Author: Marc Jampole

If anyone deserves the death penalty, it’s Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving brother of the Chechen-American pair who planted the bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Three dead. Hundreds injured, some with limbs ripped out by shrapnel.  A shoot-out which produced another death and injury. Possible plans to inflict more damage on the […]

Read More… from Are we going to reduce ourselves to the level of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by executing him?

The Wall Street Journal is always quick to ignore the wrongs to the many to protect the rights of the few—in this case the few being Internet merchants located in New Hampshire, a state without sales tax, who would have to collect sales tax on items sold to people living in other states, while those […]

Read More… from Let’s level the playing field by imposing sales tax on Internet merchants

Progressives, liberals and maybe even a lot of centrists are shivering at the news that Charles and David Koch may buy part of the Tribune Company, including the largest newspapers in the second and third largest cities in America. The Kochs, of course, are the right-wing financiers of the Tea Party and of a number […]

Read More… from Koch brothers buying Tribune Company would be newspaper business as usual

I have nothing to add to the millions of people who have expressed dismay and shock that the Senate could not pass a bill to increase background checks on gun buyers. As all the media except for maybe Fox News have reported, around 90% of all Americans supported increasing background checks. Yet the Senate couldn’t […]

Read More… from Gun vote shows how money has corrupted our political system

One of the many controversies roiling education at the moment is the argument over grading essays with software programs. A nonprofit organization that is a joint venture between Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently began making automated essay-grading software free to any educational institution that wants to use it. Some think it’s a great […]

Read More… from Only software that can write an essay should be allowed to grade them

In a co-op apartment, each tenant owns his or her own unit and has shares in a corporation that owns the apartment. Joining together collectively as a mini-government or a semi-socialist enterprise, the corporation (or a management company it hires) employs a superintendent and a number of doormen and porters. These people are kept busy—they […]

Read More… from A proposal to make solar-powered electricity more feasible

OpEdge logs a lot of keystrokes analyzing logical mistakes that appear to be made to advance a cause or an idea:  Surveys which use criteria that ensure the conclusions will support the beliefs of the survey takers. Articles that give facts but then end with a false conclusion. Mislabeling to make an ideological point, e.g., […]

Read More… from Professional white males of ’50s & ’60s may not have been “Mad Men,” but did better than most

Lately it appears that the New York Times Book Review is trading in stereotypes that support the basic ideological assumptions of American life. Or maybe, I’m just starting to notice it. About two months ago, OpEdge analyzed a book review that used the not-really-a-super-genius biographical subject of the book under critique as proof that super […]

Read More… from NYT Book Review prints another false stereotype that supports an ideological assumption

Gay marriage should be a no-brainer. We live in a secular society in which people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs interact in the public realm according to rules that apply to all and then go home and do as they please. Our laws constrain behavior that can hurt others, such as killing people, taking what […]

Read More… from Right-wingers turn gay marriage into sideshow keeping public from real problems

A new Mississippi law requires public schools to develop policies to allow students to pray over school intercoms and at assemblies and sporting events. The law permits students to pray publicly with a disclaimer from school administration. I imagine the disclaimer will be read at super warp speed as at the end of commercials for […]

Read More… from Could putting religion in public schools to quell violence be like pouring gas on a fire?