Declining Education Spending
smartertimes.com

From a Times review of Al Gore's new book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change:

The results, Mr. Gore goes on, can be seen in "the ever increasing inequalities of income and growing concentrations of wealth, and the paralysis of any efforts at reform." Such paralysis is particularly dangerous, he says, given the challenges facing America today, like declining public education financing (at a time when schools need to adapt "to the tectonic shift in our relationship to the world of knowledge") and continuing high unemployment (a by-product not only of the 2008 crash, but also of globalization, outsourcing and automation).

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Glen Beck and the Birthers
futureofcapitalism.com

The New York Times today runs a book review by Michiko Kakutani of a new book, The Backlash, by Will Bunch. The Times review includes a sentence claiming that Mr. Bunch attributes the rise of the Tea Party in part to "'The electronic media' — including the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and local talk radio imitators, as well as social networking forces like Facebook and Twitter — which have enabled 'like-minded Obama naysayers' to come together 'without actual journalists intervening to filter out untrue information like the canard about the president's birth certificate.'"

The review goes on to associate Mr. Beck with "birthers" a second time:

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Obama's Candor
futureofcapitalism.com

From Michiko Kakutani's review in today's New York Times of David Maraniss's new book, Barack Obama—The Story:

what is new is largely a matter of emphasis and detail. For instance, while Mr. Obama candidly acknowledged indulging in pot and booze and "maybe a little blow" in his memoir, this biography underscores just what an enthusiastic marijuana smoker he was as a teenager. According to Mr. Maraniss he belonged to a group of boys at the elite Punahou School in Honolulu who called themselves the Choom Gang ("Choom is a verb," the author writes, "meaning 'to smoke marijuana' ") and thanked his pot dealer in his high school yearbook.

Read More...

Declining Education Spending
smartertimes.com

From a Times review of Al Gore's new book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change:

The results, Mr. Gore goes on, can be seen in "the ever increasing inequalities of income and growing concentrations of wealth, and the paralysis of any efforts at reform." Such paralysis is particularly dangerous, he says, given the challenges facing America today, like declining public education financing (at a time when schools need to adapt "to the tectonic shift in our relationship to the world of knowledge") and continuing high unemployment (a by-product not only of the 2008 crash, but also of globalization, outsourcing and automation).

Read More...

Obama's Candor
futureofcapitalism.com

From Michiko Kakutani's review in today's New York Times of David Maraniss's new book, Barack Obama—The Story:

what is new is largely a matter of emphasis and detail. For instance, while Mr. Obama candidly acknowledged indulging in pot and booze and "maybe a little blow" in his memoir, this biography underscores just what an enthusiastic marijuana smoker he was as a teenager. According to Mr. Maraniss he belonged to a group of boys at the elite Punahou School in Honolulu who called themselves the Choom Gang ("Choom is a verb," the author writes, "meaning 'to smoke marijuana' ") and thanked his pot dealer in his high school yearbook.

Read More...

Glen Beck and the Birthers
futureofcapitalism.com

The New York Times today runs a book review by Michiko Kakutani of a new book, The Backlash, by Will Bunch. The Times review includes a sentence claiming that Mr. Bunch attributes the rise of the Tea Party in part to "'The electronic media' — including the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and local talk radio imitators, as well as social networking forces like Facebook and Twitter — which have enabled 'like-minded Obama naysayers' to come together 'without actual journalists intervening to filter out untrue information like the canard about the president's birth certificate.'"

The review goes on to associate Mr. Beck with "birthers" a second time:

Read More...