August 2009
Americans: sick, poor, undereducated, overworked,... →
Americans may be some of the least healthy people in the rich part of this world, but we sure do feel good about ourselves!
That’s one of the more interesting revelations in the 2009 edition of the OECD’s Social Indicators. Americans lead the world in obesity, lag the world in life expectancy and infant mortality—yet 89% of us report ourselves to be in excellent health, just behind the world’s...
“Think of it like a movie. The Torah is the first one, and the New Testament the...”
– How to Explain the Religions of Abraham to the Hollywood Generation
“Progressive democracy is a self-reinforcing system. Wherever you have educated...”
– Sara Robinson
Iceland's geothermal know-how to warm others →
Fifty-mile-deep wells or boreholes have been drilled into these ancient lava fields east of the capital, Reykjavik, tapping enormous quantities of steam that are piped into the plant and forced through turbines to generate 213 megawatts of power, enough to power 175,000 typical U.S. homes. After passing through turbines, the steam is harnessed to provide heat to Reykjavik’s homes and...
“I think Hymowitz’s story gives too small a part to resentment at the loss of...”
– Manliness in the Modern Age
“As for the Republicans—how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy,...”
– H.P. Lovecraft
“So if you take a look at what the deficit would be under current real-life...”
– Mother Jones
I Enjoy Being Poor →
“Seniors are like the American West. They depend on government and then say they...”
– Julian Zeilzer
Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists →
A California court has issued a subpoena demanding Google reveal the IP addresses of journalists writing for a corruption busting journal from the Caribbean.
1 tag
“Why are Republicans trying to kill America’s old people? After all, senior...”
– Jacob Weisberg
What to Do With the Embryos? →
As Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill makes clear, the structure of the IVF process allows for hundreds of thousands of frozen human embryos to be created in laboratories without any clear plan for their future. She is undoubtedly correct in suggesting that most patients see these embryos as the promise of fertility at the time of their treatment. But what about these embryos and their future once the...
“Corporations are pushing through legislation in the United States that will...”
– Chris Hedges
How to Take Back America →
The How to Take Back American Conference will have numerous workshops. They include:
How conservatives can win in 2010
How to deal with vote fraud, the Census, and ACORN
How to defend America vs. missile attack
How to lobby federal legislation & policy
How to bring youth into the conservative movement
How to defend traditional marriage and DOMA
How to understand Islam
How...
“The prevalence and predominance of science in our culture has cured a great many...”
– Mortimer Adler
“They should convene a panel for the next Meet the Press with Jenna Bush Hager,...”
– Glenn Greenwald
“I, along with the rest of the nation have watched in horror this past week as...”
– Julie Clawson
“Had China announced that it was going to turn rebel Uighurs captured outside the...”
– The Great Exception
“A man named Michael David Lindsay—I’m sorry, D. Michael Lindsay. And he surveyed...”
– Jeff Sharlet
What Would Jesus Really Do? →
Jesus has left us at least five mandates.
First, all men and women without regard to race, age, cultural roots, or sexual orientation, are to have full human rights….civil, political, economic, religious.
Jesus’ acceptance and relationships with women and children were outside of the bounds of social norms. His relationship with women was considered nothing short of scandalous. He was charged...
“The torture story is one of the most important examples of American journalism...”
– Balkinization
Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs? →
The U.S. scientific innovation infrastructure has historically consisted of a loose public-private partnership that included legendary institutions such as Bell Labs, RCA Labs, Xerox PARC XRX, the research operations of IBM IBM, DARPA, NASA, and others. In each of these organizations, programs with clear commercial potential were supported alongside efforts at “pure” research, with...
“…most Americans think they already have a life preserver — either private...”
– No More Mister Nice Blog
Radical Republicans, Health Care Reform and... →
We’re dealing with protesters, presenting or not presenting themselves as sincere oppositional voters who, in reality, are only trying to intimidate and shut down the conversation and perpetuate corporate and politics-inspired myths. It’s a terrorist tactic, only here deploying words, rants, and signs instead of bombs, bullets and Billy clubs.
They accomplish this town hall...
Smug Internet Millionaires and Offendedness
Ted Kennedy and the Duty to Rescue
…to Ted Kennedy’s killing of Mary Jo Kopechne…
Mr. Greenspun’s blog is littered with references to Kennedy’s “killing of Mary Jo Kopechne” and blasting of his role as a public servant.
I left a comment, expressing how his repeated statement of Kennedy as a “killer” a bit harsh — it was, after all, an accident, even if we...
“It is, I guess, politically correct, widely believed, that to say that American...”
– Dr. Donald Berwick
Shotgun Adoption →
Carol Jordan, a 32-year-old pharmacy technician, was living in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1999 when she became pregnant. She’d already decided against abortion, but she was struggling financially and her boyfriend was unsupportive. Looking through the Yellow Pages for help, she spotted an ad under “crisis pregnancies” for Bethany Christian Services. Within hours of calling,...
“I’d rather see Barack Obama go down fighting for vigorous strong principled...”
– Bill Moyers
“The debate over whether torture extracted valuable information is, in my view, a...”
– Glenn Greenwald
New CIA Docs Detail Brutal "Extraordinary... →
But this is an historical document, right? President Barack Obama shut down the black sites and the extraordinary renditions program immediately after taking office, right? Well, not entirely. Consider the recent rendition of a Lebanese businessman accused of petty contract fraud, Raymond Azar. The first stage of these guidelines was followed with precision. He was seized in Afghanistan by U.S....
“We are now into the third presidential term in which the US government remains...”
– Paul Craig Roberts
“I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now...”
– How Jewish is Hollywood?
“Saying that young people should just buy health care instead of buying an iPod...”
– Squashed
Glenn Beck's Attack On Van Jones: Fantasies &... →
But I have to take on the worst one: Beck repeatedly and mistakenly asserts that Van is presently a communist.
Once again, this charge is easily refuted - most obviously by the pro-business, market-based ideas Van has promoted for years, including in his best-selling book, The Green Collar Economy. Van’s book is a veritable song of praise to capitalism, especially the socially responsible...
“The experience of early Christian health care sheds light on what ought to be of...”
– The Health Care Debate, Early Church Style
The market thus far…
marco:
Apple may possess the market lead for now, but I predict in a few years, it will succumb to challengers championing a more open approach. […] eventually, somebody is going to create a shiny computer phone that does all that iPhone does, without the restricted sandbox paradigm.
I hear this argument a lot, but the market just doesn’t support it. Very few people care about openness....
Words for Webstock →
Like a lot of science fiction writers, I love grand futuristic schemes. A grand scheme of this kind answers the simple question “What’s the future all about?”
1 tag
“…cable news networks, with their focus on the exciting and inflammatory rather...”
– Submitted to a Candid World
“War is only a cowardly alternative to the problems of peace.”
– Thomas Mann
Beyond Denominations, the Hyphenated Church →
If scholars are right—or even in the ballpark– by 2050, emergence Christianity will be the largest group among church cultures, says Phyllis Tickle in an interview with ThinkFwd host, Spencer Burke. That means larger than any particular denomination, and this change is occurring fast. Phyllis says she became aware of the “emergence church” only about two years ago, and the phenomena of...
“These are technically sophisticated people who take pride in their work, and...”
– Jim Buckmaster
“What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make...”
– Winston Churchill
