One of the more interesting speculations here is that one reason the USA is so much more religious than the rest of the Western world is that a large percentage of churches in the US would not be able to afford to operate if they were not directly or indirectly subsidized by everyone else. The numbers here are surprising.
For those interested, this issue has some excellent articles on debunking the current claims that the USA was founded as a Christian nation, constitution and all, as well as the historical debates about that; many which sound very familiar today.
Is this view in Egypt really that that unique, given all the wars on religion rampant in the USA?/
[Link: www.usatoday.com...]
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Tuesday upheld a conviction against one of the Arab world's most famous comedians, sentencing him to jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films.
The case against Adel Imam and others like it have raised concerns among some Egyptians that ultraconservative Muslims who made gains in recent elections after Hosni Mubarak's ouster last year are trying to foist their religious views on the entire country. Critics say the trend threatens to curb Egypt's vibrant film industry and freedom of speech.
Imam was sentenced to three months in jail and fined around $170 for insulting Islam in roles he played in movies such as "The Terrorist", in which he acted the role of a wanted terrorist who found refuge with a middle class, moderate family, and the film "Terrorism and Kabab. "
This is what the Tea Party and the GOP want./
"There is a crisis of authority, and we're not prepared to think about it in these terms," said Fukuyama. "When Americans think about the problem of government, it is always about constraining the government and limiting its scope." That dates back to our founding political culture. The rule of law, regular democratic rotations in power and human rights protections were all put in place to create obstacles to overbearing, overly centralized government. "But we forget," Fukuyama added, "that government was also created to act and make decisions."
"If we are to get out of our present paralysis, we need not only strong leadership, but changes in institutional rules," argues Fukuyama. These would include eliminating senatorial holds and the filibuster for routine legislation and having budgets drawn up by a much smaller supercommittee of legislators — like those that handle military base closings — with "heavy technocratic input from a nonpartisan agency like the Congressional Budget Office," insulated from interest group pressures and put before Congress in a single, unamendable, up-or-down vote.
I know what you're thinking: "That will never happen." And do you know what I'm thinking? "Then we will never be a great a country again, no matter who is elected." We can't be great as long as we remain a vetocracy rather than a democracy. Our deformed political system — with a Congress that's become a forum for legalized bribery — is now truly holding us back.
This is self explanatory, for those who think, for example, that the Learning Channel actually teaches./
Here is an obviously "liberal" opinion on this matter, but if logic in the real world is worth anything, he is right.
My fellow americans, your health care is now in the hands of the right-wing majority of the Supreme Court. These are the folks who disgraced themselves in Bush v. Gore and who auctioned off democracy in the Citizens United decision. You thought it was bad when Congress and the insurance companies were making health-care policy? Wait till you see what five Republican lawyers can do.
I have a law degree. I passed the bar. I know what Justice Alito is trying to do: reductio ad absurdum. He is probing the limits of Congress's constitutional power. But here in the real world he's wasting our time. And he's pissing us off.
Civic Freeloaders: People who have insurance are being overcharged to cover free riders who think they'll never get sick—like Mary Brown, the small businesswoman who filed the original lawsuit asserting her right not to buy health insurance. 'She firmly believes that no one should have the right to tell her she has to use her own money to pay for health insurance,' Karen Harned, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business legal center, said two years ago when NFIB filed the lawsuit on Brown's behalf. But Brown is no longer the named plaintiff. Why? Because NFIB dropped her when the real world intruded. She got sick. The bills came due. And without health insurance, she went bankrupt. She had to close her auto-repair shop. And she stiffed her doctors and hospital—leaving folks who were more responsible than she to cover her uncompensated care.
The Catholic bishops' new 'religious liberty' campaign jeopardizes the rights of all Americans, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
In a statement issued today, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called on every diocese in the country to engage in a 'Fortnight for Freedom' during the two weeks leading up to the Fourth of July. Parishioners will be asked to study, pray and take action about alleged infringements on religious liberty.
A letter from former administrators, astronauts, and engineers at NASA expressing climate change scepticism does not deserve parity with the agency's peer-reviewed climate scientists.
Almost exactly two years ago, John Cook wrote about the 5 characteristics of science denialism. The second point on the list involved fake experts.
"These are individuals purporting to be experts but whose views are inconsistent with established knowledge. Fake experts have been used extensively by the tobacco industry who developed a strategy to recruit scientists who would counteract the growing evidence on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke."
We have seen many examples of climate denialists producing long lists of fake experts, for example the Oregon Petition and the Wall Street Journal 16. Now we have yet another of these lists of fake experts. 49 former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) employees (led by Harrison Schmitt, who was also one of the Wall Street Journal 16) have registered their objection to mainstream climate science through the most popular medium of expressing climate contrarianism - a letter. As is usually the case in these climate contrarian letters, this one has no scientific content, and is written by individuals with not an ounce of climate science expertise, but who nevertheless have the audacity to tell climate scientists what they should think about climate science.
It's worth noting that when the signatories Meet The Denominator, as is also always the case, their numbers are revealed as quite unimpressive. For example, over 18,000 people currently work for NASA. Without even considering the pool of retired NASA employees (all signatories of this list are former NASA employees), just as with the Oregon Petition, the list accounts for a fraction of a percent of the available pool of people.
This letter, as these letters always do, has gone viral in the climate denial blogosphere, and even in the climate denial mainstream media (Fox News). But why exactly is this letter being treated as major news? That is something of a mystery. Or it would be, if the behavior of the climate denial community weren't so predictable.
Homophobes should consider a little self-reflection, suggests a new study finding those individuals who are most hostile toward gays and hold strong anti-gay views may themselves have same-sex desires, albeit undercover ones.
The prejudice of homophobia may also stem from authoritarian parents, particularly those with homophobic views as well, the researchers added.
"This study shows that if you are feeling that kind of visceral reaction to an out-group, ask yourself, 'Why?'" co-author Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, said in a statement. "Those intense emotions should serve as a call to self-reflection."
The research, published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, reveals the nuances of prejudices like homophobia, which can ultimately have dire consequences. [The 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors]
Of course some aren't molded by authoritarian parents so much as an authoritarian god.//
The real causes of income inequality
This is a half page opinion given for free by the WSJ to the GOP, and I believe it is a blatant lie, and I mean blatant, with much smoke and mirrors and pretend economic crap.
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it (as they used to say), is to verify or debunk my basic assertions listed below.
In a nutshell, this article by ex Texas Senator Gramm and Mr. McMillin from another "think tank" called U.S. Policy Metrics makes claims that I believe are both wrong numerically, and deliberately framed so as to be even more wrong by being misread.
I list only part of their number manipulation for illustration, but only part is needed to prove a lie.
Gramm states that Sweden collects 28.5% of it's GDP from income taxes (the USA is now about 16%). He then proceeds to say that the top 10% of tax payers contribute 7.6% and the bottom 90% pay 20.9% (he says get "hit by a backbreaking").
One might very likely think that means that the bottom 90% are taxed at almost 3 times the rate of the rich, and he in fact continues to say that if the USA taxed in this way then the bottom 90% would have their taxes doubled.
I call bullshit.
He ignores completely the disparity in wealth ownership between the USA and the countries he compares with and he suggests, deceptively by wording, that the percentages above are real tax rates, not contributions to the total percentage of GDP. My numbers come from Google searches and I have normalized to 20%-80% comparisons since most clear numbers available online were for 20%, not 10% . Differences between data years and sources may give somewhat different results, but I believe the primary principles remain the same. If you care to do the same comparisons for 10%-90% as Gramm did, feel free.
In Sweden 20% of the people own 32% of the wealth, and pay 27% of the total tax revenue. 80% own 68% and pay 73% of taxes.
In the USA 20% of the people own 84% of the wealth, and pay 64% of the total tax revenue. 80% own 16% and pay 36% of taxes.
In short, in the USA those who own the least pay more than twice the tax rate on their wealth than the rich do, whereas in Sweden the income tax contributions are within a few percentage points of the actual wealth owned.
This is completely the opposite of what Senator Gram, GOP, suggests in this WSJ opinion and I call liar liar pants on fire because people who run "businesses" called U.S. Policy Metrics must know they are liars.
Your opinions will be appreciated.
The GOP argument is that deficits lead to unemployment, not austerity and that the only way to increase employment is to hit bottom and climb up, naturally, when the job creators see wages drop enough./
Euro zone unemployment just hit a 15-year high. German unemployment just hit a 15-year low. What can those of us across the Atlantic glean from this seemingly bipolar state of affairs? That austerity, every economic conservative's favorite prescription for an ailing economy -- the medicine Republicans here in the United States are pushing hard -- is an utter disaster.
A few euro zone members, including Germany and the Netherlands, are enjoying a relative jobs boom. And yet, Europe's overall unemployment rate is 10.8 percent. How is this possible? Because of depression-level unemployment in Europe's austerity-plagued periphery. The chart below compares unemployment among the euro zone's 17 members (courtesy of Eurostat).
