Comparing Price Inequality’s Effects

Unbridled market forces aren’t always the best at ensuring shared health and welfare, but maybe that’s because they never meant to.

Re-Envisioning The Israeli Enemy In The Arab Spring

The Article: Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy by Abdulateef Al-Mulhim in Arab News.

The Text: Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 6, 1973, the third major war between the Arabs and Israel broke out. The war lasted only 20 days. The two sides were engaged in two other major wars, in 1948 and 1967.

The 1967 War lasted only six days. But, these three wars were not the only Arab-Israel confrontations. From the period of 1948 and to this day many confrontations have taken place. Some of them were small clashes and many of them were full-scale battles, but there were no major wars apart from the ones mentioned above. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the most complicated conflict the world ever experienced. On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people.

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The “Myth” Of Workplace Discrimination

Wait, I thought it was just cuz women are born from Adam’s rib or something like that. Check out more of Jen Sorensen’s comics here.

Votes Don’t Matter

The Article: Your vote doesn’t matter by Jonathan Bernstein in Salon.

The Text: Want to make the world change? Get involved – and that doesn’t mean voting.

This all comes from a little bloggy dust-up over the last couple of weeks. Conor Friedersdorf got lots of people riled up by saying that because of drone wars and other Obama administration civil liberties and national security actions he hates, he would not vote for Obama. Now, as a libertarian Friedersdorf has a natural candidate in Gary Johnson anyway. But the resulting debate has been quite interesting, with Friedersdorf maintaining that everyone has “deal-breakers” that would lead them to go third party even if they believe the candidate of their party would ultimately be better than the other party’s candidate, while others argue back that the only responsible choice is to vote for the lesser of two evils in almost any circumstance.

Perhaps the best of the arguments made in response to Friedersdrof was by Jamelle Bouie, who argues:

If you want the American political system to become more responsive to the concerns of civil libertarians, you have to make it more responsive. And you do that by utilizing the tremendous influence available to dedicated interests within the system. The two parties aren’t particularly centralized — they draw their talent and resources from smaller state parties, who in turn draw from local and county parties. It’s possible for a dedicated group of people to take control of a local party, field a candidate, win, and expand outwards. It’s hard work — and a lot of time and persuasion — but it can happen.

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Bibi Netanyahu’s Guide To Removing Countries

Israel would be a prime example of wiping countries off the map for good; after all, they’ve got the US on their side.