“I’m pretty sure that I said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, not “Love only those with a median household income range between $35,000 and $75,000″.

The Dickensian disdain for the poor resonates with some people today.

Fewer and fewer of the folks who contributed to the success of our economy actually benefited from that success. Those at the very top grew wealthier from their incomes and their investments — wealthier than ever before. But everybody else struggled with costs that were growing and paychecks that weren’t — and too many families found themselves racking up more and more debt just to keep up.

The long-term implications of shattered young lives, lost jobs, and lost opportunities for so many people cannot be measured. As we find out more details of the story, the circle of victims grows wider.

A quick look into an Irish Presidential debate which I attended on the 20 October.

What if as a massive group, the American People enforced a TARP deal in the reverse direction, from the banks to the people?

Stating that gay people were born with their orientation seems like the perfect counter to the conservative argument that being gay is a choice, but this life-affirming rebuttal opens the door to other attacks.

    For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium. ~Albert Camus   Why do [...]

In recent months, we have seen a drastic and alarming increase in the number of laws passed that would restrict a woman’s right to choose. After the elections of 2010 when the Republicans swept many state legislatures and governorships, it has been much easier to push through right-wing legislation with [...]

Last night’s execution of a man who many on the right and left believed was not proven to have committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, also killed confidence in a core principle in our American legal system.

    In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior. ~Francis Bacon Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without that law is both. [...]

At the recommendation of a fellow Southerner, I’m currently reading a book I should have read long ago - Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic. It’s one of the most honest representations of the Southern psyche I’ve yet to read, without any of the snark, insinuation, condescension and assumption many on [...]

When I was a junior in high school, in the middle of Richard Nixon’s first term, I took a course in civics. Back then, this was required of all high school students, usually taken in their junior or senior year. Our civics course was simply entitled “U S and Comparative [...]

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. – Auden St Francis of Assissi had, to be sure, an odd relationship with his body. As a strict ascetic, he considered it of utmost importance not to give in [...]

What happens when a homeless couple shows up at a homeless shelter? The policies and procedures will punish them for their audacity, and rightfully so.

Join me to check in on daily developments in the Arab Uprisings and add your own content.

You can also find me under the Twitter feed to the right for future navigation.

We are the United States of Shallow Americans. We obsess over the nuance in a phrase or a word and are distracted by the most inane things, thus allowing the sheisters and idealogues, whom we reckon good enough to govern us, free rein to rape and pillage our way of [...]

Dr. “Jack,” Kevorkian passed away on 6/3/11. Last Friday, to be exact He has been hailed as a champion by the right to die movement and vilified as a ghoulish serial killer by his detractors. Dr. Kevorkian was born to Armenian immigrant parents in Pontiac Michigan, in 1928. He was [...]

Now, six years later, he’s back and running again for the GOP nomination. It reveals a sad state of Republican affairs in the Commonwealth when Allen’s opponents for the Republican nod are a Tea Partier and a State politician who advocates Virginia minting its own currency and who manages to make Pat Buchanan look like a Progressive. In the world of the Republican blind, the one-eyed George Allen is king, at least in Virginia.

In one sentence, the strategic narrative of the United States in
the 21st century is that we want to become the strongest competitor and most influential
player in a deeply inter-connected global system, which requires that we invest less in
defense and more in sustainable prosperity and the tools of effective global engagement.

If corporations are people and corporations destroy other corporations, aren’t they guilty of murder?

I could not believe how many pick-up trucks in the school parking lot were sporting a Johnny Reb bumper tag that read, “Hell, no! We Ain’t Fergettin.’” It was here, in 1960’s Mississippi, that I learned the Civil War was not quite over.

We knew that if we wanted — if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.

Censorship? Surely there are few things more revealing of a reactionary mindset, some would hasten to assure me. Why, censorship can be identified with all the cruelest dictatorships, the most oppressive regimes, the most hardcore religious fundamentalists, etc. This is indeed true.

McCarthy pulls out a sheet of paper he claims has the names of 205 people working in the State Department who are all Communists. He tells the audience that these names have all been brought to the attention of the Secretary of State and he knowingly refuses to do anything to address Communist activity in our own State Department.