A tendency toward the militaristic. An obsession with the individual and a phobia of the state. Sometimes, as The Pew Research Center shows, stereotypes on American values are true. Survey conductors randomly sampled 1,000 individuals from each country included in the study (and there are five of them); and the results are quite compelling:
The Article: No, thanks: Stop saying “support the troops” by Steven Salaita in Salon.
The Text: My 16-month-old son was having a bad day. When he doesn’t sleep in the car, he usually points and babbles his approval of all the wonderful things babies notice that completely escape adult attention. On this afternoon, though, he was teething and hungry, a lethal scenario for an energetic youngster strapped into a high-tech seating apparatus (approved and installed, of course, by the state).
When it became clear he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, sleep it out, my wife and I stopped at a nondescript exit, the kind one finds every six miles in the South, with two gas stations and three abandoned buildings (if you’re lucky, you also get a Hampton Inn and Cracker Barrel). While she tended to the baby, I entered a convenience store — one of those squat, glass and plastic rectangles that looks like a Sears & Roebuck erector set — praying it would have something other than beer, cigarettes and beef jerky.
I settled on two Kraft mozzarella sticks, resisting the urge to purchase for myself a shiny red can of Four Loko.
So yes, this video is obviously satire, but the group being satirized–Southern California Edison–is not, nor is its level of crazy. So incensed by the video Edison demanded that it be taken down immediately, saying:
“Specifically, the video, entitled Edison Hates Rooftop Solar, misrepresents itself as an Edison video and claims that Edison wants to “keep solar panels” off customers’ roofs through a “business plan” to “force” customers to buy “dirty energy” from “dirty power plants” that “poison poor communities.” The video claims that Edison is “spending big on Latino politicians” to make installing solar panels on customers’ roofs more expensive and discourage customers from installing solar panels.”
Suffice it to say that since you can watch the video now, no one has listened. Keep on keepin’ on, corporate dissenters.
Add to this the fact that many cops are effectively incentivized to make as many arrests as possible a month–and it’s a lot easier to handcuff a man for nonviolent drug crimes than it is to crack down on violent, life-ending ones–and you’ve got one bitter and bottomless cocktail that disproportionately impacts minorities and the poor. Drug abuse is a symptom of a larger set of problems–namely poverty and systemic segregation–not the cause.
If you want to learn about the failed (or pending how much money and DC-influence you desire, “successful”) drug war, be sure to watch Eugene Jarecki’s “The House I Live In”. Check out the trailer below:
The Article: “Indescribably insane”: A public school system from hell by Aaron Kase in Salon.
The Text: Want to see a public school system in its death throes? Look no further than Philadelphia. There, the school district is facing end times, with teachers, parents and students staring into the abyss created by a state intent on destroying public education.
On Thursday the city of Philadelphia announced that it would be borrowing $50 million to give the district, just so it can open schools as planned on Sept. 9, after Superintendent William Hite threatened to keep the doors closed without a cash infusion. The schools may open without counselors, administrative staff, noon aids, nurses, librarians or even pens and paper, but hey, kids will have a place to go and sit.
The $50 million fix is just the latest band-aid for a district that is beginning to resemble a rotting bike tube, covered in old patches applied to keep it functioning just a little while longer. At some point, the entire system fails.
