May
27
Joe's Scratchpad
Odds & Ends and Random Thoughts
LIKE SAM COOKE ONCE SAID: A CHANGE IS GONNA COME!
As some of you know, I’ve spent many years going in and out of Saudi Arabia. But the scene in this video would have been unthinkable until quite recently. No doubt, the internet and Facebook and Twitter are shining a spotlight in places where Saudi authorities were previously able to operate freely and with total impunity. Now, however, scenes such as the ones here are proving embarrassing, and are causing those authorities to exercise more caution when cameras are rolling.
Hey, I’m not saying that the Kingdom is likely to loosen up overnight, or anytime in the near future, for that matter. But, I’m afraid that the tide of change is slowly rolling in, and those Saudis who insist on standing in the way will one day either have to go with the flow or be inundated.
That said, it is important to understand that Saudi rulers are more flexible than most realize. The Kingdom have survived centuries of challenges because its leaders have been able to accommodate urgent requirements for change in ways that harness that urgency into a kind of seamless gradualism. In that way the country is able to move forward without the radical outbursts, and extreme polarization often seen in other Middle Eastern countries.
Accordingly, you can expect to see the Kingdom gradually ease restrictions on women in the coming years, as well as allowing all citizens greater freedom of expression and more say in local governance. There will continue to be occasional embarrassing incidents and isolated complaints of human right violations, but those will be tolerated by the vast majority of the Saudi people as long as they feel that the country is moving in the right direction.
Saudis are a very conservative bunch by their very nature, culture and religion. They believe in moderation in all things – which is one of the reasons the so-called ”Arab Spring,’ that roared through the region in the last year, essentially bypassed Saudi Arabia. That’s not to say that Saudi is totally immune to the kind of widespread citizen dissent that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. And nobody knows that better than the Saudi Royals.
That’s why you can count on the Saudi government to make whatever changes they deem necessary to keep it at least one step ahead of citizen demands. That’s how they’ve done it for centuries – gradually, at their own pace and on their own terms.
Frankly, when I look at the turmoil that has racked their neighbors for the last 50 years, I kinda admire them for that
– Joe
May
26
“Retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown, a descendant of Virginia slaves who endured racial taunts and merciless hazing to become the first black midshipman to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, in 1949, died May 22 at the Springhouse assisted living center in Silver Spring. He was 85…”
May
25
Tony Soprano Explains Romney’s Bain Capitol
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For years, varied and sometimes wild claims have been made about the origins of a group of dark-skinned Appalachian residents once known derisively as the Melungeons. Some speculated they were descended from Portuguese explorers, or perhaps from Turkish slaves or Gypsies.
Now a new DNA study in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy attempts to separate truth from oral tradition and wishful thinking. The study found the truth to be somewhat less exotic: Genetic evidence shows that the families historically called Melungeons are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin…
From the Wall Street Journal (believe it or not!):
Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree.
Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.
But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.
Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.
Read it all:
Confirmed: Watching FOX News Makes You Dumber!
From a recent Fairleigh Dickerson Study:
“However, the study concludes that media sources have a significant impact on the number of questions that people were able to answer correctly. The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all…”
Read it all:
May
21
How Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the Citizens United decision
That’s the title of Jeffrey Toobin’s New Yorker masterpiece on the Roberts court and the Citizens United decision. Here’s how Slate describes it:
The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin this week revealed juicy bits from the Supreme Court’s deliberations as it considered Citizens United, the thunderous case in which the court allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums on candidate elections, paving the way for big-spending super PACs.
Warning: It’s long, but eminently worth reading from start to finish.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/21/120521fa_fact_toobin?currentPage=all
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