Ta-Nehisi Coates finds grim comfort in the horrors of history; Kathleen Geier on how big banks use payday lenders to boost their own overdraft scam; Rosemary Radford Ruether on men's ordination; John McKay on economic populism; and Will Bunch looks at a teachable moment in Philadelphia. Read more
While the playing fields of Dodgertown were integrated in 1948, the rest of Vero Beach -- and the rest of spring training -- was not. This was still the segregated South. This was still Jim Crow. And it would stay that way for another 14 seasons -- until after the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles, until years after Jackie Robinson retired. Read more
That distinction, I think, clarifies why so many conversations about this topic and this question seem so confused and confusing. Those conversations take place between people in vastly different contexts, between people who identify with vastly different contexts. For those in the former context, this question seems rational, reasonable, and "understandable." For those in the latter context, it seems ridiculous and offensive. Read more
If anything good might have come from the ongoing horror show of the Catholic sex-abuse scandal and its coverup, I had thought it might be at least that other institutions could learn from it. The Catholic church was providing a vivid lesson in what not to do, and I had hoped that such a prominent, infamous example would be something other institutions would have to notice and to remember if they should ever discover abusers and predators within their own ranks. But no. Read more
A killer PSA about ID thieves and other charlatans, plus some Wednesday morning links, including: "Never forget that they were wrong;" humility should aid justice, not hinder it; incarnation; "a certain crossroads;" Spock chimes in; a shining city on a hill; why mosquitoes are winning; and what peanut butter can do to hotel plumbing. Read more
One factor that can drastically lower a person's credit score is if they are unemployed. This means that the mere fact that you need a job is now considered, by some companies, to be a reason not to give you one. Didn't poor people face enough Catch-22s already without these idiots having to invent a new one? Read more
What happened was an unmarried employee of San Diego Christian College turned up pregnant, so they fired her, allegedly for violating the "community covenant." But then they allegedly offered her old job to her fiancé -- the expectant father-to-be. If this woman had gotten an abortion, she'd still have her job. That's what San Diego Christian College apparently wanted her to do. That's certainly the incentive they've built into their "community covenant." Read more
I don't want to mock this child. She deserves more pity than scorn. She's parroting what she's been taught by wretched, hateful adults who have nurtured their hate and their ignorance until it is all they have left, all they treasure, all they need and want and desire. Their precious. Read more
Koop "interviewed experts and activists on both sides and found that even more so than in the debate over AIDS, anti-choicers skewed science to fit their point of view. After doing the research, he concluded that there: 'was no unbiased, rigorous scientific research on the effects of abortion on women’s health that could serve as the basis for a Surgeon General’s report on the issue.'" Read more
"Call me a bigot," says bigot; "Why not let God teach our children about sex?" asks a not-at-all creepy author; George Orwell warned us about this in "1994," says education expert; and other recent remarkable statements from our noble culture-warriors. Read more
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