Category Archives: USA

1. People liked McCain because they thought him more honorable than other politicians.

John McCain’s choices by David Grann :: The Campaign Trail: The Fall: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker: “February, 2000, during his first bid for the White House, when he was challenging George W. Bush for the Republican nomination in the South Carolina primary. McCain had recently upset Bush in New Hampshire and was in a buoyant mood,”

2. World Politics Review | With U.S. Attention Elsewhere, Iran Extends Latin American Influence: By: Christina L. Madden

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim met last week with his Iranian counterpart in Tehran, where the two diplomats discussed expanding bilateral economic ties. Trade between Iran and Brazil quadrupled between 2002 and 2007, and if Iran gets its way, it will further increase as much as five-fold, from $2 billion to $10 billion annually.

“The move reflects the fact that while Washington’s attention has been focused in recent years on Iraq and the War on Terror, Iran’s influence in Latin America has quietly but steadily grown. In addition to Brazil, Iran has signed dozens of economic agreements with Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

In Nicaragua, Iran and Venezuela have agreed to invest $350 million in building a deepwater seaport off the Caribbean coast, in addition to a cross-country system of pipelines, rails and highways.”

Iran in Latin America: Threat or Axis of Annoyance?

Era of U.S. Hegemony in Latin America is Over, Says CFR Task Force – Council on Foreign Relations: “The report, U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality”

3. Racism Rears Its Head in European Remarks on Obama:

“Some Public Figures Display Open Scorn”

4. Can underprivileged outsiders have an advantage? – gladwell dot com – the uses of adversity:

We know that teacher feedback is a big component in learning. So why wouldn’t learning be enhanced by lower teacher: student ratios? One answer might be that large classes are a disadvantage with advantages: that in coping with the difficulty of competing for teacher attention, kids learn something more important–namely self-reliance.

This might also explain why the highest achieving schools–those in places like Japan and Korea–tend to have much larger classes than in the United States.

5. India – Sri Lanka Relations: New Twist in the Tale

Anjali Sharma :: Analysis: “The attitude of Indian Tamils towards their ethnic brothers in Sri Lanka thus, determined by this very pattern. Their sentiments are entwined in a way that they began to boil whenever there is an escalation in fighting in Sri Lanka and the resultant refugee influx in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. After Rajiv Gandhi assassination…”

6. India: Limited options in Sri Lanka – India: Limited options in Sri Lanka / ISN: By: Ravi Prasad | ISN Security Watch

As Sri Lanka makes headway against Tamil Tiger rebels, Tamil lawmakers urge India to intervene in the name of Tamil civilians caught in the crossfire, but New Delhi feels its hands are tied.

7. Final Cut: The Selection Process for Break, Blow, Burn by CAMILLE PAGLIA – Paglia 16-2.pdf (application/pdf Object):

“BREAK, BLOW, BURN, my collection of close readings of forty-three poems, took five years to write. The first year was devoted to a search for material in public and academic libraries as well as bookstores. I was looking for poems in English from the last four centuries that I could wholeheartedly recommend to general readers, especially those who may not have read a poem since college.

On my two book tours (for the Pantheon hardback in 2005 and the Vintage paperback in 2006), I was constantly asked by readers or interviewers why this or that famous poet was not included in Break, Blow, Burn, which begins with Shakespeare and ends with Joni Mitchell.

8. Is Kashmir key to Afghan peace? | csmonitor.com: By: Mark Sappenfield and Shahan Mufti | The Christian Science Monitor

Barack Obama says resolving the Indian-Pakistani dispute over Kashmir will be a goal of his presidency, ending eight years of silence on the issue.

9. The rise and fall of Rachida Dati | World news | The Guardian:

“Born to a poor immigrant Muslim family, France‘s justice minister has had an astonishing political ascent, appearing in glamorous magazine shoots and holidaying with the Sarkozys. But now pregnant with a child whose father she refuses to name, and facing a rebellion by the country’s judges over her ‘incoherent policies’, her future looks uncertain. Angelique Chrisafis reports”

10. Unhappy People Watch TV, Happy People Read/Socialize :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland:

“Unhappy people were also more likely to feel that they have unwanted extra time on their hands (51 percent) compared to very happy people (19 percent) and to feel rushed for time (35 percent vs. 23 percent). Having too much time and no clear way to fill it was the bigger burden of the two.”