Not-so-surprising headline: "Many in Middle East struggling to understand Obama's Syria policy"
Obama's abrupt decision on Saturday to delay the strikes that seemed just hours away is seen in the region as the latest confirmation of an incoherent U.S. approach of mixed messages and unfulfilled threats that have driven America's standing to a new low.
Inmates made obscene gestures? Whoda think it?
MUNCIE, Indiana — A large jail in central Indiana now has a frosted film over its cell windows after years of troubles with inmates communicating and sometimes making obscene gestures to people outside.
Our continuing conflicted feelings about Iraq inform our thinking about Syria:
John Kerry recalls his 1971 appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
Luckily for me, I guess, all those "nature of the universe" all-night arguments we had in college were not fueled by alcohol and cocaine:
An Oakland man has been found guilty of first-degree murder for shooting and killing his friend during an alcohol and cocaine-fueled argument over the existence of God.
33-year-old Douglas Yim was also found guilty Tuesday of assault with a firearm and mayhem for shooting a second friend in his living room two years ago.
Many of us in the news biz -- most, probably -- can't stop talking about Jeff Bezos' purchase of the Washington Post. Our thinking generally is, 1) What the hell was he thinking and, 2) Sure hope he can pull it off.
What if he is smarter than the rest of us and knows exactly what he's doing?
Dennis Rodman is back in North Korea visiting his friend, and John "our soldiers were monsters in Vietnam" Kerry is now the hawk. And to complete the trifecta of strangeness:
Nancy Pelosi told reporters today she consulted her five-year-old grandson over the weekend about whether or not to support intervention in Syria.
OK, everybody switch sides, and let all the hypocrisies cancel each other out:
Didn't think I could still be shocked by anybody's opinion of sex, butI guess I can be. In a column for The Wshington Post, writer and former lawyer Betsy Karasik weighs in on the case of the Montana teacher who got just a 30-day sentence for the rape of a 14-yeaf-old student. Was she, like many, horrified at such leniency?
Hardly:
So now I guess there must be 51 ways to leave your lover:
Kim Jong-un’s ex-girlfriend was among a dozen well-known North Korean performers who were executed by firing squad nine days ago, according to South Korean reports.
What is there to say about "Another Self Portrait"? If you're a diehard Bob Dylan fan, you have to have it. If not, you can probably take it or leave it. I have it. But even Dylan critics, I think, have to admire an artist who this late in his career can make Rolling Stone magazine get down on its knees to beg forgiveness: "We're soooo sorry we were so mean to him when the original 'Self Portrait' came out. Now we realize it was actually pretty good stuff."
This is interesting -- "Why Martin Luther King was like Picasso":
When people talk about “modern art,” they don’t mean (despite what the words suggest) the art being made today; that’s contemporary art. The phrase “modern art” refers to a particular set of styles that flourished during a specific time period, roughly from the early 1900s to the 1960s. It’s a historical term, like impressionism.
Why it's not a good idea to get obsessed about correcting your faults:
To really differentiate yourself in this winner-take-all world, you should be focusing on improving your strengths, not your weaknesses.
[. . .]
When Joe Weiler was editor here, he and I used to have a recurring debate about whether a constitutional convention should be called. The strongest arugment for one is that the federal government is clearly out of control and needs to be reined in. The strongest one against is the possibility of a runaway convention that could stick us with all sorts of mischief.
Well, we don't have to do what Idaho did:
A recent decision by the Idaho Supreme Court could help a region woman partially blinded after being struck by a foul ball at a 2009 RailCats game convince the Indiana Supreme Court to allow her to sue the baseball team.
A judge inadvertently blurts out the truth:
A court says local judges can't pick and choose which criminal records can be expunged from an individual's record under a new state law.
Want to wade into a thorough examination of positive rights vs. negative rights? Of course you do. Here's the case for positive rights, from a salon.com piece by Michael Lind:
