Paul (internet tech, privacy, economics). Citizen K (hydrocarbon industry), and "devry" (online security, economics, Personal Plan B) are aboard. We also congratulate TTPers hardcharger, mrapp and skye for freelance link suggestions that met the test.

The geo-politics section offers some Iran updates, along with an in-depth analysis that I set out back in 2006. Jack Wheeler needed a strong drink after reading it; fortunately, that goes well with G.K. Chesterton's poetry. This week's Polis theme seems to involve various sorts of fraud, and Economos sings that same tune with a central banking chorus. Techne Logos looks at a showdown over regulating the Internet, and adds a turn into medical science. Finally, you'll want to send this week's URL to university students you know, so they can read some excellent advice from Walter Russell Mead.

To simplify your scans, I've divided the links into sections: Economos (global economy), Techne Logos (tech), Polis (domestic politics), Stratiootika (geopolitics & military), plus 1 Good News This Week item to brighten your week and/or make you better. Enjoy!

Polis

jkatzman: As The American Thinker points out, it's time to brand not just biased media outlets, but in some egregious cases, the people who read/watch them as well. Britain's Pat Condell offers a red-hot but deserved branding that goes to 11. Even if you'd rather just turn the dial to 4 or 5 and sow discomfort, you get the idea. There are lots of deserving targets out there.

• Media Madness, and the Reckoning (American Thinker, Sept 2/12). hardcharger: Think about a cornered animal which is about to become dinner. What does it do?.... Remember, Big Media viewership and readership figures have been falling precipitously for years. Are they a "dying animal"?



• New York Times Reporter Shared Unpublished Maureen Dowd Column With CIA [Updated] (New York Magazine, Aug 28/12). prosenberg: The CIA and the New York Times are caught colluding on newspaper stories. There's even a worthwhile op-ed in Britain's Guardian, by long-time Silicon Valley tech columnist Dan Gillmor.



• "You Didn't Build That" Isn't Going Away (Slate, Aug 30/12). jkatzman: Even Slate Magazine is dipping a toe in the waters of reality. Just a toe, though.



• RNC Sham 2012 (YouTube). prosenberg: How hard would it have been to show a bit of grace and friendship to Ron Paul and his supporters? He had no chance of winning, and kindness is free. But lost votes and campaign workers, in a close race, are expensive. Gary Johnson says "Thanks for the boost!"



• Carney: Republican Leaders Trample Their Grass Roots In Tampa (Washington Examiner, Aug 29/12). skye: Unfortunately, this isn't a minor anomaly. My full explanation here.



• Dead voters & a dying democracy? (NY Post, Aug 27/12). jkatzman: Glenn Reynolds on voter fraud.



• Gloria Romero: The Trials of a Democratic Reformer (Wall St. Journal, Aug 31/12). jkatzman: Democrats fighting to limit forced political dues from unions. "Ms. Romero recalls... a bill to let non-nurses administer the drug Diastat to epileptic children experiencing seizures. The nurses [union] tried to euthanize the bill.... "They'd rather see a little kid go into a coma possibly, wriggle on the floor," she says. "Nobody can help. Just call 911. It's heartless."

Economos

• Why Blame Obama? (American Thinker, Sept 4/12). edd7: The economic answer, by the numbers.



• Fed Moves Toward Open-Ended Bond Purchases to Satisfy Bernanke (Bloomberg, Sept 3/12). prosenberg: The new QE to infinity: Open-ended = Endless. Bond-buying = Money Printing.



• Credit Bubble Bulletin: Do whatever it takes (Asia Times, Aug 28/12). jkatzman: Why those are not comforting words coming from central bankers.



• A Return to Hard Money? Let's Get It Right This Time (Real Clear Markets, Aug 31/12).



• A 68-year-old bank employee fired for 'stealing' TEN CENTS from a laundromat when he was a TEENAGER (Daily Mail, Aug 28/12). prosenberg: And we can thank a new US federal law! This is why we must never mindlessly obey rules.

Techne Logos

• The internet: Command and control (Financial Times, Aug 27/12). citizenK2: "In December, the UN World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai will [attempt to] set out a broad framework of regulations for the internet...." JK: Great idea - hand control over to China and Iran! How could that ever go wrong?



• Spying on corn rows rather than terrorists (St. Louis Beacon, Aug 13/12). jkatzman: The designer of Israel's Iron Dome rocket interceptor system is working with Accenture on adapting Israeli military tech to boost agriculture.



• Trying a New Line of Attack in Heart Disease (Wall St. Journal, Sept 3/12). jkatzman: The approach involves lowering inflammation, marked by C-Reactive Protein levels, etc. There's a school of thought that says inflammation is the real problem, not cholesterol per se.



• "The green-eyed monster and malicious joy: the neuroanatomical bases of envy and gloating (schadenfreude) (Brain, March 26/07). skye: Envy corrupts, and kills. There'ssignificant scientific research going on concerning the mechanisms that cause envy. There's also evidence that low dietary levels of the essential omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil result in greater envy, and greater willingness to harm oneself in order to punish the envied.

Stratiootika

• Our Darkening Sky: Iran and the War (Winds of Change, Jan 20/06). jkatzman: "I tell you naught for your comfort/ Yea, naught for your desire/ Save that the sky grows darker yet/ And the sea rises higher." My 2006 summation and thoughts - read it, consider the past 6 1/2 years of developments, and make up your own mind about where this is headed. Comments welcome in the forum...



• Iran/North Korea: Tehran and Pyongyang Sign Cooperation Agreement (LIGNET, Sept 3/12). jkatzman: Here's more about the Langley Intelligence Group Network (John Bolton, Lord Rees-Mogg, Gen. Hayden, etc.), which has a $1 30-day trial. What they don't discuss here is whether China is using the DPRK as a proliferation cutout.



• 'Iran installed 350 new underground centrifuges' (Jersualem Post, Aug 29/12). jkatzman: At Fordow, buried deep inside a mountain near the holy Shi'ite city of Qom.



• Iran's Meth Empire (Front Page Magazine, April 27/12). jkatzman: A quick Google search shows that the article isn't just blowing smoke.



• The Geography of Iranian Power (STRATOR, Aug 29/12). jkatzman: By Robert D. Kaplan.



• The Complexity Trap (US Army War College Parameters, Spring 2012, PDF format). jkatzman: "Sound strategy requires hard choices and commitments.... a model in which everything is potentially relevant is a model in which nothing is.... because strategy copes with complexity, complexity actually rewards truly strategic actors."

Over The Hump: Good News This Week

• Back to School (Walter Russel Mead, Aug 31/12). jkatzman: Very good advice for current students. You'll want to email this issue's URL to the university students you know.



• Gallery: Incredible home-made Lamborghini (Calgary Herald, Aug 31/12). jkatzman: Wang Jian has taken apart a second-hand Nissan and Santana and rebuilt them into a Lamborghini look-alike that supposedly hits 160 mph. It doesn't have windshields or a dashboard, but it sure makes 'em stare in Suqian, China!

For The Constitution!

Joe Katzman