Category: Social Issues
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Ferguson Reexamined - Do the Police Recruit Psychopaths? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Few, if any, of the correct questions were asked in the grand jury hearing to decide whether policeman Darren Wilson would be indicted for killing Michael Brown.
The most important unexamined question is whether police are trained to use force immediately as a first resort before they assess a situation or determine if they are at the correct address. Are the police trained that the lives of police officers are so much more valuable than the lives of possible suspects, or a houseful of people into whose residence a heavily armed SWAT team enters, that police officers must not accept the risk of judicious behavior when encountering citizens? If this is the case as all evidence indicates that it is, then the police when they gratuitously murder members of the public are merely doing what they have been trained to do. As police are trained to use violence as a first resort, the police cannot be held accountable when they do.
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Friday, November 28, 2014
Perceptions of Reality — And a Failure to Indict / Politics / Social Issues
By: Walter_Brasch
She quietly walked into the classroom and stood there, just inside the door, against a wall.
The professor, his back to her, continued his lecture, unaware of her presence until his students’ eyes began focusing upon her rather than him.
“Yes?” he asked, turning to her. Just “Yes.” Nothing more.
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Thursday, November 27, 2014
The Great Thanksgiving Hoax / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Richard J. Maybury writes: Each year at this time, schoolchildren all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.
It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving's real meaning.
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Thursday, November 27, 2014
The Solutions to Ferguson And All The Worlds Problems Lie Within You / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
On this day, Thanksgiving, which is a celebration of a day centuries ago where Americans welcomed and fed undocumented immigrants... and then those undocumented immigrants went on to wholesale slaughter the early Americans... and with so many problems in the world today from Ferguson, to Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria (note which government is intricately involved in all these and many more conflicts) we thought we'd make today's communique short and sweet.
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Thursday, November 27, 2014
Thanksgiving and Puritan Geopolitics in the Americas / Politics / Social Issues
By: STRATFOR
The first winter took many of the English at Plymouth. By fall 1621, only 53 remained of the 132 who had arrived on the Mayflower. But those who had survived brought in a harvest. And so, in keeping with tradition, the governor called the living 53 together for a three-day harvest feast, joined by more than 90 locals from the Wampanoag tribe. The meal was a moment to recognize the English plantation's small step toward stability and, hopefully, profit. This was no small thing. A first, deadly year was common. Getting through it was an accomplishment. England's successful colony of Virginia had had a massive death toll — of the 8,000 arrivals between 1607 and 1625, only 15 percent lived.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Once Upon A Time There Were Philosopher Kings / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
Not That Socrates
Newswires report, November 22, that Portugal’s former prime minister, José Sócrates spent another night in detention after a court judge questioned him in an investigation of suspected tax fraud, corruption, and money-laundering during his time in office. For the other Socrates, and Plato, there was only one form of government which would not slip and fall. The Republic which would not dissolve and disappear in corruption, deceit, designer wars to fool (and kill) the people, degeneracy of all sorts and kinds such as cult-food and and money-sport replacing good eating and healthy exercize. A society which would not be lost in a storm of rhetoric and fake logic replacing any kind of debate or discussion. The people could only benefit – but to get it they would have to struggle, moderate their desires and avoid greed.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
United States Social Crisis - No One Told You When to Run, You Missed the Starting Gun! / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
Pink Floyd – Time
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Thursday, November 20, 2014
Making Money While The World Burns / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I was reading this letter to his fund investors by Hugh Hendry, a very intelligent and probably slightly autistic fund manager I’ve liked a lot forever and a day and have written about quite a bit in the past, and it got me thinking about how and why I see the world different from the way he does, and wondering how you see that difference.
Hugh was for years known as a true bear, and then he turned around, changed his views and turned bull, only at the same time he did not. If that makes any sense. I’ll take you through the letter as posted by Tyler Durdenand try to explain what struck me in it. It’s much easier and safer not to write things like this, but I think there are things you must explore, like how do you react when realize your world is falling to bits.
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Monday, November 17, 2014
Global Gulag - Imperium the Foe of the New World Order / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
Sincere and serious scholars understand the deception and untruth of the linear political spectrum, Marxism on the Left and Fascism on the Right. Those who recognize Hegelian fraud for its mendacity, understand that the only difference between Communism and Nazism is their packaging. Both are one in the same - Totalitarianism. History and politics can only be accurately understood, if the hoax of diametrically opposed authoritarian regimes are exposed for what they are; namely, siblings of despotism.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Stripping Off Their Royalties - Would you Like to Cheat an Author? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Walter_Brasch
He’s there by 7 a.m. almost every Sunday except in late Fall and Winter to make money in one of the largest permanent flea markets in northeastern Pennsylvania. In three-foot long cardboard boxes he has an inventory of hundreds of paperbacks, all of them displayed spine up. Westerns. Romances.Adventures. Whatever you want. Three for a buck; fifty cents each. The books are virtually mint condition, and if you don’t mind reading something without a front cover, it’s a bargain, especially since paperbacks with the covers, sold at supermarkets, pharmacies, and bookstores, are now going for as much as $7.95 each.
Monday, November 17, 2014
The World Is Run By Fools, And We Let Them / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Dumb and Dumber To, the sequel after 20 years, was released recently. Unfortunately for Jim and Jeff and the Farrelly brothers, unintended humor will always be funnier than the scripted kind, no matter how hard Hollywood tries. Case in point: the Dumber slapstick was easily upstaged over the past few days by the G20 summit in Brisbane.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
The Case for Optimism / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Jeff Deist writes: I promised you some optimism today. Perhaps one of the most optimistic libertarians ever was Murray Rothbard, a happy intellectual warrior if ever there was one. And he was very enthusiastic about the revolution of libertarian ideas, because he understood fundamentally that liberty is the only manner of organizing society that is compatible with human nature and human action. And it was this optimism, this unshakeable belief that we’re right and the statists are wrong, that drove him to produce a staggering body of work in defense of personal liberty. Now let me stress that Rothbard, despite his reputation as an uncompromising intellectual, saw his efforts as pragmatic, not utopian. He understood quite clearly that utopianism was the hallmark of the state’s intellectual champions, not the state’s detractors. He understood that utopianism and statism, not liberty, produced the great monsters and the great wars of the twentieth century.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Bread, Circuses & Bombs – Decline Of The American Empire – Part Two / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
In Part One of this article I discussed the similarities between the Roman Empire and the American Empire at a high level. In this article I’ll delve into some specific similarities and rhymes between the fall of the Roman Empire and our modern day empire of debt, decay and decline. I’ll address our expansive level of bread and circuses and how defects in our human nature lead to people willingly sacrificing their liberty for promises of safety and security. All empires decline due to the same human failings and ours is no exception. If anything, ours will be far more spectacular and rapid due to our extreme level of hubris, arrogance, willful ignorance and warlike preference for dealing with foreign powers.
Saturday, November 08, 2014
Third World U.S. Where One In Three Children Are Under The Poverty Line / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
I often call the US a "third world country". Of course, in some ways I am kidding as the original meaning of 1st, 2nd or 3rd world countries was the following:
After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government and the politically correct society:
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Thursday, November 06, 2014
Away with the Skylarks / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Tom Naysburn writes: “Skylarks” as I read the Rastafarians call them, are a blight on our society. Able, but refusing to work, is an unforgivable state, and a welfare system which helps promotes this dishonourable cause is a shame on us all. For that statement to hold, the minimum working wage must be able to trump hand outs which of course represents an additional cost. So how can this aspiration be achieved?
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Wednesday, November 05, 2014
What is the Alternative to Keynesian Corporatism? / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist.” From The General Theory by John Maynard Keynes
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Monday, November 03, 2014
How Do You Feel About Child Poverty? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I often find myself wondering what people, people in the street, western people in general, my readers perhaps, think when they see something like the recent Unicef report, Children of Recession: the Impact of the Economic Crisis on Child Wellbeing in Rich Countries, which states that child poverty in developed nations has risen significantly.
How many of you who live in Europe still see the EU as something good and beneficial when you see that not only does Greece today has 25% unemployment and 55% youth unemployment, and its child poverty rate also went up from 23% to 40.5% since 2008? Or do you put the blame not with the EU, but elsewhere?
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Friday, October 31, 2014
Only a Pawn in Their Game / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Apocalypse Now Or Nirvana Next Week? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Theory of Hydra
Dovetailing seamlessly with the unstated political goal of dumbing down society beyond and below the dementia threshold, the cult of Multiple Threats to the economy, society, the environment, the rule of law, the status of western civilization and electric power plant capacity at times of peak demand have at least one common thread. That is downsizing and dumbing down. This affects everything whether it is public knowledge and awareness or the ability to face challenges of any kind - like the shock of finding out that expensive windfarms don't work when the wind doesn't blow “but we didn't know that”.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Humanity Accelerating to What Exactly? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Richard_Mills
We humans have been changing the world around us for tens of thousands of years. It's pretty much what we do, we shape and we change the existing environment through design and then indifference to the results of our actions.
The sheer scale and lightning fast speed of change since the 1950s has been almost unbelievable. So incredible and so sweeping are the changes scientists call the last 65 or so years the 'Great Acceleration'.
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