College has become a barrier for smart poor kids

ETA: This post is US-centric, and I should have made that clear. How much or little it applies to other countries, I can’t say. As soon as employers made college a necessity for jobs of any significant income (and even some of shockingly low income, such as “receptionist”) back in the 80s or 90s, college [...]

The gay marriage ban should be scaring heterosexuals, too

Three states passed bans on gay marriage in the national election a few days ago. Regardless of where you fall on gay rights’ issues and the definition of marriage, this should frighten you because it is, plain and simple, the beginning of theocracy. Neo-Christian fascism. Sieg heil, Fred Phelps. I was so livid about this [...]

What Christians could learn from feminists

I grew up Christian (I’m now an atheist, or more specifically, an anti-theist). This didn’t mean back then what it has come to mean today. I wasn’t taught we were being persecuted because public schools didn’t include a Christian prayer, and fuck the non-Christian kids who had to sit through it politely. I wasn’t taught [...]

Those crappy jobs CEOs couldn’t do to save their lives

Last night I watched the presidential debate. One of the questions was (paraphrasing): do you see healthcare as a right, a responsibility or something else I’ve forgotten. McCain said responsibility (of the government to make sure affordable healthcare exists) and Obama said it was a right for people to have healthcare. I see it differently. [...]

Understanding the Treasury’s Bail out plan

If you want to understand the Treasury’s proposal that we give them $700 billion without oversight, accounting or court review and then they um something something with the money, Peter Orszag is your best bet. I’m no financial expert, but I watched his testimony today and was blown away with how easy he is to [...]

The Baby Boomers: programmed for selfishness

It’s ugly to talk in generalizations about generations, so let me say right up front that every generation contains the same variety of human beings. You can’t even argue that they have shared experience, because your experience of a world event or a place or a time varies according to your assets, your “place” in [...]

How you see life depends on how much money you’re seeing it with

I was talking to some friends the other day when one asked me if I’d ever been to Las Vegas. I told them no, that it wasn’t really my kind of place. They were amazed; how could anyone not love Vegas? It’s not just for gambling – it has fabulous restaurants and amazing hotels, too! [...]

Greed and the end of the middle class

The new cable channel PlanetGreen keeps reminding me I’m not a person. It goes like this: an expert on one of their shows says, “If everyone in America would do this, we’d save eleventy billion tons of resources/pollution” and then they do something that only one who owns her dwelling is empowered to do. Those [...]

Non-survivor privilege and silence

While it shouldn’t be a privilege to escape abuse in this life, there are trappings of privilege for those who have been so lucky. I know it’s an odd thing to say, and it’s a realization I’ve been slowly moving toward since childhood, but it works like this: Once you survive abuse or violation, you [...]

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