HOT5 Daily 7/9/2010

1. "Institutional Bailouts: All Regulation, No Reform" Why the financial reform bill is a bad idea. 

Representative Sample: How do you fix a problem? Well, in Washington, there is a sure-fire solution to any crisis: pass reactionary legislation without knowing what is in it to show you really “care” about the problem. Then, claim the problem is solved. Wait until the next crisis. Repeat.

2. "THE WAGES OF IDIOCY" A good response to various whining over people being fired for stupid public statements. 

Representative Sample: The lesson of all these cases of media malpractice? Don’t make a public idiot of yourself. If you feel the need to prove yourself to be a clueless, partisan git, try old fashioned diary writing. At least that way, you’re guaranteed to stay off the internet.

3. "The Paper Greenwald" An amusing & accurate takedown. 

Representative Sample: A concerted fan of genocide apologist and pro-terrorist intellectual Noam Chomsky, Greenwald appears to have adopted several Chomskyite qualities as his own, most notably a fervent belief in his own moral rectitude, an equally fervent belief in the moral corruption of everybody else, a complete refusal to entertain the possibility of being wrong, and a studied yet passionate indifference to his own ignorance and hypocrisy.

4. "Resistance Land" A Hezbollah theme park. It sounds like a good bomb target.

Representative Sample: On a hilltop overlooking Israel's former occupation zone in south Lebanon, Hezbollah has built what the international press has dubbed the Shiite militia's "Disneyland." Mleeta, Hezbollah's new "Tourist Landmark of the Resistance," is designed to celebrate the party's long war against Israel.

5. "Israel Reassesses Defense Options" Somewhat technical, but interesting.

Representative Sample: Israel is exploring the integrated use of manned and unmanned aircraft to attack defended air space. Aerospace designers hint that they are looking at stealthy UAV designs as well as at faster, higher-altitude and larger aircraft. There also are suggestions that programs in cyber-operations and network and electronic attack are under intense study as potential tactical weapons that can strike at expended ranges.

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