a scratch pad for half-formed thoughts by a liberal political junkie who's nobody special. ''Hard Heads, Soft Hearts'' is the title of a book by Princeton economist Alan Blinder, and tends to be a favorite motto of neoliberals, especially liberal economists.
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Arthur Silber - Seeming Madness: The Suffocating Unreality that Kills

Sasha Said - Homelessness Averted

Susie Madrak - Komen

. . .Several years ago, when I was out of work and scraped together the money to see a doctor for the flu, she urged me to go have a mammogram through a program for the poor.

“And then what?” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“So suppose I have a mammogram, and it turns out I have breast cancer. I have no way of paying for treatment, and no one’s offering to do it for free, so what’s the point?” I said. I was angry.

She didn’t have an answer. . .

Violet Socks - Komen

I guess my main opinion on the controversy is that PP, despite being run and staffed by imperfect human beings, is nonetheless a valuable institution, worthy of support.

Juan Cole - Syria's Crisis Deepens

Kevin Drum - Public Money and Public Policy

I guess my other view of these kinds of disputes, is that the government can give vouchers to people, and if people decide they want to go to PP or the CC, I don't think government should prohibit that choice. But that's the kind of non-interference policy conservatives messed with when they adopted their "health-care vouchers cannot buy insurance policies which offer abortion services" position. When they took that position, they insured decades of government interference in people's freedom to choose.

Juan Cole - The Generals try to stop an Iran War

Ali Gharib - Experts Urge Caution About Attacking Iran

RONEN BERGMAN (NYT) - Will Israel Attack Iran?

Roane Carey (Mother Jones) - Will Israel Attack Iran?

I think the controversy over "Israeli-First" and "dual loyalties" really misses the point. In what sense can people who support the indescribably insane policy of initiating an eternal war with the Iranian people (evil, too, but let's start with insanity) be considered to be "putting Israel first" or being "loyal to Israel"? Putting Haim Saban first is not the same as putting Israel first, being loyal to the cause of eternal Israeli occupation and dominance is not the same as being loyal to Israel. Some Israeli hardliners are manifestly more committed to the cause of dominance and supremacy, than they are to the cause of Israel per se.

went to the Hindu website, admittedly looking for editorials condemning Israeli murders of Iranian scientists, instead found this:

K. PRADEEP - He made deserts bloom (Eliahu Bezalel, who migrated to Israel in the fifties, is a pioneer in fertigation)

. . .Bezalel soon became part of David Ben Gurion's, (Israel's founder and first prime minister) dream of turning huge tracts of desert land into fertile farms. He was allotted land in a village in Negev Desert, south of Israel. And here he proved that roses bloom even in these arid deserts. . .

. . .Among the many visitors to his farm Bezalel was the Nobel Laureate and French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre. “Sartre came with his girlfriend Simone de Beauvoir. He wanted to know if there was discrimination in Israel; discrimination of race, colour or prejudices of being European or Asian. I told him that this was not there but another kind of discrimination was obvious. It was very difficult for a farmer to get a loan in Israel. He had to go through so much formality. But for a European, in his silk suit and tie, doors would open very fast. Of course, things have changed now.” . . .

Also found this:

VATSALA VEDANTAM - 'I don't have cancer'

next post: 2/10/2012

posted by Anonymous at 4:25 PM