Living in the Era of Megaterror
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 8th, 2012 11:08 pm by HL
Living in the Era of Megaterror
Graham Allison, New York Times
Forty years ago this week at the Munich Olympics of 1972, Palestinian terrorists conducted one of the most dramatic terrorist attacks of the 20th century. The kidnapping and massacre of 11 Israeli athletes attracted days of around-the-clock global news coverage of Black September’s anti-Israel message. Three decades later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 individuals at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, announcing a new era of megaterror. In an act that killed more people than Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, a band of terrorists headquartered in ungoverned…
There’s No Excuse for the Obama Record
Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard
President Obama has had four years to fix the economy, and it’s not his fault he’s failed so far. He’s tried very hard, and he’s made some headway. But the task is so great that no one, not even FDR or Bill Clinton, could have done any better than he has. Thus, on effort and good intentions alone, Obama has earned four more years.That’s a pathetically weak argument for reelection. But aside from attacking Mitt Romney, it’s the best Obama, Clinton, and Vice President Joe Biden could come up with at last week’s Democratic…
How Obama Has Gutted Welfare Reform
Robert Rector, Washington Post
To hear Bill Clinton tell it, there’s no truth to the charges that President Obama gutted welfare reform. The White House, fact-checkers and some journalists have said the same, playing down Obama’s decision to exempt states from the law’s work requirements.Working closely with members of Congress, I helped draft the work requirements in the 1996 law, and I raised the alarm on July 12, when the Obama administration issued a bureaucratic order allowing states to waive those requirements. The law has indeed been gutted. Here’s how:
Geography Strikes Back
Robert Kaplan, Wall Street Journal
If you want to know what Russia, China or Iran will do next, don't read their newspapers or ask what our spies have dug up—consult a map. Geography can reveal as much about a government's aims as its secret councils. More than ideology or domestic politics, what fundamentally defines a state is its place on the globe. Maps capture the key facts of history, culture and natural resources. With upheaval in the Middle East and a tumultuous political transition in China, look to geography to make sense of it all.
The GOP’s Winner-Take-All World
Colbert King, Washington Post
She appeared to be in her eighties. Standing alone, tightly clutching her purse, anxiously watching the cash register.When the total was announced, she handed first one, then two cans of soup back to the cashier. She didn’t have enough money.A customer in the line behind her quietly told the cashier he would make up the difference. With a quick glance at him, the seemingly embarrassed senior citizen accepted the offer with thanks.
