Michael Sam And The New America

The Article: Michael Sam and the new America by Frida Ghitis in CNN ONline.

The Text: When a massive, muscle-bound American football player announced this weekend that he is gay, we watched yet another brick crumble in the monolith of American prejudice. To some, Michael Sam’s words might have come as a shock, but most Americans know the country is in the midst of a fundamental social shift, one that conjures images of a different place.

Where? Well, if you traveled from the United States to the Netherlands a few years ago, what you saw — and smelled — in the streets of ultra-liberal Amsterdam probably shocked you. Young people smoking joints in an open-air café, gay couples holding hands on the streets and people of all ages not batting an eye about any of it gave U.S. visitors a novel and exotic experience.

Back then, the United States and the Netherlands stood on opposite sides of the front line of the social wars. Not anymore. It’s not because the Netherlands has changed. It is the United States, the American people, who have changed.
The transformation in U.S. public opinion, increasingly reflected in legislation, has narrowed what was an enormous gap between the two countries. Change is coming at such a fast, accelerating rate that one wonders, is America turning into the Netherlands?

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Bill Nye Dispels Poverty Myths

Take notes, everyone.

Rick Perry…Actually Making Sense

Now that being pro-legalization is #trendy and politically viable, even the most backward of political “thinkers” are jumping on the green wagon.

The Myth Of ‘Traditional Marriage’

The Article: The Myth of ‘Traditional Marriage’ by Steve Chapman in Reason.

The Text: In the battle over same-sex marriage, opponents are strongly in favor of deferring to the wisdom of our ancestors. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence uses the prevailing formula when he says, “I support traditional marriage.” The Christian Coalition of America urges its friends to “Say ‘I Do’ to Traditional Marriage.”

They have friends on the Supreme Court. In arguments over a California ban on gay marriage, Justice Samuel Alito expressed reservations about abandoning time-honored arrangements. “Traditional marriage has been around for thousands of years,” he said, while same-sex marriage is “newer than cell phones or the Internet.”

Invoking age-old customs has not served to convince the American people, most of whom now favor letting gays wed. But then Americans have rarely rallied to the idea that we should do something just because that’s what was done in the time of Henry VII or even George Washington.

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What “Global Development” Really Means

Sometimes, the nation’s “best and brightest” just means those most apt to promote and follow through on the shittiest ideas.