David Whelan provides a stunning display of ‘whataboutery’ in CiF: The awful events in Oklahoma City have captured the world’s attention and concern. As I write this from the United Kingdom, 24 people have been killed and reports of 10 times that number have been injured. We see scenes of the two schools, Briarwood and Plaza Towers, as well as Moore Medical Centre, that were badly damaged. I don’t want…
…we aren’t that far behind them: According to MSNBC, Fox News Baltimore, and a host of other media outlets, the latest case of OMG (oh my gosh, or perhaps it should be called “oh my guns”) an incident involving Josh Welch, a 7-year-old second grade student at Park Elementary School in the Brooklyn Park area of Baltimore, Maryland, made the news on Friday when the boy was suspended from school…
Emma G Keller on women in high places: Marissa Mayer is clearly an all-or-nothing person, used to working on her terms. She is a talented woman, and we all appreciate daily what she did at Google. She seems to be having the same attractive effect on Yahoo. But does this make her a good manager? Not if that means being in touch with the goodwill of her employees. Step one in…
Sadhbh Walshe (film-maker and CiF’s go-to gal for articles on how awful the US prison system is) is branching out, tackling the thorny subject of women’s pay ‘inequality’: To modernize Jane Austen’s famous line: it is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in possession of a good fortune must have married or inherited it.Well, OK, she may have earned it, but even if she did, the average fortune a…
After all, don’t they always say what the States have today, we’ll have tomorrow? One Direction star Niall Horan has bought a house in Los Angeles near the Kardashians with a pool and games room, but he’s not allowed a bar because he’s under 21. Not allowed by whom? Well, would you believe, by the builders he’s hired to renovate it? No. It’s not April 1st! Horan splashed out $1.5…
…they are merely chess pieces on a board, and the game is ‘Social Cohesion’. It’s like ‘Risk, only with the potential for far more warfare: American-style “bussing” should be introduced in London to break down the segregated school system, a leading headteacher said today. Oh, and how dim do you have to be to come up with this idea? The idea was put forward by David Levin, head of the…
Why do people get fired? Yes, I know that in many areas legislation seems to protect anyone from getting fired at all these days and that, say, fiddling your expenses might get you fired in your job but not if you were an MP, but I can’t think of anywhere where there isn’t something you can do that will get you instantly fired on the spot even if it’s hacking…
But only when it comes to milk, of course. At least, according to Anna M Clark (president of EarthPeople, in case you were wondering. No ‘take me to your leader!’ jokes, please..): “Why are the children drinking pink milk?” asked the Finnish intern my family was hosting. As a graduate student, Nina came here last year to research American perspectives on green marketing. She accompanied me to a client site,…
Twenty-three-year-old Dominique Pleasant is sitting nearby with her two daughters. They’re all drinking cans of cola. Like more than a quarter of people in the Bronx, Dominique qualifies for food stamps. “Food stamps is free money from the government to purchase food,” she explains. Thanks, Beeb! I couldn’t have illustrated it better myself! But what this is really about is a potential ban on the types of things you can…
First we had Babs with her ‘Waah, poor people who behave like animals shouldn’t be fined!’, and now it’s Sadhbh Walshe’s turn with ‘Waah, prisoner’s families shouldn’t be charged to keep in touch with them!’… When a person is sent to prison, one of the most obvious and important ways to ensure a successful re-entry to society upon release to is maintain and strengthen familial bonds during incarceration. Presumably, that…
It is a surprise to no one in the US that Barack Obama supports gay marriage. The only thing that has raised eyebrows is how long it took the President to stumble towards a clear public affirmation of his position. What’s surprising? Any US president saying this kind of thing is going to piss of the Christian right, and since they’re going to vote Republican that’s no loss to a…
Via Ed Driscoll, a look at what faces us in the future: “Moments Of Startling Clarity” Dr. Stephen L. Anderson “The picture is horrific. Aisha’s beautiful eyes stare hauntingly back at you above the mangled hole that was once her nose. Some of my students could not even raise their eyes to look at it. I could see that many were experiencing deep emotions. But I was not prepared for…
So says Mychal Denzel Smith, a freelance writer and social commentator, in CiF. Presumably, only because ‘Private Eye’ no longer does ‘Pseuds Corner’: Judging by the amount of fuss he caused, one would think Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson had floated the idea of abolishing child labor laws. In reality, all he had done was announce that this semester he would be teaching a course entitled “Sociology of Hip-Hop…
…with yet more ‘Something must be done….for the children!’ legislation: ‘In memory of our son we will also be pushing for UK legislation to introduce safety measures, for instance fencing or child-safe pool covers for all in-ground pools.’ And is the Great British Public aghast at this further interference and unnecessary overhead cost? Why, no: When we had our pool put in they would not finish it until we had security…
…savages cause savagery: When I arrived to provide medical care, the four-year-old girl was unconscious. She had multiple bruises, skull fractures, a brain contusion, vaginal and anal tears, venereal disease, and was hemorrhaging from places a little girl should not. The perpetrator? Her stepfather.I actually sighed with relief when I learned she later died of her abusive injuries in the hospital; at least she was spared the anguish of surviving…
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