From Architizer News:

Frank Lloyd Wright is generally considered to have been an arrogant, irascible curmudgeon, whose voracious egotism was and remains legendary. But he could be a gingerly grandfather as well. Case in point, the Jim Berger doghouse.

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Remember this?

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD Jan 19 (Reuters) - A militant who acted as a senior operations organizer for al Qaeda was targeted and killed in one of two U.S. drone strikes launched against targets inside Pakistan last week, a U.S. official said.

It was a one day story, quickly overshadowed by news of a SEAL rescue of hostages in Somalia and a second rescue at sea of Iranian fishermen by the US Navy (the first one was a rescue from pirates).

The al Qaeda death was less newsworthy, not because it was less important. It was simply insufficiently unusual. Terrorist leaders have been dropping like flies. The drone attacks have been increasingly effective. That is not completely a result of technology. Intelligence is improving. The flow of information from local people lets the United States know where dangerous enemies are hiding.

The mood has been decidedly upswing concerning the United States. It is a small symbol, but a telling one. The most popular protest sign during the chaotic Arab Spring has been "Yes We Can". The personal outreach from the President has resulted in terrorist deaths.

Iran is now falling behind in routine payments for imports from trading partners, impressive evidence that US pressure concerning nuclear development is having an effect.

The United States attitude toward the new found worldwide popularity has been careful stewardship combined with decisive use. This has extended to the Pacific.

China has adopted a sporadically bellicose position toward its Asian neighbors, boasting about the economic development its people have been experiencing. They have come out of the global recession much more quickly than most anyone else. This is partly because they have started at a low point. Any movement would have a pretty good chance of being in the direction of gain. But, to a large extent, the cause has been policy. China has applied a surge in Keynesian government economic stimulus that has contrasted with the austerity measures of much of the rest of the world. The surge has dwarfed stimulus efforts in the United States.

But economic resurgence has been accompanied by a triumphalism that has, at times, approached a Khrushchev-like we-will-bury-you jingoism. The United States has been all soft talk and big stick. America is pleased, ever so pleased, welcoming Chinese economic progress. At the same time, the Clinton State Department has been quietly, but publicly, cautioning China about implied military threats.

The approach has helped in the soft might of US popularity in the Pacific rim, and has resulted in some very hard diplomatic triumphs. When the Australian government, a government that came to power as a protest against US Iraqi war policy, agreed last month to increased military cooperation with the United States, there was a little critical press in China and in Indonesia. In Australia, however, the reaction pretty much ranged from approval to a pointed non-reaction.

Here at home, politics no longer stops at the water's edge. Republicans insist that President Obama apologizes for America (he hasn't) or that he fails to express American exceptionalism (he has). But a modified version of their criticism would be correct. The tone of official American rhetoric, Obama rhetoric, has been subdued compared with the former Republican administration, more supportive of the actions of allied forces and local people.

The real conservative objection, outside of hatred-of-all-things-Obama, has been that the administration has not been nearly bombastic enough on the world stage.

More dead terrorists and more diplomatic success would seem to argue that this is not a flaw.

It is a feature.

From JAKE FOGELNEST:

Whitney Houston’s isolated vocal track on “How Will I Know.”

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