Republicans are in the pocket of the rich

I know, it’s obvious, right? They’re putting their foot down over a bill to prevent the extension of a $1,000/year tax cut to the middle class, but they won’t consider getting rid of a few tax cuts for the wealthy that haven’t helped the economy one iota. They promised no increases in taxes, but clearly [...]

No, everyone cannot just go get a job

I’ve been trying to figure out precisely how many jobs are available in the US at any time, but I think that information is not tracked. I guess it would involve employers letting someone know, “We’re hiring a new [position]” every time they decide to do so, and nobody in the government would take the [...]

Just testing the new email system

I am switching our email subscription service from FeedBurner to FeedBlitz, which should be more reliable. If everything is working properly, those of you subscribing to the site via email should receive this article in your email via FeedBlitz this evening, US time.

Changing feed URL, please update

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Language privilege and regionalism

I recently told a Californian. “If it needs changed, I’ll let you know.” He asked where I was from. Until that moment, I had no idea that “needs changed” is a regionalism. Californians are taught to say “needs to be changed” or “needs changing.” This really took me aback because I’ve had a number of [...]

Psychology myths: the snap

There’s an idea in this culture that a perfectly nice person can suddenly snap (if sufficiently traumatized) and then go on a random killing spree. There’s another idea that a perfectly nice man/boy who would never go around looking for someone to rape can be driven into a sort of temporary insanity by some woman [...]

The few controlling the many

Someone sent me an interesting article about how US workers get so little vacation compared to workers in other developed nations. The article makes the usual points: US workers get typically 2-3 weeks, at best, while Germans get 6 weeks and loads of countries provide four. Part of the reason, of course, is that other [...]

Why homeless people don’t just go back to their families

I recently came across this randomly in a thread discussing living on minimum wage in Los Angeles and whether it’s possible. The discussion wanders onto the topic of high taxation for California’s social services: Please don’t be fooled by California’s glorious social service programs – THE GOVERNOR CUT THE FUNDS WHEN HE TOOK OFFICE. How [...]

Replacing “crazy” for ableism and preciseness of language

If you’ve arrived at the conclusion that the word “crazy” is ableist, or at least makes some people uncomfortable, or is commonly misused and overused to the point of losing its meaning, you may be struggling to find substitute words. This post is for you. I’ve put together a list of many words that convey [...]

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