Good mornin’ ducks…  Here’s some linkage you might want to read (on stuff other than the NSA)…

• The IMF admitted to violating its own rules to bailout Greece and that the austerity program which accompanied the bailout did not restore market confidence.
• The housing bubble in America is back with a vengeance as bidding wars are heating up in the major urban markets.  I think we know where this story goes next…  But wait, where is this cold hard cash coming from? At least some of it is from China.
• The US imprisons 430,000 people each year on immigration charges (with several hundred kept in solitary confinement).  The total cost of immigration enforcement is $18 billion per year.  Last week was the 20th anniversary of the the Golden Venture running aground in Queens with dozens of Chinese economic migrants.  The case marked the end of America’s “catch-and-release” asylum policy and the beginning of a detention oriented approach.  The good news is that the US may finally be on track for comprehensive immigration reform.
• A SEAL Team 6 member has come out as transgender which may re-open a debate on the US military policy regarding the right of transgender men and women to serve.
• Marsha Henry provides ten reasons not to write about sexual violence in war for an MA thesis.

• Alexandra Delaney discusses the image of white women in India’s rape culture.
• Star Trek: “Into Whiteness” continues awing audiences with its amazing ability to (literally) whitewash a complex, intelligent, and charismatic Sikh super-villain, Khan Noonien Singh.  And just to offset the next generation of budding “Realists” from repeating that spurious line from Spock in class… “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is not an Arab proverb.  It is essentially from Kautilya’s Arthashastra.  And no, the author of the proverb was not beheaded by his “friend” as Spock asserts.