US Congress in Marie Antoinette mode

The Daily Show turns its attention to how the US Congress can act fast when it wants to benefit itself. In this series of three short clips, the show looks at how quickly it moved to exempt the Federal Aviation Administration from the rules of the sequester so that they could recall air traffic controllers from their furloughs so that flight delays were eliminated just in time to let members of Congress go on their vacations. Meanwhile, much worthier programs where sequester cuts had harmed many people were left unchanged. [Read more…]

The declining importance of experience for president

It used to be, at least beginning around the second half of the twentieth century, that people ran for president after having paid their dues by spending some time in major elected office, such as governor or member of the US House and Senate. There were just two exceptions. Dwight Eisenhower was one but he was a special case. Jimmy Carter was the other, becoming president after serving just one term as governor of Georgia. [Read more…]

It is not just about who are, but also about what we do

In the wake of the Boston bombing, there has been the usual speculations of motivation. What could drive young people to willfully harm innocent people? I have been harshly critical of media personalities and pundits who often fail to see the bigger picture and plaintively wail about how the US is attacked because of irrational hatred of our values, our freedom, or our lifestyle. [Read more…]

How hippie Christians became evangelical conservatives

I was not in the US during the time of the hippie movement and my knowledge of the Christian hippies, sometimes referred to as the Jesus People, is almost entirely shaped by the dopey 1973 musical film Godspell, not the most reliable source. It transported Jesus and his followers into New York City and portrayed them as hippies dancing and singing all over the place. It had one good song Day by Day and nothing much else going for it. [Read more…]

A new mission for Orly Taitz

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a huge fan of Orly Taitz, that devoted seeker of truth who has made it her life’s work to expose the fact that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the US because he was born in Kenya and his father was not a US citizen. The former is disputed but Orly says that that is not necessary since the latter fact alone is sufficient to make him ineligible to be president. Constitutional lawyers dispute this but whom are you going to trust as a better judge of the constitution, some smarty-pants scholars or someone who is a triple threat, not merely a lawyer but also a dentist and a real estate agent? [Read more…]

Some positive developments in China

There are some interesting developments in China. Andrew Stokols says that China’s LGBT community has made great strides in recent decades.

China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, even before the U.S. removed all anti-sodomy laws in certain states. But today, there are no formal laws to prevent discrimination against LGBT Chinese, especially in the workplace. Since China’s ministry removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 2001, government policy and public opinion has also gradually shifted. Public health ministries have been targeting gay bars with public awareness campaigns advocating safe-sex and HIV-testing. But generally, LGBT Chinese now fall into an uncomfortably grey area: no longer directly harassed, but also ignored.

[Read more…]

Latin America tells US “Hands off Venezuela”

The US hated Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez with a passion and supported an attempted coup against him in 2002 that was foiled. When he died recently, the US was openly cheering for the opposition leader in the election to replace him. When Chavez’s successor Nicolas Maduro won the April 15 election with a surprisingly narrow margin of just 1.6%, hopes were raised in the US that the result might be overturned and the US-backed candidate Henrique Capriles become leader. The US media repeatedly dwelt on supposed irregularities in the elections even though former US president Jimmy Carter has said in September 2012 that of the 92 elections he has monitored, the “election process in Venezuela is the best in the world”. [Read more…]

Fear of feminism

During much of the 20th century, many people bore the label of feminism proudly, as the movement for gender equality became seen as an important struggle that we should all support. But for some reason, the label seems to have fallen into some disfavor recently, with even people who strongly believe in the goals of the feminist movement shying away from calling themselves that. [Read more…]