This time the Boston Globe weighs in.

US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago.

But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves.

In addition, both Harvard’s guidelines and federal regulations for the statistics lay out a specific definition of Native American that Warren does not meet.

The documents suggest for the first time that either Warren or a Harvard administrator classified her repeatedly as Native American in papers prepared for the government in a way that apparently did not adhere to federal diversity guidelines. They raise further questions about Warren’s statements that she was unaware Harvard was promoting her as Native American.

Hope y'all find some time to relax and enjoy friends and/or family.

A social issue that Democrats are using to manipulate the left while pushing economic injustice?

David Sirota says Democrats are adopting the tactics of the right: http://www.salon.com/2012/05/25/democrats_gay_marriage_excuse/

First, this...

Cory Booker is a likeable, effective politician, but was recently upbraided by his party for displaying too much candor.

Obscure Dune reference. Sound waves increase water-boiling efficiency by 17% (link).

Merkel's grip on Germany is starting to loosen. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/27/us-germany-merkel-poll-idUSBRE84Q07Q20120527:

An eight percentage point lead by Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) over the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) fell to just two points during a week that saw the chancellor face pressure over the euro crisis and domestic turmoil, according to the Emnid poll.

She's been able to weather her deep mismanagement of the Eurozone only b/c she's charted one course for Germany and another for every other country. It couldn't last, but the problem is that the Eurozone could already be split up by the time a September election in Germany would allow for Hollande and an SPD alternative to turn around the Titanic.

The Eurozone is already in a recession and has been heading in slo mo, in plain and obvious site to everyone, toward a repeat of 2007-08 for at least the past 9 months with no adjustment by the leadership. Merkel can't leave soon enough.

...there are exceptions to ever rule.

A Miami police officer shot a naked man to death after he wouldn’t stop eating another naked man’s face on the MacArthur Causeway, authorities say.

The survivor, who police think may have been homeless and was lying down when attacked, was taken to the hospital with critical injuries, according to the Miami Herald — whose building was next door to the scene of the crime and whose surveillance cameras showed the officer shooting the suspect on Saturday.

Police sources told CBS Miami that the victim had virtually no face and was unrecognizable. 

The Miami Herald’s police sources recounted that a road ranger saw the man chewing on the other man’s face and ordered him to back off over a loudspeaker, and that another police officer soon approached the unidentified attacker.

“The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away,” the Herald reported. “When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots.”

Raised Eyebrows, Traveller

Or, actually, too much change.

Since 2001, the United States has had seven ambassadors to Afghanistan. During that same period of time, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan has had 14 commanders, while U.S. forces in Afghanistan have had eight. (The past four U.S. commanders have also served as the commander of ISAF.) What’s more, the current ISAF commander, U.S. Gen. John Allen, is due to depart Afghanistan soon, meaning that Afghans must steel themselves to meet yet another U.S. general with grand ambitions for their country.

This is no way to run a war, and this is an especially poor way to run the war in Afghanistan.

[...]

Ronald Neumann, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and a man with long experience in the region -- his father was the ambassador to the country some four decades earlier -- once told me that the best way to do this was by building up relationships of trust with the Afghans themselves. One must spend the time to build up the kind of relationships that allow both parties, U.S. and Afghan, to discretely discuss those issues where interests are not in alignment. The worst way to do business in Afghanistan, by contrast, is the typically American way: to walk in without a prior relationship but with a list of issues, written in bullet points on a 3x5 note card, and discussing them in the most transactional manner imaginable.

It is impossible to build relationships built on trust when the United States changes its military commander each year. This rotation of commanders is both a reflection and a byproduct of the United States’ failure to place enough institutional value on the need to build relationships with Afghan interlocutors. Some U.S. commanders did manage to build relationships with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that allowed U.S. forces to work in conjunction with the Afghans. Other U.S. commanders, meanwhile, have enjoyed notoriously cool relationships with the Afghans. But in the cases where ties were strong, it was due to personal working methods, rather than an institutional emphasis on the importance of such relationships.

This reminds of the quote about Vietnam: "We don't have twelve years experience in Vietnam. We have one year's experience twelve times over."

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived. -- George Patton

There's no reason not to do both.

On computers:

Security experts have discovered a new data-stealing virus dubbed Flame they say has lurked inside thousands of computers across the Middle East for as long as five years as part of a sophisticated cyber warfare campaign.

On ambassadors:

In November, the tide of daily cable traffic to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan brought a chilling message for Ambassador Matthew Bryza, then the top U.S. diplomat to the small Central Asian country. A plot to kill Americans had been uncovered, the message read, and embassy officials were on the target list.

The details, scant at first, became clearer as intelligence agencies from both countries stepped up their probe. The plot had two strands, U.S. officials learned, one involving snipers with silencer-equipped rifles and the other a car bomb, apparently intended to kill embassy employees or members of their families.

Both strands could be traced back to the same place, the officials were told: Azerbaijan’s southern neighbor, Iran.

Metta World Peace wishes us all a "Happy Labor Day":

[IMG]http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn311/eilandesq/485682_10150824704341006_7331091005_9872008_573465658_n.jpg[/IMG]

Whatever medication he's on, he needs more of it.

I'm ashamed to be a Texan. 

This 17-year old girl's parents deserted the family,  leaving her to support her siblings on her own.   Texas judge puts her in jail for missing school despite good grades and dual enrollment.

several of the TV channels are running war/military movies over the three day holiday. As far as I can tell, virtually all the movies they chose were about WWII*. This despite the fact that there are several movies that portray soldiers very favorably in Korea (Pork Chop Hill), Vietnam (The Green Berets), Somalia (Black Hawk Down), and Iraq (The Hurt Locker, The Messenger).

I wonder if WWII is moving from history to myth in our culture. The last war we can all agree was fought for just reasons and without violating what we claim are our principals.

*I saw one showing of The Green Berets (Vietnam) early Sunday morning, The Steel Helmet (Korea) Sunday afternoon, Sergeant York (WWI) Sunday night and Heartbreak Ridge (ha, Grenada) Sunday afternoon. Still, the vast majority of the films were about WWII - 18 on TCM and 11 on AMC, plus all the ones I saw on other channels.

by [url=http://www.amazon.com/The-Swamp-Everglades-Politics-Paradise/dp/0743251059/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top]Michael Grunwald in The Swamp[/url], specifically because Florida's environmentalists did not vote for him, but rather voted for Mr Nader. And how that decision affected all of us. Utterly fascinating. 12 years later, how incredibly bizarre that decision seems!

Having spent several days in the Everglades [an environment strikingly similar to our own], the wholesale, thorough and remarkably efficient destruction of the Everglades ecosystem over the past 100 years is an amazing demonstration of the collective power of American enterprise. An excellent book, highly recommended, especially to anyone touring.

A good deed by corporate America.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/20/heartland-institute-fu...

I know, cool band name. But Mitt is out raising money with his #1 fan (and gold plated a$$hole) Donald Trump, Trump is repeating his birther lies, and Mitt is happy for the support. A real profile in courage.

There was a question posted on a 2012 Olympics Facebook site, asking what we would like to see for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games. My answer: "To see Sir Roger Bannister light the flame in the Olympic Stadium":

Sir Roger is British to the core, but he belongs to the world (but not yet to the ages, for which we can be grateful). Hard to think of anyone better to conclude the torch relay.