Wednesday, March 31, 2010

WEB BOHEMIAN (Wednesday, March 31, 2010)
(1)- RUSSO/CANADA ARCTIC TENSIONS – Canadian/Russo tensions emerge after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev tells a session of his Security Council that his country must be prepared to defend its claims to Arctic mineral riches.

(2)- FRACKING WOES – The EPA says it will study potential human health and water quality threats from an oil and natural gas drilling technique that injects massive amounts of water, sand and chemicals underground. It’s called fracking.

(3)- SMART LADY -- A.K. Barnett-Hart is a Harvard undergraduate who has written a thesis about the market for subprime mortgage-backed CDOs that remains more interesting than any single piece of Wall Street research on the subject.

(4)- CYBER FREE SPEECH -- A California court rules threatening posts made by website readers are not protected free speech, allowing a case charging the posters with hate crimes and defamation to proceed.

(5)- THE ARAB FUTURE -- The Arab world today is ruled by contradiction. Turmoil and stagnation prevail, as colossal wealth and hypermodern cities collide with mass illiteracy and rage-filled imams.

(6)- DOES IT WORK? -- The majority of American employers offer diversity training programs for employees. Many make such training mandatory. The amount of money spent on it in the United States runs into the billions. What are the results?

(7)- THE GLOBAL MIND?? -- Are we doing more harm than good by exporting our diagnoses and remedies for mental illnesses? A new book – Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche – triggers a vital public discussion.

(8)- THE SIXTIES -- The playful mantras of our adolescence have become a way of life for later generations. At least in the ’60s we knew, whatever we said, that sex was about…sex. All the same, what followed is our fault.

(9)- COMPENSATORY ETHICS -- When people feel they have been morally virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of organic baby food, for example, it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behavior."

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

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