The Cliffhanger: Will the US default and usher in a new era?
All eyes are on Washington. I have a hard time believing that in the end the debt ceiling will not be raised but to be honest, I cannot rule it out completely. And if it does not happen, we are in a new world altogether…
Update August 2: Click on more to read background analysis of public analysis that prevented Obama from negotiating a better deal
Congress closing in on a deal to avert US default By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate plunged on Sunday into what many lawmakers and the White House—and millions of Americans coast to coast—hoped would be an all-but-decisive last-minute effort to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and defuse a crisis that still could lead to an unprecedented government default.
As senators began debate in a rare Sunday session—just hours after Saturday night’s concluded—Democratic leader Harry Reid said he was “cautiously optimistic” agreement could be reached.
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The Press is Cleaning Itself
It was the Guardian and not the British Police that kept on investigating who knew about or had authorized the bugging of phones. The scandal already has claimed for prominent players. And now the press is turning on Rupert Murdoch has being too old to run his empire. Will he be able to survive. JEANNE WHALEN, DAVID ENRICH and NATALIA RACHLIN filed in The Wall Street Journal, a newspaper Murdoch owns, this fascinating summary of yesterday’s state o play.
Scandal’s Latest Twists Seem Tabloid-Made
LONDON—If news imitates art, the long-simmering News Corp. scandal over dubious reporting tactics suddenly seems scripted by a master of the spy genre—replete with social drama, cloak-and-dagger mystery and farce. On Tuesday, in the rarified halls of Westminster, a protester attempted to land a pie in Rupert Murdoch’s face—only to be thwarted and slapped by the media mogul’s wife. The perpetrator, covered in his own foam, was hauled off.
Continue ReadingMarried, With Infidelities
I have been struck by how badly I am able to predict who among my family and friends would stay married and who would get divorced. The couple who had the best marriage ended up having the most acrimonious divorce. Here is an article in the NY Magazine that does a great job laying out how the idea of marriage in the U.S. needs some rediscovery of what people knew over a hundred years ago. I suspect that Schwarzenegger’s wife is filing for divorce not because of the infidelity (after all she tolerated his groping for many years) but because her trust in him is irrevocably shattered after he had lied straight to her face for years. The article is a bit long but instead of me excerpting the key parts, I thought my readers would benefit from reading it all.
By MARK OPPENHEIMER
Last month, when the New York congressman Anthony Weiner finally admitted that he had lied, that his Twitter account had not been hacked, that he in fact had sent a picture of his thinly clad undercarriage to a stranger in Seattle, I asked my wife of six years, mother of our three children, what she thought. More specifically, I asked which would upset her more: to learn that I was sending racy self-portraits to random women, Weiner-style, or to discover I was having an actual affair. She paused, scrunched up her mouth as if she had just bitten a particularly sour lemon and said: “An affair is at least a normal human thing. But tweeting a picture of your crotch is just weird.”
Postcard from Paris: It does not look good for DSK
When I first heard the news about Dominque Strauss-Kahn’s arrest, I thought there was a slim chance that he is innocent. After reading what people who know him well say about his relationship to women, DSK is likely to spend a lot of time in a room far less plush than the Soffitel in Manhattan.
Update July 1: Sensational Reversal of Fortune. Case against DSK close to collapse… Click on More and scroll down for details.
Update August 23: Case against DSK dismissed… Click on More and scroll down for details.
STRAUSS-KAHNIKOV by Philip Gourevitch (New Yorker)
In Paris the other day, a woman arrived late to a lively dinner party, accepted a glass of champagne, and, taking a seat, asked, “So? What are we talking about?” Then she let out a mirthless chuckle to signal that the question was rhetorical. Since Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York on charges (which he has denied) of sexually assaulting an African immigrant hotel maid, there really was no other topic of conversation in the Parisian society that had produced him, particularly among the left-of-center caste of politicians and journalists of which he and his wife, Anne Sinclair, were stars.
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Gates: Europe is not paying for its defense!
The outgoing secretary of defense gives a blunt analysis of how little Europe contributes to world security.
Gates: NATO alliance future could be ‘dim, dismal’ By ROBERT BURNS and DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press
BRUSSELS: In a stern rebuke, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Friday that the future of the historic NATO military alliance is at risk because of European penny-pinching and distaste for front-line combat. The United States won’t carry the alliance as a charity case, the outgoing Pentagon chief said.Some NATO countries bristled, but Britain quickly and heartily agreed. Gates’ assessment that NATO could face “a dim if not dismal” future echoes long-standing concern of U.S. policymakers about European defense spending. But rarely, if ever, has it been stated so directly by such a powerful American figure, widely respected in the United States and internationally. The remarks, at the close of Gates’ final overseas trip, reflect a new reality of constrained American finances and a smaller global reach.
Continue Reading87-year-old Nigerian faith healer has 86 wives
Other countries, other customs. Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently remarked upon reading this story: “Life is unfair!”
An Islamic faith healer in Nigeria has married 107 women. The wives seem happy, but religious authorities are not amused.
By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times
He fell in love with his first wife because she was sincere and eager to please. His second wife, a cousin, was irresistible because she did everything he wished and nothing he didn’t. “That alone made me love her.” His third wife won him because she submitted to his every request.
“I saw her, I liked her. I went to her parents and asked for her hand in marriage.” Wife No. 4 was very obedient. So was wife No. 5. Wife No. 6, the same. As were wives 7 and 8 and 9 and ...
Well, by then—it was the late 1980s—things had taken off for Bello Maasaba, an Islamic faith healer in this city in Niger state. He went from a wedding every few months to one every few weeks.
Breaking News: The Terminator is Terminated
I don’t share the politics of Arnold. But I feel for him. He was the American dream. He even wanted to get the constitution changed to become president. But then the dream stalled. He didn’t turn California around and now is marriage crumbles. This was not how the Arnold story was supposed to end. See the excellent documentary Pumping Iron to get a sense how Arnold rose to the top.
Update May 17: My intuition that the terminator was terminated by his wife was confirmed today. Oops, another Republican with a sex scandal. Click on “More” for more of the story…
Schwarzenegger and Shriver Announce Separation
By ADAM NAGOURNEY (NY Times)
LOS ANGELES—One of America’s most unlikely and riveting couples—Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian body builder and movie star who became a Republican governor, and Maria Shriver, the journalist and member of the Kennedy dynasty—have separated.
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