May 2011
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Vivid Print Ads Change Your Memory →
Remember that fresh, buttery popcorn you had a few weeks ago? Maybe you didn’t really have it at all, and the memory was created by a magazine ad. Impossible, you say? Actually, new research shows that some print ads can be impactful enough to create a false memory of having tried a product that doesn’t even exist!
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“Another way of pointing out the limits of growth is to consider the long list of...”
– James Gustave Speth
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Three lies about taxes →
Poor people don’t pay taxes. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Chuck Marr and Brian Highsmith provide the definitive takedown of this myth.
The U.S. suffers from high taxes. As measured in terms of total tax revenue as a share of overall GDP the average tax burden for countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2008 was...
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“If you are in thrall to Grover Norquist, this country hasn’t got a prayer.”
– Alan Simpson
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“So we’re in Afghanistan to bring Freedom and Democracy to the Afghan...”
– Glenn Greenwald
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Are Taxes in the U.S. High or Low? →
The G.O.P. says global competitiveness requires the United States to reduce its corporate tax rate. But the United States actually has the lowest corporate tax burden of any of the member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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“Painstaking faithfulness to primary documents is one of the shibboleths of...”
– Thomas Frank
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Republican States Push Revisions to Voting Laws →
Less than 18 months before the next presidential election, Republican-controlled statehouses around the country are rewriting voting laws to require photo identification at the polls, reduce the number of days of early voting or tighten registration rules.
Republican legislators say the new rules, which have advanced in 13 states in the past two months, offer a practical way to weed out...
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“The idea that a generation of workers can secure its retirement by storing...”
– David Korten
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“Sarah Palin represents a dangerous force in American culture that is startlingly...”
– James Howard Kunstler
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We Don’t Feel the Pain of War →
Americans were asked to “support the troops” (who wouldn’t do that?) which meant that we were to salute their sacrifice for our way of life here in America (and not question why we are fighting these wars). But what that actually happened was this: We ended up pretending that we are really not at war. We never felt the economic hardship of having to pay for these wars. We just went to Disney...
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“The Republicans share something with the Saudi royal family: Their shot at...”
– Frank Schaeffer
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Chugging Down the Wrong Track →
Most nations use health care to maximize the well being of their citizens. A few use it to maximize corporate profit. The United States is among the latter.
Our pharmaceutical firms and health insurers are the envy of the global industry for their ability to bend government and its regulations to their advantage. Many hospitals have also found a formula for making money, at least for top...
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“You are the generation on the precipice of a transformation medicine has no...”
– Atul Gawande
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“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we...”
– Søren Kierkegaard
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“Americans once believed war to be a great evil. Whenever possible, war was to be...”
– Andrew Bacevich
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Why the Democratic Party Has Abandoned the Middle... →
In 2008, a liberal Democrat was elected president. Landslide votes gave Democrats huge congressional majorities. Eight years of war and scandal and George W. Bush had stigmatized the Republican Party almost beyond redemption. A global financial crisis had discredited the disciples of free-market fundamentalism, and Americans were ready for serious change.
Or so it seemed. But two years...
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“…someone needs to say the obvious: inventing reasons not to put the unemployed...”
– Paul Krugman
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Put your music player on shuffle and write the... →
thetart:
This is such a good cross section of my iTunes that I just had to post it.
Department of Eagles - Love Me
Estelle - Back In Love
Dolly Parton - My Tennessee Mountain Home
Fiona Apple - On The Bound
Marvin Gaye - Can I Get A Witness
Bobby Darin - More
Stephanie Mills - Never Knew Love Like This Before
Concha Buika - Volver Volver
Bat For Lashes - Siren Song
Ricky Skaggs -...
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“A large segment of the American public has entered the dark wilderness of...”
– James Howard Kunstler
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lordsteezy asked: Hey,did you ever fix this? i'm having the SAME EXACT problem. http://azspot.net/post/442595388/slammed-by-tumblr-queue-and-customization-reset-yet
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“A real Memorial Day would involve commitments to cease sacrifices that...”
– I Didn’t Fight For Your Freedom
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Forgetting Why We Remember →
But for the earliest and most remarkable Memorial Day, we must return to where the war began. By the spring of 1865, after a long siege and prolonged bombardment, the beautiful port city of Charleston, S.C., lay in ruin and occupied by Union troops. Among the first soldiers to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the 21st United States Colored Infantry; their commander...
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“There are still at least two reality-based Republicans in the race: former Utah...”
– Reality Bites: The GOP After Daniels, and After 2012
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A Decade of Magical Tax-Cut Thinking →
GOP leaders argue that the budget deficit is the great moral issue of our day and requires great austerity.
Yet just before Memorial Day, GOP lawmakers unveiled their bold new economic program. You guessed right: more tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires, and global corporations.
The Republicans’ plan calls for reducing the top income tax rate on millionaires and big...
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“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public;...”
– Søren Kierkegaard (via miketodd07, theorthodoxheretic)
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Dubai's skyscrapers, stained by the blood of... →
It seems to me a place where the worst of western capitalism and the worst of Gulf Arab racism meet in a horrible vortex. The most pervasive feeling is of a lack of compassion, where the commoditisation of everything and the disdain for certain nationalities thickens the skin to the tragic plight of fellow human beings.
Psychologically, these workers are isolated and alienated;...
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“Look, what’s happening is we’re making the earth a more dynamic and violent...”
– Bill McKibben
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Is World War II Still ‘the Good War’? →
Americans’ favorite World War II stories have always been about the democratic heroism of ordinary soldiers; this kind of popular history has never disappeared, and probably never will. Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken” (2010), which has resided for months near the top of the best-seller list, tells the story of Louis Zamperini, an ex-track star turned airman, who was shot down over the Pacific...
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“The coca bush actually has a lot of historical and beneficial uses. It is a...”
– Sanho Tree
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Beyond the International Drug War →
Understanding the international war on drugs means examining a complex web of interactions. Sanho Tree, director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, describes the international drug war as one of the most interdisciplinary problems he’s ever encountered. It involves police and prosecutors, drug trafficking gangs and peasant farmers, addicts and casual users. It...
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“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside,...”
– A System
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20 Free Articles →
kohenari:
Lame.
In regard to the NY Times paywall.
Odd thing is, though I never frequent NY Times articles via direct links — I consume most all the links via Google Reader and Twitter and easily eclipse the “20 free article” mark within a few days, and rarely ever, am I presented with the “To keep reading, sign up today” page. And when I am, it is because the...
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A case where Christian civil disobedience may be... →
But, back to the theological judgment. Some people object most strenuously when I or anyone else declares a person or group non-Christian. Usually I find such objectors will gladly do the same with regard to people they deem heretics.
But why limit such judgments to matters of doctrine? Why, for example, judge Jehovah’s Witnesses non-Christians but say it is wrong to judge people who...
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“The economy of war requires of every soldier an implicit submission to his...”
– Jonathan Dymond
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Civilians killed by NATO in Afghan province →
At least 14 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in a NATO air raid in the Afghan southern province of Helmand, local authorities say.
US Marines in Helmand’s Nawzad district called in air support after their base came under attack from small arms fire, the provincial government said in a statement.
“During the air strike, two civilian houses were...
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“Any guest who happens to arrive at the monastery should be received just as we...”
– Benedict of Nursia
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dkyubey asked: Just a quick tip, if you're going to post xkcd comics, it's a lot better to post the alt-text with it. If you place your mouse over the image on the website you'll see the alt-text where the author of xkcd often includes some commentary or little jokes with the comic.
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“We are not called to save the world, we are called—commanded,...”
– Waving or Drowning?
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Hubert Humprey, America’s Forgotten Liberal →
And at a time when other liberals were besotted with affirmative action as a strategy to undo the cruel injustices of American history, Humphrey pointed out that race-based remedies could only prove divisive when good jobs were disappearing for everyone. Liberal policy, he said, must stress “common denominators — mutual needs, mutual wants, common hopes, the same fears.”
In 1976 he joined...
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“When a pastor accepts a position at a new church, “job security”...”
– Rev. Brian Kirk
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“We live in an age where with a solid Internet connection and someone to guide...”
– What Really Keeps Poor People Poor 