Robert Gates: Not Mincing Words
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on March 6th, 2011 5:31 am by HL
Robert Gates: Not Mincing Words
Fred Kaplan, Slate
And so it seems, Robert Gates really will be leaving the Pentagon soon.He's been going around to the military academies—West Point last week, the Air Force Academy today, Annapolis sometime soon—bidding farewell to the cadets, pointedly noting at the start of each speech that it will be his “final” address to them as secretary of defense. But Gates is not indulging in valedictory bromides.
College the Easy Way
Bob Herbert, New York Times
The cost of college has skyrocketed and a four-year degree has become an ever more essential cornerstone to a middle-class standard of living. But what are America’s kids actually learning in college?For an awful lot of students, the answer appears to be not much.A provocative new book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” makes a strong case that for a large portion of the nation’s seemingly successful undergraduates the years in college barely improve their skills in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing.
Gaddafi Disconnects Libya From the Internet
Jacob Aron, NewScientist
Libya has become the latest nation to disconnect from the internet, as the Gaddafi regime attempts to suppress protesters by cutting off the flow of information. James Cowie of internet access monitoring firm Renesys reports that servers in Libya became in accessible shortly after 4.35 pm yesterday, and Google's Transparency Report confirms that Libyan requests to its servers have flatlined.
Jobless Rate Falls, Recovery Still Muted
Reddy & Murray, Wall St. Journal
Brisk hiring in February pushed the U.S. unemployment rate below 9% for the first time in nearly two years—a development that reflects a broadening recovery but also underscores how much ground the economy has yet to regain.Employers rebounded from a harsh winter to add 192,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in February as the unemployment rate fell one notch to 8.9%, the lowest level since April 2009, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The NY Times’ White House Beat Sweetener
Jack Shafer, Slate
There's a new team running the White House for President Obama, and with a new team comes the inevitable: a story by a reporter who hopes to sweeten the beat, and hence win future access, with a piece of undeserved flattery.Today's (March 4) steaming tureen of molasses comes to you courtesy of the New York Times with a piece so syrupy that even the Web headline butters up its subjects: “Less Drama in White House After Staff Changes.”
