Joe Bageant: AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM? As William Edwards Deming famously demonstrated, no system can understand itself, and why it does what it does, including the American social system. Not knowing shit about why your society does what it makes for a pretty nasty case of existential unease. So we create institutions whose function is to pretend to know, which makes everyone feel better. Unfortunately, it also makes the savviest among us -- those elites who run the institutions -- very rich, or safe from the vicissitudes that buffet the rest of us. Directly or indirectly, they understand that the real function of American social institutions is to justify, rationalize and hide the true purpose of cultural behavior from the lumpenproletariat, and to shape that behavior to the benefit of the institution's members.
"Hey, they're a lump. Whaddya expect us to do? " Doubting readers may consider America's health institutions, the insurance corporations, hospital chains, physicians' lobbies. Taser the tots Soooo . . . Data Access Tools from the Census Bureau. Interactive Internet Data Tools Data Visualization Gallery - A weekly exploration of Census data used to promote visualization and make data accessible to a broader audience.2010 Census Interactive Population Map - Use this tool to explore 2010 Census statistics down to the block level, compare your community with others, and embed charts on your web site.The American FactFinder - This interactive application provides statistics from the Economic Census, the American Community Survey, and the 2010 Census, among others.QuickFacts - State and County QuickFacts provides frequently requested Census Bureau information at the national, state, county, and city level.Easy Stats - quick and easy access to selected statistics collected by the U.S.
Research Data Centers Software to Download Direct File Access Access Tools at Other Sites Integrated Public Use Microdata Series - iPUMS [University of Minnesota]. This symbol indicates a link to a non-government web site. National debt by U.S. presidential terms. US federal debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP, from 1790 to 2013, projected to 2038.
The history of the United States public debt started with debt incurred during the American Revolutionary War by the federal government of the United States, after its formation in 1789. The United States has continuously held public debt since then, except to the native Americans for about a year during 1835–1836. To allow comparisons over the years, public debt is often expressed as a ratio to gross domestic product (GDP). Historically, US public debt as a share of GDP increased during wars and recessions, and subsequently declined. The United States public debt as a percentage of GDP reached its highest level during Harry Truman's first presidential term, during and after World War II. Early history[edit] Except for about a year during 1835–1836, the United States has continuously held a public debt since the US Constitution legally went into effect on March 4, 1789.
Warren G. Tension grows between Calif. Muslims, FBI after informant infiltrates mosque. IRVINE, CALIF. - Before the sun rose, the informant donned a white Islamic robe. A tiny camera was sewn into a button, and a microphone was buried in a device attached to his keys. "This is Farouk al-Aziz, code name Oracle," he said into the keys as he sat in his parked car in this quiet community south of Los Angeles. "It's November 13th, 4:30 a.m. And we're hot. " The undercover FBI informant - a convicted forger named Craig Monteilh - then drove off for 5 a.m. prayers at the Islamic Center of Irvine, where he says he spied on dozens of worshipers in a quest for potential terrorists. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the FBI has used informants successfully as one of many tactics to prevent another strike in the United States.
But the FBI's approach has come under fire from some Muslims, criticism that surfaced again late last month after agents arrested an Oregon man they said tried to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. Cartoons. Fox News accused of violating campaign finance laws | Raw Story. By David EdwardsFriday, December 3, 2010 16:30 EDT Fox News appears to be gearing up to defend themselves after being accused of illegally helping a Republican candidate raise money on the air. The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) filed a lawsuit in August claiming that Fox News had violated campaign finance laws by allowing Republican candidate for Ohio governor John Kasich to raise money on the air.
Ohio Elections Commission filings obtained by The Huffington Post indicate that Fox News has retained Larry Noble, a nationally recognized campaign finance attorney at the firm Skadden Arps, to represent them. The Columbus Dispatch noted that Kasich made 16 appearances on the conservative-leaning network after formally announcing his candidacy. His opponent, Gov. During one appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, Kasich had been allowed to ask for donations while the address of his website was displayed on the screen. “This isn’t accidental. Kasich was elected as Governor of Ohio in November. Rage on the Right. The radical right caught fire last year, as broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation.
Hate groups stayed at record levels — almost 1,000 — despite the total collapse of the second largest neo-Nazi group in America. Furious anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80%, adding some 136 new groups during 2009. And, most remarkably of all, so-called "Patriot" groups — militias and other organizations that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose “one-world government” on liberty-loving Americans — came roaring back after years out of the limelight. “We are in the midst of one of the most significant right-wing populist rebellions in United States history,” Chip Berlet, a veteran analyst of the American radical right, wrote earlier this year. The signs of growing radicalization are everywhere. That is cause for grave concern. Republican opposition to extending unemployment benefits makes no sense. - By Annie Lowrey. Washington seems determined to make this holiday season a celebration of austerity.
On Monday, President Obama proposed a two-year pay freeze for nonuniformed federal employees. On Friday, the blue-ribbon deficit commission will vote on its final proposal, slashing trillions from the federal budget. And as of today, the federal extension of unemployment insurance benefits has expired. About 800,000 jobless workers will get dropped from the rolls by Dec. 4, and about 2 million by Christmas. Annie Lowrey, formerly Slate’s Moneybox columnist, is economic policy reporter for the New York Times. So they must be, Republicans say. Republicans' first line of argument against extending the benefits is that they're not paid for.
"That's right," Kirk answered. Rep. "No! " Actually, most economists—make that all economists—disagree with Shadegg. Thus, in economic terms, the loss of benefits is not good. On a human scale, too, the lapse is a catastrophe. Families Can’t Afford the Gender Wage Gap.
Healthcare. Kung Fu Monkey. Is There a Liberal Gene? Is political ideology derived from a person's social environment or is it a result of genetic predisposition? It's an interaction of both, according to a recent study on our political leanings that boosts both sides of the nature versus nurture debate. Scientists at the University of California San Diego and Harvard University determined that people who carry a variant of the DRD4 gene are more likely to be liberals as adults, depending on the number of friendships they had during high school. They published their study in a recent issue of The Journal of Politics.
Data was analyzed from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (the same source for a recent study that found intelligent children drink more alcohol as adults). The four authors, including UCSD's James Fowler, wanted to explore if politics were heritable by identifying a specific gene variant associated with political leaning. However, social environment was critical. One of the biggest problems with this country... Why We Are Angry at the TSA | The American Prospect. The Transportation Security Agency's new airport passenger-screening procedures, which force airline passengers to submit to a full-body scan or an invasive frisk, is turning Dick Cheney’s biggest fans into latter-day Ben Franklins. The conservative, torture-friendly Washington Times, declared that "a balance must be struck between reasonable security measures and the maintenance of a free society.
" Abu Ghraib was a fraternity prank, but getting frisked at the airport is a sign of, to quote the Times, "Big Sister's police state. " Hatred of the TSA makes for strange bedfellows, with some conservatives now sounding like card-carrying members of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We're giving Americans two unpalatable options now," says ACLU legislative counsel Chris Calabrese. The TSA has taken some important steps to alleviate privacy concerns by putting the machine operator in a separate room and blurring the faces of people going through the machine. Advertisement You might like:
Rural issues.