What I’m Reading – 8/8/09
- Newsweek – August 10/17 2009
- Israel’s Chief Diplomat Goes M.I.A. – Israel’s top diplomat takes a trip to South America when Obama’s Middle East envoy, defense secretary, and national security advisor come to negotiate. He’s ultra-right wing and apparently an embarrassment to Israelis.
- Iran’s Widening Fault Lines – Economic differences between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have the supreme leader reducing the president’s powers behind the scenes.
- No End to Earmarks – Despite Obama’s pledge to crack down on earmarks, the practice continues. Not a surprise to me – earmarks are a fundamental way to keep in good standing with your constituents and with lobbyists. What would the Congressional incentive be to stop?
- Russia’s Dry Well – While the world economy is starting to mend, the damage in Russia will take longer to recover from. $200 billion in debt, and businesses won’t be making huge profits in the coming year.
- New York Times
- Job Losses Slow, Signaling Momentum for a Recovery – The panic of this recession begins to subside as the number of eliminated jobs for July drops to 247,000 from a high in January 2009 of 741,000.
- U.S. and Pakistan Say Taliban Chief is Believed Dead – A drone has taken out the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. The war goes on.
- Conservatives Warn Ahmadinejad Not to Defy Ayatollah on Cabinet Picks – Two days after he is inaugurated, Ahmadinejad is told to stick to the conservative party line.
- MSNBC’s Olbermann and Fox’s O’Reilly Fire Up the Insult Machines Again – Just as I was getting hopeful, two networks disappoint. The battle between personalities continues, while American commentary suffers.
- Microsoft’s SharePoint Thrives in the Recession – “SharePoint is saving Microsoft’s Office business even as it paves the way for a new era of Microsoft lock-in,” said Matt Asay, an executive at Alfresco, which makes an open-source content management system. “It is simultaneously the most interesting and dangerous Microsoft technology, and has largely caught its competitors napping.”
- Richmond Times Dispatch
- Recession Hasn’t Cut Enrollment for Some Schools – The University of Richmond was aiming for 805 students this fall, an increase from last year’s 738. We now have 926 first-year students registered for the fall. It turns out other area schools had a similar enrollment experience.
- Guyland
- Chapter 5 – The Rites of Almost-Men: Binge Drinking, Fraternity Hazing, and the Elephant Walk: College life for young men is described, with one shocking episode after another. I continue to search for a rigorous approach to the subject, but the argument of the book continues without qualification or much quantitative information.
- Milton among the Philosophers
- Chapter 2: The Life of the Soul: The Cambridge Reaction – Just getting started with this chapter, which discusses Cudworth and More’s attempts to justify the ways of atoms to God.
This entry was posted in
Reading and tagged
Congress,
economy,
Iran,
Israel,
Milton,
Obama,
Pakistan,
Russia. Bookmark the
permalink.
