To those who favor discrimination (employment, familial, religious, civil/legal, financial, marital, etc.) against gay people: The bigotry that some heterosexual people feel and demonstrate against gay people is absolutely no different than the historical bigotry many white people have felt and demonstrated against black people, or other ethnic groups. Ever heard of the Three-Fifths Compromise? It said that black people…
Theodore Roethke was from Saginaw, Michigan
I have never been a huge fan of the poet Theodore Roethke, but I learned today that he grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. The Theodore Roethke Home Museum is located in Saginaw. According to the Museum's website, "The Roethke House was designated a National Literary Landmark in 2004 in recognition of the profound impact Roethke had on American poetry and the…
Guns in America
I agree with people who believe that law-abiding people should not have to exert extraordinary efforts to protect themselves from people who would harm them with guns. It is fairly obvious that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Part of this “people need to defend themselves” rhetoric comes from the NRA and its surrogates. And it’s…
Joy
Zadie Smith's piece from the current New York Review of Books: "It might be useful to distinguish between pleasure and joy. But maybe everybody does this very easily, all the time, and only I am confused. A lot of people seem to feel that joy is only the most intense version of pleasure, arrived at by the same road—you simply…
Reporting on Mitt Romney in October
According to reporting by The Nation, Mitt Romney and his wife benefited to the tune of millions of dollars through the auto industry bailout that he railed against. According to Forbes, there is so much that Romney has not shared about how he would like to see the $5 trillion tax cut he has proposed be paid for that it is…
Doing the Job
During his recent RNC speech, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said, “When someone can’t get the job done, you have to let him go,” and his audience cheered. The facts are these: When President Obama became president the economy was in the worst recession since the Great Depression, hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost, each month, for many…
Has Obama Made Unemployment Worse?
Republican Presidential nominee Romney and Vice Presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan have repeatedly said that President Obama inherited a bad economic and employment situation and that he “made it worse.” However, the facts demonstrate that this is simply not true, particularly in terms of employment. An excellent opinion article in the New York Times explains this.
Has Romney Been Criticized for Being Wealthy?
Mitt and Ann Romney have said they’ve been criticized for being wealthy and successful. They have both whined about this. The fact is that the criticisms they have received have not been based in their being wealthy. They have been criticized for other things, specifically, living frugally by choice, not necessity, avoiding taxes, and being unable to relate to people whose…
First Night of Republican Convention
Early evening, at the Republican convention August 28: Ohio Governor John Kasich on why we should vote for Romney: “He created thousands of jobs in Massachusetts.” When he was governor there, Massachusetts ranked 47 out of 50 states in job creation. This is something to be proud of? To me, this does not sound like a record I would promote or brag…
Chronicling Mitt Romney’s Mendacity
It really is astounding, the degree to which Romney has misled people. This article does a good job of laying out many of the ways in which Romney has sought to mislead.