Monthly Archives: May 2012

Chris Hayes, heroes, and ‘Catch 22’

Posted on May 31, 2012 by

Erik Kain at Mother Jones, defending MSNBC host Chris Hayes who, on Memorial Day weekend, was bombarded with insults after criticizing those who overuse the word “hero”: In transforming our soldiers or police automatically into “heroes” we ignore the atrocities … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, fiction, history, Iraq war, mainstream media | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Mittens must have loved NYT’s puff piece

Posted on May 24, 2012 by

In case you missed it: Jodi Kantor’s front-page story in Sunday’s New York Times, headlined “Romney’s Faith, Silent but Deep,” was one of the most cringe-worthy puff pieces about a political candidate published in recent memory. Read it and you’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in liar, mainstream media, Mitt Romney | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

South Philly saints come marchin’ in

Posted on May 20, 2012 by

This is in case you missed the May procession held today under a soul-piercing blue sky on Philly’s Italian Market. Kids in white suits and dresses, followed by statues of solitary saints on floats pushed by local parishioners, with a … Continue reading →

Posted in food, humor, livable cities, pop music | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Wall Street creep of the week

Posted on May 17, 2012 by

Even the grimmest fiction seems less depressing than many real-life news stories. For example, there’s that poor man in California who killed himself Sunday after a long, unsuccessful fight to avoid being evicted from his home by Wells Fargo, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Recession, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, Wall Street | 1 Comment

America colonized again

Posted on May 14, 2012 by

From The National Employment Law Project, May 10: Long-term unemployed workers in a growing list of states are being abruptly cut from federal unemployment insurance, a new analysis from the National Employment Law Project shows. Due to reductions Congress enacted … Continue reading →

Posted in economic collapse, globalization, mainstream media, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Wing nuts love Mom, too

Posted on May 13, 2012 by

Sara Robinson of Alternet had a good idea for a Mother’s Day column – “Ayn Rand-Loving Right Is Like Teen Boys Gone Crazy” — but she got carried away and ended up arguing that Randian conservatism is, more than anything … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

‘Get a job’ easy to say if you’ve got one

Posted on May 13, 2012 by

Paul Krugman recently noted a close resemblance between Ben Bernanke’s famously lame prediction about the economy — “I think as those green shoots begin to appear in different markets and as some confidence begins to come back that will begin … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, movies, unemployment | 1 Comment