Charles Davis recounts how as a newly minted reporter starting his first job in 2007, he learned first hand how the system works when he reported on what should have been an important story only to have his editors quash it because they feared that if they published it they would lose access to the …
Monthly Archive: April 2012
Apr 24 2012
Seeking Asian Female
This is the name of a new documentary by Debbie Lum who wanted to examine the phenomenon of “yellow fever”, the extreme attraction some American men have for Asian women that sometimes borders on fetishism. While starting out with every intention of being just a dispassionate observer of one man’s search for an Asian bride, …
Apr 24 2012
Another example of not getting the benefit of the doubt
A black couple bought a foreclosed house and were doing something to it prior to moving in when they were attacked by neighbors at gunpoint who thought they were burglars. To add insult to injury, because they did not have the purchase documents on them, the law enforcement officers whom the neighbors called did not …
Apr 24 2012
Religions going medieval on women
It looks like the Catholic church has decided to go all in on the issue of birth control. Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George says that the church is willing to close its hospitals if their insurance companies are required to provide contraceptive services to all employees.
Apr 24 2012
For whose benefit are the current economic policies designed?
One of the mysteries of governmental responses to the current financial crises in the US and Europe has been the call for more austerity and belt tightening, even at the risk of social turmoil. One would think that the natural tendency for policy makers fighting a depressed economy is for increased government spending to stimulate …
Apr 23 2012
The national security state grows even more threatening
The excellent news program Democracy Now! had a discussion with three people about the increasingly police state nature of the US. One guest was William Binney, a whistleblower who used to work for the National Security Agency for nearly 40 years and revealed their covert and illegal invasion of American’s communications. He was unsuccessfully prosecuted …
Apr 23 2012
How far should commitment to nondiscrimination go?
Vanderbilt University has stripped a Christian student group of official recognition because it had a clause that says “Criteria for officer selection will include level and quality of past involvement, personal commitment to Jesus Christ, commitment to the organization, and demonstrated leadership ability.” It was the phrase “personal commitment to Jesus Christ’ that resulted in …
Apr 23 2012
Disentangling three big questions about the universe
Cosmologist Mark Trodden has an excellent post where he disentangles three questions that most people are interested in knowing about the universe: What is its shape? Is it finite or infinite? Will it expand forever or eventually collapse back into itself?
Apr 23 2012
Did Jesus exist?
Was there an actual historical figure that corresponds to the biblical Jesus? The debate on this question has been going on for some time in academic circles but has seen a resurgence with the recent publication of Bart Ehrman’s new book Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth.
Apr 22 2012
Unusual music
Here are two kinds of unusual music. The first is music played on an unusual instrument. The second is music played unusually on a familiar instrument. Music has always been a medium where innovation and creativity thrive and where even amateurs can produce wonderful new things by breaking the rules. It is nice to see …
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