Does American Plutocracy Have Any Limits?

Amazing.

First they got the banks deregulated, then they made obscene, unsustainable profitscrashed the economy, got bailed outwith billions of dollars of taxpayer money, threw a record number of people out of their homeslaid people off, cut workers’ hours to part time, overworked the remaining full timers grateful to still have jobs, made record profits, created hardly any new jobs, and NOW they’ve had the gall and the power to get the House of Representatives to vote to eliminate the rules guaranteeing time and a half pay for overtime doing certain jobs.

How long until the plutocrats stop running this country? What is it going to take to stop them?

Your Thoughts?

A Sickening Act of Violence Has Struck Us Today

An act of sickening violence has occurred. Let’s keep our hearts with the victims and our minds vigilantly on the look out for ways we can proactively help them. And let’s especially remember not to be hasty about posting unsubstantiated rumors and accusations and speculations about who is behind this or about the full nature of what has happened today, whether ideologically or factually. Fear mongering, hate mongering, warmongering, and conspiracy-mongering all begin with rumormongering. So, let’s hold our bars for evidence and for justice as high as they should always be and focus on our compassion for all innocent people, including those who others might treat with guilt by association.

Rick Warren’s Son Has Committed Suicide

After years of struggling with clinical depression, Rick Warren’s 27 year old son Matthew has committed suicide. Rick Warren released a statement: “Matthew was an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, he also suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and [...]

A Hero Teacher Tells Her Story of How She Protected Her Students

A heartbreaking interview with a teacher who hid her elementary school students in a bathroom to save their lives while a shooter stalked her school.

Coloring the 2012 Electoral Map by County, Population Density, and Partisan Split

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Chris Howard colors the electoral map to reflect the degree to which each county is red, blue, or purple—and populated or not.

Camels With Hammers Liveblogging 2012 Election

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2:44 am: The real winner of the night, is rational, evidence based thinking. As the mainstream pundits kept insisting this race was too close to call and a nail biter, Nate Silver just kept making arguments based on legitimate numbers run through rational models. And the outcome so far is looking to be 100% as [...]

Study Finds That Free Birth Control Leads To Fewer Abortions

A question for Catholics: even if you think that it is less than ideal that people have sex that deliberately is not aimed at children, do you think that this supposed evil is actually so important an evil to prevent at all costs such that you would risk more abortions (which you think are murders) than permit it or at least accept public support for it?

Liveblogging The Obama-Romney Domestic Policy Debate!!

My responses to the debate as recorded in real time for posterity.

Arrested For A Mean Tweet?

If this is all the relevant information, this English arrest seems unjust to me: After coming fourth in the men’s synchronised 10m platform diving event on Monday, the 18-year-old from Plymouth received a message telling him he had let down his father, Rob. Rob Daley died in May 2011 from brain cancer. A 17-year-old boy [...]

Is Religious Circumcision of Male Infants Morally Defensible?

Last month a court in Cologne, Germany ruled against allowing the circumcision of children too young to give consent. CBS News summarized the facts: a German court ruled that circumcision infringes on a child’s right to be protected from bodily harm. The regional court in Cologne said that circumcision went against the “fundamental right of [...]