| Israel and the Middle East III: The Obsession
Israelis Berl and Smadar are on an airplane that crashes in the Pacific ocean. They paddle their lifeboat to the usual island. There are many pressing problems of survival, as well as natural urges that suggest themselves in that situation.
"What are we going to do?" asks Smadar.
"We need to give up the occupied West Bank immediately," says Berl.
"Never. We must annex Judea and Samaria immediately!" says Smadar.
Since 1967, every question concerned with Israel and with the Middle East has been answered in terms of the territories conquered in the 6-day war. Everyone who talks about Israeli national planning and strategy discusses the occupation. Everyone in Israel who discusses the problem of Islamist terror also ties it to the territorial question as well.
Metro areas losing people
Though the Huntington area has embarked on new tactics to curb population loss in the past few years, the decline continued between 2000 and 2006. The Huntington-Ashland metropolitan area -- comprising Cabell and Wayne counties in West Virginia; Lawrence County, Ohio; and Boyd and Greenup counties in Kentucky -- had 3,174 fewer people in July 2006 than it did in July 2000, U.S. Census data indicated in a report released today. .
Barack Obama’s youth shaped by different worlds
These have been the stories told thus far about the first two character-shaping decades of Barack Obama's life, a story line largely shaped by his own best-selling memoirs, political speeches and interviews. But the reality of Obama's narrative is not that simple. More than 40 interviews with former classmates, teachers, friends and neighbors in his childhood homes of Hawaii and Indonesia, as well as a review of public records, show the arc of Obama's personal journey took him to places and situations far removed from the experience of most Americans. At the same time, several of his oft-recited stories may not have happened in the way he has recounted them, sometimes making him look better in the retelling, and sometimes skipping over some of the most painful, private moments of his life.
HBS, KSG announce new joint degree program
Harvard Business School (HBS) and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (KSG) announced Tuesday (April 3) the creation of a fully integrated joint degree program in business and government that represents an innovative approach to preparing leaders for a growing area of practice of critical importance to global society. Armed with the skills required to manage complex organizations and shape innovative public policy, students will be prepared to work in positions of influence at the interface of business, government, and nonprofit organizations, dealing with challenges in such critical areas as health care, the environment, economic development, and government regulation. "Graduates of this new program will be able to address some of the world's most pressing issues — issues that call for collaboration between the public and private sectors and that require leaders who can effectively operate in both areas," said Kennedy School Dean David T.
DJ UPDATE: Bernanke: Current Fed Stance Right For Growth, Prices
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that despite risks to both growth and inflation, the current stance of policy remains the right one to foster sustainable U.S. economic growth and a gradual easing of price pressures.
That suggests that despite recent signs of subpar economic growth, the Fed isn't inclined to lower rates anytime soon, especially with underlying inflation, in Bernanke's words, "uncomfortably high."
Bernanke also clarified recent confusion over the Fed's latest policy directive, telling a Congressional panel that "we have not shifted away from an inflation bias."
"To date, the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing of core inflation," Bernanke said in prepared testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.
66th Annual Peabody Awards Winners Announced
ATHENS, Ga., April 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirty-five recipients of the 66th Annual Peabody Awards were announced today by the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The winners, chosen by the Peabody Board as the best in electronic media for 2006, were named in a ceremony in the Peabody Gallery on the University of Georgia Campus. The latest Peabody recipients reflect the ever- broadening definition of electronic media and the international scope of the competition. The awards will be presented June 4 at a luncheon at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in New York City. The celebrated sportscaster Bob Costas, host of HBO's "Costas Now," will be the master of ceremonies. "This year the Peabody Board reviewed a bounty of outstanding material," said Horace Newcomb, Director of the Peabody Awards.
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