While I agree with Robert Jensen that we have to look at white people, if there’s a race problem, I put the word “problem” in quotes because the people who want to live in a stratified society don’t consider it a problem that there’s inequality and some people are valued less. That’s the way they like it. Indeed, as some of the comments on the Youtube site suggest, they reject equality–not just as a good thing, but that it should even exist. They don’t want to be equal. (more…)
During the nineteen eighties, at the height of urban redevelopment (at least in the South–the North had it’s boom earlier), I eventually got clued into the fact that the enthusiasm for cost/benefit analysis, which was supposed to make it possible to separate “good” projects from “losers” ahead of time, was not as objectively motivated as it seemed. Because, while one might assume from the pairing, which had been transitioned from traditonal business accounting practices and was part of the program to “make government more like a business,” that the entity bearing the costs and enjoying the benefits would be the same, closer analysis of the projections revealed that was not the case. Urban redevelopment routinely relied on long-time residents and owners of marginal property bearing the cost (in time, energy and disruption) of relocating so the development community could enjoy the benefit of acquiring real estate on the cheap and, if they were really lucky, pocket a subsidy to boot. (more…)
That’s the conclusion reached by a diarist on KOS in response to the Jon Stewart effort to repudiate government sanctioned torture because “we’re better than that.”
We keep talking about a citizen’s rights, but many people rightly understand that there are obligations (to serve on juries, pay taxes, approve bond issues) that they’d rather not assume. Ditto for some of the people who oppose marriage (the 59% of our adult population who aren’t married). They reject the obligations of being tied to someone else and, very possibly, resent gay enthusiasm for such an arrangement as an effort to rub their noses in their own preference–i.e. selfishness. (more…)
What is it with Republicans and Argentina? First there was George Herbert Walker Bush and his “don’t cry for me, Argentina” in January of 1992, a year before he was replaced by William Jefferson Clinton, and now they’ve got Mark Sanford, who recently spent FIVE days crying in Argentina. It would make sense, if we could blame it on retread script-writers from Hollywood.
Wallywood on the Potomac! But, South Carolina isn’t even close.
Some recent commentary on public health has referred to health care as a right. And, perhaps that’s what prompted Justice Clarence Thomas to come out of his shell and question the very concept of “rights.” Presumably, he’s sensitive because some people seem to expect that, as an African American, he’d be more focused on rights and the failure to respect them than he is. (more…)
Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa has stated bluntly that he’s opposed to a public option health insurance program and bi-partisanship means it won’t even be considered as a legislative item. This should not come as a surprise. It’s long been apparent that Republicans are allergic to public anything. They oppose public education, public hearings, public records, public transit, public water fountains, and, of course, they despise the expectation that politicians should be public servants. They can’t even say the words “public officials” and call them bureaucrats instead. (more…)
