Americans were shocked by a video released by the Islamic State depicting the execution by immolation of a captured Jordanian pilot. But the United States burned many, many Iraqis to death in 2004 – and nobody cared. Why the different reactions?
Know Knows
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You always knew Sheldon Silver was corrupt. But you KNOW know he’s corrupt, and that makes all the difference.
Drone Hits Home
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After a harmless personal quadcopter drone piloted by a drunk intelligence agent (you can’t make these things up) crashes on the White House lawn, a spooked Obama demands action on regulating UAVs. This comes after years of foot-dragging which has put the US drone industry at a disadvantage.
Anger is Greek to Them
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After EU-imposed austerity pushed Greek unemployment to 26% and reduced educated people to abject poverty, Greece elects a leftist government. To hear the elites describe it, you’d think it was a communist revolution, which, if they keep it up, is exactly what could happen.
Recession/Recovery
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When people lose good jobs, their misery is downplayed. When they get new, worse jobs, it’s categorized as big progress – even though their worse off than before. Such is the nature of the current “recovery,” which has replaced lost jobs with worse ones.
Cinematic Heroes of the Terror Wars
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The number-one movie in America this week is Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper,” which glorifies a sniper who bragged about murdering over 100 innocent Iraqis and Afghans in the course of America’s illegal invasions of those countries.
Offer Not Valid
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Obama spent six years golfing, never lifting a finger to help those devastated by the 2008-09 economic collapse. Now that he’s an ultra-lame duck and has absolutely no way to get legislation through the Republican Congress (something he didn’t have in 2009), he’s pretending to “fight” for a higher minimum wage and better wages for American workers.
Failing Public Schools: Fight or Flight?
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For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation.
The Religion Exception
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American news media outlets refused to show the Charlie Hebdo cartoons that provoked the slaughter of 12 people in Paris last week on the grounds that their policies forbid the depiction of imagery that intentionally mocks religion. Which opens up a great loophole for politicians in trouble.
Newspapers Saved by Slaughter
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Newspaper circulation has been plummeting for the last 50 years. Media executives have tried to reverse the trend by cutting their newsrooms, shrinking their page counts and giving away their content for free online. As the circulation of Charlie Hebdo shot from 60,000 to 5,000,000 after the massacre of their staff, there may be a way forward after all.
