May 26-27

--Via LW on Facebook; see also John Brown, "Not Loving Like," Huffington Post

VIDEOS

(a) The Power Principle: Empire – Propaganda – Apocalypse - dandelionsalad.wordpress.co
(b) North Korean film exposes Western Propaganda - martinsaphug.com.

Below image from (a)

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Diplomats on our internal matters - Ashfaqur Rahman, thedailystar.net: "The conduct of diplomacy has changed significantly in the last 60 years. Before World War II, diplomacy was a government-to-government relationship. But since the Great War, diplomacy has broadened to include a government-to-foreign people connection. This is known in many countries as 'public diplomacy.' Last week, there was a public event here which was called 'A Conversation with Dan Mozena,' the friendly and

charming US envoy to Bangladesh. The invitation said that he would speak on US policy on Bangladesh. It was an invitation like any other, with the prospect of understanding the nuances of US diplomacy in this country and in our region. ... While answering the questions the ambassador was drawn into the vortex of our internal politics. At one point, it seemed that the questioners were comfortable at being lectured on how politics should be run in the country. ... After the Second World War, it has become acceptable for a government to try to influence the views of the people of another country. In the beginning, the method used for developing this government-to-people relationship was through 'information and cultural' programmes. The purpose was to win the 'hearts and minds' of the people of the host country to which an ambassador was accredited. This was done to bring people in that country round to the views of the government which the ambassador represented. The intention was to have their support in promoting the vital interest of his country. But speaking out on the internal affairs of a country was never considered. As public diplomacy expanded in scope and focus, an ambassador's outreach role also expanded. Besides keeping in touch with various organs of the host government, he found it important to have friendly relations with the local media. He also understood that it was critical to be accepted by the political, intellectual and cultural community of the host country. But then, at times this seemed to come in direct conflict with traditional diplomacy. So an ambassador had to conduct himself ever so skillfully. He had to sail among shoals without having his diplomatic boat scuttled." Image from

Senate Bill Drops “Propaganda” Amendment: A setback for a controversial measure. Fate will be determined in reconciliation - buzzfeed.com: "The version of the defense appropriations bill that passed through markup in the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday afternoon does not include an amendment to 'strike the current ban on domestic dissemination' of propaganda says Glen Caplin, Communicaitons Director for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who is a member of the committee. The move marks a setback for the approval of Reps. Mac Thornberry and Adam Smith’s controversial amendment to the House version of the bill, which repeals the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948. The House amendment’s press release states that it will 'help counter threats in the information age' by lessening restrictions on how foreign information campaigns are shared with U.S. citizens. Critics, however, said altering the Smith-Mundt Act allow the State Department and Broadcasting Board of Governors to target propaganda materials at U.S. audiences. Even though the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that passed through Senate committee includes no mention of altering the Smith-Mundt Act, it remains possible for an amendment allowing for domestic propaganda to be introduced on the Senate floor, or added when the House and Senate versions of the bill are reconciled. It is unclear how much support Thornberry and Smith's amendment has in the Senate, but it faces some opposition." Below image from

Senate Bill Drops “Smith-Mundt Modernization” Amendment – another Senate rebuke for Broadcasting Board of Governors strategists - BBGWatcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "BuzzFeed reported that the version of the defense appropriations bill that passed through markup in the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday afternoon does not include an amendment to 'strike the current ban on domestic dissemination' of propaganda. ... This is a second rebuke in the U.S. Senate this week for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) strategists who were hopeful that the Senate would go along with Reps. Mac Thornberry (R – TX) and Adam Smith’s (D – WA) controversial amendment to the House version of the bill, which modifies the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948. The modification would allow the BBG to distribute its programs to domestic U.S. audiences. It is not illegal for US citizens to access, use and even rebroadcast BBG programs, but the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 prevents BBG officials from actively distributing these programs domestically. A firestorm of criticism in the blogosphere may have convinced members of the Senate Armed Services Committee not to include the controversial amendment. The BBG was also chastised this week by the Senate Committee on Appropriations which said that 'BBG’s broadcast priorities do not fully align with U.S. foreign policy priorities' and expressed opposition to many programming cuts proposed by BBG officials. BBG strategists were pushing for ending many of Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to China, Tibet and other nations without free media. ... Ted Lipien, former Voice of America acting associate director and member of the independent Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), told BBG Watch that any new legislation should place all BBG programs — Voice of America and surrogate broadcasters like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — in the public domain to be used by all Americans and anybody in the world at any time without any restrictions. Lipien said, however, that some specific restrictions on BBG and other federal officials in this sensitive area are needed to protect Americans from unlimited government intrusion into their lives. 'The objective should be to maximize freedom of information for US citizens, but not for government bureaucrats,' Lipien said."

New Government “Propaganda” Bill a Positive Step for First Amendment - Gabe Rottman, American Civil Liberties Union: "Much of the support for the Thornberry-Smith Amendment has focused on the fact that modern technology (and especially the Internet) renders the ban largely ineffective. For instance, it’s a simple matter to download VOA material, even though doing so is technically a violation of the law. From a First Amendment perspective, however, the ban is both highly paternalistic and a nightmare for government transparency. As noted, State- and BBG-produced material are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. And there are less restrictive means available than an outright ban to ensure that the State Department and BBG are not turned into organs of a domestic government propaganda machine.

We should trust that the American public will be able to take government public diplomacy communications with a sufficient grain of salt to prevent undue influence. Further, the current ban applies only to the State Department and the BBG. Other agencies—such as the Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of Energy—frequently produce public and media relations materials that are intended to promote their missions and accomplishments. The current ban just on State and the BBG is obsolete and outmoded (especially in light of the existing legal checks on covert propaganda, which does pose a danger of misleading the American public). That said, the Thornberry-Smith Amendment could use two clarifying modifications. First, it should strengthen checks on communications originating at the State Department to further preserve objectivity, impartiality and to prevent the State Department’s public diplomacy agencies and bureaus (and especially the BBG) from being captured by any particular viewpoint or faction in government. Second, BBG- or State-produced material that is disseminated in the United States should be identified as government communications, and should provide the recipient the context needed to judge the impartiality and accuracy of the material in question. To be clear, the ACLU has no problem with laws that prevent the government from using taxpayer funds to covertly influence public opinion (including, for instance, the ban on covert propaganda that is included as a matter of course in annual appropriations bills). The problem with the existing ban is that it denies Americans the ability to even access government communications. This is therefore more a question of government transparency and accountability than government propaganda, and the ban should be dispensed with." Image from ACLU homepage

Lee Wolverton: Internet complicates war of ideas - amarillo.com: "Before Americans learned to fear the prospect of terrorists igniting explosives in their underpants, Congress learned to fear the impact of anti-American propaganda, spawning an obscure law that still stands but now wobbles. Rep. Mac Thornberry wants a piece of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 to fall down. So the Republican congressman from Clarendon is the co-sponsor of a bill that would flick into Cold War history a provision prohibiting the State Department from disseminating its overseas propaganda here in the States. It’s worth acknowledging Thornberry and his supporters on this issue chafe at the use of the term 'propaganda.' The law, in fact, never uses that word. More preferable to their thinking would be the description 'public diplomacy material' or 'strategic communication.' You say 'tomato.' I still say propaganda. This does not mean the amendment Thornberry co-sponsored is a bad thing. It has the support of, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union, whose positions generally are wildly debatable but whose support of the Government Man, especially on topics like this one, is rare. It’s intriguing, at least, to witness the alignment of Thornberry, the ACLU and the Heritage Foundation, which is roughly the equivalent of Batman and Robin deciding to get down with the Joker. ... While the law expressly forbids the State Department from attempting to sway U.S. public opinion, the notion that it’s even possible — spread in some corners of the Web — amuses Thornberry. 'To think with the diversity of media out there that the State Department could change public opinion is just laughable,' he said. So, too, is the notion that Thornberry’s amendment will create anything more than a scarcely visible ripple in the war of ideas he talks about. Potential and real terrorists will no more be swayed by this so-called strategic communication than Joseph Stalin or Nikita Khrushchev would have. Neither does it signal the emergence of America as Oceania, the fictional superstate of George Orwell’s “1984.” This is simply a measure among the multitudes, one that will contribute another discordant chime to the cacophony of the Information Age but won’t change the sound. Some bloggers fret over it still. Even they must have better to do." Image from

New Bill Would Make It Legal To Target Propaganda And "Psychological Operations" Directly At U.S. Citizens - endoftheamericandream.com: "Should it be legal for the U.S. government to spend billions of dollars on propaganda designed to change public opinion in the United States? Should it be legal for the U.S. government to use television, radio, newspapers, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and Internet forums to conduct 'psychological operations' targeted at the American public? An amendment that has been added to a new defense bill in Congress would make it legal to target propaganda and 'psychological operations' directly at U.S. citizens. The latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act would overturn the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987.

Those two laws essentially make it illegal for propaganda that is used to influence public opinion overseas to be targeted at U.S. citizens back here at home. If those two laws are struck down, there will be essentially very few limits to what the U.S. government can do to shape our opinions. The government would be able to bombard us with propaganda messages on television, on the radio, in our newspapers and on the Internet and there would not even be a requirement that those messages be true. In fact, just as happens so often overseas, it would likely be inevitable that the government would purposely disseminate misinformation to the American public for the sake of 'national security'. That is why it is imperative that this bill not become law. ... If the government propaganda experts decide that they don't like you, it is quite likely that you could end up being the target of a massive misinformation campaign. It could come down to the fact that they simply do not like your blog or what you are saying on Facebook. They could decide that it is best to destroy your reputation for the sake of  'national security.'  These kinds of 'Big Brother tactics' are absolutely disgusting, but they are becoming part of who we are as a nation." Image from entry

Propaganda, Public Diplomacy and the Smith-Mundt Act - John Brown, Huffington Post: “Propaganda is hard to define. When viewed historically, however, it is an instrument of war used by a government against its enemy. ... The last thing we need is the USG, using Pentagon psyops, to be in a state of perpetual war with its citizens in the name of  'access to information in an information age.' This is the stated aim of bipartisan bill modernizing Smith-Mundt (recently passed by Congress), as mentioned by one of its supporters, Reps. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon (Texas). Rather, an upgraded Smith-Mundt Act, if it in fact should be changed at all (let sleeping dogs lie, some would say) should ensure that Americans, even more than over half-a-century ago, have a government that speaks for, rather than propagandizes, them -- in an age when the new social media, increasingly used by the USG, are making privacy, so important for individual freedom, a greater and greater luxury of the past. [Comment to article by Juliana Geran Pilon] ... The idea that the U.S. government would do to its own people what communist and other totalitarian governments have done and continue to do to the inmates who live under their control is what has traditionally been known as The Big Lie."

Bad bills cure no secret ills - Matthew Pate, arkansasnews.com: "Tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act last week by Reps. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and Adam Smith, D-Wash., is a bill to amend the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to 'authorize the domestic dissemination of information and material about the United States intended primarily for foreign audiences, and for other purposes.

The bill, H.R.5736, the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, strikes down the prohibition on public diplomacy material (i.e. government propaganda) from being available domestically to people within the United States. ... In other words, Smith-Mundt 2012 will overturn a 63-year ban and make it possible for the government to fund the dissemination of propaganda directed at American citizens. Some commentators have described this bill as a Trojan Horse. It’s more like a Trojan Horse full of infectious paranoia that we get to pay for and then blindly usher into our homes. ... Yes, we have problems on the electronic frontier, but bills like these hold greater dangers than anything they propose to fight." Pate image from entry

The Silence of the Ivory-Tower Public-Diplomacy Lambs - John Brown, Notes and Essays: "I have observed (maybe with insufficient information) how few are the learned Public Diplomacy scholars from distinguished American universities who have publicly contributed to the current 'Should the Smith-Mundt Act be Amended' debate, covered far too inadequately in recent issues of the Public Diplomacy Review. With a few notable exceptions, among them this excellent piece (with which I do not entirely agree), thus far it has been mostly non-academics and journalists who have opined about this issue ... Is this silence of the ivory-tower public-diplomacy lambs

an indication on their part that the SM controversy is just a tempest in a teapot, or do they feel they need more time for reflection?" Image from

US Senate committee rebukes Broadcasting Board of Governors on strategy and program cuts - BBGWatcher, USG Broadcasts/BBG Watch: "The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy (D – VT), issued a strong public rebuke to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) on the overall strategy and programming cuts in international broadcasts proposed by BBG officials for the fiscal year 2013. In was the second such rebuke from the Senate Committee in the last two years. It follows a similar rebuke earlier from the House Committee on Appropriations. The Committee also expressed concern that 'BBG’s broadcast priorities do not fully align with U.S. foreign policy priorities.' ... IBB officials are now trying to persuade some members of Congress to support their proposal of creating a powerful CEO position at the BBG that would not be subject to being appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This proposal is opposed by BBG member Victor Ashe and outside critics who see it as an attempt to increase the power of IBB bureaucrats and diminish public and Congressional scrutiny of the agency’s operations. ... The Committee did not support the proposed BBG digital media development initiative."

Visit to Schooling Plus - accesssfax.wordpress.com: "Last week, the Access team at Schooling Plus was happy to receive some visitors from Washington and the US Embassy in Tunis.

Our visitors included, from left to right: David Duerden (Cultural Affairs Officer), Ana Escrogrima (Deputy Director of Public Diplomacy), Ingrid Larson (Public Affairs Officer as of July 2012), and Hafedh Zanina (Public Diplomacy Assistant)." Image from entry

Rohit Viswanath: The news about soft power - business-standard.com: "In a globalised world, nations are increasingly realising the virtues of non-military means for expanding strategic influence. Military belligerence is widely disapproved of, for the material and psychological damages it inflicts on affected countries; such violence also adversely impacts the image of the bully nations. Consequently, major powers are applying non-military welfare-enhancing measures for engaging countries. These measures — collectively referred to as 'soft power' in a relatively young but growing branch of literature in international relations — include development and humanitarian assistance, trade, investment, cultural and public diplomacy and people-to-people contacts. The use of soft power diplomacy was popularised by the US and Western Europe; Asian powers such as China and Japan have also been actively employing soft power in their foreign policies. In contrast, India has been a rather subdued practitioner of soft power and public diplomacy despite escalation in its global strategic relevance. ... There are many useful lessons India can learn from American and British soft power projections and media diplomacy efforts. It might be useful to consider whether India can initiate similar efforts that would influence perceptions. India’s economic success in recent years has been in marked contrast to the West, and can easily serve as a good cause for projection, as can its sound and lasting principles of democracy. Indian television channels are already popular in much of South Asia. It is probably time to encourage the launching of more international print editions of prominent newspapers and magazines from India. Government news agencies should expand their operations and should be given a more prominent role in diplomacy. It is also important to facilitate Indian news and media icons, who enjoy positive impressions in different parts of the region, to have regular interactions with the local media in countries across the world and also have them out there periodically. Neighbourhood concerns occupy considerable space in Indian foreign policies. A benign external environment and a stable and peaceful neighbourhood is a key driver for India’s sustained high growth. Smart news media diplomacy can go a long way to help achieve this end."

Azerbaijan's "Caviar Diplomacy" – Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos: “I'm sure you have seen and heard 'diplomacy' used in many different forms and configurations. Well, now you can add 'caviar' to the list, as well. This one refers specifically to Azerbaijan, however. With Eurovision 2012 being held in Baku, the Azeri regime thought they could seize the moment and turn it into a great public diplomacy opportunity. They built a massive Crystal Hall, cosmetically brought their house into order, and are now trying to maintain it as they host their guests from all over Europe (and beyond). This is backfiring now, however, as instead of updates on who made it to the Final and who didn't, the West (where many couldn't care less about Eurovision itself) is reading media reports on political and human rights abuses in the country. The government's desperate attempt to cover it all up isn't helping much either.”

Israel, Turkey and the mountain between - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "Once rock solid, the Israeli-Turkish relationship has gone off kilter in years past. Yet it is little things like the recent story of an Israeli climber who helped save a Turkish climber on Mt. Everest that will repair the once robust relationship. In public diplomacy, deeds matter more than words."

Peace Corps South Africa Aspiration Statement - lizinservice.com: "After I accepted my invitation to serve in South Africa, I had to do a lot of things quickly — apply for my visa, renew my passport, get the yellow fever vaccine, update my resume and write an aspiration statement. Here’s my aspiration statement, which is the first glimpse the Peace Corps staff in South Africa has of me! ... E) How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends: Working at a middle school in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles has interested me in coming back to a similar neighborhood and working as an English and journalism teacher.

I believe teaching in South Africa will widen these aspirations even more and help me build the experience I need to teach in Los Angeles when I return to America. If I do not end up teaching, I am interested in pursuing a master’s degree in public diplomacy, which is a combination of international studies and journalism. The Peace Corps is valued as a form of public diplomacy because I will be experiencing a different culture, teaching South Africans about America and will be able to share my experiences back in America for years to come. My 27 months in South Africa will be a real life approach to public diplomacy, which will help me contribute to the study of public diplomacy in American universities because it is a relatively new academic study. My personal aspirations are to just be happy in life, keep helping others and always be passionate about her work I am doing."

RELATED ITEMS

NATO airstrike kills family of 8, Afghans say: The victims are reportedly a couple and their 6 children. Civilian deaths continue to be an irritant in President Karzai's relationship with other nations - Associated Press, latimes.com: Rohullah Samon, a spokesman for the governor of Paktia province, said Mohammad Shafi, his wife and their six children died in an airstrike around 8 p.m. in Suri Khail village of Gurda Saria district.

“Shafi was not a Taliban. He was not in any opposition group against the government. He was a villager,” Samon said. “Right now, we are working on this case to find out the ages of their children and how many of them are boys and girls.” Any NATO airstrike that leads to civilian deaths erodes the Afghan people's trust in foreign forces. Image from

Obama aide: No special access for bin Laden movie - David Jackson, USA Today: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is rejecting claims that the administration gave special access to and shared secrets with the makers of a movie about the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. "Nothing inappropriate was shared with them," Panetta said on ABC's This Week. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has protested the government's relationship with film director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, saying e-mails show an "extremely close, unprecedented, and potentially dangerous collaboration with top officials at the CIA, DoD, and the White House and a top Democratic lobbying firm." King, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said "filmmakers were allowed an unprecedented visit to a classified facility so secret that its name is redacted in the released email."

Propaganda Parade: China Is Culturally Superior to America - John Hudson, theatlanticwire.com: In today's tour of state-sponsored propaganda:

America has an inferiority complex with China, Syria overcomes its challenges and a propagandist reveals himself. Image from article

Is America Going to War? Anti-Iranian Propaganda in High Gear - Stephen Lendman, globalresearch.ca: America and Israeli want imperial dominance. Iran wants to live free in peace.

Iranian media: Azerbaijan orders intensifiedanti-Iranian propaganda - panorama.am: Azerbaijan's leadership ordered local media representatives to carry out intensified anti-Iranian propaganda, Iranian arannews.ir news site said. It's reported that after Azerbaijan canceled “gay-parade”, local authorities urged mass media to carry out intensified anti-Iranian propaganda.

Iranian FARS news agency quotes representative of Iranian Supreme Leader, Imam-jome of Tabriz Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari as stating that due to rallies and marches organized by the Iranians Azerbaijan canceled “gay-parade.” Image from article

New Bill Welcomes High-Tech Entrepreneurs to the U.S. - Alex Fitzpatrick, mashable.com: the Startup Act 2.0, introduced to the Senate this week, would create two new types of visas: a “STEM visa” for foreign-born students earning advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and math in the U.S. and an “Entrepreneur’s visa” for foreigners starting businesses in the country. Both visas would give foreigners a new path to American citizenship so long as they continue working in STEM or expanding their business for three to five years.

Additionally, the bill would eliminate the per-country quotas currently in place on employment visas, create new tax credits for startups and eliminate capital gains tax on the sale of startup stock that’s held for at least five years. Republican Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) worked together with Democrats Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) on the bipartisan legislation, which they believe will spark job creation and economic growth in the United States. Image from article

Lady Gaga cancels Indonesian show over security - USA Today:  Lady Gaga has canceled her sold-out show in Indonesia over security concerns after Muslim hard-liners threatened violence if the pop diva went ahead with her "Born This Way Ball," promoters said Sunday. The Islamic Defenders Front said Lady Gaga's sexy clothes and provocative dance moves would corrupt youth in the world's most populous Muslim country.

“The Emergency State: America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at all Costs” by David Unger and “Permanent Emergency: Inside the TSA and the Fight for the Future of American Security” - Kip Hawley and Nathan Means, Washington Post: According to “The Emergency State,” David C. Unger’s ambitious and valuable overview of 20th-century presidents and national security, Obama has unfortunately picked up the bad habits of his predecessors.

They have created what Unger calls emergency state government — policies by which America’s security interests are defined with an ever-increasing expansiveness. Over the past century, Unger argues, America’s presidents have incrementally institutionalized the emergency state and in so doing have weakened the country morally, constitutionally, financially and most of all in terms of security itself. Image from article

History Teaching as an Instrument of Propaganda - Cheradenine Zakalwe: "Sometimes I, or other people in the Counterjihad movement, claim that history teaching in schools is being used as a instrument of propaganda to indoctrinate European children into feeling a sense of shame about their own identities or promoting a falsely inflated view of the historical importance of Islamic civilisation or African civilisations (sic). This omnipresent sense of guilt then makes the plebs more compliant when they are told they need to hand over the keys of their countries to non-Europeans."

The Lies You’re Told - Bob Livingston, philosophers-stone.co.uk: "The elites are masters of propaganda. They have at their beck and call an army of “journalists” who never stray from the official state line for fear of being ostracized. They eagerly and happily spread lies and half-truths in order to gain and then keep their seats near the halls of power. Those who stray from the party line (Helen Thomas) are harshly dealt with. They have learned that the more lies they tell, the more lies we believe. And the more lies we believe, the more dependent we become. Conversely, the fewer myths, lies and deceptions we succumb to, the less dependent — and, therefore, the freer — we are. Propaganda is the science of persuasion and mind control. Its purpose is to forge allegiance to a political order or to ensure acceptance — and, therefore, consumption — of a particular product whether it is needed or beneficial. Propaganda victimizes the public by changing and controlling its belief system to the benefit of the political establishment or for the monetary gain of corporate interests and the medical establishment. I have learned the power of propaganda.

I have watched as otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people have had their minds manipulated so that they acted against their own best interests as a result of propaganda. It seems that organized and sophisticated propaganda is able to operate above the threshold of intelligence. In other words, without some imperative to trigger inquiry, very intelligent people buy into lies and myths the same as the general population. The lies and myths then become conventional wisdom. The human mind rarely accepts a challenge to conventional wisdom. When confronted with a challenge to the established belief system, the mind closes off. When this happens, the individual employs avoidance behavior, writes off the new knowledge as conspiracy theory and labels it as kooky, insane or stupid. The information is then dismissed, never to be considered again, even when the facts support the new knowledge." Image from article

AMERICANA

Five myths about marriage - Stephanie Coontz, Washington Post: Economically as well as emotionally, modern marriage has become like an affluent gated community. It has become harder for low-income Americans to enter and sustain.

Nasty Like Us - Edward Tenner, New York Times: American culture blended a Protestant sense of mission and virtue with a pragmatism that could countenance slavery and Indian removal. America hardly invented ruthlessness — think of that all-American hero, Napoleon Bonaparte — but it extended it to the common people.

Minding the Gap - Benjamin M. Friedman, New York Times: Economic mobility in the United States is now more limited than it appears to have been in earlier times and — contrary to the popular image — more limited than in many other countries. Image from

James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley Jr. Debate (VIDEO)

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

An FSO [Foreign Service officer] recently wrote about an interesting Q and A following a lecture on U.S. history somewhere in Pakistan. Since we cannot tell anymore what topics make bloggers meatballs for State Department tigers, we will omit the link, but here is an excerpt:

“[I]s there anything you’d like to ask us?”
“Yes, loads.”
“Great! Go ahead.”
“You were evil to go into Afghanistan and Iraq.”
“Uh… that’s not a question. Do you have a question about U.S. history?”
“Oh, sorry — I meant, ‘Doesn’t U.S. history point to the fact that you were evil to go into Afghanistan and Iraq?”
“Well, no — it doesn’t point to that. What are your other questions?”
“They’re pretty much all variations on that theme. Hey, could I have a picture with your hair? It looks just like Barbie’s.”

--From DiploPundit; image from, with caption: That older Barbie was more like 9 heads high.

FOUND ON THE WEB

We Have Great News, but We Can’t Let You Hear It – Smith-Mundt and the 2.0 World July 14, 2011 - Ursula Oaks, nafsa.org

IMAGE

Loose translation: "Enough of Going after Me!"

Via JG on Facebook