I am late for MLK’s birthday’s anniversary. It happened a week ago according to a record source I have seen. MLK’s real birthdate occurred on January 15, 1929. Every year we are reminded of the contributions that Martin Luther King, Jr. made to our society. What I fear now is that we are doing it wrong.
Tag: america
Democracy: Holy Mob Rule
Holy Pole Quilt isn’t the only vulgar thing considered holy by “American” government supremacists. Many have joined the international cult of democracy worshippers. They worship Holy Mob Aggression.
Two-and-a-Half Cheers for Elizabeth Warren’s Student Debt Plan
There’s a strong historical correlation between easy availability of student loans and soaring costs of a college or university education. It’s basic economics. By artificially lowering loan risk to direct money at a good or service, government increases debt and drives up the price of that good or service.
Elitism for Everybody
While not everyone is great, everyone can be. This may be my most American idea. As Gordon Wood argues in American Characters, we live in a populist country founded by elitists: a strange twist in history that has given to a mass population personal role models who had extraordinary (if flawed) personal character.
It’s Not Just Trump Supporters: Politics is a Pile of Shared Psychoses
Dr. Bandy Lee, a psychiatrist affiliated with Yale University, posits a “‘shared psychosis’ among just about all of Donald Trump’s followers.” This particular version of the claim has a pretty thin basis, but it’s not incorrect. The big problem with it is that it’s too narrow. Donald Trump isn’t some lone Typhoid Mary of “shared psychosis,” nor are his supporters its only victims. Politics as we know it is made up almost entirely of shared psychoses.
Black America Before LBJ: How the Welfare State Inadvertently Helped Ruin Black Communities
The dust has settled and the evidence is in: The 1960s Great Society and War on Poverty programs of President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) have been a colossal and giant failure. One might make the argument that social welfare programs are the moral path for a modern government. They cannot, however, make the argument that these are in any way effective at alleviating poverty.
Trump versus Iran: Power Doesn’t Just Corrupt, it Deludes
The claim of such absolute power has been the tacit US doctrine of foreign relations since at least as far back as the end of World War Two. America emerged from that war as the world’s sole nuclear power and, unlike other combatant countries, with its wealth virtually unscathed and its industrial capacity increased rather than demolished. Its rulers saw themselves as able, and entitled, to dictate terms to almost everyone, on almost everything.
Alvaro Vargas Llosa: Liberty for Latin America, How to Undo 500 Years of State Oppression (1h32m)
This episode features a lecture by political journalist Alvaro Vargas Llosa from 2005. He talks about the many themes in his book of the same title concerning the problems that Central and South America have faced for centuries.
#GIRLBOSS Author Left School, Built $100 Million Company
She went from selling vintage used clothing on eBay to running a 350-person, $100 million apparel company, Nasty Gal, in eight years.
Unshakable Faith in The State
Had Germany won WWII, would my parents have grown up to be loyal Nazis? Believing the Bible told them that God had put that government over them and it was their duty to obey and be good citizens?