Today’s broadsheet from the FM website pressroom. There are 5 sections, all with hot news.
- Links to 5 interesting articles of news and analysis
- Quote of the Day — about the natural enemy of civilization
- Featured articles – Good news for the Democratic Party!
- Plus, an Afterword
(I) Links to interesting news and analysis
(a) Today’s fearmongering: “Plague: A New Thriller of the Coming Pandemic“, Robin Cook, Foreign Policy, November/December 2009 — “The best-selling author of Outbreak has an exclusive tale for FP about a catastrophe of global proportions. And by the way, it’s not fiction.”
(b) “Nine Nations of China“, an interactive feature at The Atlantic — In most respects “the big country of “China” is really a fluid congeries of interests and ambitions.”
(c) “Chance of Great Depression Now 5%“, Brad DeLong (Prof Economics at Berkeley), 17 November 2009 — A valuable warning, both about the odds of a second wave to the recession and our weakened ability to respond if it ocurrs. Best comment was by TJ :
“The witty part is where Prof. deLong suggested the Banks wouldn’t get bailed out again because the public wouldn’t like it. That was funny.”
(d) “The illusion of improving global imbalances“, Richard Baldwin and Daria Taglioni, 14 November 2009 — “Global imbalances are shrinking at a fabulous rate. This column argues that these improvements are mostly illusory – the transitory side-effect of the greatest trade collapse the world has ever seen. A global recovery will almost surely return the US, Germany, China and others to their old paths.” In other words, we will have gained nothing from the recession, but set ourselves up for another (perhaps worse) one in the future.
(e) “Green good intentions cause chaos in two German towns“, Deutsche Welle, 12 July 2009 — “Residents near Dortmund were evacuated this week after the ground collapsed around a geothermal heat pump, while in another German town, almost 190 buildings have now been damaged by a geothermal project gone awry.”
(II) Quote of the Day
A grim note, perhaps true.
“Barbarism is the natural state of mankind,” the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. “Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.”
— Robert E. Howard, “The Shadow Kingdom”, originally published in Weird Tales, August 1929
(III) Feature articles – Good news for the Democratic Party
Since a large element of the conservative movement has gone nuts, this is also good news for America. At least for the short-term. Longer term it’s bad, as we need both sides to be vital and thinking.
(a) “The Big Question: What must Palin accomplish on her book tour?“, The Hill, 16 November 2009 — Answer by Glenn Reynolds (law professor and blogger at Instapundit):
Whatever else Sarah Palin has done, she is positioned to be the kingmaker — or, more accurately, the kingbreaker — in the Republican 2012 contest. Even if she doesn’t run, she commands enough loyalty and support from the most committed voters and activists to ensure that any candidate she comes out against will be dead in the water for the GOP nomination. And, should she choose a third party run, she can doom the chances of anyone the GOP nominates. Expect to see a lot of GOP candidates sucking up to her in coming months and years. The GOP establishment treated her badly, and payback will be forthcoming, I suspect.
Ronald Goldfarb (Attorney and author) gives a better answer:
Sarah Palin should lip synch her interviews.
Reynolds says the GOP establishment “treated her badly.” Perhaps by putting her in a role for which she was manifestly unqualified. Her behavior provided the margin of victory to Obama, so she seems to have no grounds for pique against the GOP.
This debate is absurd. The American people have seen her, and all the flattery by the right-wing and faux-libertarians in America will not erase this impression.
(b) “Sarah Palin = Dan Quayle“, David Greenberg (Prof History at Rutgers), Slate, 17 Novwember 2009 — “There’s no way she will be president.”
(c) “Republicans heading for a bloodbath in Florida“, David Frum, CNN, 15 November 2009 — Frum is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, was a special assistant to President George W. Bush in 2001-2002. He is the author of six books, including “Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again,”
(V) Afterword
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