Why Must We Always Unite in Grief?!

If one looks at America today and takes the speeches and images of the memorial in Arizona as the representative images of the entire nation, one would think we were the most united place on earth. I can think of only one other moment in my lifetime and recent memory when we acted similarly: after the events of September 11, 2001. If I think hard, then other events come to mind and, sadly for us, they are all lugubrious events.

We, as a nation, always seem to unite in the aftermath of tragedy and terror; we praise our freedoms, condemn the perpetrators who violate them, and shake hands with enemies political, ideological, or otherwise. We immediately follow these scenes with self-given praise on our ability to unite and overlook our differences, only to return to and dwell on those differences when positive superlatives we attribute to ourselves and our leaders have been exhausted. Once again, we become disrobed of our good-natured tendencies and are left in the nakedness of our seemingly irreconcilable differences. Political attacks ensue; accusations of all sorts fly about; commentators and other loudmouths pontificate and incite division, anger, and violence; and, as a nation, we once again lose our ability (or willingness) to come together in civil discourse and discuss our differences, accept one-another as free citizens of a country of which we are supposedly proud. We promptly fail to accept and allow diverging opinions or true bilateral compromise. Most deplorably, however, we fail to accept or allow to work the mechanics of our democracy. Instead, we become the hypocrites and charlatans we eagerly criticize in others.

Why must we always unite in grief?!

I look forward to being proved wrong on this ominous observation.

Reality Check

The picture tells it all: Look at who gets the biggest slice of the pie:

Let's all thank Reagan and successors, everybody! Image source and more info here.

Makes you think of that Leonard Cohen song, doesn't it?

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

The poor stay poor and the rich get rich

That's how it goes...

And everybody knows....

(Found via)

Injustice we trust

The Economist has a couple of articles on America's justice and prison system, one of which gives an overlook of their general problems in comparison with those of our peers, and the other is a more detailed briefing of their current state and the contributing factors that go with it.

That's How It Goes...

... and everybody knows: In the words of Leonard Cohen, 'the poor get poor and the rich get rich.'

I forgot where I found this, but a series of fifteen charts highlights the growing gap between the rich and the poor in this country. It shows, among other things, that we are no better today than we were in 1972, and that our peers such as France are closing the gap as we are widening it.

And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a sample:

The Power of Comparison

Ever wonder which states give more than they get back from the Federal Government?

Wonder no longer (click for larger view):

As my source observes, it bears a striking resemblance to another map:

What Bunning's Butting In Causes

Doctors cannot get reimbursed for Medicare, thanks to a recalcitrant senator from Kentucky. Not to mention the millions who rely on unemployment benefits across the nation who are now left high and dry.

Humanities Alive and Kicking?

That's what these two articles would have you believe.

Not only are the numbers of Humanities majors growing to levels not seen since the sixties, but they are doing so in a time of continuous decline in tenure-track positions.

Un-Patriotic and Un-American

'Un-patriotic' and 'un-American' are two terms I cringe at, whether they come from the left or from the right. To use one or the other is to appeal to an undefined audience that can accept or deny the qualifiers at its whims.

Similarly, it is used so freely and subjectively by politicians and commentators that it has lost whatever trace of objective sense it used to possess. Furthermore, the use of the qualifiers purports to suggest that what is American and what is patriotic is fixed—or was fixed—at the inception of the United States. America is nothing if not adaptable and capable of evolving with the times, despite the efforts of certain groups that try to hold it back. Trying to make the reductionistic claim that it is supposed to be what it has always been is tantamount to claiming erroneously that the United States is a Christian country that was founded, developed, and is supposed to be run and inherited exclusively by Christians.

Wanna Save Traditional Marriage?

Let gays marry. Seriously. In Massachusetts, where same-sex marriages have been allowed for the past five years, divorce rates are the lowest in the country. Not only that, but they are also at the same level as in 1940.

Queer, ain't it?

I knew that the argument that same-sex marriages would destroy traditional marriage were all fallacious, but this really packs a punch....

Way to go, Massachusetts! Lead the way and give the rest of the country a taste of what is progressive.

(Found via The Daily Dish)

On Vice

The Economist reports that violent crime has fallen in the past two years, as well as in the first half of 2009 in comparison with the same period last year.

When it comes to drinking, we know it's a big problem in college campuses in the United States. However, when it comes to teenage drinking, Brits take the lead and the U.S. a more modest position.

Ever wonder how Americans fare on the Seven Deadly Sins? Take a look. The Bible Belt sure is in trouble.... And, unsurprisingly Southern California is a hub of greed.

Image Source

Professions in America

A graphic called Job Voyager shows the evolution of professions in America from the 1850s until today.

Behold, the bartender:

(Via Matthew Yglesias)

Gayning Ground

A few strides have been made in the past week on gay rights, mostly in the Northeast. They are not clear-cut, though, and resistance to them is also growing.

The start of September 1 in Vermont signaled that state's recognition of same-sex marriages, prompting certain couples to take advantage of it immediately. The change was not that welcomed for representatives of the Westboro Baptist Church in Montpelier, VT, who themselves faced a crowd of supporters of same-sex marriage. To celebrate the occasion, Vermont's 'gayest duo,' Ben and Jerry of Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, changed the name of their Chubby Hubby ice-cream to 'Hubby Hubby' and offered free scoops of it around the state.

Meanwhile, opponents of same-sex marriage in Maine, which is supposed to start allowing those marriages on September 12, have gathered enough petition signatures to put a measure on the ballot in a November election, which would overturn the decision to allow same-sex marriages. Their efforts are met with resistance, however, as supporters of same-sex marriage have raised their own groups advocating the upholding of the decision. As an NPR report states, battle lines are drawn in this upcoming election. The NPR audio on the issue is below.

Proponents of same-sex marriage have also launched an ad campaign on television, appealing to the independent nature of Maine residents, hoping to garner their votes when the issue goes on the ballot. One of these ads is below.

Despite all these advances, gay rights advocates are not satisfied with president Obama's performance on the issue, claiming that he is not working fast enough on national issues such as Don't Ask, Don't Tell, or the Defense of Marriage Act.

On a national level, Congress is closer to passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, protecting LGBT individuals from discrimination at work because of their sexual preference or gender identity.

Fidel Castro is Right

The American right wing does hate Obama because he is black.

Its representatives have tried and are still trying to portray him as an outsider from the moment he became a serious contender for the presidency. We had Sarah Palin and her nutty followers who screamed 'terrorist,' 'muslim,' and 'Arab,' disregarding both facts and geography and thereby showing their ignorance and bigotry. Nowadays many others, so-called 'birthers,' are questioning his status as a natural-born citizen of the United States.

All those who still propagate these rumors and promulgate the idea that he is not a natural-born citizen, un-american, a terrorist, a muslim, or a socialist are simply racists and demagogues who are coping very badly with their fears of a more equal-opportunity America.

The Unequal States of America

Do not take this to mean that I am for redistribution of wealth, but news of the inequalities made possible by the Bush years in terms of wealth and income in the United States are a sobering reminder of the kind of taxation and regulation under Republicans that led to a deeper and darker chasm between economic classes in the U.S., and also to the recession we are still fighting.

The New York Times reports that the rich are finally beginning to feel the consequences of a recession. Not surprisingly, the lower-income brackets are usually the first to suffer, for lack of a cushioning mattress of money, if you will.

The Nation analyzes the numbers a little and informs us that during the expansion of the Bush years was only an expansion for the very, very wealthy, whereas the rest of us not only lingered, but lagged behind and actually lost money.

Americans on Gay Issues

Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com has analyzed data from 1994 until 2008 about Americans' attitudes on gay issues.

His post on his website shows people's stance on questions such as gay marriage and laws protecting gays, while trying to relate them to whether the individual personally knows a gay person or not.

Some surprising results and attitudes, I must say....

The Frankness of Barney Frank

A friend of mine posted this video of Rep. Barney Frank at a town hall meeting, showing his answers to allegations of nazism, etc. in the healthcare reform bill. (Thank you, A.S.)

I later found a list of nine more Barney Frank videos on this Buzzfeed page, showing him during other outbursts on television. If you have time, some of them are a lot of fun to watch. My favorite among them:

The State of Public Discourse in America

I found the video below on the Huffington Post website. It shows two participants at a town-hall meeting organized by a conservative radio host in Las Vegas—I don't know exactly who. The first is a Jewish Israeli man going on and on about how Israeli healthcare is much better than that of the United States, and how Israel is better at other things, too. As he speaks, a woman yells out 'Heil Hitler!' off-camera and the man stops and begins to address it. It goes on for a while. The man yells 'shame of [sic] you,' the woman says he needs to criticize Obama, she mocks his healthcare complaints, he keeps yelling—very, very sad on so many levels....

America's Voice on Healthcare

For a few weeks now, Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish (yes, I read conservative bloggers, too) has been culling and publishing accounts from readers on their experiences with healthcare in the United States. Today, he (or his substitute, rather) posted a collection of all those accounts on one page for practical viewing. It is definitely worth taking a look at.

His readers' feedback has been mixed at times, but the overall tone has been one of dissatisfaction. Most of them describe trials and tribulations stemming from the current state of the system, rather than appreciation for it.

The Case for Bicycles

This article in Slate magazine highlights the need for bicycle parking places across America. According to the author, the lack of bicycle racks alongside car parking is the primary obstacle for their use in the United States. I somewhat agree, but I cannot ignore how deeply entrenched car-driving is in the American psyche and culture. The massive size of the country, its long expansion west, the early development of the automotive industry, and the entire infrastructure built to support it all favor car-driving to the detriment of bicycles.

Gun-Toting

There's been a rise in participants who carry guns at rallies and meetings by president Obama. We all know what it means. We all know that they're being more than suggestive, however much they might insist that it is their right to carry guns wherever they go.

If you ask me, the guy who first did it in New Hampshire was simply an ignorant who chose to speak with an intimation (or outright incitement) of violence against the president. All others who have done and will continue to do so subsequently, such as this guy, are simply copycats and just as ignorant. A gun does not belong in the public discourse, it does not belong in a democratic gathering where you are invited to listen to policy-makers and to voice your opinion. If you cannot express yourself rationally and in a civilized manner, do not rely on your gun to speak for you. It says something about what you have to say and how you choose to say it... and it ain't good....