Over the past three weeks, I have found the same eight-page slick mostly black-and-white advertising brochure for American Airlines inserted in one or other of my daily newspapers—The New York Times and Wall Street Journal—at least six times. This extended advertisement for American’s rebranded first class international service demonstrates how the image of the upscale […]
Whenever the news media begins to stir about Jeb Bush running for president, a pundit or two does some verbal hand-wringing about the ruinous state of our democracy if the wife of one former president ran against the brother/son of two other presidents. There are certainly many reasons to fret often about the weakening of […]
Read More… from U.S. history is studded with presidential dynasties from day one
No one likes to play pension politics more than the Republicans. For example, over the past few years, Republican politicians and their fellow travelers have accused public workers of receiving overly generous pensions as a means to drive a wedge between them and the rest of the middle class. Rather than cause the banks that […]
Read More… from Christie shows once again that Republican Party is no friend to the working class
Everyone has the right to exercise free speech, except when they are serving as a representative of an organization. As an organizational representative, what you say should hew to the standards and beliefs of the organization. It’s amazing how many times public language controversies hinge on whether the individual who made the statement was representing […]
Read More… from NH town should fire police commissioner who called the President the N-word
Across the country, colleges are holding graduation ceremonies for hundreds of thousands of graduates. But what used to be called the graduation season is rapidly gaining a new name: commencement speaker cancellation season. This year in particular there seems to be a large number of high profile commencement speakers who have backed out or have […]
Read More… from Colleges across the country show that two wrongs don’t make it right
As in 2012, I thought I would analyze Mother’s Day this year through the lens of the Sunday comics. And what a difference two years makes! For one thing, two years ago I looked at all 20 comics printed in the Sunday edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. This year I looked at a semi-random 30 […]
Read More… from If comic strips are an indication, breakfast in bed is out for moms on Mother’s Day
The American news media may finally be starting to cover a trend that they helped to create—the infantilization of American adults. The infantilized adult continues the pursuits, hobbies, predilections, opinions and thought processes of youth instead of growing into mature, adult pursuits and activities. Reading Harry Potter and comic books, playing with Legos or My […]
U.S. News & World Report is fronting another article that purports to tell us how rich people think. As with other articles of this ilk, “7 Things Rich People Believe” reduces to a series of ideological beliefs presented as facts. In the article, the writer doesn’t even attempt to justify his assertions about the minds […]
Note: I’m giving over today’s blog to distinguished anti-death penalty attorney, Marshall Dayan. Here’s what Marshall has to say about the rule of law in contemporary America: Americans are rightfully proud of our historical leadership when it comes to support of the rule of law: this idea that the law prevails and that our independent […]
Read More… from Is the U.S. giving up its support of the rule of law?
I’m still flabbergasted at the naiveté—or perhaps lack of experience in the world—displayed by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in his majority opinion upholding the right of upstate New York government officials to say Christian prayers before town meetings. Kennedy writes that the case comes down to whether people are offended by the prayers. His […]