The Case for Working With Your Hands (Matthew B. Crawford / NYT)

Great piece. Does a fine job of pointing out the challenge, satisfaction and importance of many types of manual work. (And the good it does for one's soul.)

(H/T Bluemeanie, a commenter at TPM)

Kamiya on Obama / Culture of Fear (Salon)

Excerpt from link:

The Guantánamo debacle, in which Senate Democrats voted overwhelmingly to reject funds to close it, is just one painful result of Obama's unwillingness to challenge the culture of fear. The Senate was spooked by polls showing that Americans, their paranoia aroused by talk radio demagogues and Fox News hacks, were afraid that terrorists would end up in their backyards. Obama was rightfully criticized for failing to come up with a coherent plan for what to do with the Guantánamo detainees.

But that was not Obama's real problem. His real problem was his failure to forthrightly say that while terrorism remains a threat, its danger has been greatly overblown. Obama needed to tell Americans the truth, which is that no open society can ever be absolutely free from terrorist attacks, and that a society that allows its irrational fear of such attacks to cause it to jettison its laws, freedoms and most cherished traditions has already lost to the terrorists. He needed to say that while we will never forget 9/11, always honor the memory of its victims, and never let our guard down, we cannot allow one attack, no matter how horrific and spectacular, to determine the nature and future of our country. He needed to draw a line in the sand, and tell Americans that while he will do everything in his power to protect them, only fools dream of eternal, perfect safety. In short, he needed to seize the terrorism shibboleth root and branch and pull it out of the ground.

I've loved Kamiya's columns ever since I stumbled upon Salon. A very articulate guy, besides the fact that I often find myself in agreement with him.

Double A-Bomb Victims (Times Online)

Excerpt from link:

Mr Yamaguchi and his friends are freaks of history, victims of a fate so callous and improbable that it almost raises a smile. In 1945, they were working in Hiroshima where the world’s first atomic bomb exploded 60 years ago this morning, on 6 August 1945. 140,000 people died as a result of the explosion; by pure chance, Mr Yamaguchi, Mr Sato and Mr Iwanaga, were spared. Stunned and injured, reeling from the horrors around them, they left the city for the only place they could have gone – their home town, Nagasaki, 180 miles to the west. There, on 9th August, the second atomic bomb exploded over their heads.

(H/T Miguel)

Arlington (BagnewsNotes)

Nice pic and poem.

Nails It: Bogus Terrorist Plot (AlterNet)

Excerpt from link:

By the now, it's maddeningly familiar. A scary terrorist plot is announced. Then it's revealed that the suspects are a hapless bunch of ne'er-do-wells or run-of-the-mill thugs without the slightest connection to any terrorists at all, never mind to Al Qaeda. Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: the entire plot is revealed to have been cooked up by a scummy government agent-provocateur.

You know, it's becoming more and more apparent that this country is out of control. The agencies and governmental bodies that are supposed to be serving "we the peeps" are simply gaming us for all we're worth. We're cast as chumps to be manipulated with fear tactics as they see fit. It's almost too cynical for words. I'm lost faith in this country's leadership -- on all levels -- to recognize (let alone protect) our basic and inalienable rights. A huge shakeup is needed. And it needs to come from a grassroots level and on both sides of the political aisle. And soon.

Breaking News (not) Youtube

Found this at Barefoot and Progressive. Got a kick out of it.

McKibben on the 350 ppm Thing

Excerpt from link:

In fact, the problem is pretty simple: The environmental movement isn't big enough. It's one of the most selfless of advocacy efforts. But the movement has been sized to save whales and build national parks and force carmakers to stick catalytic converters on exhaust systems. It's nowhere near big enough to take on the fossil fuel industry, the biggest player in our global economy. It's like sending the Food and Drug Administration to fight the war in Afghanistan.

Exxon Mobil Corp. made more money last year than any U.S. company in the history of money. That gives it more clout than all the green groups combined. Which is why, if the Copenhagen conference is going to be anything but a disaster, we need to build a stronger movement. All around the world. Very fast.

Gotta love this guy for keepin' the faith that significant changes are still possible.

Cheney

Any speculation that Dick Cheney's defense of torture, seen all over the tube lately, is motivated by a genuine concern for the safety of this country is simply hogwash. What we are seeing is nothing more than a desperate effort to fight off any serious inquiries into the authorization of such practices because he is acutely aware that said investigations will lead directly to him. Not only is he (and the rest of his family) trying to protect whatever is left of his reputation, legacy or family name, but they also want to settle the question of his possible criminality intent in these matters in the public realm before any real efforts develop to put his ass in the slammer. He's vulnerable now and he knows it. And it's a damn good thing.

Beam Me Back to the 60s Scotty

Excerpt from link:

Langer did a study like this with a group of elderly men some years ago, retrofitting an isolated old New England hotel so that every visible sign said it was 20 years earlier. The men—in their late 70s and early 80s—were told not to reminisce about the past, but to actually act as if they had traveled back in time. The idea was to see if changing the men's mindset about their own age might lead to actual changes in health and fitness.

Langer's findings were stunning: After just one week, the men in the experimental group (compared with controls of the same age) had more joint flexibility, increased dexterity and less arthritis in their hands. Their mental acuity had risen measurably, and they had improved gait and posture. Outsiders who were shown the men's photographs judged them to be significantly younger than the controls. In other words, the aging process had in some measure been reversed.

The Y Not Jump Bridge (NYT)

This could have come straight out of The Onion.

Excerpts from link:

There has already been one suicide off the bridge this year, and there have been 28 since 1997, according to the Summit County medical examiner’s office. The police are called to the bridge to try to save would-be jumpers roughly once a week.

The county’s suicide rate is not out of line with the state’s or the nation’s, and only a small percentage of people who kill themselves here use the bridge. But mental health officials say the All-America Bridge has become a “magnet bridge”: one with a reputation for suicides, therefore drawing more troubled people to try to jump off of it.

Mr. Plusquellic said he became convinced several years ago that a fence was needed not just to prevent suicides, but also to protect the people in the neighborhood below from falling bodies. He tried in vain for several years to secure a federal earmark to build a fence. Then the stimulus bill passed.

The guy has a shed near the bridge with a hole in the roof created by a suicide jumper, and he hasn't bothered to fix it? Are you kidding me? Will other jumpers start using that hole for a target, like Cornhole?