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| Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Therefore, those who are powerless should always carry with them a healthy dose of suspicion towards the powerful.
The first saying seems to be true enough that people across the political board seem to accept it as a matter of principle, but the second saying -- which is merely a logical extension of the first -- seems to have a much more difficult time getting traction in the minds of various people.
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| Paul Krugman:
Europeans don't lose their health care when they lose their jobs. They don't find themselves with essentially no support once their trivial unemployment check has fallen off. We have nothing underneath. When Americans lose their jobs, they fall into the abyss. That does not happen in other advanced countries, it does not happen, I want to say, in civilized countries.
There is indeed something completely fucked up about a situation where the following scenario can very easily occur: one gets sick, and therefore can't perform his or her job, and therefore loses the job, and thereby loses health insurance. In essence, this person lost coverage because he got sick. You really want to say that something so absurdly damaging to a country's well being cannot be brought about unless some truly powerful and insidious forces gathered together behind the scenes to somehow make the crazy seem normal.
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| Why you can't blame Korean mothers for obsessively worrying about their kids falling behindSecond, we have evidence from the natural experiment that is summer vacation. During those three months out of school, the cognitive skills of children in lower socioeconomic status (SES) households tend to stall or actually regress. Kids in high-SES households fare much better during the summer, as they’re more likely to spend it engaged in stimulating activities. In his book Intelligence and How to Get It, cognitive psychologist Richard Nisbett concludes that “much, if not most, of the gap in academic achievement between lower- and higher-SES children, in fact, is due to the greater summer slump for lower-SES children” (p. 40).-- Lane Kenworthy | | |
| America, the land of incredible opportunityEugene Kang
Age: 25 [TWENTY FIVE!! -- my emphasis]
Special Assistant to the President Why he's influential: Because he's at the President's side. Maybe you've wondered what it might be like to play a round of golf with the President of the United States. This guy's actually done it. But he's not just Barack's golf buddy. As a political adviser and Special Assistant to the President, Eugene Kang has a unique place in the Obama administration, and a bright future ahead of him. In 2005, as a student at the University of Michigan, Kang ran for the Ann Arbor City Council... and lost. Narrowly, by just 90 votes. After college, he landed a job in Chicago working in the political affairs shop of the early Obama campaign. On the campaign trail, he drummed up support for Obama among Asian Americans, traveled with the Senator, and even carried the future President's cell phone. Today, if you want to talk to the President on the phone, Eugene Kang is the guy who gets it done. He sets up phone calls to everyone from high-powered politicians to grassroots activists. He's also Obama's "special projects coordinator," meets with the office of political affairs, and takes it upon himself to make sure the President is informed of what's going on in "the real world." I'd call that pretty influential. --AngryAsianMan.com | | |
| Abortion not a centrally important issue between GOP and DemocratsAt least according to below polling results from 2003...
| Group | Generally available | Available, but with stricter limits than now | Not permitted |
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| Overall | 39% | 38% | 22% | | Women | 37% | 37% | 24% | | Men | 40% | 40% | 20% | | Democrats | 43% | 35% | 21% | | Republicans | 29% | 41% | 28% |
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