Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
Via Kevin Drum I came across this graphic that shows that health care costs in the US are much higher than those in other developed countries. This should, of course, come as no surprise to anyone.
But why is this the case? Many of the easy answers don’t quite cover it. This article by Elisabeth Rosenthal from which the graphic is taken looks at possible explanations. [Read more…]
Yesterday was the second day of the Bradley Manning trial. Nathan Fuller of the Bradley Manning Support Network is summarizing the proceedings day by day (day 1 and day 2) and the transcripts can be seen here. [Read more…]
Following Mitt Romney’s defeat in the 2012 presidential election and other setbacks to their hopes for gaining ground in the Senate and House of Representatives, the Republican party has commissioned studies to see how to gain ground with young, female, and minority voters. The results should not be that surprising, since the party’s problems with these demographics were fairly obvious. [Read more…]
I wrote recently about the children in some Ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools who spend most of their time studying the Torah and other religious materials and very little time on regular secular education, leaving them woefully unprepared to work in the modern world. As a result of that post, I became interested in the question of to what extent religious groups can deny access to secular education for their children. [Read more…]
I am sure many saw the news reports of the Pew survey that found that “a record 40% of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family.” This was up from just 11% in 1960. [Read more…]
It appears that despite the Obama administration’s attempts at keeping the trial as opaque as possible by, among other things, not granting press passes to two crowd-funded court stenographers so that media outlets they can create their own transcripts of the proceedings since the government won’t release its own, a small window has opened. Some media outlets have given the stenographers their own passes and the judge and the prosecutor have said that they won’t oppose having them in the courtroom. [Read more…]
American Atheists are putting up the country’s first atheist monument on the grounds of a Florida Courthouse where the Ten Commandments on June 29th. It will consist of a 1,500 lbs granite bench with atheist quotations. They have invited anyone who can to attend the dedication ceremony that AA president David Silverman will conduct. [Read more…]
I am a conscientious reader of Miss Manners, the weekly column on etiquette by Judith Martin. What I like about her is that although she can tell you all the arcane rules, she is by no means a prig emphasizing rules for their own sake. Her main emphasis is on the role that manners play in being gracious and kind and considerate of others, and how it can smooth the rough edges that can arise in social interactions. She is sharp and funny and can be quite acerbic, especially when asked for advice about what to do with nosy or rude people. This recent column illustrates all these qualities. [Read more…]
Recently I met with a government delegation from Nigeria. During an evening dinner with the group, their leader suddenly went on a rant against gays. I was nonplussed and was mentally debating whether it was appropriate to push back against this since I had been invited as a guest and did not want to jeopardize any agreements that my host was negotiating with the Nigerian government. On the other hand, I feel it is wrong to let such statements go unchallenged because silence can be construed as agreement. Much to my relief, my host herself stepped in and said that she disagreed with the sentiments that had been expressed. [Read more…]