The racism is strong in this one

What do these refugees from regions of turmoil really want? Peace? Stability? A better life for their children? No, they want our women, that’s what they want. Or so it seems to this woman who asked Donald Trump at one of his rallies the following question: “Do you think the refugees that are coming here, trying to come here, that are trying to go to Germany and all over Europe, do you think they are going to become priests and become celibate? If not, what is going to happen to the women in the world, the countries they are going to?”
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Mass shootings? Just another day in America

The recent spate of mass shootings has been shocking no doubt but the sad reality is that this is just another day in America. The focus on mass shootings to some extent hides the fact that daily gun violence has become endemic and routine. As Lois Beckett writes for ProPublica, the definition of mass shootings as only those that involve four or more people killed may obscure the real picture, and the definition should be expanded to include four or more people shot, though even that does not capture the full reality of gun violence.
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The sun setting on Ben Carson?

Along with the steady rise of Donald Trump, the other recent noteworthy feature in the Republican presidential race is the steady decline of Ben Carson. Whereas Trump seems to thrive despite saying and doing things that would sink anyone else’s candidacy. with every supposed gaffe simply adding to his appeal, Carson is finding that his support is less solid and has been on a steady slide for the last month.
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Star Wars mania and the powerful desire to be first

I just do not understand the desire that some people have to be the first to get or do something that seems so trivial, and even if that lead is so fleeting and intangible. For example, the people lining up for days in advance, or paying others to do so, just for the privilege of getting a new iPhone on the day it is released, when you could wait a few days and get it at your leisure. But it seems to matter greatly to some to be the first.
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Donald Trump challenges Adelson supporters

Yesterday, all the Republican candidates for president showed up at yet another audition for Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who has been teasing all of them with the promise of major financial support. The venue was the organization Republican Jewish Coalition that is sponsored by Adelson. The main (if not only) criterion used by Adelson and his wife is enthusiastic support for the most extreme right-wing expansionist and anti-Palestinian policies of Israel and almost all the candidates dutifully went down that road, trying to outdo one another in proclaiming their loyalty to his agenda, to the extent of some going overboard.
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Film review: Best of Enemies (2015) and the current state of political discourse

1968 was a turbulent year. Marin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy had both been murdered, opposition to the Vietnam war was at its height, the Tet offensive had shattered the US government’s claim that they were winning that war, and racial tensions were soaring. It was in this volatile environment that the two political parties held their nominating conventions. The 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago was notorious for mayor Richard Daley imposing what was essentially a police state, with tanks and armored vehicles patrolling the streets and the violent clashes that ensued. Haskell Wexler’s film Medium Cool (1969) captures the mood well.
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Catholic school faces backlash for not hiring a lesbian

Lauren Brown applied for and got a job as counselor at the Catholic all-girls St. Mary’s Academy. But the school later learned that she is a lesbian. And so like good Catholics, they withdrew the offer. And in the time-honored Catholic way, they tried to buy her silence by offering her a year’s salary and benefits if she would keep quiet about why she was not being hired.
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GOP goes through the stages of grief

There is a well-known idea proposed by psychologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross that people pass though five stages of grief when they are given a diagnosis of a terminal illness: (1) Denial (2) Anger (3) Bargaining (4) Depression (5) Acceptance. Some have expanded this to seven stages, adding Shock/Disbelief and Guilt: (1) Shock or Disbelief (2) Denial (3) Anger (4) Bargaining (5) Guilt (6) Depression (7) Acceptance and Hope.
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