The Syrian government was responsible for 'a chemical massacre' near Damascus, French FM Laurent Fabius says
— @BBCBreaking
WSJ: KSA, UAE threaten US over I/P talks, Syria + counterterrorism if doesn't back Egypt military. Right.
http://t.co/...
— @abuaardvark
on not-so-visible sequester consequences:
The real-world implications of irrationality, [NIH DIrector Francis] Collins added, are quite grave. His most vivid example is the flu vaccine, which he says could be as close as five years away from discovery. NIH officials are working to insulate that program from budget cuts. But sequestration will, at the very least, mean that research goes slower than it could.
"If you want to convert this into real meaningful numbers, that means people are going to die of influenza five years from now because we don't yet have the universal vaccine," he said. "And God help us if we get a worldwide pandemic that emerges in the next five years, which takes a long time to prepare a vaccine for. If we had the universal vaccine, it would work for that too.
The 2009 H1N1 pandemic was the mildest imaginable. H5N1 and H7N9 are sill out there. No one can predict what's next, but if you haven't read John Barry's
The Great Influenza, you should.
Julia Baird:
Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer warned Australians to “think twice” before traveling to the United States because you are “15 times more likely to be shot dead.”
“This is the bitter harvest and legacy of the policies of the [National Rifle Association] that even blocked background checks for people buying guns at gun shows,” Fischer said. “I am deeply angry about this because of the callous attitude of the three teenagers, [but] it’s a sign of the proliferation of guns on the ground in the U.S.A. There is a gun for almost every American.”
More politics and policy below the fold.
Dana Milbank:
“I can still see the scene,” my father told me, recalling his spot along the south side of the reflecting pool, from which he could see the speakers at the Lincoln Memorial and hear the speeches clearly. “When people talk about Martin Luther King, that’s my connection. It’s a small connection — no handshake or anything — but I’m proud to have been there.”
I envy him that connection, to a cause that stirred so many Americans and defined a generation. My generation, Generation X, has no equivalent.
I had the walk on the moon, the Moratorium and Vietnam, Kennedy's assassination, the Weathermen and RFK. Turbulent times don't mean bliss and roses. Oh, and there was this:
Gail Collins:
A few months ago, a saleswoman at Macy’s tried to wheedle me into renewing my expired store credit card by offering a deep discount on the towels I was buying. So I dug it out of my wallet, where it was nestled between an expired press pass to the Texas State Capitol and an expired library card from Manchester, N.H., and happily handed it over.
She looked at it, puzzled. “But this isn’t your name,” she said.
The card said Daniel Collins. That’s my husband, who I believe has never been to Macy’s, or bought a towel, in his entire life.
I flashed back to a moment when I was living in Connecticut. I have no idea what year it was, except that it is very possible Richard Nixon was still president. I was in the Macy’s in New Haven when a woman with a clipboard came up to me and asked me if I wanted to apply for a credit card.
“Absolutely,” I said instantly.
She took up her pen. “What’s your husband’s name?” she asked.
Timothy Egan:
As Spielberg implied, Big Hollywood doesn’t care any more about quality storytelling than Big Finance cares about giving out small business loans. The studios make cineroids — global vehicles for theme parks and toys sold at fast-food chains. They are looking for franchises, not original stories.
The term tossed around Hollywood is the “tent-pole” movie — a product that is so big, and sells so many tickets worldwide in its inaugural days, that it holds up an entire studio.
“You’re at a point now where a studio would rather invest $250 million in one film for a real shot at the brass ring than make a whole bunch of really interesting, deeply personal — maybe even historical — projects,” said Spielberg.
WaPo:
A giant wildfire raging out of control grew to nearly 200 square miles Friday and spread into Yosemite National Park at the height of the summer season for one of California’s most popular tourist destinations.
While it has closed some backcountry hiking, it was not threatening the Yosemite Valley, home to such iconic sights as the Half Dome and El Capitan rock formations and Bridalveil and Yosemite falls.
Climate change plus sequester equals
disaster. If flu don't get you, the wildfires will. Or something else there's no money to address. Get used to it. Or, alternatively, vote those assholes out of office and let the government start governing again.
KVTU:
"Sovereign citizens is a loose network of people...who don't believe in federal control, federal laws... they really believe in individual freedom," said Robert Futrell, Professor at UNLV's Department of Sociology.
Futrell co-authored American Swastika, Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate.
"Some of these folks in this loose network are connected to otherwise more violent cultures, white power culture, particular Christian identity movements," said Futrell.
While Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols identified himself with the sovereign citizen movement, Futrell said most sovereign citizens are involved in non-violent protests.
Anti-government virews carried to an extreme. Yes, they are out there, too.
