A remembrance of Edward Abbey [Front Porch Republic]

Cosmopolitan's 44 Most Ridiculous Sex Tips [Nerve]

White working-class voters don’t think Obama cares about people like them [Michael Barone]

Who is destroying the American middle class? [Zero Hedge]

The disadvantages of being too smart [Satoshi Kanzawa]

Act of war: U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say [Washington Post]

Why 'Nigerian Scammers' Say They're From Nigeria [Computer World]

"Selfish genes" indeed [Jared Taylor]

Untreatable Tuberculosis Reported In India [Medical News Today]

**

As Orwell said about the goose-step march of totalitarian armies: yes, it looks ridiculous, but you dare not laugh.

With "allies" like these

Time.com's Battleland blog which covers military affairs says that in the last two years at least 58 allied troops have been killed by their Afghan army and police allies. These killings were not so-called "friendly fire" mishaps either but deliberate killings. Sheesh. And don't get me started on America's lying, perfidious "allies" in the Pakistan military and intelligence agencies. America needs to get the hell out of that quagmire.

Why Republicans can't do foreign policy without seeming like hypocrites

Leon Hadar has a piece over at The American Conservative where he posits that libertarians can't do foreign policy because of their convictions. What that really amounts to is that libertarians only will engage in wars of defense on American soil or the high seas. They would not roam the world looking for monsters to destroy. Republicans have the same problem though. Call it cognitive dissonance or call it hypocrisy the outcome is the same. You can't call for the the government to leave you alone at home and then send the government's soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen all over the world to rebuild nations and reformulate their cultures more to our liking. That in a nutshell is what the neo-conservative, Christian zionist wing of the GOP do on a regular basis.

Foreign entanglements revistited: Get out of NATO already

"The American Founders feared permanent alliances", says this op-ed post in the Washington Times,  "because they figured that such alliances could entangle the nation in politico-military disputes that geography allowed it to avoid profitably. Instead of taking a victory lap when Col. Gadhafi falls, American policymakers should consider the fruits of NATO’s decades-long policy of infantilizing its allies. Now that America is broke, Europe is safe and the Soviet Union is gone, American policymakers ought to acknowledge that NATO in the 21st century constitutes a costly commitment with little benefit for Americans." [links in original]

Yep. Time has come to cut the chord on NATO. Let the Europeans defend themselves. They have the people, money and know-how to be able to do it. So let 'em. 

Weblog

Ann Althouse lists some dining gaucheries she finds annoying
I have experienced just two from her list. I have had fish entrees served with the head and tail still attached and it didn't bother me a bit. And I've had expensive cocktails served in cheap plastic cups which did. Somehow my Bombay Sapphire martini just didn't taste as good. Go figure?

Unprepared and feckless US allies expect the America to pay for all joint military operations (Strategy Page)
Even those like Libya or the Balkans that are in their own backyards. Sheesh.

Osama may be dead, but his long-term strategic game plan is still winning (Danger Room)
That is: Force the US to bankrupt itself playing whack-a-mole against global terrorists threats.

What people really need and want (whether they realize it or not) (Front Porch Republic)
Steady work, stable families, and rooted communities.

Why America’s young adults will continue to leave urban centers for the suburbs (New Geography)
Because urban school districts are terrible and so they don't want to start or raise families there.