Share the View: How to Steal the Oscars

Share The View

THE LATEST OPINIONS FROM BLOOMBERG VIEW

FEBRUARY 21, 2015 bloombergview.com

DECLASSIFIED Eli Lake: "As U.S. President Barack Obama wades deeper into the war in Iraq, Sheik Wissam al-Hardan would appear to be just the kind of man America needs. He is a Sunni Muslim. ... He was one of the founders of the Awakening, a group of Sunni tribal leaders who in 2006-07 fought alongside American troops to take back their towns and villages from al-Qaeda in Iraq, Islamic State's predecessor." Read more... ENTERTAINMENT Zara Kessler: "If you're seeking a plot for an Oscar-winning heist movie, one place to start might be Oscar voting itself. It's got briefcases, memorized secrets, secure locations -- feel free to thank me in your speech." Read more... TECH Stephen L. Carter: "Suppose that the government were to ask each of us to wear an unremovable bracelet that allowed our location to be determined in an emergency. ... Although we're certainly nowhere near that point, there is a bit of the same flavor in the government's pressure on smartphone makers not to use encryption so strong that law enforcement agencies can't break it when they have to." Read more... Katie Benner: John Chambers is sitting on lots of cash and lots of stagnation at Cisco. Read more... WALL STREET Matt Levine: "My cheerful assumption that funding models change, but the business of banking is eternal, seems to be wrong." Read more... CONGRESS Jonathan Bernstein: "Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner makes the conservative case for the filibuster. He correctly says that the (extra-constitutional) filibuster is clearly constitutional, that the framers wanted to protect political minorities by making it difficult for majorities to act rapidly, and that they were right to do so." Read more...