"The Mellowing of William Jefferson Clinton"

An amazing article in the NYTimes Magazine by Peter Baker, I recommend everyone to give it a look. It really gives you a look inside Clinton's life and mind as he is further and further from his time as President. Check it out.

And just for fun, here is a favorite photo of the man himself:

A new approach to Israel-Palestine doomed to fail?

A very important shift is occurring under the Obama Administration in America's approach to the everlasting Israel-Palesetine peace/conflict process. To a degree unseen in recent history, the President is taking a forceful line on Israel, demanding it to adhere to its various commitments under international agreements such as the Road Map. Hillary Clinton's comment that Americans intend to "press the point" that Israel must halt all settlement activity is definitely a radical departure from the Bush Administration's unwavering acceptance of Israeli politices. It wil be interesting to see if Obama will be able to sustain this approach in the face of the pro-Israel lobby, which surely will be motivated to act in response to what the Guardian calls the lowest point in US-Israel relations in two decades.

The ironic aspect of the new, and in my opinion, superior, United States approach is that in terms of the peace process, both Israel and Palestine are in the worst shape in recent history. Netanyahu's new government is heavily influenced by the far-right policies of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, as seen by their recent moves to impose a loyalty oath on Israeli Arabs and punish commemoration of the Nakba (mourning over the Palestinian displacement in 1948) with a three-year jail term. It is difficult to see how Palestinians would be willing to negotiate with an Israeli side that has still not expressed support for a Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel, not to mention potentially engaging in discrimination against Arabs in violation of their Basic Laws.

Palestinians are also severely weakened in their ability to work towards peace. The difficulties arising from the division between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in West Bank are well-known and at this time seem intractable. A Hamas-Fatah unity government is unlikely to materialize, and even if it were created, would cause Israel to immediately leave the negotiating table. Furthermore, Abbas' own movement has voiced no confidence in his current government, causing friction within the West Bank. An unstable and fractious Palestinian leadership will be unable to gather the support to even begin substantive negotiations, let alone present a set of coherent and persuasive demands towards a "final status" deal.

Whether Obama's more engaged approach will yield peace dividends requires time, patience and bold ideas between Israel and Palestine--things that both sides don't seem to have these days.

Tweet tweet?

So I have to admit, I have been curious and a bit dumbfounded by the Twitter craze over the last couple months. I had heard a lot about it, but never really checked it out...until now. I must admit that I had been very confused by Twitter: is it a place to share unimportant details of one's everyday lives (e.g. AIM away messages and G-chat status), a source of pithy insight and inspiring (or cliche) quotes, or merely a venue where extensive use of online short-form ("lol ill brb b4 u no it tweet tweet tweet") is not only appropriate but encouraged. I really don't know, it's probably so popular because it's all of the above.

I guess I'm still confused. I'm pretty sure that the rise of Twitter signifies the end of complex thinking and writing, a massive increase in people's attention-deficit, a further movement towards a media system that displaces facts with opinions, and perhaps the downfall of intelligent and informed society. But it's also very cool to me, at least for now.

So here you go: http://www.twitter.com/flonard

Bachmann Strikes Again!

Representative Michele Bachmann is back with some more delving insight, commenting on how she found it an "interesting coincidence" that the last outbreak of swine flu happened under another Democratic president, Jimmy Carter. The Republican representative from Minnesota is perhaps the darling of blogs, and the source of many late-night TV jokes, from calling Barack Obama and other Congressmen anti-American to naming the expanded AmeriCorps as "youth re-education camps".

As Jon Stewart notes below (around 2 minutes in), the last outbreak of swine flu actually occurred during Gerald Ford's term as President.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Snoutbreak '09 - What to Call Swine Flu
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