'Current Affairs' Archive
American Xenophobia is Nothing New
Guest post by John Hickman:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is rarely subtle but there was an important subtext to ...
Danish Poet in Praise of Westergaard
The Old Man And The Cartoon
by J.P. Christiansen
Once upon a time,
in a country small, up north,
near close to sea and ...
The Big Bad Airport Bogeyman Wants To See You Naked!
If there was any doubt about the abject inadequacy of the conservative psyche to face modern life, the airport scanner ...
Why Gay Marriage Is Such A Big Fucking Deal
In the grand scheme of American politics, the gay marriage issue seems like it should really be a footnote. It ...
Eastern Europe As Wacky As US Archcons
It's almost as if some people wish the Cold War had never ended. There was something attractive about the ...
Democracy Doesn’t Work In Impoverished Nations
America's got to end its deadly devotion to democracy
via Christian Science Monitor
Democracy is a messy business, even in wealthy countries. One look at the Tea Party demonstrations proves ...
Are They Really Trying To Ban Divorce?
Apparently emboldened by the success of Prop. 8, it seems California religious nutters are now gathering signatures to put an initiative to ban divorce on the ballot in 2010. I still can't ...
America’s Shame: Hatred of Illegal Immigrants
"You lie!" shouted Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) at President Obama, in what Bill Maher compared to an episode of Tourette ...
Sean Prophet - 26 Big Ideas
A few weeks back a friend of mine on Facebook asked me to fill out a questionnaire of "50 things ...
Anarchy: The Civil Discussion, Part 2
More on Human Nature, and the Free-Rider Problem
"Why are people such assholes?" Someone asked me the other day.
I replied, "Because ...
Anarchy: The Civil Discussion, Part 1
It's really nice to be able to discuss disagreements about political philosophy without being called a liar, lunatic, thief ...
Limbaugh Can Dish It Out…
The right is in a holy froth because President Obama laughed at a joke by Wanda Sykes saying she hoped Rush Limbaugh's kidneys would fail. Drudge immediately picked up the ...
‘In-Your-Face’ Tactics Working Exactly As Planned
The New York Times (!) just ran an article called More Atheists Shout It From The Rooftops. The Los Angeles ...
Dark Greens and the ‘Consumerism’ Canard
A survey out last week from the Pew Research Center shows declining perceptions of necessity for a variety of household ...
So, How Thirsty Are You?
R Donaldson - February 2009
Water, Water
It is most of what our bodies are made of, in some way included in ...
Only the Pyromaniacs Oppose Sustainability
Climate-induced drought. Deadly heat waves. Overfishing. 400,000 annual premature deaths from coal-soot in China (US ...
Hail To The Chief
On the cusp of this amazing moment in world history, I'm compelled to reflect on what has led us to this ...
The Answer, My Friend, Is Blowin’ in the Wind
Turns out Bob Dylan was right after all. A new study by Stanford professor Mark Z. Jacobson (via Stanford News Service) ...
Prop. 8 Protest - A Beautiful Sight
I love the energy at this anti-Prop. 8 protest in San Diego. This bad law is SO getting tossed. You can't write discrimination into the state constitution without a supermajority ...
A New Dawn
After living through the last eight wasted years in America--writing in outrage for seven of them--it's hard to overstate the elation I share with ...
Bias on bias
One-two punch for an election-eve finish. A veteran journalist has decided it's time for him to weigh in on media bias. It seemed the 2008 election had become enough of ...
What about Joe the Plumber?
Since we've been talking about Joe the Plumber in the comments today, here's some background on Joe Wurzelbacher and how he got into John McCain's debate script. Joe Wurzelbacher was ...
Be A Catalyst
Learning to be a great leader is the last area where anyone is a novice all over again. And unlike most training programs, ...
Ashamed To Share A Country…
"Socialism, Communism, go to Russia!" shouts the woman wearing a cross. "He should die," "Socialist Swine," "Terrorist." These are not the epithets of a ...
Red Lenses
What makes you angry? Seriously. What does it take to get you riled up these days? Yes, I'm talking to you. Does the ...