Although some might call this a new form of "reality television,"maybe it is actually a new way for people to relax. Not unlike watching a fire in a fireplace, perhaps? From the Wall Street Journal: "A Different Take on Reality TV: 18 Hours of Swimming Salmon"
Intelligence and Humanity
I like this quote on human intelligence and our humanity, from Adam Gopnik. “Yet human intelligence has another force, too: the sense of urgency that gives human smarts their drive. Perhaps our intelligence is not just ended by our mortality; to a great degree, it is our mortality.” ― Adam Gopnik
The Keystone XL Pipeline — “Great Idea!”
There are several hurdles that oil companies in Canada have to overcome in order to build pipelines from the source of tar sands oil in Alberta, Canada, to either Canada’s eastern or western coast, where it could be refined, sold and exported to Asia, Europe and elsewhere around the world. From a New York Times article, “Indigenous groups must be…
Gay People and Ugly Bigotry
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.