A postscript to my comment on Paul Krugman: Apologizing to Japan | NYTimes

Postscript:

It is disappointing, to put it mildly, that in the day and age we live in, some people still readily equate racial homogeneity with a societal harmony. If anything, this is yet another sign that our knowledge of relatively recent history is fading and we badly need a refresher.

Continue reading A postscript to my comment on Paul Krugman: Apologizing to Japan | NYTimes

It’s Time to Rethink American Exceptionalism | David Bromwich ~ The Nation

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David Bromwich on October 24, 2014

The origins of the phrase “American exceptionalism” are not especially obscure. The French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville, observing this country in the 1830s, said that Americans seemed exceptional in valuing practical attainments almost to the exclusion of the arts and sciences. The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, on hearing a report by the American Communist Party that workers in the United States in 1929 were not ready for revolution, denounced “the heresy of American exceptionalism.” In 1996, the political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset took those hints from Tocqueville and Stalin and added some of his own to produce his book American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. The virtues of American society, for Lipset — our individualism, hostility to state action, and propensity for ad hoc problem-solving — themselves stood in the way of a lasting and prudent consensus in the conduct of American politics. Continue reading It’s Time to Rethink American Exceptionalism | David Bromwich ~ The Nation

The Rise of Celiac Disease Still Stumps Scientists | TIME

by Mandy Oaklander @mandyoaklander

This is your gut on gluten

Two new studies in the New England Journal of Medicine rocked the world of celiac research, both proving that scientists have a ways to go in their understanding of celiac disease, which affects about 1% of the population, whether they know it or not. Continue reading The Rise of Celiac Disease Still Stumps Scientists | TIME

Teenager’s mysterious death evokes painful imagery in North Carolina | The Guardian

Police say they have no evidence of foul play in the hanging death of black teenager Lennon Lacy. But in a case with disturbing racial overtones, his family are left with haunting questions. Continue reading Teenager’s mysterious death evokes painful imagery in North Carolina | The Guardian

Don Hazen: Apocalypse Now: Seriously, It Is Time for a Major Rethink About Liberal and Progressive Politics | Alternet

October 25, 2014

Don Hazen

As the Editor of  AlterNet for 20 years, I have read and seen the entire range of horrendous and growing problems we face as a society and globe virtually every day. It is not just climate change, or ISIL, or Ferguson, or poverty and homelessness, or more misogynistic murdering of women, or the Democrats about to lose the Senate as Obama gets more unpopular. It is much, much more. Every day. It passes by before my eyes. At AlterNet, there are no issue silos—there is just the open faucet of depressing political information coming and going every hour of every day (with the occasional story of success and inspiration).

Continue reading Don Hazen: Apocalypse Now: Seriously, It Is Time for a Major Rethink About Liberal and Progressive Politics | Alternet

John @NicholsUprising: #ScottWalker is the #Kochs’ model governor

October 21, 2014 6:45 am

Scott Walker is a model governor.

Not in every sense, as critics of the Wisconsin Republican’s anti-labor extremism, ethical lapses and failed experiments with economic austerity will remind you. But he is certainly a model governor in the eyes of billionaire conservative donors David and Charles Koch and their acolytes. This reality has led 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidates who seek the billionaire blessing — so essential for conservative politicians in state races — to make reverential references to Walker when appealing to the Koch brothers.

Continue reading John @NicholsUprising: #ScottWalker is the #Kochs’ model governor

The Cheapest Generation | The Atlantic

Why Millennials aren’t buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy

In 2009, Ford brought its new supermini, the Fiesta, over from Europe in a brave attempt to attract the attention of young Americans. It passed out 100 of the cars to influential bloggers for a free six-month test-drive, with just one condition: document your experience online, whether you love the Fiesta or hate it.

Young bloggers loved the car. Young drivers? Not so much. After a brief burst of excitement, in which Ford sold more than 90,000 units over 18 months, Fiesta sales plummeted. As of April 2012, they were down 30 percent from 2011. Continue reading The Cheapest Generation | The Atlantic

What If We Had Measured #Poverty Differently for the Past 50 Years? | CityLab

The Census’ Supplemental Poverty Measure paints a different picture of the poor and the social safety net.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan announced defeat at the hands of the “war on poverty“—a war his predecessor Lyndon Johnson had waged since 1967. InThe Atlantic the year after, Nicholas Lemann explained why all anti-poverty programs need not be as “ill-fated” as the ones spearheaded over those decades.

Continue reading What If We Had Measured #Poverty Differently for the Past 50 Years? | CityLab