Tuscon shooter may be mentally ill – what does that mean?

Six people are dead and fourteen others injured by gunshot in Tuscon because of the actions of a man who may be mentally ill. Whenever something like this happens and the perpetrator is believed to be mentally ill, most of the general public accepts that as the full explanation. It’s really not, and there are [...]

Bye bye, Miss American Pie

A few months ago, I irritated some people in my usual fashion by suggesting that the U.S. Healthcare Reform bill was a piece of industry-serving drivel that would only result in shocking premium increases, now that all Americans would be held hostage to doing business with the healthcare industry. I said: Can’t you just see [...]

What does society/government owe you?

The question of what a society or government owed its people was very popular among right-wing Republicans when I was a kid. I grew up hearing that nobody owed me a job, and the government didn’t owe anyone health care. I always thought that perspective entirely missed the point. Governments are not conscientious entities. They [...]

I’m so poor!

Ted Turner gives away a lot of money to charity. That’s fine. He says he wants to die with just enough to cover his funeral expenses. That’s also fine. Recently, he described himself as “almost to the edge of poverty. ” Uh, no. He’s a millionaire instead of a billionaire. Oh, I know he was [...]

Elevating individuals doesn’t solve privilege

Last week, we shredded a commenter who suggested that poor people just need to cut out their “latte a day” habits – and just got more ridiculous from there. Another assertion of his that I think merits a whole article – because it’s such a common idea – is that people who are struggling financially [...]

Apology for allowing privileged comment

The other day, I allowed a comment from someone named “Rawling” on Renting V. Owning. I had misgivings about Rawling from the start because his comment began: “Didnt know you had it that bad in LA. I live in Vancouver, Canada, which has been rated the most unfordable city in the world – in terms [...]

On Voting

I was so relieved to see this in my feedreader: a Racialicious post called “On Forcing Myself to Vote.” In it, Latoya Peterson describes the malaise that sets in when a thoughtful, industrious person begins to wonder if there is any point in voting in U.S. elections: So wait, we vote them back in and…then [...]

Renting v. Owning

If you read articles about making smart financial choices, you may already be sick to death of the debate over whether it’s better to rent or buy a home. The most obvious problem with the debate is that there isn’t one right answer for everyone on Earth, or even everyone in middle class USA. There [...]

We tried nothing, and we’re all out of ideas

I grew up hearing about how lazy unemployed people were – how they didn’t really want to work, and if they did, why, there were plenty of jobs out there for them. I knew this was bullshit for two reasons: (1) I read in the 80s about people with PHDs whose job fields had dried [...]

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