Browsing PBH By Articles

The 2013 Year In Review

The mayor ranted that he would kill Mike Tyson. He ranted he’d only need 10 minutes. Then only five.

The mayor confessed he smoked crack cocaine. “Probably in one of my drunken stupors.” He wasn’t sure which one. But one of them, anyway.

The mayor was black-mailed by gang members. They wanted $5,000 and a car for the video of him allegedly smoking crack cocaine. $150,000, for the other one.

And yet Toronto mayor Rob Ford was not arrested. He was not shot. He was not even impeached. Toronto mayor Rob Ford was more popular than ever. His approval ratings spiked up 3% since his crack admission—higher than President Barack Obama’s, according to a Forum Research survey of 1,049 Toronto voters. He even mulled running for Canadian Prime Minister.

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A Former US Drone Program Employee Speaks Out

The Article: I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on by Heather Linebaugh in The Guardian.

The Text: Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them a few questions. I’d start with: “How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?” And: “How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?” Or even more pointedly: “How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?”

Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.

I knew the names of some of the young soldiers I saw bleed to death on the side of a road. I watched dozens of military-aged males die in Afghanistan, in empty fields, along riversides, and some right outside the compound where their family was waiting for them to return home from the mosque.

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Stop Fawning Over Pope Francis At The Expense Of Women And Gay Rights

The Article: Stop Fawning Over Pope Francis at the Expense of Women and Gay Rights by James Bloodworth in The New Republic.

The Text: Just as some atheists and agnostics long to believe in God, many are more than a little keen to see the best side of the pious, as the bizarre discussion over the Pope’s alleged ‘Marxism’ demonstrates. Even if they themselves don’t believe a word of scripture, many liberals wish to see something of their own politics reflected in the outlook of the Catholic Church—hence the repeated references in recent weeks to the “progressive” Pope and the overrated idea of “liberation theology.”

It is predictable that the reactionary politics of the new Pope should be played down by liberal Catholics in favour of his musings on social justice and global capitalism. What’s so depressing has been the extent to which liberal non-believers have fallen so hook, line and sinker for what is in reality nothing more than a clever repackaging exercise.

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Jesus: Free Marketeer, Socialist, Or Communist?

The Article: From Jesus’ socialism to capitalistic Christianity by Gregory Paul in The Washington Post.

The Text: A truly strange thing has happened to American Christianity. A set of profound contradictions have developed within modern conservative Christianity, big and telling inconsistencies that have long slipped under the radar of public knowledge, and are only now beginning to be explicitly noted by critics of the religious and economic right.

Here is what is peculiar. Many conservative Christians, mostly Protestant but also a number of Catholics, have come to believe and proudly proclaim that the creator of the universe favors free wheeling, deregulated, union busting, minimal taxes especially for wealthy investors, plutocrat-boosting capitalism as the ideal earthly scheme for his human creations. And many of these Christian capitalists are ardent followers of Ayn Rand, who was one of – and many of whose followers are — the most hard-line anti-Christian atheist/s you can get. Meanwhile many Christians who support the capitalist policies associated with social Darwinistic strenuously denounce Darwin’s evolutionary science because it supposedly leads to, well, social Darwinism!

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The 6 Most Absurd Christian Conspiracy Theories About The ‘War on Christmas’

The Article: 6 Most Absurd Christian Conspiracy Theories About the Nonexistent ‘War on Christmas’ by Rob Boston in AlterNet.

The Text: It’s an article of faith among the Religious Right that there’s a war on Christmas underway in the United States. Shoppers would be hard-pressed to see evidence of this seasonal conflict, as anyone who stared mystified at stores decked out with Christmas garlands even before Halloween can testify. Christmas would seem as ubiquitous as ever. Nevertheless, every year groups like the American Family Association, the Liberty Counsel and others, aided and abetted by the zealous elves at the Fox News Channel, spread horrific tales of state-sponsored yuletide banishment.

This year they have help: Sarah Palin’s new book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas, is burning up bestseller lists. The tome recycles several Religious Right claims about the war on Christmas, but in typical Palin style, the hard evidence remains thinner than dollar-store wrapping paper.

What’s really going on? I’ve been an unwilling combatant in this conflict since it was hatched by the Religious Right some years ago. Believe me, there’s less here than meets the eye—much less.

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