The Official Website of Robert Gordon Christian III

The Americans no one wants to talk about

2012-01-20T10:41:00.002-05:00

Michael Gerson: "But many Americans are being overlooked in this bipartisan conspiracy of economic abstraction. A significant and growing portion of the population lives in poverty. In 2007, the rate was 12.5 percent. By 2010, it was 15.1 percent. The share of Americans in extreme poverty — with an income less than half the poverty line — is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has kept such records."

More Selections From Ron Paul’s Newsletters

2012-01-17T21:53:00.000-05:00

TNR: "Ron Paul has recently suggested there was only a “total of about eight or ten sentences” of “bad stuff” in the newsletters that he regularly used to publish under his name. This assertion was patently false: As TNR has shown, the newsletters contained dozens of statements marked by bigotry and conspiratorial thinking. In light of Paul’s continuing evasions about the newsletters, and with hopes of clarifying the matter definitively, TNR is now making more of them available."

Pope says selfishness, individualism fed economic crisis

2012-01-17T01:44:00.003-05:00

CNS: "Pope Benedict told the civic leaders that among the causes of the financial crisis is "individualism, which obscures the relational dimension of the person and leads him to close himself off in his own little world, to be attentive mostly to his own needs and desires, worrying little about others."

Where Are the Liberals?

2012-01-10T01:22:00.002-05:00

David Brooks: "If Democrats can’t restore Americans’ trust in government, it really doesn’t matter what problems they identify and what plans they propose. No one will believe in the instrument they rely on for solutions."

A lot of good points in this article. I would say the most important change that is needed is electoral reform: redistricting reform, primary reform, and campaign finance reform. For people to trust the government, we need to start electing trustworthy representatives. We need institutional changes to make that more likely.

Santorum and the Lobotomization of Subsidiarity

2012-01-09T20:52:00.003-05:00

Vince Miller: "David Brooks and Michael Gerson find in Rick Santorum a hopeful departure from the current radical Republican presidential contenders who range from neoliberal to libertarian. They celebrate his embrace of subsidiarity as a more robust political philosophy than the rest of the field. I share much of their desire, but little of their optimistic read of the political thought of the former Pennsylvania Senator.

It is hard to believe that the former lead Senate liaison in the K Street Project is guided by a political philosophy significantly different than the Republican mainstream. Indeed, Santorum stands firmly with them. He supports both Paul Ryan’s budget and the Balanced Budget Amendment. He would cap Federal expenditures at 18% leaving a government little able to render subsidium when needed in times of crisis."

The liberty of local bullies

2012-01-05T14:21:00.005-05:00

Noah Smith: "Not surprisingly, this gigantic loophole has made modern American libertarianism the favorite philosophy of a vast array of local bullies, who want to keep the big bully (government) off their backs so they can bully to their hearts' content. The curtailment of government legitimacy, in the name of "liberty," allows abusive bosses to abuse workers, racists to curtail opportunities for minorities, polluters to pollute without cost, religious groups to make religious minorities feel excluded, etc. In theory, libertarianism is about the freedom of the individual, but in practice it is often about the freedom of local bullies to bully. It's a "don't tattle to the teacher" ideology.

Therefore I see no real conflict between Ron Paul's libertarianism and his support for the agenda of racists. It's just part and parcel of the whole movement. Not necessarily the movement as it was conceived, but the movement as it in fact exists."

Santorum Trying to Steal Racist Voters from Ron Paul?

2012-01-03T13:50:00.000-05:00

Santorum: "It just keeps expanding - I was in Indianola a few months ago and I was talking to someone who works in the department of public welfare here, and she told me that the state of Iowa is going to get fined if they don't sign up more people under the Medicaid program. They're just pushing harder and harder to get more and more of you dependent upon them so they can get your vote. That's what the bottom line is...

I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."

Ron Paul’s quest to undo the party of Lincoln

2012-01-02T16:23:00.000-05:00

Michael Gerson: "Let us count the ways in which the nomination of Ron Paul would be groundbreaking for the GOP. No other recent candidate hailing from the party of Lincoln has accused Abraham Lincoln of causing a “senseless” war and ruling with an “iron fist.” Or regarded Ronald Reagan’s presidency a “dramatic failure.” Or proposed the legalization of prostitution and heroin use. Or called America the most “aggressive, extended and expansionist” empire in world history. Or promised to abolish the CIA, depart NATO and withdraw military protection from South Korea. Or blamed terrorism on American militarism, since “they’re terrorists because we’re occupiers.” Or accused the American government of a Sept. 11 “coverup” and called for an investigation headed by Dennis Kucinich. Or described the killing of Osama bin Laden as “absolutely not necessary.” Or affirmed that he would not have sent American troops to Europe to end the Holocaust. Or excused Iranian nuclear ambitions as “natural,” while dismissing evidence of those ambitions as “war propaganda.” Or published a newsletter stating that the 1993 World Trade Center attack might have been “a setup by the Israeli Mossad,” and defending former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and criticizing the “evil of forced integration.”

My 20 Favorite Tweets from Fr. Jim Martin in 2011

2011-12-29T16:45:00.000-05:00

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 26 Feb

Gospel: When Jesus says to become like a child, he may mean not only a childlike trust in God, but a child's sense of play, wonder and joy.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 5 Mar

Gospel: Jesus knows better than to engage in arguments with people who already have their minds decided against him. Good advice for us too.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 25 Mar

I had chicken on a Friday in Lent since it was a Solemnity and technically 'allowed.' But I still felt guilty. Thus I must be very Catholic.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 14 May

Gospel: Joy is an underappreciated Christian virtue. The best way to draw others to God is to live your own vocation joyfully Joy attracts!

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 10 Jun

Gospel:Jesus asks Peter about love three times to allow Peter to make up for his triple denial of Jesus. God always gives us second chances.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 19 Sep

Gospel: You think you won't be held accountable for those grudges, or for those mean comments or putdowns you make on the web? Think again.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 11 Oct

Gospel: Jesus tells us that if there is ever a conflict between laws and love, love wins every time.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 15 Oct

Evening prayer. God, sometimes I do something so stupid it makes me wonder who I am. Thank you O God of second, third and fourth chances.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 23 Oct

Gospel: Jesus offers a triad of love: of God, neighbor and self. Don't forget the last one. Respect yourself and do not dishonor yourself.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 15 Nov

Gospel: Jesus offers to dine at Zacchaeus's house before Zacchaeus changes his ways. God doesn't wait until we're perfect to meet us.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 22 Nov

Gospel: Jesus's prediction of the Temple's end was shocking to hear. Yet mere buildings, people and institutions are all subordinate to God.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 23 Nov

Gospel: One unpleasant secret about living the Christian life--loving, forgiving, being charitable: Some may hate you for it. Do it anyway.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 27 Nov

Gospel: Jesus's metaphor isn't hard to interpret. Your life may end at any moment. Is your soul ready to meet the Lord? If not, shape up.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 29 Nov

Gospel: Jesus says that God doesn't care what words you use in your prayers. God cares that you do God's will in your life.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 2 Dec

Gospel: Are you blind to the suffering of the poor? To the sadness of the lonely and those who mourn? Let Jesus open your eyes...and hearts.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 6 Dec

Gospel: Those whom you disdain because they're not leading "good lives" are those whom God seeks most ardently. They are God's beloved too.

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 22 Dec

Gospel: Mary on income redistribution. "He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he has sent away empty."

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 28 Dec

3. Don't try to get people to like you. Love can't be manipulated. Real friends like you for who you are. #12stupidthingsineverwantodoagain

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 28 Dec

5. Don't obsess about your outside. Pants too long? Too short? Who cares? Pay attention to your inside. #12stupidthingsineverwanttodoagain

James Martin @JamesMartinSJ 29 Dec

6. Don't work constantly! Resist thinking that you are what you do. Be a human being not a human doing. #12stupidthingsineverwanttodoagain

Follow Fr. Jim: James Martin @JamesMartinSJ

News Bulletin: Ron Paul Is a Huge Racist

2011-12-15T20:31:00.003-05:00

Jonathan Chait: "Paul may be a dissident from the main thrust of Republican policy-making but this is not because he’s more tolerant or more sensible than the leaders of the GOP. It’s because he’s crazier."

Inside Syria: A rare look into the uprising

2011-12-06T10:54:00.001-05:00

Down with Assad!

2011-12-03T18:46:00.001-05:00

Paul Krugman: "Now, the tax ideas I’ve just mentioned wouldn’t be enough, by themselves, to fix our deficit. But the same is true of proposals for spending cuts. The point I’m making here isn’t that taxes are all we need; it is that they could and should be a significant part of the solution."

When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

2011-11-25T17:34:00.001-05:00

David Frum: "Conservatives have been driven to these fevered anxieties as much by their own trauma as by external events. In the aughts, Republicans held more power for longer than at any time since the twenties, yet the result was the weakest and least broadly shared economic expansion since World War II, followed by an economic crash and prolonged slump. Along the way, the GOP suffered two severe election defeats in 2006 and 2008. Imagine yourself a rank-and-file Republican in 2009: If you have not lost your job or your home, your savings have been sliced and your children cannot find work. Your retirement prospects have dimmed. Most of all, your neighbors blame you for all that has gone wrong in the country. There’s one thing you know for sure: None of this is your fault! And when the new president fails to deliver rapid recovery, he can be designated the target for everyone’s accumulated disappointment and rage. In the midst of economic wreckage, what relief to thrust all blame upon Barack Obama as the wrecker-in-chief."

Excellent article with a ton of great points.

When Did Liberals Become So Unreasonable?

2011-11-22T00:28:00.001-05:00

Jonathan Chait: "Of the postwar presidents, only Johnson exceeds Obama’s domestic record, and Johnson’s successes must be measured against a crushing defeat in Vietnam. Obama, by contrast, has enjoyed a string of foreign-policy successes—expanding targeted strikes against Al Qaeda (including one that killed Osama bin Laden), ending the war in Iraq, and helping to orchestrate an apparently successful international campaign to rescue Libyan dissidents and then topple a brutal kleptocratic regime. So, if Obama is the most successful liberal president since Roosevelt, that would make him a pretty great president, right?

Did liberals really expect more? I didn’t. But when you dig deeper, liberal melancholy hangs not so much on substantive objections but on something more inchoate and emotional: a general feeling that Obama is not Ronald Reagan."

Herman Cain Stumbles On Libya Questions (Generous Headline)

2011-11-14T21:43:00.001-05:00

Europe’s debt crisis and the danger we can’t see

2011-10-26T10:00:00.003-04:00

Matt Miller: "There are plenty of reasons to be freaked out by the banking and sovereign debt crisis now reaching a crescendo in Europe. But one factor that’s gotten little attention could turn this Very Bad Situation into a True Calamity.

It’s this: Regulators here and in Europe have no idea — repeat, no idea — of the full extent of the derivatives exposure that could be triggered by an “official” Greek default, or by the failure of a major French bank. And if the people in charge have no clue as to the fallout from what may be trillions of dollars in side bets waiting to be triggered in a catastrophic cascade, they’re basically flying blind."

Leonard Seidman: A Remembrance

2011-10-25T13:25:00.002-04:00

Jonathan Chait: "My grandfather, H. Leonard Seidman, died yesterday. My family loved him, but beyond that, I thought it would be worth writing about his life, because it intersected with some of the great struggles of the twentieth century."

Jim Webb's Criminal Justice Overhaul Commission Blocked Again In Senate

2011-10-23T10:17:00.002-04:00

HuffPo: "Sen. Jim Webb's effort to reform criminal justice in the United States has once again been blocked in the Senate. On Thursday afternoon, the proposed National Criminal Justice Commission Act, which the Democratic senator from Virginia put forward as an amendment to a wide-ranging appropriations bill, failed to garner the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster. The vote was 57-43.

Webb's bill would establish a bipartisan commission charged with taking a hard look at the drug war and prison overcrowding, among other criminal justice issues, at the national, state, local and tribal levels. Its findings and recommendations would then be released in the first comprehensive report since 1965 on the state of criminal justice in America."

Family economics

2011-10-23T09:56:00.006-04:00

EJ Dionne: "Beyond the gay marriage battle, we need a bargain: Liberals should acknowledge, as Obama has, that strengthening the family is vital to economic justice. Conservatives should acknowledge that economic justice is vital to strengthening families.

For example: Our national policies on sick leave and family leave are among the most anti-family in the developed world. When faced with a choice between the needs of the family and the needs of employers, we nearly always tilt toward employers. Western European nations, influenced by both pro-family Christian Democrats and pro-labor Social Democrats, have done far more to make work compatible with family life."

Lincoln points Obama to the high ground

2011-10-20T13:05:00.003-04:00

EJ Dionne: "In their time, the abolitionists were radicals, too. Lincoln, a shrewd politician, understood that public opinion in the North did not fully embrace their cause but was moving in their direction. Lincoln remained a moderate at heart, but he abandoned moderation on slavery when this proved to be morally and politically unsuited to the imperatives of his moment. By following Lincoln’s example and acting against the injustices of our time, Obama could also come to occupy the high ground."

Obama’s Jobs Plan As a Case Study for Fatalism

2011-10-20T13:04:00.002-04:00

Jonathan Chait: "We construct narratives assigning Obama’s success or failure to his own decisions or his own character because cold structural explanations are not simple or satisfying enough. We crave stories about presidents as masters of their fate. But the reality is far less satisfying than that."

James Martin: Faith leads to joy

2011-10-11T13:08:00.000-04:00

Faith & Leadership: "Too many people think that religion is all about being serious. I wanted to remind people that faith leads to joy. On the first Easter, for example, the disciples were joyful. The Christian message -- life is stronger than death, hope stronger than despair and love stronger than hatred -- is one of joy. Christ has risen, and that’s good news."

Troy Polamalu At Wax Museum

2011-10-09T02:00:00.001-04:00

Paul Ryan, American Values and Corporatocracy

2011-10-08T22:04:00.001-04:00

Jeffrey Sachs: "My new book, The Price of Civilization, describes why America needs a "mixed economy," one where a more effective federal government regulates business and invests alongside the business sector. In his review of my book, Congressman Paul Ryan, an avowed libertarian, describes my book as anti-American in its values. Ryan is wrong: my book describes how we can restore politics to the true mainstream of American values, rescuing democracy from the clutches of corporate power that Ryan champions in deeds if not in words."

On Top of Famine, Unspeakable Violence

2011-10-08T21:56:00.004-04:00

Nicholas Kristof: "As Somalis stream across the border into Kenya, at a rate of about 1,000 a day, they are frequently prey to armed bandits who rob men and rape women in the 50-mile stretch before they reach Dadaab, now the world’s largest refugee camp."

The Limits of Empathy

2011-10-02T02:23:00.003-04:00

David Brooks: "People who actually perform pro-social action don’t only feel for those who are suffering, they feel compelled to act by a sense of duty. Their lives are structured by sacred codes.

Think of anybody you admire. They probably have some talent for fellow-feeling, but it is overshadowed by their sense of obligation to some religious, military, social or philosophic code. They would feel a sense of shame or guilt if they didn’t live up to the code. The code tells them when they deserve public admiration or dishonor. The code helps them evaluate other people’s feelings, not just share them. The code tells them that an adulterer or a drug dealer may feel ecstatic, but the proper response is still contempt.

The code isn’t just a set of rules. It’s a source of identity. It’s pursued with joy. It arouses the strongest emotions and attachments. Empathy is a sideshow. If you want to make the world a better place, help people debate, understand, reform, revere and enact their codes. Accept that codes conflict."

Mitchell Wilson Suicide: Boy's Death Raises Bullying Concerns

2011-10-01T21:27:00.003-04:00

HuffPo: "The death of an 11-year-old boy with muscular dystrophy months after his assault by a bully has shined a spotlight on bullying in Canada's schools.Muscular dystrophy left Mitchell Wilson struggling to do simple things like walking around the block or climbing stairs. He also had to use a walker at school. Doctors had urged him to exercise regularly to stave off the disease's effects, something that was growing increasingly difficult for the boy.Wilson was mugged last November by a 12-year-old boy from his school. The assailant was after the iPhone Wilson borrowed from his dad. The bully was arrested and removed from the Pickering, Ont. school they both attended."

Must See TV: Elizabeth Warren on Class Warfare

2011-09-22T11:45:00.003-04:00

Jonathan Cohn: "The video above, from Elizabeth Warren’s campaign tour in Massachusetts, has been circulating online. And if you haven’t watched it yet, you should.

One worry about Warren, the Harvard Law School professor challenging incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown, is that she won’t be able to connect with average voters. As you’ll see, that very plainly that is not the case."

What Class Warfare Looks Like

2011-09-21T10:50:00.003-04:00

Tim Noah: "You know what isn't class warfare? Progressive taxation, as in, say, expecting billionaires to pay at least as much in taxes as their secretaries. Ideally, in fact, they should pay more. Progressive taxation, social welfare programs, antitrust law, health and safety regulation--these were all advanced by middle-class reformers a century ago with the idea that they would prevent class warfare. You could look it up."

It’s not ‘class warfare,’ it’s Christianity

2011-09-20T11:36:00.002-04:00

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite: "The Christian approach to economics is to be the conscience of the nation and to insist that we regulate capitalism so it does not become reckless and destructive. Christians must call on the nation’s politicians to have us share the burdens and the sacrifices, as President Obama is doing, in order get to the “freedom from want” that is in our democratic values and our faith values."

Ty Burrell: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

2011-09-20T01:14:00.000-04:00

How much has Obama learned?

2011-09-15T01:44:00.006-04:00

EJ Dionne: "Now we face a fundamental divide over the most basic questions: Is government good or bad? Can public action make the private economy work better, or are all efforts to alter the market’s course — by Congress, the president, the Federal Reserve — doomed to failure?

When politicians and their supporters believe the other side is pursuing policies that would destroy all they cherish, compromise becomes not a desirable expedient but “almost treasonous,” to use the phrase tossed about by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.

Under these circumstances, taking enormous risks with the country’s well-being, as House Republicans did in the debt-ceiling rumble, is no longer out of bounds. It’s a form of patriotism. When your adversaries’ ideas are so dastardly, it’s better to court chaos, win the fight and pick up the pieces later.

And to make matters worse — and more confusing — the two sides are not equally distant from the political center. We are in an age of asymmetric polarization.

Precisely because they believe in both government and the marketplace, Democrats are always more ready to compromise. Obama’s economic address last Thursday was seen as tough and firm because he finally called out Republicans in Congress. Progressives liked the new fortitude, and also the relatively large sums Obama would mobilize to jolt the economy back to vibrancy.

But there was nothing remotely radical (or even particularly liberal) about Obama’s ideas: tax cuts, many of them business-friendly, and new spending for such exotic projects as, well, schools and roads. As the president said, his proposals have all drawn Republican support in the past.

He was, however, talking about a Republican Party that existed before it was taken over by a new sensibility linking radical individualism with a loathing for government that would shock Hamilton, Clay, Lincoln and, for goodness’ sake, Robert Taft."

Do Happier People Work Harder?

2011-09-06T11:25:00.000-04:00

Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer: "Working adults spend more of their waking hours at work than anywhere else. Work should ennoble, not kill, the human spirit. Promoting workers’ well-being isn’t just ethical; it makes economic sense. Fostering positive inner lives sometimes requires leaders to better articulate meaning in the work for everyone across the organization. Sometimes, all that’s required is that managers address daily hassles and help with technical problems. If those who lead organizations — from C.E.O.’s to small-team leaders — believe their mission is, in part, to support workers’ everyday progress, we could end the disengagement crisis and, in the process, lift our work force’s well-being and our economy’s productivity."

What the Left Doesn’t Understand About Obama

2011-09-05T18:07:00.000-04:00

Jon Chait: "Liberal critics of Obama, just like conservative critics of Republican presidents, generally want both maximal partisan conflict and maximal legislative achievement. In the real world, those two things are often at odds. Hence the allure of magical thinking."

Looking for Revenue? Tax Booze

2011-08-30T10:14:00.000-04:00

Amitai Etzioni: "A review of 72 studies and reports published in The Journal of Preventive Medicine found “strong evidence that raising alcohol taxes is an effective strategy for reducing excessive alcohol consumption and related harms.” The authors noted that “increased alcohol taxes are associated with decreased overall consumption, decreased youth consumption, decreased youth binge drinking, reduced alcohol-related motor-vehicle crashes, reduced mortality from liver cirrhosis, and reduced violence."...

For starters, the tax on alcohol should be based on a percentage of the price at which the product is sold, not on a fixed fee that lags behind rising prices. In this way, those who insist on gulping it down will contribute more to cutting the deficit and will stop benefiting from the fact that as most costs rise, booze costs can be kept down, as the government taxes become less burdensome over time."

Eastern Congo’s rule by the ruthless

2011-08-27T12:10:00.000-04:00

Michael Gerson: "In America, we are engaged in a debate about the size and role of government. But eastern Congo demonstrates the consequences of government’s absence. A state of nature — even an Eden of bougainvillea and natural wealth — is ruled by the most ruthless. Resources become a curse, propping up corrupt elites. Houses are surrounded by barbed wire, potholes consume the streets, the electricity flickers and helplessness becomes a habit.

Eastern Congo is both a tragedy and a lesson in political philosophy. Human beings need bread and justice and freedom. And all are made possible by orderly, responsible government."

Religious Right Lipstick on a Reaganomics Pig

2011-08-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

Nick Sementelli: "The key is to recognize that the dependency critique indirectly alleges the same character defects as the "moocher" narrative. It's just a kinder, gentler way to say the poor are government-enabled welfare addicts who are too lazy to work. So long as they can live large on the taxpayer's dime, the theory goes, they have no incentive to change. "Breaking the cycle" then means cutting them off cold turkey like parents kicking out a shiftless adult to give him the motivation to finally get a job."

Rick Perry Fights Redistribution

2011-08-27T11:53:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Chait: "Perry's hatred of redistribution puts him perfectly in step with the current Republican Party, for whom opposition to the (downward) redistribution of wealth is the lodestar."

Dope, Joke, and Fraud

2011-08-23T10:47:00.000-04:00

Politico: "The problem, in shorthand: To many conservative elites, Rick Perry is a dope, Michele Bachmann is a joke and Mitt Romney is a fraud."

The Republicans’ new voodoo economics?

2011-08-22T23:41:00.000-04:00

Greg Ip: "Liberals and conservatives in the United States have long differed on how much the government should meddle in individual markets, whether for energy or health care. But they have largely agreed that the government should have at least some role in smoothing out the ups and downs of the business cycle — what economists call “macroeconomic stabilization,” that is, containing inflation in good times and boosting employment in bad. But this is the consensus that many Republicans in effect now reject."

The Texas Unmiracle

2011-08-22T23:11:00.000-04:00

Paul Krugman: "What Texas shows is that a state offering cheap labor and, less important, weak regulation can attract jobs from other states. I believe that the appropriate response to this insight is “Well, duh.” The point is that arguing from this experience that depressing wages and dismantling regulation in America as a whole would create more jobs — which is, whatever Mr. Perry may say, what Perrynomics amounts to in practice — involves a fallacy of composition: every state can’t lure jobs away from every other state."

The Ten Weirdest Ideas In Rick Perry’s ‘Fed Up’

2011-08-22T23:08:00.000-04:00

Matthew Yglesias: "Almost Everything Is Unconstitutional: Regrets the existence of jurisprudence construing the Commerce Clause to permit “federal laws regulating the environment, regulating guns, protecting civil rights, establishing the massive programs and Medicare and Medicaid, creating national minimum wage laws, [and] establishing national labor laws.” Perry makes a partial exception for laws barring racial discrimination which he says fulfill “the intent behind the passage of the Reconstruction Era amendments.”

Jobs Program? Here Are 3 Essential Ingredients

2011-08-21T19:10:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Cohn: So there you have it. The ideal jobs package would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy as quickly as possible – but in a way that paid for itself over the long run and, ideally, diminished automatically once a strong recovery is under way. The administration could do a portion of this on its own, whether by using Fannie Mae to help distressed homeowners or getting China to help U.S. exports by revaluing its currency. The Fed could obviously lend a hand, maybe a big hand, as well. But to meet these criteria, Congress would have to take some action.

Obama Must Get Bold, Tell Republicans ‘It’s On’

2011-08-21T19:06:00.001-04:00

Jonathan Alter: "Obama must work on two tracks -- one idealistic, the other practical. The moment calls for him to offer a big vision for how to fix the economy, even if it doesn’t have a prayer of passage. Then he should unveil smaller actions that could win congressional approval, plus a few imaginative executive orders that might let him move the needle on employment unilaterally."

All-time Great Daily Show Segment- On "Class Warfare"

2011-08-21T18:29:00.000-04:00

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Texas Tax System Heavily Burdens Poor Residents

2011-08-21T18:25:00.002-04:00

HuffPo: "Texas, in particular, is "extremely imbalanced" in its reliance on sales and property taxes, the report concludes. Even without having to pay income tax, the poorest fifth of Texans ended up paying about 12 percent of their income in taxes in 2009, ITEP reports. The wealthiest 1 percent of Texans paid only 3 percent of their income in state and local taxes."

Chait on Stephen Moore

2011-08-21T18:20:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Chait: "I have a bit of a weakness for insulting people's intelligence. I recognize this and try to restrain myself. When I read Stephen Moore's op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, I thought that I would give restraint a try. There's simply no way to honestly analyze this piece without commenting on the author's intelligence. I suppose, to be charitable, I should refine that to mean Moore's analytic intelligence; there are many kinds of intelligence, and perhaps Moore is gifted with great social intelligence, or artistic intelligence. And yet the relevant point is that Moore is the lead economic editorial writer for the country's leading economic newspaper and yet he lacks even a rudimentary understanding of economics."

Economy Must Work For Man, Says Pope

2011-08-21T17:54:00.002-04:00

RTT: "The economy should work for man and not just for profit, Pope Benedict XVI said on Thursday as he traveled to Spain. "The economy does not only work with a self-regulated market, but needs an ethical way of reasoning in order to work for man," he said during his flight to Madrid. "Man must be the center of the economy and the economy is not to be measured solely according to achieving maximum profits."

Big Picture at World Youth Day: 'It’s the Evangelicals, stupid!'

2011-08-21T17:50:00.000-04:00

John Allen: "In that sense, World Youth Day is the premier reminder of a fundamental truth about Catholicism in the early 21st century. Given the double whammy of Evangelical Catholicism as both the idée fixe of the church’s leadership class, and a driving force among the inner core of younger believers, it’s destined to shape the culture of the church (especially in the global north, i.e., Europe and the United States) for the foreseeable future. One can debate its merits, but not its staying power.

In the real world, the contest for the Catholic future is therefore not between the Evangelicals and some other group -- say, liberal reformers. It’s inside the Evangelical movement, between an open and optimistic wing committed to “Affirmative Orthodoxy,” i.e., emphasizing what the church affirms rather than what it condemns, and a more defensive cohort committed to waging cultural war."

Wiener Dog on Norm

2011-08-20T17:02:00.000-04:00

Aid to East Africa: Saving Children Today and Tomorrow

2011-08-20T14:59:00.001-04:00

DFLA: "The people of East Africa, particularly Somalia, are on the brink of one of the worst humanitarian disasters in decades. East Africa is facing its worst drought in 60 years. Famine is forcing countless families to flee their homes and travel long distances in a desperate search for the food they need to survive. Twelve million people in East Africa are in need of emergency assistance. The United Nations estimates that 600,000 children could die...

Some politicians find it easy to cut foreign aid programs. Americans grossly overestimate how much the federal government spends on foreign aid, a "charity starts at home" mentality is held by many, and those in need of humanitarian assistance lack the power and influence to pressure politicians to protect essential funding.

It is our responsibility to speak for the weak and vulnerable, to be the voices of the voiceless. Please let your voice be heard. Thank you."

Ron Paul on the Civil War

2011-08-19T11:47:00.001-04:00

Ron Paul has the mind of a child. What a conspiracy theorist nutjob.

Is the Acton Institute a Genuine Expression of Catholic Social Thought? (SPOILER: No)

2011-08-18T11:03:00.000-04:00

Thomas Storck: "But what we can know is that the Acton Institute’s promotion of liberalism is not something that can be embraced by an orthodox Catholic. Sirico, like Acton and Döllinger, is not a safe guide but rather a dissenter from the fullness of the Faith, a blind guide who will only lead his followers into a pit. Please God, it will not be into the bottomless pit."

Awesome takedown.

Getting Bin Laden

2011-08-09T15:26:00.000-04:00

The New Yorker: What happened that night in Abbottabad

How S&P Got Obama to Defend The Tea Party

2011-08-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

Jon Chait: "The math may be faulty. But the basic point of the downgrade seems dead-on -- the existence of a Republican Party that theologically opposes higher revenue and is pledged to risk worldwide financial cataclysm on a regular basis in order to advance is agenda poses a fairly serious risk."

My exact thoughts.

Yearning for the Old, Sane George Will

2011-08-04T23:31:00.000-04:00

Scott Galupo: "Actually, while he doesn't explicitly embrace libertarianism here, Will's heavy petting with it has rendered him ludicrous. It's a repudiation of pretty much everything Will once stood for as a young Burkean/Oxford Movement/strong-government Tory-minded conservative."

So I'm not crazy.

Why Voters Tune Out Democrats

2011-08-04T01:55:00.000-04:00

Stanley Greenberg: "The Democrats have to start detoxifying politics by proposing to severely limit or bar individual and corporate campaign contributions, which would mean a fight with the Supreme Court. They must make the case for public financing of campaigns and force the broadcast and cable networks to provide free time for candidate ads. And they must become the strongest advocates for transparency in campaign donations and in the lobbying of elected officials.

IF they want to win the trust of the public, Democrats should propose taxing lobbyist expenses and excessive chief executive bonuses and put a small fee on the sale of stocks, bonds and other financial instruments. By radically simplifying the tax code to allow only a few deductions, the Democrats would generate new revenue and remove the loopholes that allow special interests to win favorable treatment. The ordinary citizen, according to our surveys and focus groups, feels there is no way to play that game and views simplifying the tax code as an important reform"

How the Debt Committee Could Turn Republican Against Republican

2011-08-02T12:54:00.001-04:00

"The anti-tax movement has held absolute sway within the GOP for two decades. But it's worth noting that the GOP has never had to choose among its constituencies in a zero-sum fiscal environment before. The policy of huge tax cuts and big defense spending hikes could coexist as long as Republicans could just run up the budget deficit. The party refused to reconcile its contradictions by refusing to acknowledge fiscal reality. Higher revenue to pay for the wars? Reagan proved deficits don't matter. It's easy to hold all your factions together when you refusing to acknowledge basic accounting properties (deficits equal expenditures minus revenue, not just "too much" expenditures by definition.) George W. Bush made the defense hawks happy, made the medical industry happy with a prescription drug bill designed to maximize their profits, and made rich people in general happy with a series of regressive tax cuts.

But imagine Democrats insist on higher revenue, and they decide, sensibly enough, that failure to cut a bipartisan deal is better than $1.8 trillion in cuts. (Which is probably is.) Then what? Well, then the entire defense lobby plus the entire medical and insurance lobbies turn fiercely against the very people with whom they had marched shoulder-to-shoulder under Bush. If the Democrats hold the line and insist on more revenue, the committee has the potential to split the GOP coalition wide open."

My exact reaction when I saw the particulars of the deal.

Chaput: The Problem With Culture Warrior Bishops

2011-07-19T13:33:00.000-04:00

MSW: "What does it mean to be a “culture warrior”? Let’s take one example. In Denver, when confronted with a decision by a pastor to bar the child of lesbian parents from attending a Catholic school, Chaput agreed with the pastor...

I am wondering about this claim 'If parents don’t respect the beliefs of the Church, or live in a manner that openly rejects those beliefs, then partnering with those parents becomes very difficult, if not impossible.' How does that square with the fact that Catholic schools permit Protestants who “openly reject” certain Catholic beliefs? Or non-Christians who “openly reject” the divinty of Christ? Does the archdiocese of Denver deny admission to the children of parents who are divorced and remarried? Or is it just the children of gays who get discriminated against?"

What history teaches us about the welfare state

2011-07-15T03:06:00.000-04:00

Francois Furstenberg: Today, new fortunes have been accumulated that rival those of the Gilded Age. Some of that wealth, possessed by people like Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch or Peter G. Peterson, has been used to promote cuts to social spending. Before these opponents and their allies in Congress move forward with the dismantling of the welfare state, however, they might think harder about the reasons such policies were put in place. The Gilded Age plutocrats who first acceded to a social welfare system and state regulations did not do so from the goodness of their hearts. They did so because the alternatives seemed so much more terrifying."

The GOP’s False Fiscal Narrative

2011-07-15T03:02:00.001-04:00

Peter Beinart: "So the oft-repeated narrative is wrong: Republicans are not desperate to reduce America’s debt. They are desperate to reduce the debt so long as it doesn’t conflict with their two higher priorities: opposing tax cuts and maintaining defense spending. Those are two rather large caveats. The second oft-repeated narrative is that the two parties can’t reach a deficit-reduction deal because they are both prisoners of their ideological extremes. If only both sides would move to the center, Washington could get its fiscal house in order. But the parallelism is absurd. If Barack Obama really were the left’s version of John Boehner, he’d be insisting that the deficit be reduced entirely by tax increases—or at least tax increases plus defense cuts. Instead, he’s supporting dramatic cuts in nondefense spending while merely demanding that tax increases be part of the deal. Most Republican leaders, by contrast, oppose any tax increases at all."

Paul Ryan's $700-Wine-Sipping Buddies: Hedge Fund Manager And University Of Chicago Economist

2011-07-15T02:59:00.000-04:00

TPM: "It didn't take long for TPM readers to identify the two likeminded conservatives with whom Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) shared two pricey $350 bottles of Pinot Noir Wednesday night."

Leroy Petry, Army Ranger, awarded Medal of Honor

2011-07-15T02:57:00.000-04:00

Washington Post: "President Obama on Tuesday awarded the Medal of Honor to an Army Ranger for his courageous actions during combat in Afghanistan, only the second time since the Vietnam War that a living service member from an ongoing conflict has received the distinction. Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry, now 31, was shot through both legs and lost his right hand after tossing aside a live grenade during a 2008 firefight in Afghanistan’s Paktia province. His body was also riddled with shrapnel, according to Army field reports, but his actions spared the lives of fellow Rangers."

My Favorite All-star Game

2011-07-15T02:55:00.000-04:00

SI: "Walt Weiss got two hits in the All-Star Game, which was nice. That his son was there to cheer made it special."

Fox News Op-ed: Ditch Jesus

2011-07-15T02:52:00.001-04:00

Nick Sementelli: "We've spent some time the last few months highlighting how the radical individualist ideology of Ayn Rand is incompatible with the values of compassion, care for one's neighbor and commitment to the common good...In a highly viewed story on Fox News last month, Ayn Rand Institute senior fellow Onkar Ghate agreed!

In terms of virtues, Rand's is a moral code that upholds rationality not emotionalism or faith; intellectual independence not authority or obedience; earned pride not humility or the belief in man's inherent sinfulness."

Paul Ryan's Gibberish

2011-07-06T13:18:00.000-04:00

Jon Chait: "And fourth, we do have an actual experiment with raising tax rates on the highest income. President Clinton did it in 1993. Paul Ryan wasn't in Congress yet, but he was working for his mentor, Jack Kemp, who predicted that raising taxes on the rich would reduce tax revenue, reduce the wealthy's share of the tax burden, and decrease growth. He was proven spectacularly wrong. In 2001, Ryan predicted the Bush tax cuts would increase economic growth and allow the government to pay off the entire national debt, and was again proven spectacularly wrong. Ryan can cling to his supply-side faith, but he certainly shouldn't be arguing on the basis of what recent events have proven."

How Today's Conservatism Lost Touch with Reality

2011-06-16T12:03:00.000-04:00

Fareed Zakaria: "From Aristotle to Edmund Burke, the greatest conservative thinkers have said that to change societies, one must understand them, accept them as they are and help them evolve. Watching this election campaign, one wonders what has happened to that tradition. Conservatives now espouse ideas drawn from abstract principles with little regard to the realities of America's present or past."

Fox News and "Hoods"

2011-06-13T11:56:00.000-04:00

No comment needed...

Tim Pawlenty’s fantasy economic plan

2011-06-09T14:35:00.000-04:00

Ezra Klein: "This plan isn’t optimistic. It isn’t a bit vague. It’s a joke. And I don’t know which is worse: The thought that Pawlenty knows that and went forward with this pandering, fantasy-based proposal anyway, or the thought that he doesn’t know it, and he really thinks this could work."

The Right's Favorite Historian: Founding Fathers Opposed Darwin

2011-06-09T12:07:00.001-04:00

Mother Jones: "This is kind of nuts, but also illuminating. Barton has emerged as a force by bridging two sometimes disparate strains of conservatism—the Chamber of Commerce crowd with the Christian Coalition crowd. In his lectures, they become one: Jesus opposed the minimum wage; Jesus opposed the progressive income tax; etc. You can only imagine the fervor with which Jesus would have endorsed the Paul Ryan budget. When someone like Bachmann says, as she famously did earlier this year, that the Founding Fathers worked to abolish slavery, Barton is where it starts. When Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another potential GOP presidential candidate, says we need to return to our Biblical principles to escape from our current system of economic slavery (yes, he really said this), he's channeling Barton."

What a nutjob.

George Weigel's Big Goverment Bogeyman

2011-06-07T18:20:00.001-04:00

John Gehring: "It's convenient for Weigel to dismiss this authentic Catholic critique of Boehner as "reactionary liberalism." Casting these theologians, scholars, clergy and women religious as knee-jerk proponents of big government is factually wrong, but it does shift attention away from draconian Republican budget proposals that are deeply hostile to Catholic teaching about government's vital role in protecting the most vulnerable...
If Weigel prefers that state governments knit together our nation's fraying social programs for the most vulnerable, he should offer a solution to the structural problem of states now cutting assistance programs when they're most needed."

Weigel's piece is really, really weak (I'm certain I could write a stronger one from the Catholic neocon viewpoint). But John Gehring pulls no punches. This resembles Tyson in his prime v. some chump that he KOs in the 1st round.

Dolan, Ryan, and an Unfulfilled Vision of Transpartisan Witness

2011-05-31T21:41:00.000-04:00

Vince Miller: "If the bishops were willing to wade deeply into the policy details of the Affordable Care Act, and indeed publicly reject very plausible alternative interpretations offered by respected legal scholars with prolife credentials, why no willingness to offer a specific, public evaluation of this budget proposal? Prudence is not enough to justify the difference. Prudence has a very important and underappreciated role, but these budget numbers are stark. If prudence can be used to justify this budget as a legitimate enactment of the principles of Catholic Social Doctrine, then prudence is meaningless. It can be used to justify anything."

The Demographic Group That Should Terrify Republicans

2011-05-26T22:56:00.001-04:00

Jonathan Chait: "Robert Christian points out that one clue to the GOP's failure in the New York special election can be found in the Pew political typology...
So here you have a key part of the Republican base, whose swing toward the GOP in 2010 was a crucial factor in the party's success. And this group opposes cutting Medicare more staunchly than any other group. The Ryan plan seems almost designed to blow up the Republican coalition."

What's the Matter with American Exceptionalism?

2011-05-26T14:14:00.004-04:00

The ugly side of American Exceptionalism

Catholic Leaders Continue Opposition to Ryan Budget

2011-05-25T01:54:00.001-04:00

Bold Faith Type: Francis Doyle, the former Associate General Secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said: "It's outrageous that Rep. Ryan claims his budget proposal lives up to the high bar of Catholic social teaching. Catholic theologians, bishops and a growing chorus of Catholic social justice leaders have been unequivocal that actions speak louder than words when it comes to promoting the common good. Giving new tax breaks to the rich while making life harder for the most vulnerable will not balance the budget, but it will inflict real pain on mothers, children and the elderly. This isn't just bad public policy. It's morally indefensible."

Lessons for the media, the bishops and John Boehner

2011-05-23T14:14:00.001-04:00

EJ Dionne: "The media should note that Catholicism has a lot to say, not just about abortion but also about justice and compassion. And the Catholic professors just might force journalists to ponder whether they actually punish the civility they routinely and lavishly praise."

Three Articles on Dolan and Ryan

2011-05-23T13:01:00.002-04:00

Jonathan Cohn: "The traditional Republican response, which Ryan apparently made in his initial letter to Dolan, is that such reductions are necessary in order to reduce deficits. Dolan indicates he also supports fiscal responsibility and praises Ryan for his pursuit of it. But Dolan is either ill-informed (unlikely) or trying to obscure reality (likely). Such massive cuts to social spending are clearly not necessary to bring the balance into budget. Or, at least, they wouldn’t be if the Republicans weren’t simultaneously instating upon massive tax cuts that would primarily benefit the very wealthiest Americans."

MSW: "The second thing to note is the irony of seeing Ryan invoking Catholic social thought so forcefully. This is the same congressman who said he was inspired to go into politics by reading Ayn Rand, and who instructs his congressional staff to read Rand’s works if they want to understand his mind. During his speech introducing his budget, and in many appearances since, as well as on the House floor, Ryan has never before mentioned Catholic social teaching, nor the 25th Chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, when discussing the moral underpinning of his budget. To be clear: I think Ryan is genuinely concerned that we are saddling future generations of Americans with debt and that this is immoral. Everyone who knows Ryan insists that he is morally serious. But, he is steeped in Rand’s moral vision of human nature and society and, the last time I checked, Rand was not included in the Compendium of Catholic Social Thought."

Nick Sementelli: "Subsidiarity is the Catholic concept that societal issues should be addressed by the least centralized body competent and able to do so. In his letter, Ryan uses one of the Catholic Right's favorite arguments about subsidiarity: claiming that subsidiarity is a blanket endorsement of all "states' rights" claims. But what Ryan leaves out is the second half of that equation which Archbishop Dolan helpfully filled in: "The principles of subsidiarity and solidarity are interrelated to one another." A budget that delegates full responsibility for Medicaid to the states, but gives no concern with the impact that will have on the vulnerable participants in the program is short-sighted."

Reality Bites: The GOP After Daniels, and After 2012

2011-05-23T12:56:00.000-04:00

Michael Grunwald: "The most important political story of the Obama era has been the Republican Party’s growing defiance of reality—its denial of climate science, its denunciations of Medicare cuts while proposing Medicare cuts, its denunciations of debt while proposing debt-exploding tax cuts, its resistance to financial regulation in the wake of a financial meltdown, and so on. Now the GOP’s most promising reality-based presidential candidate, Mitch Daniels, has passed up the race."

Atlas Shrugged and So Should You

2011-05-13T13:50:00.003-04:00

"A "silly" and "bumptious" novel can have destructive and last power...and then it finds new life as a movie. Viewers beware, Colson warns, because the new movie Atlas Shrugged is an adaptation of Ayn Rand's same named novel, which peddles a starkly anti-christian philosophy."

Romney, Empiricism, And Conservative Dogma

2011-05-13T13:25:00.000-04:00

Jon Chait: "This is an important reason conservatives have responded so fiercely to Romney's health care program -- it suggests a willingness to follow empirical results over free market dogma. That he views the market as merely a powerful welfare-enhancing tool, rather than as an a priori philosophical commitment, proves his ideological unfitness."

Catholic Professors Criticize Boehner in Letter

2011-05-11T15:09:00.000-04:00

NY Times: "More than 75 professors at Catholic University and other prominent Catholic colleges have written a pointed letter to Mr. Boehner saying that the Republican-supported budget he shepherded through the House of Representatives will hurt the poor, elderly and vulnerable, and therefore he has failed to uphold basic Catholic moral teaching.

“Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings,” the letter says. “From the apostles to the present, the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor. Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.”

The letter writers go on to criticize Mr. Boehner’s support for a budget that cut support for Medicare, Medicaid and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, while granting tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. They call such policies “anti-life,” a particularly biting reference because the phrase is usually applied to politicians and others who support the right to abortion."

Obama Promise to take out Bin Laden in Pakistan

2011-05-03T22:28:00.000-04:00

Five myths about church and state in America

2011-04-25T16:24:00.000-04:00

David Sehat: "Liberals claim that the founding fathers separated church and state, while conservatives argue that the founders made faith a foundation of our government. Both sides argue that America once enjoyed a freedom to worship that they seek to preserve. Yet neither side gets it right."

The Power of Mockery

2011-04-25T15:49:00.002-04:00

Nicholas Kristof: "Sometimes the most powerful force for social change is a bunch of irreverent and wise-cracking students, working together."

The Latest Enemies of Iran: Dogs and Their Owners

2011-04-19T11:24:00.000-04:00

Time: "Lawmakers in Tehran have recently proposed a bill in parliament that would criminalize dog ownership, formally enshrining its punishment within the country's Islamic penal code. The bill warns that that in addition to posing public health hazards, the popularity of dog ownership 'also poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West.'"

Catholic Randians and Prudential Judgments

2011-04-19T09:51:00.000-04:00

Great Post. Read the whole thing. This has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks.

Eduardo Peñalver: "I think it is fair to hold political figures to some standard of plausibility in the empirical assertions underlying their prudential judgments. And where their empirical claims are utterly lacking in empirical foundation, then it is fair to say that they are likely lying when they claim that their prudential judgments represent an effort to conform their reasoning to certain moral principles."

"In trying to interpret Ryan’s motives, we have a couple of choices. On the one hand, we can say that he’s trying to help the poorest, notwithstanding any empirical evidence that his plan will do that. On the other hand, we can say that he’s implementing Rand’s anti-Christian objectivist philosophy, which he has credited with motivating him to enter public service. [He's either blinded to empirical reality by his ideological commitments and actually believes we make the help the poor by handing money to the rich and cutting health care for the poor, or he's intending to do what his plan straightforwardly seems designed to do -- reduce state-imposed burdens on the rich and let the poor fend for themselves.] It seems to me that, given the evidence about his admiration for Rand, the most plausible interpretation is the latter. There’s no question that his plan, if implemented, would dismantle two of the pillars of the post-War welfare state (Medicare and Medicaid) while putting more money in the pockets of the wealthy. But if Ryan’s purpose is to move us closer to the objectivist ideal espoused by Rand, then it seems to me that he is beyond the boundaries of legitimate prudential disagreement. He is applying principles that directly contradict those of Catholic social teaching."

Will Catholic Bishops Stand up to Paul Ryan?

2011-04-11T17:03:00.001-04:00

Bold Faith Type: "Bishops were influential (and controversial) actors during recent legislative battles over health care reform. They clearly have the stomach for tough political fights. Will they now take on Paul Ryan and a Republican Party pursuing a radical agenda that is antithetical to a Catholic vision of the common good?"

They should.

War on the Weak

2011-04-11T14:58:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Chait: "Ayn Rand, of course, was a kind of politicized L. Ron Hubbard—a novelist-philosopher who inspired a cult of acolytes who deem her the greatest human being who ever lived. The enduring heart of Rand’s totalistic philosophy was Marxism flipped upside down. Rand viewed the capitalists, not the workers, as the producers of all wealth, and the workers, not the capitalists, as useless parasites...One conservative making that point was Ryan. His citation of Rand was not casual. He’s a Rand nut. In the days before his star turn as America’s Accountant, Ryan once appeared at a gathering to honor her philosophy, where he announced, “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.” He continues to view Rand as a lodestar, requiring his staffers to digest her creepy tracts."

"There Was a Time In This Country..." -- Reverend Kiley Delivers Labor's Invocation

2011-04-08T14:34:00.001-04:00

Why StudentsFirst Supports Teachers' Right to Collective Bargaining

2011-03-30T14:03:00.000-04:00

Michelle Rhee: "Collective bargaining for wages and benefits is not the reason American schools fail. Even in "right to work" states that do not have collective bargaining, we still see many of the problems that hurt our schools: bureaucratic inertia, red tape limits on parent choice, seniority-based layoffs, and fiscal irresponsibility. Overseas, many countries see teachers unions drive high standards and expectations for all teachers."

San Jose Diocese in historic demographic shift

2011-03-21T16:02:00.002-04:00

SJ Mercury: "The Diocese of San Jose is in the midst of a historic demographic shift, with parish populations exploding to the south and east while at the same time leveling or dwindling to the north and west. In East San Jose and down through southern Santa Clara County, the tremendous influx of mostly young Hispanics, as well as Vietnamese and Filipinos, is straining parishes to the breaking point."

Pay Teachers More

2011-03-12T23:17:00.000-05:00

Nicholas Kristof: "A basic educational challenge is not that teachers are raking it in, but that they are underpaid. If we want to compete with other countries, and chip away at poverty across America, then we need to pay teachers more so as to attract better people into the profession."

What Felipe Calderon wants from the U.S.

2011-03-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

Fred Hiatt: "Calderon was passionate when talking about the de facto legalization of marijuana that seems to be taking place in some states, such as California and Colorado, under the guise of medical treatment, with no federal interference. "For me, it's very difficult to prosecute a very poor farmer in Mexico growing marijuana," he said, when "industrial"-scale agriculture is flourishing north of the border. "How can I console our widows" - Mexico has lost more than 2,000 police and federal agents the past four years fighting the drug cartels - "and at the same time students in universities can smoke pot with no problems?"

Chris Christie: 'I love collective bargaining'

2011-03-03T11:46:00.001-05:00

Politico: "Gov. Chris Christie says he has “love” for the collective bargaining process, even as other Republican governors are pushing to limit or end the negotiation process with public unions in their states...If anything, Christie said, he’d like to see collective bargaining become a bigger part of how the state negotiates pay and benefits for its employees. “I’ve said let’s get rid of civil service and let everything be collectively bargained, as long as collective bargaining is fair, tough, adversarial and there’s someone in that room representing you,” he said."

It's clear why he is popular among so many sensible conservatives.

Oscar Picks: Predictions and Hopes

2011-02-27T20:27:00.001-05:00

Best Picture

Prediction: Two film race, neither of which deserves it. King’s Speech is not the best history and quite predictable and formulaic. Excellent acting and the natural drama of the story make it a great movie, but not even close to this year’s best film. Social Network’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg is so absurd that it is tough for me to even consider that it might be the best film, despite it many excellent qualities. I would not mind seeing The Fighter pull off an upset, but I think King’s Speech wins. I still consider it a Pick’em.

Should: (I have not seen 127 Hours or Black Swan). Inception is one of the best and most innovative films in the past few decades. Incredibly complex, yet entirely coherent. Brilliantly written and directed. This is the film from this year that people will still be talking about decades from now.

Best Actor

Prediction: Colin Firth.

Should: Colin Firth was brilliant and is very deserving. Can’t comment on James Franco, but Firth tops the others.

Best Actress

Prediction: Natalie Portman.

Should: Natalie Portman, I assume. I know it’s not Annette Bening, whose performance is not even the best female performance in the movie for which she is nominated.

Best Director

Prediction: David Fincher over Tom Hooper. Or the opposite.

Should: David O. Russell, since Christopher Nolan, despite being one of the most worthy in the history of the awards, is not nominated. The Fighter was incredibly authentic (an attribute that I value very much) thanks to great acting and a great job by Russell. He dererves the credit for the feel of the movie, which is what really makes it excellent.

Supporting Actor

Prediction: Christian Bale

Should: Bale. Awesome performance. Rush would be very deserving. Renner is good enough for most years.

Supporting Actress

Prediction: Hailee Steinfeld

Should: Hailee Steinfeld, though she is the film’s protagonist. Deepest category of the night, full of excellent, worthy performances.

Original Screenplay

Prediction: David Seidler. Shoddy history ftw.

Should: Christopher Nolan. Actual art.

Adapted Screenplay

Prediction: Sorkin.

Should: Sorkin. Without his brilliant dialogue it’s hard to imagine this movie having a real chance to win the big one.

End 'last in, first out' teacher layoffs

2011-02-24T11:33:00.003-05:00

Michelle Rhee: "First, research indicates that when districts conduct seniority-based layoffs, we end up firing some of our most highly effective educators. These are the inspiring and powerful teachers that students remember for the rest of their lives, and our nation will lose more of them with every such layoff. Second, last in, first out policies increase the number of teachers that districts have to lay off. Because junior teachers make less money, schools will lose more teachers and more jobs as long as these policies are permitted by law. And finally, last in, first out disproportionately hurts the highest-need schools. These schools have larger numbers of new teachers, who are the first to lose their jobs in a layoff. High-income areas have more stable systems and fewer new teachers, and they are less impacted by budget cuts. Students who live in these poor areas can't afford to lose their best teachers on top of those cuts. Yet last in, first out will drain the school systems of their best educators in the neighborhoods that need them the most."

Shep Smith: Wisconsin Fight Has Nothing Do With Budget, All About Busting Unions

2011-02-24T10:46:00.000-05:00

If you think Scott Walker is being honest, even someone on Fox News thinks you don't have a clue.

Fr. James Martin's talk on Joy and the Spiritual Life at CUA

2011-02-22T17:18:00.000-05:00

Check out the video. So much fun and an extremely important message. My former students and those who have read my columns will see why I like it so much.

The Biebs- Pro-life, Pro-universal healthcare

2011-02-16T15:13:00.000-05:00

Biebs: "I really don't believe in abortion. ... It's like killing a baby?"..."You guys are evil. Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard's baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby's premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home."

"In The Land Of The Blind, Paul Ryan Is King"

2011-02-16T14:09:00.002-05:00

Great line from Jonathan Chait: "Ryan's reputation as an honest policy wonk is a curious thing. It must owe itself to the total dearth of elected Republicans who can even halfway plausibly bullshit their way through some numbers."

Co-sign. I love every Chait post on Paul Ryan (and also every post on Ayn Rand). I don't understand why every sensible commentator isn't saying what he is on these two.