Happiness lost

We have only one life. There is no afterlife to make up for the slings and arrows of misfortune that we experience in this life and so we should try and give people every opportunity to be happy and not deprive them of the chance to seize happiness wherever they may find it simply because they violate some socially constructed norm.
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The British media are as obsessed with trivia as their US counterparts

The rugby World Cup is currently underway in England and, fresh from the ‘scandal’ where Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was criticized for only standing but not also singing the words of the national anthem, he was castigated for missing England’s opening game against Fiji, citing unspecified “pre-existing commitments”. The media sneered as to what could possibly be more important than cheering your team in a World Cup rugby match.
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You’ve got a (black) friend

Even if you’re a Republican tea partier who thinks that people of color are moochers and looters living off the fat of the land produced by the real, hard-working Merkins, it may be advantageous for you professionally and personally to have at least one black friend. Well, this is America and where there is a need, there is a business that caters to it.
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Ben Carson’s ignorance, bigotry, and arrogance

In an interview on a TV talk show, Ben Carson said the following:

The Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has said no Muslim should be president of the United States of America.

In an interview with NBC for broadcast on Sunday morning, the retired neurosurgeon said: “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”

In his NBC interview, Carson was asked: “So do you believe that Islam is consistent with the constitution?”

“No,” he said, “I don’t, I do not.”

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What’s wrong with this essay?

Read this short essay and see if you notice anything.

My fellow countrymen, I speak to you as coequals, knowing you are deserving of the honest truth. And let me warn you in advance, my subject matter concerns a serious crisis caused by an event in my past history: the execution-style killing of a security guard on a delivery truck. At that particular point in time, I found myself in a deep depression, making mental errors which seemed as though they might threaten my future plans. I am not over-exaggerating.
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Even the New York Times has realized that Republicans are nuts

The curse of the American media is that the major ones refrain from calling out stupid statements by major politicians for the nonsense they are but instead treat them as one side of a debate to be counter-balanced by an opposing view, leaving the impression that the truth lies somewhere in between. But we have entered a stage in politics where Republicans are making flat-out wrong statements that are simply not even debatable.
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