utnereader:

As the tenth anniversary of September 11th approaches, writer and blogger Courtney E. Martin reflects on seven ways in which that fateful day shaped the Millenial generation of which she is a part. 

1. We are fundamentally practical. For many of us, 9/11 was a wake-up call about the precious and finite nature of human life. For better or worse, many of us gravitated away from artistic dreams, or romantic notions of living abroad, far from our families, and hunkered down. Even our approaches to social change are often scoffed at by our authority-resisting parents, who see our focus on actionable goals as sometimes less-than-radical.
2. We are distrustful of organized religion and Politics. Though we are open to most vocations, we are—according to sociologist Robert Putnam—the least religiously affiliated generation in history, and also largely uninterested in becoming politicians. In part, no doubt, this stems from seeing religion distorted and political leaders let off the hook for profound failures during the post-9/11 era.

Read the other five post-9/11 American mega-trends here.

Here we go again. As you know, Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, is contemplating a presidential run, which means that any day now, your boss will be sending you down here to take the measure of the man. Though he managed to avoid the 2012 spotlight longer than any other candidate, Perry, the nation’s longest-serving governor, has lately become, in the words of a recent NPR report, “the eight-hundred-pound gorilla on the sidelines of this race.” The trickle of stories about him has become a stream, and the minute Perry declares his candidacy, that stream will become a flood, a flood that will carry you straight to Austin. I am writing you this note in the hope that it will help you avoid the political and sociological clichés that Texas is subjected to every time one of our politicians seeks the national stage.

It’s an experience we’re all too familiar with. A Texan has occupied the White House in 17 of the past 48 years—just over a third of the time. Texas has become an incubator for presidents, as Virginia and Ohio were in America’s distant past. I’ll grant you that the presidents we have sent to Washington, from LBJ to 
George W. Bush, have not always served as the best advertisements for Texas. Nevertheless, we have endured a disproportionate amount of bad writing about our state from journalists who don’t know very much about the place, and I for one can’t bear to suffer through another campaign of it. — Paul Burka, Texas Monthly.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is currently the leader in the 2012 GOP race, so I think long-time Texas Monthly reporter Paul Burka’s advice should be taken even more seriously now.

Gov. Perry achieved his status despite having not participated in Iowa’s Ames straw poll, the 2012 kickoff competition, which was won by Michele Bachmann.

As CSMonitor reports, Bachmann “has called global warming ‘a hoax,’ and says she would eliminate the Environmental Protection Ageny. She coauthored a bill in the Minnesota Senate that would have authorized schools to teach alternative theories to evolution. She is anti-abortion and opposes gay marriage. While serving in the Minnesota Senate, she pushed unsuccessfully for a constitutional amendment that would have prevented the state from recognizing same-sex marriage.”

With these two powerhouses of ignorance holding the Republican reigns, I shudder when I think of the nauseating idiocy that is about to slosh upon us for the next year and 18 days.

shortformblog:

» That’s no small chunk, guys: In other words, roughly a third of the security aid that the U.S. gives Pakistan each year. Why the change? Well, as White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley puts it, Pakistan has “taken some steps that have given us reason to pause on some of the aid.” Like possibly harboring Osama bin Laden in a compound within a couple of miles of a military base? That seems like a pretty big step. That said, the U.S. does consider the relationship with Pakistan important, if imperfect. “It’s a complicated relationship in a very difficult, complicated part of the world,” Daley says. “Obviously, there’s still lot of pain that the political system in Pakistan is feeling by virtue of the raid that we did to get Osama Bin Laden, something that the president felt strongly about and we have no regrets over.”

(Source: shortformblog)

(Source: inothernews)