html

Pussy Riot: Q&A with Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina As the Russian punk duo release their song 'I Can't Breathe,' inspired by the last words of Eric Garner, they tell the Guardian how the project came to be and what it aims to express http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/18/pussy-riot-i-cant-breathe-nadya-tolokonnikova-masha-alyokhina

Firsthand account of how LBJ got things done. The White House Is No Place for Wimps The best presidents stay away from the middle ground. By JOSEPH A. CALIFANO JR. February 15, 2015 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/the-white-house-is-no-place-for-wimps-115219.html#ixzz3RrjYbfES

Courtesy politico.com: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/snl-best-political-sketches-115176.html?hp=t1_r#.VN_4CD29LCQ

http://time.com/3699289/brian-williams-apology/

In the eye of a mega-drought: Researchers warn US should prepare for 'unprecedented drought conditions' unlike anything in past 1,000 years http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/in-the-eye-of-a-megadrought-researchers-warn-us-should-prepare-for-unprecedented-drought-conditions-unlike-anything-in-past-1000-years-10045747.html

This scholar's research is endlessly fascinating to me. The Search for the Historical Paul: Which Letters Did He Really Write? John Dominic Crossan Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies, DePaul University The 13th-century Sopoćani monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site near the source of the Raška River, just east of Novi Pazar in the south-western corner of Serbia. After two centuries of attack, desolation and abandonment, its Church of the Holy Trinity is now rebuilt, its frescoes restored and its monastic life revived. In the southern choir of that eastward-pointing church are frescoes of seven apostles. Five are now unidentifiable, as time and decay has …

Honestly, why didn't someone just give her a nudge? http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/02/13/newsroom-ginsburg-not-sober-at-state-of-union.cnn

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/supreme-court-tip-hand-gay-marriage http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/gay-marriage-alabama-clarence-thomas-antonin-scalia-115042.html?hp=lc1_4

Jon Stewart's Proud Tradition His needling of the powerful is as old as the Republic. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/jon-stewart-proud-tradition-115121.html#ixzz3RUXVbkMD

The Bloomberg publications platform, formerly BloombergBusinessWeek, is pretty good these days. Here from its opinion section: The World According to Angela Merkel BloombergView Feb 9, 2015 9:05 AM EST By Leonid Bershidsky It's hard to be Germany these days. In a world that is growing fiercely divided after two decades of middle-of-the-road orthodoxy, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and the country it represents increasingly seem like the world's last bastion of common sense. But Germany's rejection of emotion and every kind of extreme have proven a powerful irritant. Paradoxically, the more Germany strives to pursue the middle path, the more often it is …

That word 'yet' is truly alarming. Geoengineering should not be used as a climate fix yet, says US science academy That extreme planet-hacking fixes for climate change have become a future possibility is a wake up call to reduce emissions now, say top US scientists ‘The likelihood of eventually considering last-ditch efforts to address damage from climate change grows with every year of inaction on emissions control,’ says US National Academy of Science report. Photograph: ISS/NASA Suzanne Goldenberg @suzyjiThe Guardian Tuesday 10 February 2015 11.12 EST Climate change has advanced so rapidly that the time has come to look at options for a planetary-scale intervent…

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