When an industry is based upon preying on the financially ignorant in order to 'securitize' debt, there is bound to be a very elastic rebound to reality after they have significantly plundered their parasitic host. I am not surprised by this at all, having worked for a subprime mortgage company myself.

Perhaps one day the fastest-growing industries in the US will not revolve around sucking the marrow of life from those too poor and uninformed to realize how badly they are ... More »

Fascinating discussion about the state of healthcare in the U.S. It made me very interested in seeing the movie. I hope that this will turn a few heads and get people concentrating about cutting the killing money and turning it into healing money instead.

Excellent balanced coverage of this interesting woman. I've note heard of her before, but I recognize many of the concepts that must have originated in her material. It reminds me of the book by Paul Fussel called "Class: A Guide Through the American Status System." Most important about this article is that it opens up more discussion for the distinctions of socioeconomic rank and stratification, which is something that mainstream media are loath to do (unless to glamorize the West ... More »

Very nice review, it made me want to read the article. Good use of quotes from Neil Postman! I also appreciated the balance by showing how blogs are at risk of supporting the "idiocracy" if they begin to tread the infotainment waters first pioneered by cable news.

Facebook is quickly catching on as a MySpace killer, with a well-designed interface and a minimal amount of clicking. It is good to see that the company is getting noticed and is not planning on selling out to Mr. Murdoch any time soon!

If the women playing the roles of young girls in sexual relationships gave any indication that they did not want to implicate their boyfriends for being in a mutual, consensual relationship with them, then the worker at Planned Parenthood was emotionally baited to help them 'save their relationship.' Thus, this piece should be thrown out if this is the case. Of course, the careful exclusion of details that may reveal this are not included in the piece, so the truth will not be known. ... More »

It is good to have this sort of analysis, that is beyond the bickering and name calling that seems to follow the enlarged heads of TV noise machines. Very recommended!

An interesting editorial that raises some difficult questions regarding the ethics of law when dealing with intercultural and gender relations. Is it a human right for a man to abuse his wife if his religion permits it? Is it a human right to own a slave if the Bible acknowledges it?

I've never heard of this man, but it sounds like he has a robust populist history. I'm glad to have read the article, as now I will do some research on him. In any case, his inclusion to the debates forces other candidates to answer tough questions that need to be addressed.

Yet another example of how the purposefully over-complicated world of high finance obfuscates tremendous crime with carefully constructed systems of deception.

With the industrialized food chain as convoluted as it is, we are now beginning to see a complete return to the times of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." This is fitting, as it is also the time of consolidating monopolies and politically connected robber barons.

Great! Sure it is expensive to live off the grid right now. But if serious developments are invested in, this could be a new industry. I for one would definitely consider taking out a long term loan or additional mortgage costs if the upside to home ownership included energy independence.

Interesting to read this after reading the Times piece yesterday. I was definitely asking myself the same questions while reading the NYT article, because there is a lack of sources to back up the claims that "many scientists" say such and such. After watching a TV talking head go crazy over this article and misinterpreting it by a factor 10 times more off-target than the article misinterpreted the so-called mistakes made by Gore, I must again congratulate the propagandic noise ... More »

This is a nice quick read for someone who wants to get the quick and dirty facts about the climate crisis.

This story does not give examples of the 'incorrect claims' other than a hypothetical situation that Gore presented that shows what would happen if both polar icecaps melt completely, and the fallacy that since there were no "killer hurricanes" in 2006 implies that the horrible ones in 2005 are not connected to global warming in any way. This is a bit of insidious word-wrangling to make small discrepancies look large. Smells like fish to me.

A very astute analysis is provided by this piece. By looking at tax revenues, much can be detirmined by wealth accumulation. Especially interesting is the hint that moving to an ecologically progressive economy would create a new private sector boom under a Democratic president, much akin to the 1990s tech rally.

Another prime example at how our society of debt is slowly draining away the middle class. People are constantly being taken advantage of by complex legal documents that bind them to agreements that they are not well-informed to comprehend.

This is more of a teaser than anything, but it packs enough substance to really makes me want to see the show. One particularly jarring quote: "former guard at one of the country's massive work camps (his held 50,000 prisoners), recounts hungry children fighting over a single kernel of corn they found inside a lump of cow dung."

This is an interesting story, but does go deeper into jargon and particulars than most broad-reaching journalism. I am in no position to analyse the data myself, but the ideas postulated here would be very impactful on current oil consumption trends if true.

Very nice treatment of a complex issue. We can see from the situation explained here that the problem is not as cut and dry as providing health care, but also involves proper health awareness education, especially for young people. It's tragic that the story ended this way. But it does beg the question: how can one's teeth become so infected in the beginning? I wish that the article would have addressed this more directly.

This is definitely biased toward the fearmongering war industry.

Using social networking sites is a perfect way to inject the nation's youth into political discourse. The article does well to describe the various facets of this burgeoning phenomenon. Of course, with News Corporation having ownership of MySpace, it will be interesting to see how they treat oppositional (anti-"conservative") political messages on the site.

As readers of this site can well-attest, the news media are changing; now that citizen journalism is a highly probable and desireable outcome of internet technology, we are better able to understand the biases and self-preservation tactics of the 'traditional' behemoths of the information industry.

I'm leery of the Washington Times ('Reverend' Sun Myung Moon owns it) but this is a decent article. I applaud Bernanke for having his own mind rather than being 'on message' with the Bush Administration 24/7.

I've been going on about the problems of debt (national and personal) to my friends in casual conversation for a while now, so this is a great thing to see. With savings at a serious national lull, we are setting ourselves up to become indentured servants. Even bankruptcy is becoming more difficult thanks to the generous desires of the credit card companies. I guess I'm a bit biased about this, but we need to be thinking more about these things and getting back to solid financial principals.

Xeni Jardin is always a treat to read/hear. This story shows a nice path of posts from various bloggers emitting (mis)information and various responses. It's great to see how easily a deceptive rumor can become a 'media truth,' but nevertheless can be quickly debunked by an informed readership.

This story adds a much-needed fresh angle to an important yet ignored truth about the violence that is engulfing the world. Most Americans (myself included) cannot even imagine the terror and hopelessness that must be felt by these poor people, as we grow fat from sipping sugary cola and watching reality television shows.

It's good to note the issue of supply and demand regarding lithium. I was shocked to realize that there are almost a billion cars in the world. It's no wonder the glaciers are melting!

The story shows the complexity of multiculturalism in a state that is by definition of a specific religious and ethnic orientation. The whole situation is so difficult to grasp, I don't know how anyone could have a firm and unshakable opinion of it without being a pig-headed hipocrite!

The story does a wonderful job showing how stereotypes, while useful for alleviating the brain load of routine decision making, can also be destructive, devisive, and difficult to adjust when faced with contradictory evidence.

Just the shot of the little girl being ashamed to choose the doll that looked like herself is enough to cause extreme discomfort at the reality that this story exposes. The institutionalization of self-depricatingly racist thoughts in a minority population is extremely apparent through the simple choices of these young children. The main question now is: what must be done?

The reason that this article is interesting to me is that it points to the social problem that is a result of parents thinking that a television is a babysitter. What could have been asked in this article is how will early reliance upon a television screen impact a child's literacy potential?

This makes mention to the problems faced when any imbalance of power becomes addicted to its own financial obesity. It reminds me of the concept of chemical equilibrium, which is by no means static. Rather, it is a dynamic exchange of particles between a gas and a liquid that has neutral net gains for each half, but are none the less in constant flux.

Jimmy Carter has been in the region for a very long time and although some may disagree with him, his opinion and analysis are very well-informed. The interviewer (Steve Inskeep) did a good job of asking tough questions and not 'softballing' the former president.

This story shows the insane scramble for power that is underway in Washington. The coming 2008 election will be the largest black hole of political money and influence that has ever existed in the history of the world, and the article does a service at allowing the reader to make that conclusion by reasonable inference, not in its own analysis.

The article does well to explain how free speech is encumbered by Congress' decision to reverse the burden of copyright so that it is more difficult for works to enter the public domain. I found it extremely informative regarding the legal situation, especially by citing certain Supreme Court precedences that might hold the key to a pro-public domain stance.