Sylvia Poggioli’s latest series on NPR, Exploring the Status of Muslim Women in Europe, is excellent. One of the best reports I’ve come across on immigration, feminism and politics – let alone Muslim Women in Europe. Highly recommended.

The Chicago Reader quoted and paraphrased:

From Adlai Stevenson to John Kerry, high-minded liberals have acted as if they were blind to the root feelings that feed the followers of politicians like Nixon and Bush. Instead, they alternate between expecting a fair fight on the issues (and getting swiftboated instead) and imagining that once people realize what a bad person Nixon or Bush is, the people will turn against him.

Conservatism isn’t just a temporary delusion or a wacky distraction. In Perlstein’s view, it’s a deep-seated expression of human nature…His point: “We’re not going to eliminate them. The best we can do is to win our 51 percent. What’s fascinating is that we share this country together.

Followed by:

He’s right about this. Conservatism is not an aberration. It is a facet of human nature and a permanent fixture in American life. At the moment they have a successful political movement that first grew out of a genuine grassroots uprising and was soon funded by the aristocrats (who are always conservatives) to help them protect their interests.

A few times now, on television mostly but once on the local NPR station, KPCC, I’ve caught breathless promos for “special reports” on race, gender and the Democratic presidential hopefuls.

Forty-three percent of all public school students are Hispanic and/or Black. Fifty-seven percent of college students are not men.

When will we discuss race, gender and the Republican presidential hopefuls?

Bloomberg, via The San Jose Mercury News, has the tidiest summary of the subprime lending fiasco I’ve read yet.

It’s full of great quotes.

On the ripple effect: “The magnified losses caused by derivatives made it possible for a small number of defaulting subprime borrowers to freeze world credit markets.”

On the basic miscalculation, part one: “From 2001 to 2006, as U.S. home prices rose 50 percent nationally, owning the debt and guessing that borrowers would keep current paid off. Since July 2006, however, when housing supply began to outstrip demand…”

On the basic miscalculation, part two: “‘These are loans based on the borrowers’ ability to refinance rather than the borrowers’ ability to repay,’ Einhorn said.”

On the banks’ incentive to make bad loans: “If the borrowers defaulted, the bankers still got their fees.”

On the subprime derivatives market: “Investors didn’t know what they were buying.”

Anthony Lewis, reviewing The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin:

George W. Bush fit the conservative judicial campaign perfectly. As governor of Texas he indicated that judicial niceties were not at the top of his concerns. A study by the Chicago Tribune, published in June 2000, showed that he had refused clemency in all 131 death cases that had reached him. (Alberto Gonzales was legal counsel to Governor Bush and provided memoranda on clemency petitions.) Bush explained that the defendants had had “full access to a fair trial.” In a third of those cases the lawyer who represented the defendant at trial or on appeal had been or was later disbarred or otherwise sanctioned.

A taste of the future: U.S. aircraft carrier denied access to Hong Kong

Update: By the time the Chinese changed their minds, the U.S. aircraft carrier had already reversed course.

Keen observation: “I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but George W. Bush is being disappeared from the presidential campaign and everyone’s running against incumbent Hillary Clinton.”

What’s the opposite of schadenfreude? I feel that right now for Gordon Ramsay. His show, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, is like a television Tampopo: brilliantly concocted, edifying, romantic.