Opposing anti-gay legislation in Nigeria

Recently I met with a government delegation from Nigeria. During an evening dinner with the group, their leader suddenly went on a rant against gays. I was nonplussed and was mentally debating whether it was appropriate to push back against this since I had been invited as a guest and did not want to jeopardize any agreements that my host was negotiating with the Nigerian government. On the other hand, I feel it is wrong to let such statements go unchallenged because silence can be construed as agreement. Much to my relief, my host herself stepped in and said that she disagreed with the sentiments that had been expressed. [Read more…]

Bradley Manning trial begins today

The trial of Bradley Manning begins today. I am not hopeful that he will be acquitted or even receive a fair trial. The Obama administration is determined to punish him harshly and has gone to extreme lengths. After not only keeping him for extended periods under abusive conditions, they have now put him on trial before a military tribunal and rigged the system in such a way as to favor the prosecution. There have been large protests outside the military base where the trial is being held. [Read more…]

An indicator of the state of racism in the US

Take a look at this ad for Cheerios cereal.

My reaction was that it was a cute ad. Of course I immediately noted that child and mother had different skin colors. I thought that was a clever touch in that it is unusual enough in commercials that viewers are likely to watch it to see how it ends since it was clearly a deliberate choice on the part of the company and ad creators. [Read more…]

The future of Michele Bachmann

So Michele Bachmann, one of Congress’s most colorful people, has decided not to run for re-election in 2014. It was a rapid fall from winning the Ames (Iowa) Straw Poll for the Republican presidential nomination in August 2011, to finishing sixth in the same state’s caucuses in January 2012 that resulted in her dropping out of the race, and barely holding on to her congressional seat in November. [Read more…]

The unbalanced scales of justice

As The Daily Show reports, the government goes vigorously after breakers of the law who are small fry while letting the big-moneyed violators go free.

(This clip aired on May 23, 2013. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)

The academic two-step

Carmen Reinhart has written yet another defense of the discredited study that she and fellow Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff wrote. This one takes the form of an open letter to Paul Krugman, one of her harshest critics in academia. She says that it was not their fault if policymakers misread their statements about the impact of debt reaching 90% of GDP and arrived at an alarming conclusion that resulted in them pursuing the debt-reduction austerity programs that have caused such hardship around the world. [Read more…]

The secret of Obama’s success

I stopped listening to the speeches of George W. Bush because I hated listening to their huge helpings of arrogance and braggadocio. I long ago stopped listening to president Obama’s speeches but for different reasons, because his speeches seemed to be an exercise in preening self-aggrandizement masked as humility and thoughtfulness. It seemed like a waste of time to listen to them unless you enjoy listening to good speeches for their own sake, to see how to deliver a well-crafted speech effectively, while ignoring the content. He undoubtedly has good speechwriters and does justice to their efforts so I would recommend listening to him for anyone seeking to become a good public speaker. [Read more…]

The infamous AUMF law

Stephen Colbert carefully walks us through the Authorized Use of Military Force (AUMF) legislation that enabled presidents Bush and Obama to take all the actions they have taken in the so-called war on terror and has given us torture, indefinite detention, drone murders, and the like. I had not realized that the operational part of this legislation, passed just one week after the events of 9/11, was so brief, consisting of just 60 words. Here is the relevant part: [Read more…]

David Koch and PBS

PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio) are not driven by the profit motive but they do need money to function and as such do depend on donors. This makes them vulnerable to pressure by their corporate sponsors and big donors and this has been documented in the past. I long ago stopped watching The NewsHour because of its corporate friendly approach, that I suspected was influenced by the high-profile corporate sponsors it had. [Read more…]