Paul Robin Krugman, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate (born February 28, 1953)
American Economist, Professor of Economics,and New York Times Op-Ed Columnist
Politicians who always cater to wealthy business interests say that economic recovery requires catering to wealthy business interests. Who could have imagined it?
Aided by the plummeting dollar, the wage gap between American workers and their brutally exploited counter-parts in Mexico and Asia is increasingly being narrowed . . .
It is necessary to understand that this is a battle not simply against this or that employer but the entire capitalist system, which is impoverishing the majority of the world’s population in order to enrich the wealthy few. In every country, the political parties and trade unions defend the profit system and are complicit in the looting of society by the corporate and financial aristocracy . . .
In the US, the Obama administration has demonstrated that the Democratic Party, no less than the Republican, is a tool of Wall Street and the corporations, determined to gut living standards and slash vitally necessary social programs.
Capitalism must be replaced with a planned and rational system based on social need, not the profits of billionaires. Only then can the right to a job and a decent wage be secured for all people. Read more . . .
Clinton Richard Dawkins, Ph.D., (born 26 March 1941)
Ethologist, Evolutionary Biologist, Author, and Outspoken Atheist
The difference between 6,000 years and 4.6 billion years it’s equivalent to believing the distance from New York to San Francisco is 7.8 yards. That’s the scale of the disagreement.
Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups in a 32-question survey of religious knowledge by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. On average, Americans got 16 of the 32 questions correct. Atheists and agnostics got an average of 20.9 correct answers. Jews (20.5) and Mormons (20.3). Protestants got 16 correct answers on average, while Catholics got 14.7 questions right.
How will you do on the quiz? Take the quiz here . . .
This man is an idiot!
Our system is broken at every level. More than 25 million Americans are unemployed. More than 50 million live without health insurance. Perhaps 100 million Americans are mired in poverty, using realistic measures. Yet the fat cats continue to get tax breaks and reap billions while politicians compete to turn the austerity screws on all of us . . .
At Liberty Park, the nerve center of the occupation, more than 500 people gather every day to debate, discuss and organize what to do about our failed system that has allowed the 400 richest Americans at the top to amass more wealth than the 180 million Americans at the bottom. Read more . . .
FFRF has received numerous complaints about bible distributions taking place on public school grounds and within school walls. Recent parent complaints about these bible pushers have come from all over the country . . .
FFRF’s legal team wrote superintendents to complain over all of these violations. In a letter from FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott to Rob Ring Jr., superintendent of Schools for Weld County RE-9, “It is unconstitutional for public school districts to allow the distribution of bibles on school grounds to a captive audience of students. Courts have held that the distribution of bibles to students at public schools is prohibited . . . “
“Courts have almost unanimously agreed that distribution of bibles in elementary schools is unconstitutional because young elementary school children are too impressionable to make the distinction between private religious speech and school-sponsored speech,” said Gaylor. “It is unconscionable,” she noted, “for predatory adults to target young children who are a captive audience in our public schools.”
I believe it to be equally, if not more, unconscionable for parents to target their children who are a captive audience in their own home as well [MSH]. Read more . . .
AU Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan and AU Senior Litigation Counsel Alex J. Luchenitser asserted that SYATP observances are constitutional only if they are student-initiated and -sponsored and take place outside school hours. Teachers and other school officials should not participate, and students should not be urged to attend . . .
While the specific flagpole prayers at public schools are generally student-led, the larger effort is carefully coordinated by fundamentalist Christian evangelists out to proselytize America’s youth. Read more . . .
Always Question Authority 