Garry Trudeau, creator of the comic strip “Doonesbury,” gave an acceptance speech for a Polk journalism award at which he criticized the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists for creating work that was insensitive to Islam, crossed the line, and thus brought a “world of pain” upon France.
African-American suspects, inevitably unarmed, have been repeatedly killed by police departments in recent months. Since we only have proof of police wrongdoing due to cellphone videos and surveillance cameras, how can we expect police to react to the new videotaped reality of police work?
The knee-jerk reaction of Hillary Clinton supporters who primarily want a first woman president to those who question her less than progressive stands on a host of political issues makes one wonder: where is the limit of identity politics?
After an American drone accidentally kills two Al Qaeda hostages held in Pakistan, President Obama took the unusual step of apologizing because one was an American aid worker. However, the New York Times noted as an aside that it typically takes weeks to identify drone casualties. Why don’t they know who they’re killing in advance?
As American voters once again gear up for a presidential campaign season in which all the options are evil or slightly less evil, it is striking that the system itself remains in place, mostly unquestioned.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is spreading the media meme that a woman president would be “cool.” Yes, it would – but shouldn’t we hold out for a woman president, or any president, whose politics are more appealing?
New York Times columnist David Brooks came out in a recent column as a strident proponent of privacy. Not for you and me, mind you, but for policemen whose right to privately beat people will be infringed upon by body cameras.
In order to make upper middle class customers feel less guilty about entering their establishments, chains like McDonald’s are issuing modest symbolic increases to their workers.
Two stories broke the same week: the CEO of McDonald’s announced that 10% of its employees would get a raise from $9 to $10 an hour; the CEOs of big retailers and restaurants, on the other hand, earn $5,859 per hour.
Rand Paul’s stances in favor of civil liberties and against government intrusions into privacy make Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul the most interesting of the 2016 candidates. But he’s already pivoting away from those appealing positions in order to be perceived as more electable.
