I’m not sure exactly how Saudi Arabia defines terrorism, but apparently two women have been charged with it. For driving. Driving through a security checkpoint? Driving a bomb into a hospital? Nope. Just driving. Because it’s illegal in Saudi Arabia for women to drive. Why it’s illegal in the Muslim country is unclear. But it’s […]
Continue reading →Oh, man. Sometimes the GOP just can’t catch a break. Apparently, the House majority whip, Republican Steve Scalise from Louisiana, spoke at a white nationalist convention in 2002: Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the newly elected House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white nationalist leaders while serving as a […]
Continue reading →“But old clothes are beastly,” continued the untiring whisper. “We always throw away old clothes. Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending, ending is better …” Children in Brave New World were hypno-trained with messages of endless consumption and appetite for new things. Because without constant and regular consumption, the over-production of […]
Continue reading →Well, the data is in, and it is clear yet again: the really rich donors leaned Democrat this midterm election. With all the propaganda pouring out of the mills about Republican Super PACs, and Citizens United, and the Koch brothers, and GOP cronyism, and blah blah blah, you would think that the only supporters of […]
Continue reading →It’s a simple question. Should an arrest by police carry a heavier punishment than a conviction would? If a person is being arrested for jaywalking, should the arresting officers be allowed to use lethal force when a conviction for the alleged crime would result in nothing more than a fine? I think the obvious answer […]
Continue reading →Exactly 100 years ago today, troops fighting on both sides of the Great War laid aside their arms for a day in what became known as the Christmas Truce of 1914, a spontaneous outpouring of Christmas spirit in the trenches. The Christmas Truce of 1914 played out differently in various places along the trenches, but […]
Continue reading →A new study (that recapitulates a 2004 study of the same kind) indicates again that religious people, especially those who regularly attend religious services, are twice as likely to consider themselves “very happy” as those who do not: The correlation between religiosity and happiness is clear, but explanations of the connection and possible causal relationship […]
Continue reading →A controversial gun control PSA depicts a glum-faced child stealing his parents’ hand-gun, taking it to school, and slamming it down on his teacher’s desk crying, “Can you take this away? I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house!” As you might expect, this gun control PSA has not been lightly received on […]
Continue reading →In another exercise in self-fulfilling prophecies, economists told the US economy that it was in full recovery, and the news jolted the stock market into another temporary jump: The US economy grew at a sizzling 5 percent annual rate last quarter, the fastest since 2003, fueled by consumer and business spending. The surge confirmed that […]
Continue reading →It’s kind of a strange day when a comedy vehicle piloted by the stars of stoner movie Pineapple Express is at the center of an international cyber-terror debacle highlighting the strange intersection of government coercion, freedom and national security, the refreezing Cold War, and the politicized entertainment industry. What a weird world we live in. […]
Continue reading →