In The Atlantic, Robert Wright calls out president Obama for his widespread use of drones, as well as those who justify his actions. [Read more…]
Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
HBO has a free online screening of the first episode of the new comedy Veep starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It has the same pacing, cross-talk, multiple storylines, and political infighting of The West Wing except it is played strictly for laughs. Some have suggested that it may even be a more accurate portrayal of life in the executive branch of the government than its more serious predecessor, and I can believe that since the principals in Veep are quite ambitious, cynical, and manipulative. There are no high-minded moralists in this crowd. [Read more…]
Throwing people in jail because of their inability to pay debts was one of the horrors of England that Charles Dickens inveighed against, he himself suffering from a deep sense of shame because his father met such a fate. Since 1830, such a practice is no longer legal in the US but the US has brought back what are effectively debtor’s prisons, because people have found ways to jail you for ostensibly other reasons but which in reality are based on your inability to pay debts. “Under the law, debtors aren’t arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing “contempt of court” in connection with a creditor lawsuit.” [Read more…]
The personhood legislation proposed in Oklahoma has been deemed to be unconstitutional by a unanimous state Supreme Court.
A federal judge ruled a similar measure in Nevada to be unconstitutional and Mississippi and Colorado voters rejected similar measures.
Maybe there are some ideas too crazy for people to stomach even in these crazy times.
On Sunday April 29 on its program All Things Considered, NPR had an interesting story based on a mock ‘obituary’ by Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke who wrote about the death of Facts. He said that Facts had been ailing for some time but the claim by congressman Allen West (R-FL) that around 80 House of Representatives members of the Democratic party belonged to the Communist party was the final blow that killed it off. [Read more…]
A British parliamentary select committee has issued a stinging rebuke to Rupert Murdoch personally and to his media empire.
The committee concluded that the culture of the company’s newspapers “permeated from the top” and “speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International”.
That prompted the MPs’ report to say: “We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of major international company.”
All those people who are dissatisfied with Barack Obama’s policies but don’t know where else to turn will be pleased to hear that May 2 has been declared “Grumble About Obama Day”, a “day of deliberately ineffectual venting” where you can let off steam without actually doing anything about it.
So go to it, folks!
American exceptionalism is an article of faith in the US. A surefire applause line for a pandering politician is to take some fairly humdrum achievement and tack on the phrase “only in America”. Audiences seem to delight in thinking that achievements that are commonplace the world over are somehow only possible here because of the unique conditions in the US. [Read more…]
[Update: NPR got a lot of letters about this story which were quite interesting including one who said it was a “very biased and even hateful story clearly aimed aimed at those of us who love Jesus”.]
Starting yesterday, NPR is having a series of stories on people losing their faith. The first one is about a Methodist minister Teresa MacBain who realized that she was an atheist and came out at the American Atheist conference on March 26. [Read more…]
Those who have been agitating for attacking Iran have been repeatedly making the claim, faithfully repeated by the compliant media, that Iranian president Ahmadinejad said that he wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the map and that this proved that he was a crazy man and that if Iran ever obtained a nuclear weapon, he would use it against Israel. [Read more…]