Author: Marc Jampole

Call me counter-intuitive, but I always figured that divorce rates were higher in communities and states in which the Christian right dominated.  For one thing, fundamentalism predominates in rural and exurban areas, where there are really only three things to do most of the time and two of them lead to sex, while one is […]

Read More… from New study shows that right-wing Christian values lead to higher rates of divorce

Marijuana, lauded, rued and feared as an appetite stimulant, is causing the news media to get a major case of the munchies.  A pot-crazed mass media is chowing down on the devil weed as if it were a bottomless bowl of Toll House chocolate chip cookies. A media feeding frenzy occurs when a story becomes […]

Read More… from Mass media gets high on stories about marijuana

As New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff details in “To See or Not to See? A Season for High Art,” New York City theaters—Broadway and off—are currently offering an unusually large number of productions of what many call “serious” drama, which means plays that tackle serious subjects in nonconventional or experimental styles or belong […]

Read More… from NY Times reviewer feels he has to remind us that anyone who watches serious theater is a snob

If you read one article this month—change that to this year—make it Jeffrey D. Sachs’ “Our Dangerous Budget and What to Do About It” in the New York Review of Books. Sachs, Director of Columbia University’s The Earth Institute, takes a look at the federal budget and tax revenues as percentages of the Gross Domestic […]

Read More… from NY Review author details extent of government financing crisis & a centrist way out

When it comes to education, it seems as if the right is more interested in ideological posturing than in actually helping to give children the knowledge and skills they need to live in the modern world, have rewarding careers and achieve their version of ‘’life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” as Thomas Jefferson so […]

Read More… from Right-wing persists in pushing charter schools and cuts to education budgets

A Wall Street Journal article is reimagining university finances as a wealth transfer program that steals from the rich and middle class to give to the poor. In doing so, writer Douglas Belkin attempts to reframe the current class war in the United States. Belkin’s argument starts with the fact that government has withdrawn massive […]

Read More… from Wall Street Journal diverts class warfare with false claim that middle class pays for poor to attend college

We should give New Jersey Governor Chris Christie the benefit of the doubt and assume that he told the absolute truth.  He did not know members of his staff ordered the closing of a lane leading onto to the George Washington Bridge as political retribution.  When he asked about the lane closing, two members of […]

Read More… from Christie forgets to apologize for creating atmosphere in which staff would consider political tricks

I’m about to perform a feat of rhetorical daring and originality: I’m going to proffer a written opinion about the legalization of marijuana without sharing my experiences or lack of experiences with the drug. It seems as if virtually every pundit has to share his or her smoking history when offering an opinion or a […]

Read More… from Is reason conservatives don’t want legalized pot because as an illegal industry, it’s an unregulated free market?

Today the news media culminates a week of looking backwards at the past 365 days, 52 weeks and 12 months. I write all three to suggest that time is an arbitrary measure. To be sure, the year, month and day are based on the natural movements of the earth, sun and moon. But it is […]

Read More… from Fifty years from now, what will we remember about 2013?

It’s one thing to support Phil Robertson’s constitutional right to free speech. It’s quite another thing to proclaim you “Stand with Phil,” which about 200,000 people have done in signing an electronic petition available at the Faith Driven Consumer website. What saying that you stand with Phil means is that you agree with his frequently-expressed […]

Read More… from Supporting free speech is one thing, but “standing with Phil” signals homophobia, sexism & racism