Noam Chomsky gave recently in Geneva on the USA, Iran, Israel and the Arab world. Following the speech he was asked a question about what he thought of Edward Snowden’s actions. This segment starts at around the 1:21:00 mark.
Workers in the fast food industry are going on strike across the country demanding that their wages be increased so that they can live on them. It is long overdue that the minimum wage be doubled to somewhere around $15 per hour. That would do more to end poverty than many of the anti-poverty programs that currently exist. [Read more…]
In the wake of the many revelations of massive government surveillance by Edward Snowden, the government has gone into full damage control by saying that they only look at the phone and email and internet records of those they suspect of engaging in terrorist activities or people who are suspected of being in contact with potential terrorists. [Read more…]
Some people who drive expensive cars are so worried about their cars being dinged by the opening of doors of cars parked next to them that they park straddling two spaces. This is a serious violation of parking etiquette that can enrage people. I myself, though not prone to get upset over trivial things, also find myself highly irritated when I see someone do that, even though I know it is small in the great scheme of things. But like most of us, I do nothing except secretly despise such people. [Read more…]
Now that Edward Snowden has temporary asylum in Russia, he has the freedom to travel anywhere in that country and work. Apparently, he may already have a job offer.
Late Thursday, the founder of Russia’s Facebook-like social network site VKontakte, made what sounded like a job offer.
“We will be happy if he decides to supplement the team of star programmers at VKontakte,” Durov wrote on his page.
As of midnight last night, same-sex couples in Minnesota and Rhode Island could get married and gay Minnesotans have been marrying up a storm. You can see pictures of happy couples here.
Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison celebrated the event in song. [Read more…]
As Ben Bernanke ends his term as the chair of the Federal Reserve in January 2014, there has been intense speculation amongst Fed watchers as to whom president Obama will choose to replace him, and the betting is that it will be either Janet Yellen, deputy chair of the Fed, or Obama advisor Lawrence Summers. [Read more…]
I recently heard about Camp Quest, a nationwide network of summer camps for children where, in addition to the usual summer outdoor fun activities, they also learn science and humanist values and critical thinking. It is a wonderful opportunity for parents and children with scientific, secular, and atheist outlooks to have a good time with like-minded people, as a counter to the large number of religion-based camps. There are already 17 such weeklong camps nationwide and the growth has been fairly rapid. [Read more…]
After several false starts, Edward Snowden has finally left Moscow airport and can move about in Russia. It must be nice for him to be out in the open again, for the first time since arriving in Moscow on June 23. He has been granted temporary asylum for one year.
Cue the screaming in the US by the usual political and media hacks about the need for him to be sent back to the US and to punish Russia for not doing so. Here are the initial salvos. [Read more…]