Author: Marc Jampole

For about 10 years, I have been embarrassed for my country because our leaders condoned and committed torture, and even dreamed up fanciful legal justifications. Perhaps the most odious of the legal arguments made by the Bush II administration for sticking someone’s head under water until near drowning and hanging them cold and naked by […]

Read More… from Killing a U.S. citizen without due process and torture – what’s the difference?

The Pollyannas and Panglosses among us like to look back at past instances of the automation of production or service-delivery as proof that the economy adjusts and people find newer, better-paying and more fulfilling jobs. A recent example is Catherine Rampell’s article in yesterday’s New York Times “Sunday Review” section titled “Raging (Again) Against the […]

Read More… from Without humanistic, redistributive approach, we have much to fear from current automation

A constant thread of anti-intellectualism runs through the mass media.  Mass media writers seem to embrace anti-intellectual assumptions: They pretend that simple math is hard.  They call good students “over-achievers” and “nerds” (a derogatory term now embraced by many who are academically inclined, just as many GLBT have embraced “queer”).    “Smart” characters such as the […]

Read More… from Another example of the mass media telling us that being smart is a bad thing

“We give up our rights one piece at a time,” a West Virginia banker named Charlie Houck stated to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin recently during a meeting the Senator was holding in Beckley, WV on gun control. Yes, we do, Mr. Houck. Let’s go over some of the many rights we have already given […]

Read More… from Those opposed to greater gun control don’t realize giving up rights is what civilization is all about

What do KPMG, Exxon-Mobil, Rolex, Barclay’s Bank and Calloway Golf have in common?  All of these corporations are paying tons of money to Phil Mickelson to say nice things about them.  Mickelson is a professional golfer who has won more money playing golf than all but one other person in the history of the game. […]

Read More… from Does golfer Phil Mickelson plan to seek Russian citizenship to avoid paying U.S. taxes?

Walmart is making a big deal about two moves it announced this week, for which it is demanding applause and gratitude.  You could call it the Walmart private sector economic stimulus plan. The trouble is, it’s nothing but smoke and mirrors. Walmart’s first contribution to the American economy is a pledge to buy an additional […]

Read More… from Walmart’s private sector economic stimulus package helps no one but Walmart

Coke’s two-minute commercial telling us what it’s doing to fight the epidemic of obesity sweeping across America must contain two hundred people—all happy, many engaged with a Coke product, and none of them obese, or even overweight. Okay, okay, maybe two of the hundreds of people in the ad could stand to lose a few […]

Read More… from Coke’s heavy-handed try to position itself as committed to good health ignores heavy people

The absurdly ironic impact of politics on the justice system shines brightly on the front page of today’s New York Times. First we learn that, of the 80,000 Americans who the Justice Department (DOJ) knows committed the federal crime of lying or providing inaccurate information on gun purchase background checks in 2010, only 44 were […]

Read More… from Justice Dept should spend more time prosecuting gun liars and no time prosecuting med. pot dispensaries

One sure sign someone has remained on stage too long is when they begins to embarrass themselves. Exhibit One this week is Jeff Greenfield, long-time political pundit who has worked for both ABC and CNN news and for the New York Times, Time and Slate.com.  In a cranky article titled “Why I never voted for […]

Read More… from Do you want to get your opinions from someone who won’t even vote?

In today’s New York Times, Adam Liptak details another case in which judges and prosecutors obstinately defend a wrong decision and thereby put a man’s life at stake. The headline of the article, “Lawyers Stumble, and Clients Take Fall” says it all:  A man on Alabama’s death row may fry because his attorney—addicted to meth […]

Read More… from Why do prosecutors and judges obstruct justice?