Thursday, August 8th, 2013
SARAH STILLMAN, - The New Yorker
Stephan: Here is some more on the rise of the American police state, and the corruption of our judicial system. I find all of this deeply unAmerican.
On a bright Thursday afternoon in 2007, Jennifer Boatright, a waitress at a Houston bar-and-grill, drove with her two young sons and her boyfriend, Ron Henderson, on U.S. 59 toward Linden, Henderson’s home town, near the Texas-Louisiana border. They made the trip every April, at the first signs of spring, to walk the local wildflower trails and spend time with Henderson’s father. This year, they’d decided to buy a used car in Linden, which had plenty for sale, and so they bundled their cash savings in their car’s center console. Just after dusk, they passed a sign that read ‘Welcome to Tenaha: A little town with BIG Potential!
No Comments
Thursday, August 8th, 2013
NATASHA LENNARD, Assistant News Editor - Salon
Stephan: What kind of democracy operates in this way? No other country in the world has this kind of arrest rate, nor anything approaching our incarceration rate. We have five per cent of the world's population and 25 per cent of the world's prisoners.
Most of this arises from our insane War of Drugs. We are destroying our country and don't seem to even realize it, or to care.
According to new statistics released by the FBI, one in 25 Americans was arrested in 2011 (the most recent year for which there are complete statistics). It’s a startling figure, especially considering the fact that most of those arrests can be attributed to America’s ongoing and ill-thought ‘War on Drugs,
No Comments
Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
Stephan: This is serious good news. This is why I love data, and dislike fact free polemics. Here we have a real basis upon which to compare the health differences between selfish hedonic happiness, and compassionate life-affirming greater good happiness. The answer is clear, as this report on a just published study explains.
THE Greek founders of philosophy constantly debated how best to live the good life. Some contended that personal pleasure is the key. Others pointed out that serving society and finding purpose is vital. Socrates was in the latter camp, fiercely arguing that an unvirtuous person could not be happy, and that a virtuous person could not fail to be happy. These days, psychologists tend to regard that point as moot, since self-serving ‘hedonic
No Comments
Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
MIKE O'BRIEN, Senior Journalist and Editor - Institute for Defense and Government Advancement
Stephan: This assessment, I think, is correct. This will be the enduring judgment about the Afghan War. History will see the war as a grave mistake by a great state.
Sixty-seven percent of Americans believe the war in Afghanistan is a complete waste of time, according to a new poll.
A mere 28 percent of Americans say the prolonged battle, which has claimed 2,248 American lives and left more than 19,000 wounded, has been worth fighting – the lowest figure on record.
The Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that overall support for US military operations in Afghanistan has slumped by 11 percentage points since March.
Since then tensions between the two countries have grown considerably, amid an increasingly hostile Afghan president Hamid Karzai and a resurgence in Taliban attacks.
According to the survey, the drop in support for the war crosses all demographic, party and racial lines.
Only 43 percent of Americans believe the Afghan war has contributed to long-term US security, which is the first time that figure has fallen below 50 percent in the past four years.
The poll was conducted July 18 to 21 among a random national sample of 1,002 adults.
When the war began in early 2002, support for it was at more than 90 percent. By early 2007, that figure had dropped to 56 percent.
At that time, then-President George W. Bush announced the deployment of an extra 3,200 troops, swelling […]
No Comments
Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
HELAINE OLEN, Associate Editor at Literary Mama - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: Recently I have had several readers write me to tell me that they have been trying to retire but that the 401(k) path they followed has proven to be a disaster. I never believed 401(k)s were what they were represented to be, and did not go that route so I have no direct experience. To teach myself I went looking, and came away with the conclusion that, like all privatization schemes advanced by corporate interests -- prisons, schools -- this scheme is a sham. A construct sold by media and government to enrich financial interests through fees that suck money out of the middle class. Yesterday I found this report which, I think, hits all the major tropes correctly. One can only wonder what might have been if social security had been strengthened. Far cheaper to be sure.
For retirement, the answer is 4-0-1-k,
No Comments
