Things to Know - 15 February

1.  This is an article worth your reading time.  It concerns the difference between Right Wing and Conservative.  It puts the Right Wing on the couch and attempts to psycho-analyze the reasons for the strange and bizarre beliefs, conduct, and characters in our present political life.  There really is a difference between the two (Conservative and Right Wing):
http://www.truth-out.org/print/12489

2.  Democracy is thrown overboard by the love of money.  Bill Moyers has written his story on the current rage of big money and Super PACs:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/12550

3.  Noam Chomsky, he may be a a bit too far left for lots of  you, but he has written a brilliant short history of the "decline of America".  It may still be a long read, but it puts into perspective all the events that we remember reading about, experiencing, and working through now, and account for a weakened stature in global influence.  You really should read it:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/12553

4. Thom Hartmann and the easy to digest news:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/12569

5.  The state of Alabama now realizes that it will reap what it sows:
http://www.businessweek.com/printer/top-news/alabamas-immigration-law-could-cost-billions-annually-02142012.html

6.  Iran has been crippled by sanctions, and it has internal problems as well.  The situation may be such that the country's only way out of the mess is to talk and negotiate:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/opinion/give-diplomacy-with-iran-a-chance.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  Columnist Ross Douthat analyzes how Romney has succumbed to Santorum's campaign strategy.  He also tries to pitch a plant on how Romney should respond, which is going to be difficult.  It's show time:
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/rick-santorums-pincer-movement/?pagemode=print

8.  David Lazarus of the LA Times renders good reasoning on why employer-provided health plans becoming irrelevant.  The recent kerfuffle on access to contraception proves it.  He argues that the time has come to phase out the employer and phase in Medicare for everyone:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20120214,0,3357335,print.column

9.  Newt Gingrich pops into LA for a campaign stop.  The poor guy really has no clue about his location or its pending EPA issues and opens up his fat mouth and in his buzzing mosquito voice manages to make himself appear silly and inept:
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2012/02/newt-gingrich-says-hola-la-.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpinionLa+%28L.A.+Times+-+Opinion+Blog%29

--
Juan

"Old age is fifteen years older than I am."
       -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry."
       -- Martin Gardner

"For most of history, Anonymous was a woman."
       -- Virginia Woolf

"We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."
       -- Will Rogers

"I was walking down the street wearing glasses when the prescription ran out."
       -- Steven Wright