September 2009
“…the truth is only so many people can stand on top of a pyramid.”
– Michael Moore
“Massachusetts mandated that everyone buy health insurance. And this hasn’t made...”
– Dr. Andy Coates
Adopt a Liberal →
Newsmax Columnist: Military Coup May Be Needed 'To... →
(via squashed, SouthPol)
American dreams →
As the studies show, that statement is true for most children in the United States, and for a higher proportion of American children than in most comparable countries. Among the twelve countries analysed by economist Anna Cristina d’Addio in a 2007 OECD report, Intergenerational Transmission of Disadvantage: Mobility or Immobility across Generations?, the United States was in a group of four –...
“David [Brooks] points out, correctly, that something changed around 1980 — that...”
– Paul Krugman
“Libraries as a physical place to go, I think will continue. But if this trend...”
– Brewster Kahle
“…I wouldn’t mind hearing about values from our current president. And more...”
– Drew Westen
The Cost of Empire →
Now look at it this way. The United States’ military budget is $636,292,979,000. Now, think about the “grave threats to our security” that neoconservatives are always rambling about–and realize that they spend a tiny percentage of this amount on their militaries:
Russia - $39,600,000,000 China - $70,308,600,000 North Korea - $5,500,000,000 Iran - $2,500,000,000 Venezuela - $4,000,000,000
In...
On Roman Polanski
It utterly sickens me to read (have not listened to or watched any news since his arrest in Zurich) those defending this cowardly filth. To this day, I have never ever watched a Polanski film (well, not entirely true, as I did watch Chinatown, unaware of his involvement), not even viewing one for free as a result of a library checkout or broadcast television. Not that I am a vindictive sort bent...
“In his new movie, Michael Moore calls capitalism evil and argues that it should...”
– The Whole Point Of Capitalism
“What conservative critics ignore and what Andrew only touches on towards the end...”
– Eunomia
Contraception fights global warming →
[E]ach $7.00 spent on basic family planning over the next four decades will reduce CO2 emissions by more than a ton. To achieve the same results with low carbon technologies would cost a minimum of $32.00. If we just meet that need that women have already expressed for fewer children and access to contraception, we will save 34 gigatons between now and 2050, equivalent to nearly six times the...
Why Real Health Care Reform Is Impossible →
The simple answer is that the providers of health care are simply making too much money. Health care is a $2-trillion-a-year business. It’s the biggest business in the United States. During the latest financial melt-down not one health care insurance company, drug company or medical device company rushed up to the government asking for a bail-out. Why? They are essentially...
“The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately...”
– Friedrich Nietzche
China seeks big stake in Nigerian oil →
A Chinese state-owned oil company is in talks with Nigeria to buy large stakes in some of the world’s richest oil blocs in a deal that would eclipse Beijing’s previous efforts to secure crude overseas.
“So here is the problem I have with the Honduras situation. The news reports from...”
– OrthoCuban
The Impact of Inequality →
Obesity, cancer, infant mortality, homicide, gun violence, imprisonment ratios, depression, drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, venereal disease rates, use of prescription antidepressants, workplace satisfaction, trust of one’s neighbors – pick from the menu. ALL of them are driven by a single variable.
And that variable isn’t wealth. While America is the richest nation in the world with a median...
“The real truth is that, as weird as they are, rumors and conspiracy theories can...”
– One man’s rumor is another man’s reality
“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and...”
– Kurt Vonnegut
“Charity gives every man a title to so much out of another’s plenty, as...”
– John Locke
“But materialism is deeply and profoundly threatening to many people. It’s...”
– Jonathan Haidt
Second Bill of Rights →
It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and...
“This emptiness of language is a gift to demagogues and the corporations that...”
– Chris Hedges
Ass Bomber →
Nobody tell the TSA, but last month someone tried to assassinate a Saudi prince by exploding a bomb stuffed in his rectum.
“According to the Brits, one US satellite, Saudi Arabia, will allow another,...”
– Saudis to Cooperate in Massacre of Iranians?
How to Read a Column →
“Not to crunch too many metaphors right here at the top, but a consensus seems to...”
– James Howard Kunstler
“The question here, really, is what have we done to democracy? What have we...”
– Arundhati Roy
“In Iraq and Afghanistan, American warfare is sometimes waged by machines. This...”
– Balkinization
“…the main difference between the Left and the Right lying in its orientation...”
– After the Future
Mobile marvels →
In 2000 the developing countries accounted for around one-quarter of the world’s 700m or so mobile phones. By the beginning of 2009 their share had grown to three-quarters of a total which by then had risen to over 4 billion (see chart 1). That does not mean that 4 billion people now have mobile phones, because many in both rich and poor countries own several handsets or subscriber-identity...
“When I listen to the sounds of greed, violence, rape, torture, murder, and...”
– Henri Nouwen
“Everyone knows health insurance cannot continue to operate as it does. When you...”
– Prometheus 6
Fisking Scientific American on Oil
→
I have now read the Scientific American article. It is perhaps one of the more, if not the most insidious of the recent media pieces on peak oil, in that it leverages the truth about technological advances in oil exploration and extraction to create a falsehood: that these technological advances increase aggregate flows in world supply. It was bad enough that the NYT piece invoked Kashagan as an...
“Sometimes, when I drive into the parking lot of multiplex theaters, I imagine...”
– Fadeout at the Box Office: The Decline of Movie-going
“Bobby, if you weren’t my son, I’d hug you.”
– The King (of the Hill) is Dead
“The dynamics of “violence begets violence” are simple and probably understood by...”
– Barry Clemson
“Obama is not only not a socialist, he’s not even a particularly progressive...”
– Robert Jensen