On American Freedom and American Responsibility

What our tired nation still owes the world: Robert Kagan's recent provocative - and important- recent article in the New Republic on "Why Superpowers Don't Fet to Retire" and how the fight to protect   Freedom and democracy in other parts of the world at the same time are important to ensure and protect the continuation of democracy at home in the US. A must read at a time when even former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright acknowledges 'the world is a mess."

Article here:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117859/allure-normalcy-what-america-still-owes-world

Sigmar Polke at MoMA: Art, Anti-Art, Art Squared, Art for Dummies, and An Artists' Artist (Take your pick)

From Sigmar Polke's massive, sprawling retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, "Alibis: 1963- 2010"

Site here: 

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1407

Seeking Higher Ground

James Fallows in The Atlantic, in attempting to assess the real effectiveness of the Iron Dome missile system, perhaps unwittingly reveals why Israel continues to target Hamas missile sites in Gaza: Iron Dome is nowhere near 100% effective. Or at least not more effective than Hamas' strategy of apparently using civilians and civilian locations as shields. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), as an al-Jazeera commentator reported, at least attempts to warn civilians and avoid targeting civilians, although there is no denial that many innocents have been killed, as have many Israeli innocents been killed by suicide bombings in the past. Still, if the combatants or their supporters are brutally honest with themselves, (is there any other kind of honesty?), in a conflict of this nature, moral high ground is a relative thing, and, a difficult hill to climb. But for the moment, there is no end in sight, despite Israel's initial acceptance of an Egyptian-brokered cease fire. Hamas, it seems would rather sacrifice the last civilian victim to achieve its political ends, and, since clearly Israel can't rely solely on the Iron Dome to protect its citizens, it now appears ready to continue to attack targets in Gaza until the rocket barrage into Israel ceases. Nevertheless, the non-combatant, and innocent civilians, will continue to be victims.

"When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers."

VV: Bob Marley and "The White Album": How a Legend Became - Posthumously- an Household Name

From Chris Kornelis in the Village Voice: 'Robinson believed he could sell a million copies of the album, but to do it he would have to repackage not just a collection of songs but Marley himself. "My vision of Bob from a marketing point of view," Robinson says, "was to sell him to the white world." '

Full article on the late Bob Marley and the impact of the LEGEND album here

Independence

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes CSN at Woodstock  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-azgwfnZu7c&sns=em