Monday Reads
Posted: July 25, 2011 Filed under: morning reads 25 Comments
Good Morning!
I’ve still been following some of the same stories that we talked about this weekend. The Federal Deficit standoff continues with each side going to its time out corner to write its own plan. More and more information about the home grown Norwegian terrorist comes up showing that he was basically an extremist Christian “Crusader” who felt that killing innocent people was necessary to stop the forward march of “multicultural Marxists”. There’s rumors that the Norwegian police may be looking for British associates of the terrorist who Fox News now refers to as a mad man and NAZI. This is despite a lot of evidence that he and others like him try to paint themselves as”Zionists” and pro Israel. They’ve even offered up help. This is something that Israeli leaders have condemned as not being pro Israel.
In numerous online postings, including a manifesto published on the day of the attacks, Breivik promoted the Vienna School or Crusader Nationalism philosophy, a mishmash of anti-modern principles that also calls for “the deportation of all Muslims from Europe” as well as from “the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
According to the manifesto, titled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence” and published under the pseudonym Andrew Berwick, the Vienna School supports “pro-Zionism/Israeli nationalism.”
The Norwegian terrorist attack has put focus on right wing extremist groups in Europe and should lead us to closely examine similar movements in this country. Fiercely nationalistic and anti-immigrant, these organizations have been networking over the internet.
The success of populist parties appealing to a sense of lost national identity has brought criticism of minorities, immigrants and in particular Muslims out of the beer halls and Internet chat rooms and into mainstream politics. While the parties themselves generally do not condone violence, some experts say a climate of hatred in the political discourse has encouraged violent individuals.
“I’m not surprised when things like the bombing in Norway happen, because you will always find people who feel more radical means are necessary,” said Joerg Forbrig, an analyst at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin who has studied far-right issues in Europe. “It literally is something that can happen in a number of places and there are broader problems behind it.”
The most astounding recent news is that the Norwegian many may be linked to a UK group.
Detectives investigating Norway’s bomb attack and mass shooting are thought to be probing the suspect’s possible links to the British far right.
Police have been examining the background of Anders Breivik, who reportedly claimed he was recruited by two English right-wing extremists at a meeting in the UK in 2002 attended by seven other people.
Trisha Tritch at NYT has a great piece up on How the Deficit Got This Big. It’s exactly what we’ve been saying here forever.
With President Obama and Republican leaders calling for cutting the budget by trillions over the next 10 years, it is worth asking how we got here — from healthy surpluses at the end of the Clinton era, and the promise of future surpluses, to nine straight years of deficits, including the $1.3 trillion shortfall in 2010. The answer is largely the Bush-era tax cuts, war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, and recessions.
Despite what antigovernment conservatives say, non-defense discretionary spending on areas like foreign aid, education and food safety was not a driving factor in creating the deficits. In fact, such spending, accounting for only 15 percent of the budget, has been basically flat as a share of the economy for decades. Cutting it simply will not fill the deficit hole.
So, let’s try to move away from the big stories. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies argues that preventative services for women–including access to birth control–is essential to women’s health. The ACLU explains the importance of these findings.
This is a huge step forward for women’s health, as the IOM’s recommendation is a significant move toward ensuring that contraception is provided without co-pays or other out-of-pocket expenses in new insurance plans under the health reform law.
Last summer, the federal government commissioned the IOM, an independent medical authority, to review and recommend women’s preventive health services that should be included in the Department’s final guidelines on preventive services that are expected later this summer. In a true showing of support for women’s health, the IOM recommended that the list of services should include “the full range of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods.”
The IOM’s recommendation, if adopted, will ensure that millions of women have access to the safe and effective contraception they need, which is a critical component of basic health care for women. Without contraception, women have more unintended pregnancies and are less likely to get the prenatal care they require to carry a healthy pregnancy to term. Out-of-pocket expenses for birth control, which can range between $15 and $50 per month, burden a woman’s ability to access and use contraception consistently, especially if she is already managing a tight budget. Eliminating extra out-of-pocket costs would remove a major barrier to contraception access, allowing women to make their own personal decisions about whether or when to have children, regardless of the size of their pocketbooks.
National Geographic has a fascinating read up on five hypothesis about the origins and purposes of Machu Picchu. I watched the TV program and was surprised to find that one of the biggest ones is that it was actually a royal resort. This is one place that I’ve always wanted to visit.
Verano’s interpretation of the Machu Picchu skeletons is consistent with one of the most popular theories about the site: that it was the royal retreat of the 15th-century Inca Emperor Pachacuti.
According to this idea, Machu Picchu was a place for Pachacuti and his royal court, or panaca, to relax, hunt, and entertain guests.
“The members of Pachacuti’s panaca may have lived there during the year for a few days, weeks, or months,” said Guillermo Cock, a Lima-based archaeologist who has also received funding from the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
The “royal estate” theory, first proposed in the 1980s, is largely based on a 16th-century Spanish document that referred to a royal estate called Picchu, which was built in the same general area as Machu Picchu.
Yesterday, nearly 800 same sex couples tied the knot in New York. Now, we just need to get DOMA off the books so these couples can enjoy the same federal rights as all married couples.
“Marriage equality is alive and well,” New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the body’s first openly gay leader, said in a press briefing outside the clerk’s office, eliciting cheers from spectators. “All of the great stories and love that are pouring out today — they show what all of us who have fought a lifetime for this knew and know, that moving rights forward makes us a better society.”
The victory for gay-rights advocates, which was championed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and made headlines worldwide, more than doubled, to 35 million, the number of Americans free to marry either gender.
City officials were prepared to marry today all 823 couples — gay and straight — who entered a lottery last week. They expected to beat the previous record for most weddings in one day, set by 621 couples on Valentine’s Day in 2003. About 60 judges were on hand to grant judicial waivers eliminating the state’s 24-hour waiting period.
Okay, so those are my offerings for this Monday morning. What’s on your reading and blogging list?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Newsweek has published research called “The John Next door”. Yes that would be John — as in prostitute’s customers.
“Equally typical were the men in Farley’s study, who lived in the Boston area and ranged from 20 to 75, with an average age of 41. Most were married or partnered, like the majority of men who patronize prostitutes.
Overall, the attitudes and habits of sex buyers reveal them as men who dehumanize and commodify women, view them with anger and contempt, lack empathy for their suffering, and relish their own ability to inflict pain and degradation.”
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/17/the-growing-demand-for-prostitution.html
In some jurisdictions Johns are treated as the criminals. Rather than what is done throughout most of the US — women are the criminals.
This is really a must read article — one bit that sticks out is that the life expectancy for Prostitutes is about 42 years.
Johns haven’t been researched before — who they are and they attitudes toward the women they use. I must say that this study is disturbing — the men who use prostitutes appear to be largely motivated by sadistic tendencies.
“The system has been set up to blame women for the violence men perpetrate, and this has been seen as a women’s issue, so it’s easy for men not to get involved. But men’s silence about the violence men perpetrate is as much of a problem as the violence itself,” Bunch says. “Men feed the demand, and men have to eradicate the demand.”
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/17/the-growing-demand-for-prostitution.html
Thanks for the link. Surprising to see frank language like that in the corporate media.
A very distrubing study and a good argument against the crazy idea that prostitution is a “victimless crime”.
BTW, I believe the article says that the average life-span of a prostitute is 34, not 42.
Thanks for that correction. I just blocked out the lower number — 34 is just too young to die.
42 is the average age of the Johns.
I use MS OneNote — to copy/paste news stories.
I’m going to blog about this research — and I hoping that others will also blog this Newsweek story.
Excellent article — it should be mandatory reading. Beata is correct on the lower life span — the article states 34. It is really shocking. Also shocking:
“And yet buying sex is so pervasive that Farley’s team had a shockingly difficult time locating men who really don’t do it. The use of pornography, phone sex, lap dances, and other services has become so widespread that the researchers were forced to loosen their definition in order to assemble a 100-person control group.
“We had big, big trouble finding nonusers,” Farley says. “We finally had to settle on a definition of non-sex-buyers as men who have not been to a strip club more than two times in the past year, have not purchased a lap dance, have not used pornography more than one time in the last month, and have not purchased phone sex or the services of a sex worker, escort, erotic masseuse, or prostitute.”
djmm
And yet, as a 42 year old male I don’t know a single person who would admit to using a prostitutes services. How can that be? If it really is so pervasive then basically everyone that I know should be consumers of this.
Now I am not trying to make light of the issue. It is serious and it is far from a victimless crime. As a true liberal I do see that prostitution is just about the basest and most vile form of exploitation. I just question the validity of the article, the assumptions of the study and the conclusions as well as the scientific integrity of the researcher.
If anything, I think this shows that sex work should be out in the open, legal and highly regulated. Unfortunately, as long as their is demand for this particular service and as long as there are young women and men able to be coerced or forced into this lifestyle then we need to make it more difficult for the predators victimize these extremely vulnerable people. Personally, I wish we would just fix our social problems and they are fixable but that is never going to happen. Until we get serious about making this country a wonderful place to live for everyone then we are going to have to live with the consequences of having such a stratified economic system.
And let me just add that it is highly dubious that technology and entertainment media are to blame for this simply because this particular social problem has been going on for thousands of years. Now, I think it is obvious that these things are definitely part of the problem and they do help serve to further objectify women but this problem has persisted forever and really the solution is to not suppress it and drive the women into more vulnerable positions but to make women less vulnerable.
Who really creates jobs?
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/07/24/consumers-not-the-wealthy-are-america%E2%80%99s-job-creators/
Consumers.
Great post!
Glad that Tritch put in print what most of us knew all along and we’ve been saying here since way back when!
So are they going to let the country tank?
All signs point to yes.
I didn’t vote for Obama but I am extremely embarrassed by the actions of all of our congressmen, all of our Presidential staff and last but not least by our Supreme Court. All three branches of government have been infiltrated by anti-government zealots who are intentionally burning the place down.
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/christian-terrorism-and-islamophobia/
Christian Terrorism and Islamophobia
Sam Harris argues that the nationalist side of the Norwegian terrorist appears stronger than his religious motives. There’s also some points about we should make sure that we don’t forget that extremist Islam in its current form is still repressive. I think it’s an interesting read as it tries to find some middle ground in what is undoubtedly another one of those acts that is hard to understand completely.
This is the guy’s manifesto:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60739170/2083-a-European-Declaration-of-Independence
Norway gunman ‘has accomplices’
benpolitico Ben Smith
Bachmann’s former church affirms its view that the Pope is ‘Antichrist’ http://is.gd/yuydxc
Christian Terrorism
If Muslims are responsible for Islamic terrorism, are Muslim-bashers responsible for the massacre in Norway?
http://www.slate.com/?id=2299967
Always different when the shoe is on the other foot, isn’t it?
From FT:
How Does An Abortion Provider Keep From Getting Shot? http://bit.ly/pcBA4K
peterdaou Peter Daou
Wherever you see the worst of humanity, you also see the best. True hero: German tourist saved 20 kids in #Norway http://on.msnbc.com/pGc2ua
Slate Slate
Why are rape accusers held to higher standards of credibility than other alleged crime victims? http://slate.me/pyM4gJ
Is BP’s Macondo Well Site Still Leaking? Fresh Oil on the Gulf Raises Concerns and Haunting Memories
http://www.stuarthsmith.com/is-bps-macondo-well-site-still-leaking-fresh-oil-on-the-gulf-raises-concerns-and-haunting-memories
Oh no!
Al Arabiya: 100’s of Saudi female students storm university campus to protest “lack of fairness in admissions process”
http://www.alternet.org/rights/151738/10_of_america%27s_most_dangerous_hatemongers/
10 of America’s Most Dangerous Hatemongers
Meet the firebrands stirring up anger and hate against the 0.6% of Americans who are Muslim.