Friday, June 24, 2011

WEB BOHEMIAN (Friday, June 24, 2011)
(1)- AFGHAN FUTURE -- Many Afghans fear that the Karzai government's U.S.-backed effort to reconcile with the Taliban may result in too many concessions to the militants, eroding freedoms and undercutting gains in women's and minority rights.

(2)- NEW HOLIDAY? -- There are so many Indians living in Silicon Valley (some 250,000) that there’s a growing push to make Diwali, the Hindu equivalent of Christmas, a sanctioned school holiday.

(3)- WHITHER BELGIUM? -- Since a general election last year, Belgium has had no official government. As coalition negotiations have dragged, the country has made do with a caretaker prime minister and cabinet. How long can it continue?

(4)- AMERICA/ISRAEL -- In stark contrast to strikingly negative European attitudes, a new poll presents an uplifting picture of American public opinion toward Israel: 65 percent of those surveyed had a generally favorable attitude.

(5)- A CONSERVATIVE ECONOMIC GRUMBLE -- Adam Smith and David Ricardo—and their acolytes, the late 19th-century Social Darwinists Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner—can be heard murmuring in the vapors of our present discourse.

(6)- ANTI-E-BOOKS -- E-books are here to stay. Unless something as remarkable as Japan’s reversion to the sword occurs, digital books are the 21st century successor to print. And yet the e-book is fundamentally flawed.

(7)- THINKING INSIDE THE BOX – Here is a rather interesting account of why some of America’s most prominent minds fell under the peculiar spell, wildly eccentric ideas and odd teachings of Wilhelm Reich.

(8)- THE NEW MONEY -- BitCoin, the world's "first decentralised digital currency", was devised in 2009. Unlike other virtual monies, it does not have a central clearing house run by a single company or organisation.

(9)- COMICS JOURNALISM -- Comics journalist Joe Sacco’s comics are characterized by a painstaking attention to visual detail, especially evident in his breathtaking, wide views of refugee camps and swarming village streets.

POLITICAL CARTOON

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