Hot off the Press: Heat wave edition
An interesting interview with Dutch writer Leon de Winter about why the Dutch "hate" the Germans (a timely article since their national soccer teams clashed last Wednesday; the Germans won, 2-1): http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-with-leon-de-winter-on-the-german-dutch-football-rivalry-a-838167.html. This is especially thought provoking:
De Winter: Football is a form of insanity. You can express feelings that are normally repressed. You identify with top athletes as though they are warriors. We all want to be warriors and to kill the other team. Shooting the ball into the goal is ritualized rape; our archaic impulses come to the fore.
"Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has warned that the world risks a triple crisis of declining incomes, environmental damage and social unrest unless countries adopt a more sustainable approach to economic growth": http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/12/imf-world-risks-triple-crisis-christine-lagarde. Here is an interesting tidbit:
Lagarde, a right-wing former French finance minister, recently caused a storm of controversy after she accused Europeans of blocking progress to end the current financial crisis. Asked if she sympathised with Greeks impoverished by austerity measurers demanded by Brussels, she said the children of Niger were more her concern. It also emerged that Lagarde pays no tax on her $467,940 (£298,675) a year salary.
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty has joined the board of a sand mining business that serves the fracking industry — his eighth appointment to a board of directors: http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/158592865.html. Another rule for voting: never vote for someone who is on a board of directors.
Canada's federal government is spending $28 million to commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/06/14/pol-war-of-1812-bicentennial-federal-events.html. I will honestly admit my ignorance regarding the War of 1812; I really cannot remember what it was all about.
An article about the importance of the War of 1812 to the rescue!: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18481542.
A member of the Michigan House of Representatives was censored after she used the word "vagina" in a debate of abortion legislation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/15/michigan-politician-banned-using-word-vagina. Vagina, vagina, vagina. Penis, penis, penis.
After the contentious and poorly handled Caucus, the Iowa GOP convention was apparently pretty "raucus" (I think they mean "raucous"): http://www.npr.org/2012/06/17/155205597/raucus-iowa-convention-may-signal-whats-to-come. This is especially interesting:
Why the rancor in Iowa? Many longtime party activists say supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul are taking over and that tone continued throughout the day. Paul backers will make up all but a handful of Iowa's 28 delegates going to Tampa.
Of the 25 delegates up for a vote at the convention, 21 support Paul. They are unbound, meaning they can vote for whomever they choose at the national convention.
