Some students are protesting a new federal law that sets limits on the calories that the meals should contain and requires more fresh fruits and vegetables as part of the menu. (Warning: That link has a photo showing Michelle Obama with bare arms, which some find offensive.) [Read more…]
The Catholic bishops seem to be going all in against president Obama in this election, with the issues of same-sex marriage and contraception services taking precedence even over that old standby, abortion. [Read more…]
You may recall I wrote last month about the minor flap that occurred when NPR reporter Ari Shapiro broadcast a short interview with a woman named Bobbie Lussier at an American Legion meeting in Indianapolis. Referring to the Obamas, Lussier told him, “I just – I don’t like him. Can’t stand to look at him. I don’t like his wife. She’s far from the first lady. It’s about time we get a first lady in there that acts like a first lady and looks like a first lady.” [Read more…]
Having successfully implemented his program of alienating women, blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, and gays, Mitt Romney has set his sights on the one remaining group that still supports him – Republicans. Humorist Andy Borowitz says that this is all part of a carefully planned strategy. [Read more…]
Glenn Greenwald gives us a horror story of how the US government will go to any lengths, however cruel, to prosecute ordinary people for minor crimes that were well intentioned, while ignoring the major crimes of important figures.
His recounting of the story of how they treated Dr. Shakir Hamoodi should make people’s blood boil.
It is to Bill Clinton’s eternal shame that he did not veto the Defense of Marriage Act when he was president and to my knowledge he has never apologized for it, but has simply shifted in his reasons for signing it. It is anticipated that the constitutionality of the law will be decided by the US Supreme Court in its upcoming term, though it has not selected any of the cases as yet. [Read more…]
As could be predicted, the violence resulting from the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims has resulted in calls for the limits to freedom of speech and laws for the protection of religious sensibilities. The president of Egypt Mohamed Morsi and the president of Yemen Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi both made speeches at the United Nations this week calling for such restrictions. [Read more…]
Roger Waters of Pink Floyd has a new arrangement of We Shall Overcome composed as a tribute to the people of Gaza and calling for an end to the blockade imposed on them by Israel. It and the accompanying video, produced as part of the documentary Roadmap to Apartheid, are very moving. [Read more…]
The Republican party has become the home of such extreme people that even political leaders in other countries feel free to ignore the usual protocols and start piling on, with the Australian deputy prime minister Wayne Swan saying, “Let’s be blunt and acknowledge the biggest threat to the world’s biggest economy are the cranks and crazies that have taken over the Republican Party.” [Read more…]
The political chattering class recently was agog about two incidents. One concerned Mitt Romney expressing concern that airplane windows could not be opened in the event that smoke filled the cabin, something that happened recently on a plane on which his wife Ann was traveling. People took this as yet another sign of a clueless candidate out of touch with reality. [Read more…]