13 Great Quotes On Economic Inequality

A 2011 study by the CBO found that the top 1 percent of households gained about 275% after federal taxes and income transfers over a period between 1979 and 2007, compared to a gain of just under 40% for the 60 percent in the middle of America’s income distribution. Income inequality today is just as bad as it was in 1929, and yet only 42% of Americans think it has increased. If there is anything to be hopeful about, it’s that this isn’t a new problem; societies have been dealing with this for eons. With that said, here are some of the best insights to the nature of the beast, ranging all the way from Plato to Teddy Roosevelt.

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How The Supreme Court Needs To Rule On Gay Marriage

The Article: How the Supreme Court Should Rule on Gay Marriage by Emily Bazelon in Slate.

The Text: The court challenge to California’s ban on gay marriage has made me nervous since it began. The case, which the Supreme Court will hear at the end of this month, makes the argument that banning gay marriage violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law, full stop. Amen to that. But in a world in which 41 states still ban gay marriage, it was asking a lot of the courts—and especially of Justice Anthony Kennedy, the oh-so-sought-after swing justice—to award gay couples the right to marry across the country. With polls quickly shifting in the direction of gay rights, why turn to the least democratic method of social change? And it bothered me that this challenge came not from seasoned gay-rights lawyers, but from two superstars of the bar, David Boies and Ted Olson, who swooped in on their own.

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The Top 25 Creationist Fallacies

Watch. Take notes. Spread the word and fight stupidity.

The Relationship Between Immigration And Climate Change

The global north comprises a measly 15% of the world population, owns 80% of the wealth and releases 70% of its carbon emissions. As luck would have it, those feeling climate change’s effects the most are some of the world’s most vulnerable. And yet we still greet them with dogged antipathy. Nice, North.

The Founding Fathers’ Wisdom On Drones

I’m sure they’re watching the bombs drop from heaven and smiling. For even more of our constitutional patron saints’ (satirized) thoughts on gun control, check out The New Yorker.