Luckily for me, I almost never watch TV otherwise the political commercials that Black castigates would drive me insane, especially since Ohio is a so-called ‘swing state’ and we get much more than our fair share of this nonsense. Yes, we are all swingers here. To think that TV viewers have to put up with this for another three months makes me worry whether come November, people will be wandering around with glazed eyes. [Read more…]
Princeton University professor of politics Martin Gilens has a new book Affluence & Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America that spells out something that many of us instinctively sense, that America is a one-party state in which the rich get their own way, while the rest are shut out to an extent that threatens democracy itself. [Read more…]
I have never actually eaten at a Chick-fil-A restaurant but the head of the company Dan Cathy has been in the news recently proudly proclaiming that his company is run on ‘biblical principles’. He and the family-owned company also contribute to groups that oppose same sex marriage. [Read more…]
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was the massive $700 billion dollar bailout that was rushed through government with almost no public discussion in the fall of 2008, when everyone was being panicked by alarms that there was the danger of a massive meltdown of the financial system. [Read more…]
The radical journalist died after a two-year struggle with cancer. His close colleague Jeffrey St. Clair said that he had kept his illness a tight secret, telling only his closest friends, not wanting to chronicle his own last days in the manner of Christopher Hitchens, his fellow British expatriate, one-time colleague, and later adversary when Hitchens abandoned his left-wing politics and joined up with the Bush administration and the neoconservatives in their warmongering. [Read more…]
There has been a sharp rise in the number of whooping cough cases in the US this year, with the number of cases expected to be the worst in five decades, although it was hoped at one time in the 1970s that it might be entirely eradicated. [Read more…]
Readers of this blog know that I am very slow to respond to breaking news. I am usually far behind even other bloggers, let alone news media commentators, in giving my take on such events. It is not out of laziness (ok, maybe a little) or being out of touch. I follow the news closely and usually am aware of things soon after they occur. [Read more…]
Recently there emerged from Pakistan disturbing news of a renewed campaign against polio vaccination, in which a doctor involved in such a program was shot. Pakistan is one of the few remaining countries (along with Afghanistan and Nigeria) where polio has not been eradicated. [Read more…]
The Daily Show looks at Michele Bachmann’s sensational allegation of possible Muslim Brotherhood infiltration into the highest levels of government. Her reckless accusations have caused even her party colleagues to break ranks and criticize one of their own, something that is rare these days. [Read more…]
I had no idea that the election of the first openly gay mayor of a major US city happened in Houston, Texas of all places. And this is her second term, having been first elected to that post in 2009 although she has held other elected posts in the city, such as city councilor and city controller, since 1998. [Read more…]