Why Kevin Keller matters

Exactly: "The significant distinction here is that, unlike superhero comics, Archie comics are specifically aimed at kids (well, and at aging collectors who remember reading them as kids, but the kids are the primary audience): They're a fantasy about what high school will be like. That's why the addition of Kevin to the series' endless comedy of desire and disdain is welcome and long overdue. The social fabric of high school is going to include gay people, and the sooner kids (and aging collectors) take that as much for granted as they do the Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle, the better." More...

The membership theory of poverty

"The group membership theory of poverty states that some people are poor because of the dynamics of the group(s) to which they belong. The groups may be residential areas (“ghettos”), schools, ethnic groups, workplaces etc. Poverty in this sense is “contagious”, hereditary, and self-perpetuating. It’s an example of a poverty trap." More...

The end of national prayer day. Thank God!

There actually is a Freedom from Religion Foundation, CatNat Pfffters! Thank them for this: Judge Crabb explained her decision by stating that “…[the National Day of Prayer's] goes beyond mere ‘acknowledgement’ of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context.” More...

Kevin Keller is gay

Of such is revolution truly made. Kevin Keller is a character in Archie comics. Link.

Free speech and dog fights

"This law contains within itself a regressive, anti-democratic, anti-freedom germ. It implies that it is up to the state to declare what is a worthy object of expression and what is not. Which is why this week’s US Supreme Court ruling, declaring the law unconstitutional insofar as it violates the First Amendment, is so welcome." More...

How often does SCOTUS go 8-1? Once again the content of speech doesn't matter (for the most part). Read the actual decision from Roberts and Alito's objections if you really want to understand it.

A good rule of thumb

Never lend books to John Stuart Mill. Especially if it's a manuscript you've just finished writing. Read about it here.

Racism and prisons

"When pushed to explain this racial disparity, most people take comfort in the popular myth of American justice--that only the guilty get arrested, charged, and incarcerated. It's obvious: more blacks than whites are arrested and put in jail because they commit more crimes. Americans can't conceive of it any other way because racism is the issue we refuse to acknowledge." More...

The article is anecdotal, but true.

Race and unemployment

Are you surprised by this? "The experiment recruited white, black, and Latino job applicants, called testers, who were matched on demographic characteristics and interpersonal skills. The testers were given equivalent resumes and sent to apply in tandem for hundreds of entry-level jobs. Our results show that black applicants were half as likely to receive a callback or job offer relative to equally qualified whites." More...

From the ever-reliable P.A.P. blog.

McLuhan

Do people still read McLuhan? They should. Start with this prescient video if you want to know why.

Against capital punishment

"Is there something inherent in capital punishment, in the very nature of it, that justifies its abolition?" A rather traditional argument, courtesy of the P.A.P. blog, looking not at its failings to retribute, deter, etc. Mark my words: this resolution will come up again and again. Retributive justice is just so core to LD.

Commemorating the Confederacy? Not a good idea.

Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens ... bluntly declared that slavery was "the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution." He said the United States had been founded on the false belief that all men are created equal. The Confederacy, in contrast, had been "founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural moral condition."

Reason is running this because the Governor of Virginia, recently declaring April to be Confederate History Month, somehow managed to completely forget about slavery. "Oh, that old thing!" More...

Net neutrality

You need to care about this. "The ruling would allow Comcast and other Internet service providers to restrict consumers' ability to access certain kinds of Internet content, such as video sites like Hulu.com or Google's YouTube service, or charge certain heavy users of their networks more money for access. Google, Microsoft and other big producers of Web content have argued that such controls or pricing policies would thwart innovation and customer choice." More...

Equality of opportunity

"Equality of opportunity is different from equality of outcome: most of us don’t think it’s a good idea to strive towards equality of outcome in most spheres of life. We’re quite happy to accept that some people earn less money, have less vacation time, have lower social status and recognition levels and have more uncomfortable, dangerous, or physically draining work etc. What we don’t accept is that those outcomes are predetermined by the family they happen to be born in, by discrimination they suffer or by other instances of bad luck." More...

The article cites Reinhold Niebuhr, if you're interested.

Stereotype threat

"There’s an interesting phenomenon called the stereotype threat, or, in other words, the threat of stereotypes about one’s capacity to succeed at something: when the belief that people like you (African-Americans, women, etc) are worse at a particular task than the comparison group (whites, men, etc) is made prominent, you perform worse at that task." In other words, if you think that you're a part of the wrong sort, you'll act accordingly and doom yourself to failure.

The article gives nice facts and figures, and even draws on Foucault. From the P.A.P. blog.

Morality is flim-flam

"Morality – that is, morality as a social institution, consisting in the feeling of certain emotions and the transmission of tendencies to experience those emotions -- has survival value. Those groups that have it are more likely to survive than those that lack it, even though individuals within moral groups might be made individually worse off through acting in accordance with morality than against it." I always love a good morality discussion apart from religious dictates. Have at the commentary here (with a link to the original).