Source: The Age of Blasphemy
The Skewed “Values” of The American Religious Reich
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Category Archives: Economics
‘Fertility gap’ Helps Explain Political Divide
Republican House members overwhelmingly come from districts that have high percentages of married people and lots of children. . .
Many Democrats represent areas that have many single people and relatively few children. Democratic districts that have large numbers of children tend to be predominantly Hispanic or, to a lesser extent, African-American.
This “fertility gap” is crucial to understanding the differences between liberals and conservatives, says Arthur Brooks, a professor of public administration at Syracuse University. These childbearing patterns shape divisions over issues such as welfare, education and child tax credits, he says.
Do Harsh Pot Laws Create a Dangerous Drinking Culture? Five Reasons to Get Stoned Instead of Drunk
Myths about marijuana convince people that alcohol is safer, but science shows pot is the healthier choice.
Alcohol kills approximately 70,000 people per year. Prescription pills, which have helped overdose become the leading cause of accidental death in America, result in more than 20,000 deaths per year. Marijuana has never killed anybody.
1. Marijuana is not a gateway drug.
[T]he truth is that marijuana is not a gateway drug, and the vast majority of people who smoke pot will never move onto harder drugs.2. Pot smoke is relatively benign and does not cause lung cancer.
Researchers studied the effects of marijuana smoke on lung function, and found that smoking pot does not cause the same irreversible breathing problems as cigarettes.
3. Pot does not cause schizophrenia.These mental health issues are generally as baseless and misleading as past prohibitionist claims . . . the rates of schizophrenia in society have not increased as marijuana use has become widespread.
4. Driving high is not very dangerous.
A study by the Institute for the Study of Labor, a research center for science, politics, and business in Bonn, Germany, showed that in states where medical marijuana is legal, adults were smoking more marijuana and drinking less alcohol, and the result was a 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities.
5. Pot does not make you lazy.
The technical name for marijuana-induced laziness is “amotivational syndrome,” and research suggests it has a lot more to do with other factors than with pot. A study on marijuana use and amotivational syndrome shows circumstances unique to a person, or some underlying problem, are more to blame for amotivational syndrome than the drug itself.
6. You get this one for free.
More than 30,000 Americans die every year from the health effects of alcohol. The comparable number for marijuana is zero.
Monthly Change in Total Private Employment: January 2008 to December 2011
President Obama Vs. Bush On Job Growth: Three Long Years, One Simple Graph
Source: MoveOn.org
Sir Richard Branson: It’s Time to End The Failed War on Drugs
Just as prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States in the 1920s, the war on drugs has failed globally. Over the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all we have to show for it is increased drug use, overflowing jails, billions of pounds and dollars of taxpayers’ money wasted, and thriving crime syndicates. It is time for a new approach.
. . . Between 1998 and 2008, opiate use increased by more than 34 per cent, even as prison populations swelled and profits for drug traffickers soared.
Many political leaders and public figures acknowledge privately that repressive strategies have only made the drug problem worse. It took 14 years for America’s leaders to repeal Prohibition. After 50 years of the failed drug war, it is time for today’s leaders to find the courage to speak out.
Republican Racism is an Air Raid Siren, Not a Dog Whistle
To point: white conservative populists have disdain for non-whites, see them as lazy, outside of the polity, and as rightful targets for appeals based on symbolic racism. In the eyes of the Right, “those people” are not “real Americans.” They never can be. . .
. . . To defeat President Obama, the Republican Party is wallowing in white racism in order to win over racially and economically insecure white voters. However, Gingrich and company are doing this overtly. There is little subtlety. . .
Sadly, matters may be so dire that the white identity politics of years past are now “new school” rather than “old school.” To marshal that fear, insecurity, and anger one does not need nuance, sophistication, or dog whistles. White conservatives can put such feelings on blast and gin up the psychological wages of white fear, white anxiety, and white rage to try to defeat Barack Obama.
A Picture’s Meaning Can Express Ten Thousand Words
CORPORATE MEDIA: The Illusion of Choice
Bill Moyers: America Has Woken Up to the Reality: Inequality Matters
So no, Mitt Romney, when we say that Americans are waking up to the reality that inequality matters, we’re not guilty of “envy” or “class warfare,” as you claimed to Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today. Nor are we talking about everybody earning the same amount of money – that’s the straw man apologists for inequality raise whenever anyone tries to get serious.
We’re talking what it takes to live a decent life. If you get sick without health coverage, inequality matters. If you’re the only breadwinner and out of work, inequality matters. If your local public library closes down and you can’t afford books on your own, inequality matters. If budget cuts mean your child has to pay to play on the school basketball team, sing in the chorus or march in the band, inequality matters. If you lose your job as you’re about to retire, inequality matters. If the financial system collapses and knocks the props from beneath your pension, inequality matters.
Neither one of us grew up wealthy, but we went to good public schools, played sandlot ball at a good public park, lived near a good public library, and drove down good public highways – all made possible by people we never met and would never know. There was an unwritten bargain among generations: we didn’t all get the same deal, but we did get civilization.
Always Question Authority 