MicroHawk's NewsScan

Drumming up a phony war on religion - The Washington Post

At ease, Christian soldiers. There is no “war on religion,” no assault on the Catholic Church. A faith that has endured for thousands of years will survive even Nicki Minaj.

It never occurred to me to evaluate the Grammy Awards show on theological rectitude, but apparently we’re supposed to be outraged at the over-the-top “exorcism” Minaj performed Sunday night. The hip-hop diva, who writhed and cavorted amid a riot of religious iconography, is accused of anti-Catholic bigotry — and seen as an enemy combatant in an escalating “war on religion” being waged by “secular elites,” which seems to be used as a synonym for Democrats.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima | | AlterNet

In the end, the answer to the mystery of why nuclear power in the United States is still afloat comes down to money.

via www.alternet.org

Austerity Plans Are Based on the Wrong Diagnosis of the Wrong Problem -- And May Plunge Europe into Depression | | AlterNet

Private investment spending is cyclical in nature -- too much during up-boom periods and too little during down periods. That’s why government spending must act as a counter-balance. Instead, what we have seen is government actions fueling private sector spending (with lower interest rates and lower taxes) in boom periods (like the 1990s), and now withdrawing spending during the recessionary period when there is not enough private investment.

This is exactly the opposite of what should happen.

via www.alternet.org

Go Away, Daddy! The Revolting Bob Parsons and His Toxic Internet Empire | | AlterNet

If unbridled capitalism is the plague, Go Daddy Founder Bob Parsons and his horrible company are the infected boils on the body politic.

via www.alternet.org

ALEC - America’s Secret Political Power | Truthout

There’s something rotten in the air. A muggy, oniony, chemical smell that wafts over the lines of uniformed riot police, paddy wagons and metal barriers that are holding back a straggle of protesters waving slapdash placards reading “Shut Down ALEC.”

“Get back ma’am, for your own safety,” a courteous voice warns me. “They’re gonna start pepper spraying.”

via www.truth-out.org

When Economics Gets Political | Truthout

David Warsh finally says what someone needed to say: Friedrich Hayek is not an important figure in the history of macroeconomics.

“Certainly Hayek made a big impression on me and my friends, when, as young men, we read him in the 1970s,” Mr. Warsh, a journalist, wrote on his Web site, EconomicPrincipals.com, earlier this month. “We felt the same way about the Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick. With the passage of time, though, 19th-century liberalism has seemed, by itself, a less and less adequate framework with which to deal with the problems of the 21st century.”

via www.truth-out.org

The year of the befuddled leader - The Washington Post

This was a year in which events rarely turned out as predicted and when much of the world seemed shrouded in turmoil and uncertainty. It was difficult for government analysts back in Washington to know just where they were on the map, let alone where they were heading.

In place of Clausewitz’s famous “fog of war,” we had a “fog of revolution” and consequent “fog of policy.”

Read the full opinion at www.washingtonpost.com

93-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Who Cleaned State Capitol for 30 Years Denied Voter ID | Truthout

A 93-year-old Tennessee woman who cleaned the state Capitol for 30 years, including the governor’s office, says she won’t be able to vote for the first time in decades after being told this week that her old state ID failed to meet new voter ID regulations.

via www.truth-out.org

Frank Schaeffer: Newt and the Loony Religious Fringe That Now Runs the Republican Party

George's, North's, and Gingrich's idea of the "rule of law" is that it must be subject to a biblical mandate, in other words to what Gingrich's bishops tell him will "sell" to their faithful and their evangelical fellow-traveler religious extremists. This is the constituency that Gingrich is now appealing to, with the direct help from his Roman Catholic advisers and his Reconstructionist and Dominionist friends. And then there is the cherry on the cake: in return for espousing their theocratic anti-democracy views Gingrich will be forgiven his multitude of divorces and a lifetime of adultery.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

34 Congress members call for NYPD-CIA probe - WSJ.com

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., says: "We cannot allow the explicit profiling and targeting of Muslim Americans by the very people who are tasked with protecting and serving their community."

Earlier this year, the AP revealed that the CIA helped the NYPD build intelligence programs to monitor Muslims after Sept. 11, and a top CIA operative was working at the police department.

via online.wsj.com