July 2010
Trends to Barbarism and Prospects for Socialism →
The sustained, large scale roll back of social rights and welfare provisions, wages, job security, pensions and salaries demonstrates the falsity of the idea of the linear progress of capitalism. The reversal, product of the heightened power of the capitalist class, demonstrates the validity of the Marxist proposition that class struggle is the motor force of history – at least, in so far, as...
“The law was never about border security or immigration. It was about changing...”
– E.J. Montini
The 'Dangerous' Border: Actually One of America's... →
When U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled on Wednesday that key provisions of Arizona’s new anti-immigration law were unconstitutional, she could have also declared them unnecessary. That is, if the main impetus behind the controversial legislation was, as Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said when she signed it in April, “border-related violence and crime due to illegal...
The Kindle v. the iPad
marco:
Reading on the iPad is a bit of a kludge. You can read on it, and it’s a lot better than reading on a computer, but it’s still too reflective, heavy, bright, and power-hungry compared to the Kindle.
People often assume that the iPad’s backlit LCD screen is an advantage over the Kindle because it doesn’t need a separate light to be read at night. But the Kindle’s e-ink screen is actually...
“The rule of law exists in places like Mexico, Colombia and El Salvador; the...”
– Francis Fukuyama
“…I can manufacture plenty of reasons to shun e-books. Most of them will be...”
– IPad And Ebooks Haven’t Killed Off Print
“Physics tells us that energy is never lost, and that our brains — and...”
– Robert Lanza, M.D.
“Immigration is continually labeled as an issue that “deeply divides Americans.”...”
– The Immigration Fight Isn’t Over
US food waste worth more than offshore drilling →
MORE energy is wasted in the perfectly edible food discarded by people in the US each year than is available in oil and gas reserves off the nation’s coastlines.
Recent estimates suggest that 16 per cent of the energy consumed in the US is used to produce food. Yet at least 25 per cent of food is wasted each year. Michael Webber and Amanda Cuellar at the Center for International Energy and...
“Innocent people have died, Pakistan is not the most trustworthy partner, and...”
– Stephen Colbert
“The conservative media dreamland, for instance, ensconces its audience in an...”
– David Sirota
You Own You →
For their part, the major credit-reporting bureaus—Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion—don’t seem to care much about the accuracy of their credit reports. In fact, they actually have a positive incentive to let ID theft flourish. Like mobsters offering “protection” to frightened store owners, credit-reporting agencies have recently begun taking advantage of the...
“In the same way that medical records are available only to people with a...”
– Should Your Boss Get To See Your Credit Report?
Romney Campaign to Surrender Evangelicals in 2012 →
Word from inside the Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign team is that Romney will abandon his 2008 strategy of seeking to win over social conservatives—evangelical or born-again Christians—for whom his Mormonism is a major deterrent.
In 2008, the Romney campaign had hoped the candidate’s clean-cut, family-man profile would be enough to win over socially conservative Christians, many of whom...
Watch072610 Cindy Word-Vimeo
Inception soundtrack created entirely from Edith... →
Forty-seven years after her death, Edith Piaf is soundtracking the biggest, darkest, most bombastic blockbuster of the summer. Composer Hans Zimmer has revealed that Inception’s entire soundtrack, from the booming trombone theme to the strains of rising dread, originates from one of the chanteuse’s most famous songs.
Anyone who has seen Christopher Nolan’s movie will recall...
“The other difficulty we all know too well is the human tendency to insist that...”
– Katharine Jefferts Schori
“For all of its “Matrix”-like convolutions and “Alice in Wonderland” allusions,...”
– David Sirota
“We’ll hear from GOP candidates that Arizona had to act because the federal...”
– Eugene Robinson
“The first mistake is surely to condescend to fundamentalism. We may disagree...”
– Andrew Sullivan
“We humans have choices about how we treat the natural environment and one...”
– Karen Baker-Fletcher
Man Faces Up To 16 Years In Prison For Videotaping... →
The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who potentially faces sixteen years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop. In a trend that we’ve seen across the country, police have become increasingly hostile to bystanders recording their actions. You can read some...
“Yet belief in the efficacy of military power almost inevitably breeds the...”
– Andrew Bacevich
“When people hear the word fascism, they usually think of Nazi Germany or...”
– Alex Knight
Study: Climate change 'undeniable' →
(FT) — International scientists have injected fresh evidence into the debate over global warming, saying that climate change is “undeniable” and shows clear signs of “human fingerprints” in the first major piece of research since the “Climategate” controversy.
The research, headed by the US National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration, is based on new...
The Integrated Worldview →
One aspect of our worldview is our cosmology – our understanding of the nature of the relationship between the material and the spiritual. For most people, it is the cosmological aspect of their worldview that influences what they can believe about miracles, resurrection, life after death, etc.
In The Powers That Be, Walter Wink argues that one particular worldview – an integrated cosmology –...
“We live in a state of permanent falsification, our starkest fear that we will...”
– Skylar Fein
Even Yet More Warrantless Searches →
The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.
The administration wants to add just four words — “electronic communication transactional records” — to a list of items that...
“I understand today’s surging libertarianism as an early species of the...”
– Dr. David P. Gushee
“When Obama said that he was surprised that the left was so critical of him, I...”
– Gary Wills
“…I didn’t mention racism. I’m not avoiding the subject. It’s...”
– Going Where Glenn Beck Wouldn’t: Defining White Culture
Fourteen Examples of Systemic Racism in the U.S.... →
A radical approach to the US criminal justice system means we must go to the root of the problem. Not reform. Not better beds in better prisons. We are not called to only trim the leaves or prune the branches, but rip up this unjust system by its roots.
We are all entitled to safety. That is a human right everyone has a right to expect. But do we really think that continuing with a deeply...
Why Are There No Basements in Phoenix? →
Still, having a basement in Phoenix is like owning an ark or having an 11th toe. People always seem astonished. “You have a basement?” is the typical response; and the follow-up comments usually include “What do you do with it?” (I stash tchotchkes there — did I mention that I’m not a hoarder?) and “I wish I had one!” (Me, too — at least, one I could...
“Property is one of those things that should be simple enough to discuss. The...”
– On Property
Facebook privacy settings: Who cares? →
With over 500 million users, the decisions that Facebook makes about its privacy settings have the potential to influence many people. While its changes in this domain have often prompted privacy advocates and news media to critique the company, Facebook has continued to attract more users to its service. This raises a question about whether or not Facebook’s changes in privacy approaches matter...
The Neuroscience of Inception →
Every single moment of Inception is a dream. I think that in a couple of years this will become the accepted reading of the film, and differing interpretations will have to be skillfully argued to be even remotely considered. The film makes this clear, and it never holds back the truth from audiences. Some find this idea to be narratively repugnant, since they think that a movie where everything...
“Social and economic opportunity in America is significantly constrained by...”
– Eunomia