baithak: Baithak World May 22: Anatomy of NeoCon, Etmylogy, Who Killed...,Headlines, Szep, RealNews

Watching American (and Iranian-Americans who haven't been to Iran since the revolution of 1979) "experts" talk about Iran can be a painful experience. Most of the analyses are not only superficial and stereotypical, they also lack the depth that is required in order to make sound policy. Of course the ultimate phony expert is none other than the anti-intellectual George W. Bush. Last week in front of the Israeli Knesset, he likened the willingness to talk to Ahmadinejad to the appeasement to Hitler. But the administration and their Israeli friends have navigated through a number of phases and systematic distortions throughout the past three years in order to prepare us for what they will try to do: Use something Ahmadinejad said in 2005 against the Democratic candidate for president in 2008.The Anatomy of Neoconservative Propaganda Sam Sedaei

There is a folk etymologist in all of us. We expect sever, severe, and severy (“compartment of a roof”) to be cognates and resent the fact that they are not. Poets and punsters connect such words, while etymologists, these dry-as-dust killjoys, ruin native intuition. It is a pity that rhyme has fallen into desuetude, for rhyme is a great uniter. Consider the following. English love is gentle, almost heavenly, because love rhymes with above, dove, and, to a certain extent, move (we will disregard shove for the sake of argument). French love never ends, for otherwise, why should amour have rhymed with toujours “always”? Russians are a different matter, as follows from the triad liubov’ “love,” krov’ “blood,” and vnov’ “again.” German young people of both sexes (sexes, not genders, for German has three genders) have been a model of propriety since the beginning of creation: consider the time-honored rhyme Jugend “youth”/ Tugend “virtue.” A good deal has been written about such convergences, but it is equally interesting to observe how easily language drives a wedge between closely related words. One small phonetic change suffices to obliterate the ties between related words. A few examples come to mind. Severed Relations - Anatoly Liberman

Has the role of the professional critic become obsolete in an age of book clubs, celebrity endorsements and blogs? A new book, "The Death of the Critic," says no, and argues that there are still reasons to regard some opinions as better than others. We asked Salon's own book reviewers, Louis Bayard and Laura Miller, to consider its case. Who killed the literary critic? By Louis Bayard and Laura Miller

Headlines

Huffpollstrology: Candidates' Horoscopes, Polls And More For May 22

Researcher Pushes Enormous Floating Solar Islands

Diane Francis: Hillary's Hidden Agenda

McCain Backer Hagee Said Hitler Was Fulfilling God's Will (AUDIO)

Another McCain Connection To Anti-Obama Website

What's in John McCain's medical records?

Oracle Of Oil Predicts $200 Barrels

Tim Dickinson: The Bush Legacy: A $100 Per-Barrel Increase In The Price of Oil

Robert Scheer: Paying for War at the Pump

The matchless David Sedaris quits smoking in 'Flames'

Vinod Khosla: Setting The Story Straight

ANALYSIS: What will come first, peace treaty or indictment?

ANALYSIS / Small piece of land could scupper Israel-Syria talks