Sunday morning roundup

Can Libya quickly enough build the institutions it needs for a transition? What's the outlook for Saudi Arabia? Fouad Ajami beautifully comments on the events in the region--their basis in the past, as well as possibilities for the future, while Al-Jazeera pats itself on the back. As for the Administration's response--forgive me not only for resorting to cliche but also repeating the same one in the course of several days, on the same topic, but it just works, even in this mangled form: speaking loudly is much, much less important than being able to wield a stick.

You can officially, empirically tell people to stop whining about liberal academe.

This quote reminds me of the 'I'm not a feminist, but..." antics characterizing generations of younger women. It's like, I don't give a f* about anyone else--I'm not one of those tiresome agitators--but I'm going to take a stand against fracking because it makes my family sick. Were that not the case, my attitude may well be 'drill, baby drill.

“I’m not an activist, an alarmist, a Democrat, environmentalist or anything like that,” Ms. Gant said. “I’m just a person who isn’t able to manage the health of my family because of all this drilling.”

Look no further than Virginia for the kind of assault on women's rights that can be legislated when people start taking those rights for granted.

So, if the problem is seniority--and I'm not suggesting that seniority-based systems aren't a problem--why is that also necessarily a problem with collective bargaining? What get lots in funding cuts: views from Ken Burns and others. Also: Frank Rich on everything.

Ernessa, thank you for this, which I just saw. Much to comment on, in detail at some point. Guys do love the Malcolm Gladwell. I sometimes enjoy reading his work, sometimes tolerate it, and always find myself wishing he would get away from sports analogies. But your larger point is, reading matters. Reading the news matters, for sure, but I also find that reading fiction matters. Have you ever read "Smilla's Sense of Snow," or whatever it was called when it was published here, by Peter Hoeg? There's a line where she, or the narrator, says she just doesn't get people who don't read, and who proudly proclaim as much. She adds, it's like they're proclaiming that the world has nothing to teach them. Anyway, with regard to not reading fiction, I find a sort of stunted emotional intelligence there. Small sample size, but I'm just saying.

Allergies in kids are linked to low vitamin D levels. Please don't increase the amount of dairy your kids consume; get them out in the sun instead.

I'm with both Kelly Freston and Mark Bittman on this one, i.e. on the issue of fake meat. I'm with him in the sense that it's uber-processed, and with her in the sense that meat, too, can be uber-processed (how are most meat-based burgers more 'real' than most vegetarian burgers?). Sure, there are Kobe burgers, but there are also home-made black bean burgers. But commercial burgers of any kind are processed, packaged, and often full of nasty ingredients. I see fake meat as (1) the dietary equivalent of methadone; and (2) an occasional convenience food. And Kelly Freston acknowledges that. If you haven't watched Mark Bittman's talk, which she links to, please do.

A new, thought-provoking Gaughin exhibit opens at the National Gallery.