Our occasional linkfest of posts of ALL viewpoints. Links do not necessarily reflect the views of TMV or its co-bloggers.
A Superb Analysis Of The Recent Terrorism In Bangladesh can be read here at the Winds of Change. The opening paragraph sets the tone:
The terrorists who set off explosions all over Bangladesh warned the American president and the British prime minister to get out of Muslim countries, asserting that ‘their days of ruling over Muslim countries are over’. The terrorists think that setting of explosions in an already impoverished Muslim country, terrorising innocent people, a majority of who are Muslims anyway, will strike fear in the hearts of the United States and Britain. Taken at face value, it appears that the terrorists who carried out the attacks in Bangladesh suffered from both an overblown sense of self-importance and an extremely poor understanding of international affairs. The truth is, far from scaring the West out of Muslim countries, the attacks will further bolster the international perception that Bangladesh is on the brink of state failure.
An Unembedded Journalist Reports On Iraq: The All Spin Zone has an original Q&A interview with war critic journalist Aaron Glantz. As always, we APPLAUD any and all bloggers who do original interviews and offer them to their readers. This sure-to-be-controversial interview has a ton of provocative stuff. Here’s just a small taste (but be sure to read it ALL later):
ASZ: Did you ever get the impression that maybe as much as they hated Saddam, average Iraqi’s were nostalgic for the safety, security, and public services in pre-war Iraq? Or were they willing to continue to suffer the inconveniences they’re now experiencing, because Saddam is out of power?
Glantz: Initially, people were happy that Saddam was gone, but after a while people started to be nostalgic about the fact that you could go out at night without being shot by either the US military, the armed resistance, or simple criminals. Now, no one wants to bring back Saddam, but people want to know why the Americans won’t leave and let them rebuild their country.
Good Advice: What a law professor should say to his new students.
A Point About Soaring Gas Prices: Generation Why looks at and analyzes gas prices and asks a lingering question.
But BRACE YOURSELF On Gas Prices — they could get much higher….
Red Eye: A bloggers review 4 U.
It’s A Centrist Blog’s Birthday so be sure to pay it a visit and wish it another happy year…
They’re Beautiful Creatures so puh-leaze don’t insult THEM by using their names when referring to politicians. Look at these wonderful photos here. (Politicians are more like these…)
Take Off Your Masks! Are mask-wearing terrorists in the Middle East similar to the KKK in the United States? Read IsraPundit and see.
Pat Buchanan Opines On Bush’s Supreme Court Nominations and John Cole opines on Buchanan.
On Keeping Your Dignity At Hospitals: MUSC Tiger (a blog by medical students) has a MUST READ POST looking at a NY Times piece and giving you pointers:”So what can patients do to keep their dignity, and what role does the staff have to play in that? I’ll offer a few pointers derived from my brief experience…”
Pondering Affirmative Action: Gary Becker has a long, thoughtful post on this highly controverial issue. A tiny taste of it (but read it ALL):
My concluding comment is that affirmative action is too often confused with anti-discrimination action. I believe there should be vigorous prosecution of discrimination toward groups like African Americans that have suffered from substantial discrimination. I also support positive efforts to bring children from minority groups closer to the achievement levels of others. However, affirmative action, whether under the name of quotas or diversity, does more harm than good, even though it is not the worst form of interest group politics.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.