On Femicide in Pittsburgh: End Men's Violence
How many massacres perpetrated by men against women will it take before we as a society, especially those of us who are men, work seriously to end men's violence?Last night, news reports indicate that...
View ArticleAP Story Omits US Inflicted Deaths in Afghanistan, Attributes them to Taliban
In an AP story posted on the Dallas Morning News Site, "Soldier, civilian deaths from bombs soar in Afghanistan" posted on 12:00 am CDT on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, the paper (or the news-service)...
View ArticleLive Blogging National Parks: America's Best Idea
Episode 1. Let's comment here. I was offended by the title, but Burns' defused this first objection by quoting someone up front saying Jefferson's idea of equal opportunity is the US's best idea, but...
View ArticleCommemorating Those Killed in Afghanistan: A Cry for Peace
This past Saturday, starting at 6 a.m., I began placing pairs of empty combat boots on the Ellipse within sight of the White House. I worked alongside members of the American Friends Service Committee...
View ArticleFt. Hood: Bombs of War Explode At Home
A Press Release by Military Families Speak OutThe Fort Hood Killings: Military Families Speak Out Offers Condolences The Bombs of War Also Explode at HomeAs the nation was stunned by the horrific...
View ArticleReject Obama's Reassertion of Dictatorial Powers
The Obama administration is claiming, as the New York Timesreports today, that the President has the power to decide unilaterally to jail persons indefinitely without trial, and is planning to detain...
View Article"Story of Bottled Water" Tells Half the Story
"The Story of Bottled Water," a new video from Corporate Accountability International (watch video below), boils down the pitch from corporate water hucksters to, "You pay me a thousand times more for...
View ArticleThe (Jewish) NYT is Crucifying the Pope!?
Archbishop Dolan, speaking from the pulpit of Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Palm Sunday, said the pope is "suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob and scourging at the pillar as...
View ArticleProgressives Need an Alternative Economic Vision
One thing this recession, and this election cycle, has made brutally clear is the imperative for progressives to promote an alternative economic vision. Without a clearly articulated vision of a...
View ArticleBreaking: Gibbs Says US Will Review Aid to Egypt
In a briefing at the White House, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs just said the US will immediately review aid to Egypt. That's good as far as it goes, but the call must be for the US to immediately...
View ArticleMuslim Dissidents & Anti-Arab Racism
Yes, and how many ears must one man (sic) have / Before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows / That too many people have died?… Yes, and how many years can some...
View ArticleVoltaire on Glenn Beck "Not Not" Blaming God for Earthquake
According to the Media Matters blog, Beck said, "I'm not saying that Jesus is coming, I'm just saying things are changing. The world, I mean literally, the world is moving under your feet. I mean,...
View ArticleEgyptian Blogger On Trial Mar 31: Needs Support
An Egyptian pacifist, political prisoner, and survivor of torture, Maikel Nabil Sanad, is scheduled to go on trial tomorrow, March 31, 2011, at 10 am Cairo time. What's his alleged crime? He's accused...
View ArticleIdeas to Help Us Generate Effective Blog Posts
Covering Conferences, Protests, and Social Change EventsSome tips. What blogging tips do you have? What do you think of these tips? What should be added/subtracted/edited?Originally posted to the alpha...
View ArticleGettysburg Address: Echoes of Hamilton's Federalist #1?
The subject [the Constitution] speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed,...
View ArticleTo NYT: HIV Treatment Not Impossible, It's Necessary
In this New York Times story, "Early HIV Therapy Sharply Curbs Transmission," I was brought up short by this wrenching, and morally execrable, paragraph:"Although the evidence suggests that it would be...
View ArticleNYT: Stop Confusing Sexist Violence with Sex
The problem I have with the NYT article "Questions Raised About a Code of Silence" is the same as some of the French people quoted in the article: the article itself confuses consensual sexual affairs...
View ArticleTalking Points on the School Shooting in Chardon OH
After previous school shootings, teachers in schools where I’ve worked have asked me for suggestions about how to speak with students about the topic. This memo contains some suggested topics for...
View ArticleNYT: 1st Africans in New World >100 yrs B4 1619
The NYT ran an article about the fascinating geneology of Wanda Sykes, but repeated the incorrect claim that "Africans arrived in the New World in Jamestown in 1619." A slightly expanded version of my...
View ArticleLA Times Editors Cut Impact of Killing on Combat Stress
To the LA Times credit, they published an article, "Stress of combat reaches drone crews," by David Zucchino about the impact of combat stress (Post-Traumatic stress) on the Air Force pilots who are...
View ArticleWhen White Firemen Refused to Attack Civil Rights Demonstrators: May 5, 1963
Fifty years ago, the notorious Bull Connor ordered white firemen to turn their high pressure firehoses on the demonstrators once again. But this time, on this day, they refused. How did this happen?
View ArticleOppose FB Page: "Soldiers Deserve to Die - They're Murderers"
There's a Facebook page entitled, appallingly, "Soldiers Deserve to Die - They're Murderers."What follows is a revised and expanded version of a comment I posted on that putatively anti-militarist...
View ArticleSchool Shootings: Talking Points for Teachers & Parents
With a heavy heart, I've re-written this too many times for too many school shootings, and I'll rewrite it soon to help teachers and parent respond specifically for the shootings at Sandy Hook...
View ArticleA Very Equal Rights Amendment (VERA)
Today is the anniversary of Congress approving the Bill of Rights in 1789. Facing History and Ourselvesasked us what we would include in our own Bill of Rights. This got me thinking.Let's introduce...
View ArticleWas Adam Lanza Anorexic?
Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school, at the time of his autopsy, was 72 inches tall and weighed only 112 pounds. If he was anorexic, what bio-psychological...
View ArticleProtest "Date Grape Kool-Aid" on Bar's Menu
I'll keep this short. A bar in Spokane is selling a drink called "Date Grape Kool-Aid." Feminists in Spokane have protested, both online and in person, and the bar has not yet changed the name. Please...
View ArticleWim Wenders: Opinions Are Violent?
In an interview about their intriguing sounding new book, Inventing Peace, the acclaimed German film-maker Wim Wenders (of "Wings of Desire" fame) and the Australian philosopher Mary Zournazi, opined...
View ArticleBergdahl, Selective Objection, & the Right to Quit
The Bergdahl case raises a number of questions about the rights of military personnel. What can members of the military do when they face a crisis of conscience? How should laws and regulations be...
View ArticleBob Fosse: Feminist Analysis Wanted Here
Fosse, a biography by Sam Wasson, is a very good show-business and personal biography of Fosse (the brilliant dancer, choreographer, director of stage and screen, and film editor) but the focus is too...
View ArticleVerizon Ad: Ignoring Burning Woman 4 Football is Funny?
My ten-year old is a football fan, and so watched some of the first football game of the season tonight on TV. We repeatedly saw an ad telling men and boys to ignore a woman in horrific pain and pay...
View ArticleWhat to Get Putin for His Birthday
Putin's birthdays have routinely been used by his supporters as opportunities for propaganda trumpeting his swaggeringly aggressive masculinity.Valerie Sperling, the author of a new book: Sex,...
View ArticleInterview: Bill Maher Goes Full Frontal Misogynist
I'll keep this brief.In response to Sony pulling "The Interview," Bill Maher tweeted:#TheInterview Is that all it takes - an anonymous threat and the numbers 911 - to throw free expression under the...
View ArticleMove To Amend - Nightmare Attack on Free Speech?
I just received an email from an activist I admire greatly, urging me to support Move To Amend, an amendment that would attempt to reverse the damaging impact of the Citizen's United Supreme Court...
View ArticleScalia's Originalism Opposed by Madison/Jefferson
Scalia's cramped view of the US Constitution, which he describes as being rooted in the original intent of the Constitution's authors, was explicitly opposed by the primary architect of the US...
View ArticleRacist Comment vs. Arab Child in NYT Film Review
The movie “Theeb” centers around a Jordanian child fleeing the impact of war in 1916. I was reading Stephen Holden’s admiring review of the film in the New York Times (2015-11-05) but was brought up...
View ArticlePulse Massacre Horrible. Not Largest Mass Shooting in US History.
Many of us are filled with horror, shock, and outrage at the homophobic mass shooting in Orlanda targeting LGBT partiers and allies at the Pulse nightclub. At the same time, many U.S. media outlets,...
View ArticleSongs That Ask Beautiful Questions?
Today I was reading about Warren Berger’s book, A More Beautiful Question, and came across his thought (and question) provoking blog post, “50+ Question Songs.” He compiled a great list of songs which...
View ArticleIs Trump The President We Want for our Sons?
Hillary Clinton’s instant-classic “Mirrors” ad:youtu.be/...features girls looking into the mirror while listening to a few of Trump’s misogynist insults. The memorable tag line: “Is this the president...
View ArticleWhen we're threatened by despair...
… Hope BeckonsI usually don’t write cut and paste diaries lauding another writer’s work. But in this case, I’m writing because it’s easy to fall into despair when faced with the multitude of crimes...
View ArticleSign Women's March PledgeOfLiberation
The Women’s March has issued an inclusive Pledge of Liberation and is seeking signatures. I just signed. This is just a quick diary to make the DailyKos community aware of it, because I didn’t see...
View ArticleQuick Reactions to Ken Burns'"Vietnam" ep 1
I just watched Burns’ and Novick’s first episode, and, predictably perhaps for a mainstream take on the US war against Vietnam, it was jarring, upsetting, infuriating, impressive, appalling, and...
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Solidarity Across Racial and Gender Lines - 1867-style
Brent Staples, in his “Editorial Observer” column for the NYT, “The Racism Behind Women’s Suffrage” makes vital points about the racism of sectors of the women’s movement for suffrage. Staples rightly...
View ArticleHelp Change AL Law that Gives Child Visitation Rights to Men Who Rape
Donate to Help Change the AL LawSemDem wrote a diary describing the horrifying case of a woman in Alabama whose uncle raped her multiple times. The man who raped her has succeeded in ordering the court...
View ArticleNYT: US Diplomat Confirmed Trump Blocked Ukraine $ To Obtain Political Dirt...
The NYTreported tonight that Bill Taylor, the top US Diplomat in Ukraine, texted Sondland, the US ambassador to Europe, and the US special envoy to Ukraine Volker, saying:“I think it’s crazy to...
View ArticleBarrett's Originalism Opposed by Madison/Jefferson
Four years ago, I wrote a diary here about how Madison and Jefferson’s Constitutional theories directly repudiated Antonin Scalia’s judicial philosophy of “originalism,” Scalia’s claim that Justices...
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Trump Diverted Millions from Pandemic Prevention to Fund Migrant Child Abuse
The Trump Administration’s criminal separation of thousands of children from their families at the US border has been widely reported. But the fact that Trump funded his mass child abuse program by...
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Advertisement for Lynching?
Leafing through the Sunday New York Times, I was startled to see a stylized ad for lynching. I had to look thrice to figure out that perhaps it was supposed to be just a coat on a carabiner-style hook....
View ArticleAT&T Ad Sells Sexist Math Stereotypes
In 1991, Mattel’s Teen Talk Barbie was programmed to say, “Math class is tough.”xxYouTube VideoAfter an outcry of protest by feminists, educators, and parents, Mattel quickly deleted the...
View ArticleNew Indiana Jones Trailer Promotes Fact-Free Extremism
In the new Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny TrailerxxYouTube VideoJones says,I don’t believe in magic. But a few times in my life, I’ve seen things, things I can’t explain. And I’ve come to...
View ArticleWe Can Bomb the World to Pieces, But We Can’t Bomb it Into Peace
In December 2022, Time Magazine ran a story, “The Making of the U.S. Military's New Stealth Bomber,” on the development of the U.S. Air Force’s new B-21 bomber. Unfortunately, the reporter, W. J....
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