Charlie Chaplin On Liberty

And because Charlie will always kick ass, here’s his speech in full, from The Great Dictator:

Corporate Welfare, Alive And Well

The Article: Corporate welfare, alive and well by Michael Hiltzik in The Los Angeles Times.

The Text: As a developer of shopping malls, including 22 in California, Westfield Group clearly takes its responsibilities to the consumer economy seriously.

The Australian company’s malls are typically well-designed and anchored by the finest department stores, such as Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom. The firm spends gobs of money to refurbish its older malls.

As a California taxpayer, you should be proud of Westfield’s efforts. That’s because you’re paying through the nose for them.

Continue Reading

This Is The Face Of Those Who Need The Safety Net

Make no mistake, for every cut that well-kept politicians make to the already tattered safety net, entire family livelihoods are affected. The American Dream is hanging on by a thread, and for some people–like the ones featured in this video–that consists of being able to turn on the lights and bathing in hot water.

How To Get Rich, According To The Rich

As you might imagine, it has nothing to do with the increased opportunities that privilege tends to afford you. Correspondingly, all poor people are poor because they are lazy, lack gumption and are constantly negative. Right?

Oprah’s Big Lie At Harvard

The Article: Oprah Lied at Harvard by Leon Wieseltier in The New Republic.

The Text: There is something special about the optimism of the very privileged. At Harvard not long ago, Oprah Winfrey spoke to the graduating class and, “address[ing] my remarks to anybody who has ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged, felt screwed by life,” uttered this memorable sentence: “There is no such thing as failure.” She immediately explained her strange assertion: “Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.” The experience of defeat, in other words, is an error of interpretation. Nothing is bad that is followed by something else. Nothing is bad unless you call it bad. Only death, on this account, is a defeat, since it is followed by nothing, though I suppose that in her quackery Winfrey believes in an afterlife in which she dwells for eternity between Tom Cruise and Maya Angelou at God’s Oscar party. As an example of the unreality of failure, Winfrey told a tale of personal adversity. When she launched her television network, it did not do well. “I was stressed and I was frustrated and quite frankly I was embarrassed.” But somehow she rose from the ashes. “I’m here today to tell I have turned that network around!” The audience in Harvard Yard must have fought back tears.

Continue Reading