Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Entry Text Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) compared President Barack Obama to German dictator Adolf Hitler on Monday night.The ultra-conservative congressman from Texas criticized the president for not traveling to Paris on Sunday to attend a massive unity rally against terrorism, which was attended by dozens of world leaders.”Even Adolph Hitler thought it more important than…
One point that, I hope, runs through a lot of my work is the use and abuse of dead moral questions. In that, I mean the tendency for political types to bring a lot of rhetorical and mental weight to bear on questions that are not politically live, in any meaningful sense. This focus is…
‘Far from being ‘sacred’, as some have claimed, freedom of speech is always contingent.’ Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP In times of crisis, those who would like us to keep just one idea in our heads at any one time are quick to the megaphones. By framing events in Manichean terms – dark versus light; good versus…
Mark Zuckerberg in 2013. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is dealing with the contradictions of promoting free speech while running the world’s biggest social network, after being called out on the gap between his words and Facebook policy. Zuckerberg, who has been outspoken in his support of Charlie Hebdo and freedom of speech in…
Millions of people took to the streets of Paris and cities across France on Sunday to rally in defense of free speech and against terrorism in the wake of Wednesday’s deadly attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The French Interior Ministry told the Associated Press that 3.7 million marched throughout France, making the demonstrations the largest…
If you thought the Arab world celebrated the attack on Charlie Hebdo as a blow against blasphemers, some Arab-language newspapers tell a different story. Many newspapers across the Arab world have published cartoons expressing solidarity and support with the French satirical newspaper, much those published by Western cartoonists just hours after the attack. But cartoonists find…
(Hammerin Man) In recent years, we’ve written a number of stories about laws aimed at protecting active-duty servicemembers and their families from predatory loans and the businesses that try to take advantage of loopholes in these rules. Some readers have asked why members of our armed forces merit protections not available to civilians. But this…
The December jobs report falls right in line with the course the Fed is trying to chart for its monetary policy, and the upshot is that the numbers mean the Fed is most likely not going to hike rates any earlier than April, WSJ chief economics correspondent Jon Hilsenrath said this morning on the MoneyBeat…
There is little empathy at the top. Most of America’s richest think poor people have it easy in this country, according to a new report released by the Pew Research Center. The center surveyed a nationally representative group of people this past fall, and found that the majority of the country’s most financially secure citizens…
Another month, another attempt by the BLS to mask the collapse in the US labor force with a goalseeked seasonally-adjusted surge in waiter, bartender and other low-paying jobs. Case in point: after a modest rebound by 0.1% in November, the labor participation rate just slid once more, dropping to 62.7%, or the lowest print since…