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‘President Obama’s Dragnet’

June 8, 2013 Filed Under: Politics

The NYT’s Editorial Board, in a scathing op-ed piece on the Feds gathering call data:

The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

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On Apple & Corporate Taxes

May 28, 2013 Filed Under: Politics, Tech

Former New Hampshire senator John E. Sununu, writing for The Boston Globe:

Senator Levin and his staff believe that it is wrong for companies and individuals to engage in behavior that avoids taxes. They hoped that calling out Cook might generate support for legislation that targets companies like Apple. Instead, they mostly provided a lesson in the complex, convoluted, and often uncompetitive nature of America’s corporate tax code. They also provided a reminder that those responsible for the mess were asking the questions, not sitting at the witness table.

Sununu’s last sentence is exactly right — it’s not Apple, it’s the system.

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On Journalists & Shield Laws

May 19, 2013 Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Politics

Christopher Daly writes that a federal shield law protecting journalists’ sources is unneeded:

Tempting as it might be, a federal shield law is a bad idea for journalists. We do not need it, and we may ultimately regret it. The relevant part of the First Amendment to the Constitution says: Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press. That powerful simple phrase “no law” means just that – no law, period. It means Congress simply cannot legislate in this area.

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Even Newt Gingrich Can’t Be This Dumb

May 13, 2013 Filed Under: Politics, Tech

TC Sottek, writing for The Verge:

After losing his bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, and his chance to build a manned moon base by 2020, Newt Gingrich is turning his sights on pressing issues a little closer to home. “We’re really puzzled,” Gingrich says in a new video, clutching a small handheld device. “Here at Gingrich Productions, we’ve spent weeks figuring out what do you call this? You probably think it’s a cellphone.” It’s a smartphone, of course, but at no point in the former House speaker’s two-and-a-half minute video does he utter the phrase. “But think about it,” Gingrich says. “If it’s taking pictures, it’s not a cellphone. If you can get Wikipedia or go to Google, that’s not a cellphone.”

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On Getting the News

April 22, 2013 Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Politics

Ben Brooks, on how to best follow the news:

There’s a growing sentiment that I am starting to see among news junkies that perhaps it is time to pull back. To not following the news so closely. Instead, follow well-sourced, well-reported news — investigative journalism.

Along the lines of "well-sourced and well-reported" news, I tend to get mine from two publications: The New York Times and Mother Jones. MoJo, with a progressive bend I like, has been especially great at reporting the Boston events. I follow a few of their writers on Twitter as well, and their tweets are always great too. The NYT is also very good, but in terms of true, high-quality investigative journalism, you can’t do much better than MoJo.

‘Is Your Team’s Owner a Major League Asshole?’

April 10, 2013 Filed Under: Politics, Sports

Four of Mother Jones writers — Tim Murphy, Ian Gordon, Tasneem Raja, and Sarah Zhang – collaborated on a cool piece that details MLB’s “deepest pockets and reviled personas”.

Living in the Bay Area, I was excited to read about the A’s and Giants.

On Athletics owner Lew Wolff:

[A] real estate magnate and hotel developer, bought the A’s in 2005 and has talked openly about moving the team more or less ever since. But his biggest crime may have been shutting down the upper deck of the mostly-empty O.co Coliseum, which had become a refuge for fans wishing to smoke pot during the middle innings. He gave just $2,500 to federal candidates in the 2012 cycle; now politicians know how the A’s fans feel.

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On the Common Core State Standards & Kindergarten

April 4, 2013 Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Politics

Valerie Strauss for The Washington Post, on how kindergarden’s become an abomination:

Remember back in the olden days when kindergarteners used to be allowed to learn from playing? Now, in the age of the Common Core State Standards, 4 and 5 year olds are being required to do things such as write “Informative/Explanatory Reports” and identify topic sentences.

It’s happening across the country as part of the school reform movement that has pushed down academics to the kindergarten level, entirely ignoring the fact that many young kids aren’t developmentally ready for this kind of activity.

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On Rick Perry & Gay Marriage in Texas

March 31, 2013 Filed Under: Politics

Tim Murphy, writing for Mother Jones:

Gay marriage is trending up, opposition to any legal recognition has trended down. Texas probably isn’t going to go the way of Maryland and Washington anytime soon, but legal recognition of same-sex unions—which is prohibited under the 2005 constitutional amendment—is now the preference of six in ten Texans. And a majority of young Republicans now support full marriage equality, suggesting that this trend is only going to continue, even if Texas doesn’t start turning purple. Oops.

Louie Mantia sums up my argument perfectly:

A Letter to Rick Perry

March 27, 2013 Filed Under: Politics

This piece was written in 2011 for a Critical Thinking & Composition class. Our instructor tasked us with using Rogerian Argumentation technique to appeal to someone who was against same-sex marriage. We were to write a hypothetical letter to said person, and I chose Texas governor Rick Perry.

With the Supreme Court hearing arguments regarding Prop. 8, I thought this would be a good time to pull this from the archive. I received an A on this assignment, with my instructor saying how "astounding" it was, in both logic and prose. She liked it so much, in fact, that she asked for a copy to keep in her permanent file.

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Supreme Court on Gay Marriage: ‘Who Gives a Shit?’

March 26, 2013 Filed Under: Politics

The Onion, in a parody of the oral arguments:

“Yeah, of course gay men and women can get married. Who gives a shit?” said Chief Justice John Roberts, who interrupted attorney Charles Cooper’s opening statement defending Proposition 8, which rescinded same-sex couples’ right to marry in California. “Why are we even seriously discussing this?”

This “report” is obviously fake, but the sentiment is absolutely real.

Let same-sex couples marry if they want to. If religious groups don’t like it, they can refuse to recognize the marriage under their doctrine. In a legal context, marriage is nothing more than a contract. The state can’t infringe on two consenting adults willfully entering into an agreement simply because they object to their sexual orientation. That’s discriminatory.

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