January 2012
58 posts
Yes, you can make money without exploiting the... →
I was (briefly) a guest on a BBC World Service radio program this morning discussing Obama’s state of the union speech and income inequality in general. To my mind, this has always been a no-brainer. My argument is: we’ve done this experiment (of lowering taxes on the rich) twice now, once in the 1920’s and again in the 1980’s (and doubled-down in 2000). We have also done the control experiment....
“Life itself is a constant battle against entropy.”
– Shallow Sage (via sagequotes)
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"When Facts Aren’t Facts" →
azspot:
The criterion, according to Politifact, seems to be that a fact isn’t a fact if it helps a Democratic narrative.
Jared Bernstein watches the train wreck. Obama said:
In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005.
which is just true. Period.
But Politifact rated it as only “half...
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“The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The...”
– Abraham Heschel (via azspot)
“Electronics are our talismans that ward off the spiritual vacuum of modernity;...”
– Fever Dream of a Guilt-Ridden Gadget Reporter (via aisforayla)
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The Sacrificial Caste →
parkstepp:
In this and other nations, there are groups of children who can be abused with impunity.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 16th January 2012
Texas is a largely-Christian state that appears to believe in neither forgiveness nor redemption. Last week the Guardian revealed the extent to which it has criminalised its children(1). Police now patrol the schools, arresting...
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“…And I come by here to say that America, too, is going to Hell, if we don’t use...”
– Martin Luther King
Memphis, March 18, 1968
(via corporationsarepeople)
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“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is...”
– ‘A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart’, Strength To Love (1963, 1981), 15. — Martin Luther King, Jr. (via cwnl)
Why marriage equality and not civil unions?
dagseoul:
Glad you asked because it’s super simple to put my answer into one sentence:
Separate but equal is for white supremacists and homophobes.
Any other questions?
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What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's... →
Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality.
In the Finnish view, as Sahlberg describes it,...
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To Build Community, an Economy of Gifts →
Wherever I go and ask people what is missing from their lives, the most common answer (if they are not impoverished or seriously ill) is “community.” What happened to community, and why don’t we have it any more? There are many reasons—the layout of suburbia, the disappearance of public space, the automobile and the television, the high mobility of people and jobs—and, if you trace the “whys” a...
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quotes →
shallowsage:
I’ve been more than a little remiss in posting new work to this site for months and months now.
But this week I’ve added a companion site to it, “quotes.”
I have no idea why. But it was a wise decision, I’m sure.
—Shallow Sage
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The U.S. Leads The World In R&D, But For How Long? →
China already has plans to focus on exciting but vague ideas now — like green energy and bio- and nanotechnology — that will most likely become products in the 2020s. And if U.S. government labs, university departments and corporate researchers aren’t already on top of the next generation of breakthroughs, the country will very likely fall behind in 10 or 20 years when those innovations become...
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Santorum: Our Abortion Was Different →
Rick Santorum is one dangerously confused denialist. The former Pennsylvania Senator and presidential aspirant is best known for his inability to associate his professed compassion for life at the level of the zygote, with the physical realities of human sexuality. He has equated loving same-sex relationships to bestiality. He is opposed to abortion under any circumstance. Almost.
In October,...
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“Sometime after 2008, I understood that the process of expansion, integration and...”
– Jurgen Habermas (via andrewgreene)
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“Turner has been searching for Jakadrien since the fall of 2010, when she ran...”
– Dallas teen missing since 2010 was mistakenly deported | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth (via jeffmiller)
Jesus. Where to even start with this… (via sexartandpolitics)