Thursday, August 22nd, 2013
Stephan: Each year I look at this wonderful list by Beloit College, a small very creative liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. It gives one a sense of proportion to read it. Many things someone my age takes for granted, cultural memory, is as much history as the Civil War to those born since 1995, this year's incoming Freshman class. It is very sobering.
When the Class of 2017 arrives on campus this fall, these digital natives will already be well-connected to each other. They are more likely to have borrowed money for college than their Boomer parents were, and while their parents foresee four years of school, the students are pretty sure it will be longer than that. Members of this year’s first year class, most of them born in 1995, will search for the academic majors reported to lead to good-paying jobs, and most of them will take a few courses taught at a distant university by a professor they will never meet.
The use of smart phones in class may indicate they are reading the assignment they should have read last night, or they may be recording every minute of their college experience
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Thursday, August 22nd, 2013
Frank Newport, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: This is good economic news showing a positive change in the zeitgeist.
Click through to see the useful charts.
PRINCETON, NJ — U.S. small-business owners are more optimistic now than at any time since late 2008. The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index improved to +25 in July, from +16 in the second quarter. The latest result, while not as high as pre-recession levels, is the highest index score since the third quarter of 2008.
Prior to the recession and financial crisis of 2008-2009, Small Business Index scores were generally in the triple digits. The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index was initiated in August 2003, reached its peak at 114 in December 2006, and hit its low point of -28 in July 2010.
The latest results are based on a national random sample of 603 small-business owners having $20 million or less of sales or revenues, conducted July 22-26.
Owners’ Higher Optimism Due More to Future Outlook
The increase in the overall index score comes more from owners’ improving future outlook than from their views of present conditions.
Small-business owners’ ratings of their current operating environment are mostly flat compared with April. The Present Situation Dimension of the index was +4 in July, essentially the same as the +2 in the previous quarter. But, this is only the second time the Present Situation Dimension has […]
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Wednesday, August 21st, 2013
ROBIN WILKEY, - The Huffington Post
Stephan: When your government lies to you over and over, as is the case in the U.S. today, the result is a loss of faith in the institutions of the state. I saw this happening in the old Soviet Union. People openly talked about how nothing the government said could be trusted. At the time it struck me as a very dangerous trend. Now it is happening here. This statement by the National Institute on Drug Abuse is an example. It is deceitful and dishonest in intent, and in fact, and the Obama Administration should be ashamed of itself. The lying that is coming out of the administration on in everything from national security to Marijuana is a disgrace. Click through to see some a very good compendium of actual facts.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse released an eyebrow-raising statement to PolitiFact on Monday, denying that marijuana is less toxic than alcohol.
‘Claiming that marijuana is less toxic than alcohol cannot be substantiated since each possess their own unique set of risks and consequences for a given individual,’ wrote the institute. NIDA, part of the National Institutes of Health, funds government-backed scientific research and has a stated mission ‘to lead the nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction.’
The statement was in response to a declaration by the pro-pot policy group Marijuana Policy Project that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol — a claim that was the centerpiece of a controversial pro-marijuana commercial aired during a NASCAR race last month.
PolitiFact took the claim to task, comparing marijuana-related deaths to alcohol-related deaths and toxicity levels of the two substances.
As noted by PolitiFact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics reported 41,682 alcohol-related deaths in 2010. The center had no reports listing marijuana as a cause of death.
PolitiFact also noted a study by Robert Gable, an emeritus professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University, that measured the toxicity levels of substances ranging […]
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Wednesday, August 21st, 2013
CLIFF DURAND, Research Associate, Center for Global Justice and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Morgan State - Truthout
Stephan: This is a very serious issue that is getting almost no coverage in corporate media. Given its implications this is quite revealing of the state of American media. I have been digging into this for the past couple of weeks, and I am still unclear whether articles like this are alarmist, or an accurate representation of what is going on. But one thing is clear, this is a major issue and appears to be a critical step in the rise of the Non-geographical corporate states' acquisition of power.
A world without democracy, ruled by a technocratic elite serving the interests of US and global capital – protecting ‘investor rights’ against national laws and regulations – is now being created in secret negotiations over free-trade treaties, one of which, the TransPacific Parnership (TPP), may be sewn up this fall. Can popular will stop it?
For four decades now, we have seen corporate-led neoliberal globalization transforming nation-states into globalized states that serve the interests of transnational capital above the interests of national populations. This tendency has been strong in states both of the global North and of the global South. Everywhere sovereignty is being compromised. The ideal political system most suitable for such globalized states is polyarchy, since it legitimates relatively autonomous elite rule. However, even in such a managed ‘democracy,’ there are moments when elites can be made accountable to national populations through the struggles of social movements. Occupy Wall Street was the beginning of such a social movement.
As philosopher Milton Fisk has argued in The State and Justice: An Essay in Political Theory, in the class-divided societies of capitalist countries, the function of the state is to maintain the social order. This means the political elite promotes the interests […]
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Wednesday, August 21st, 2013
GEORGE CHIDI, - The Raw Story
Stephan: One of the more interesting trends going on right now as the decision by the Millenials to abandon Christianity. I think this is happening because the Theocratic Right lives in a realm of fantasy that Millenials can see is utterly bogus -- 6,000 year old Earth, inerrant Bible, Creationism, and Climate Denierism. This generation can see the fruits of this worldview, and the implications of this apostasy of the young is going to have significant political implications.
Click through to see the video of this revealing conversation.
Dueling young columnists discussed the rise of atheism among millenials Sunday morning on CNN.
Rachel Evans, an evangelical blogger, attributed the number of millenials abandoning the church to a loss of connection to the traditional religious values of service and spiritual connection, and not superficial questions of style. ‘I think there’s this assumption among a lot of Christian leaders that, you know, if we bring in some hipper worship bands and a coffee shop in the fellowship hall and maybe a pastor who wears skinny jeans young adults will come flocking back to the church,
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