Monthly Archives: July 2009

Gays remain 2nd class citizens

by Chris   –   July 31, 2009

Obama is going to give the Medal of Freedom to Billie Jean King and posthumously to Harvey Milk, both openly gay Americans. I want to applaud the President for a clear gesture toward tolerance. But I can’t, and I won’t because he’s being an a**hole to gays when it actually matters.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand reports that sincce Obama took [...]

Long Term Cost of Combat

by Jordan   –   July 30, 2009

Why We Worry …about our soldiers on the Home Front
I came across this duology of articles from the Colorado Springs Gazette:
Casualties of War, Part I: The hell of war comes home
Casualties of War, Part II: Warning signs
It is worth reading both in full. What struck me is that these are not isolated incidences for just [...]

Top Ten Keywords

by Clint   –   July 29, 2009

Google Analytics keeps track of every Google search that results in a click to the Web site. I decided to look at the keywords for the last few months and see what searches were drawing people here.
Here are Why We Worry’s Top Ten most amusing keywords, in no particular order:

can you fly wearing a gel [...]

Le Tour

by Jordan   –   July 28, 2009

From the perspective of an American, when you think of the Tour de France two things probably pop into your mind: Lance Armstrong and doping scandals. And probably a third, tight shorts. I happened to watch three stages of this event this past week (it ended Sunday) and found myself enjoying it, only thinking about [...]

Gates v. the Guys with the Guns

by Chris   –   July 27, 2009

By now, thanks in no small to President Obama’s remarks, you’ve probably heard of the dust-up between Cambridge police officer James Crowley and Professor Henry Louis Gates. The media jumped on the story because of the racial overtones, but there is another interesting angle not being covered: Respect for police authority.
When I first heard of the arrest [...]

The Great American Armchair Road Trip

by Jordan   –   July 25, 2009

For those of us stuck in one place for one reason or another the thoughts of participating in that most American of things, the road trip, is an ever-tempting daydream. Below is my attempt to build a Great American Armchair Road Trip collection. For those more ecologically-conscious, don’t forget we have railroads or you can [...]

A Future Framented Europe?

by Jordan   –   July 24, 2009

The folks over at ComingAnarchy.com came up with the map below as a projection of what new states could emerge from Europe by 2020.

I don’t know if the guy who made it happened to stop by the Autonomist and Secessionist Movements list on Wikipedia (and its a beauty) and started extrapolating but, to throw my [...]

Americans Getting Skewed: Part 2

by Clint   –   July 23, 2009

In Part 1, I argued that the skewed distribution of wealth in the United States has been produced under conditions of unequal opportunity and therefore must be considered unfair. Further, a lack of sufficient protections – such as guaranteed health care and higher education – keeps the risks of inequality intolerably high.
In this second installment, [...]

Your Senator in charge of health reform

by Chris   –   July 22, 2009

I present the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.):

He’s looking out for the interests of the average American:
As liberal protesters marched outside, Sen. Max Baucus sat down inside a San Francisco mansion for a dinner of chicken cordon bleu and a discussion of landmark health-care legislation under consideration by his Senate Finance [...]

Americans Getting Skewed: Part 1

by Clint   –   July 21, 2009

(I’m not writing this essay as a response, but I want to note that its timing and trajectory have been influenced by the release of a Cato Institute analysis called, “Thinking Clearly About Economic Inequality,” and also by an interesting reaction to that analysis at The American Scene Blog.)

Dreams of GINI
We have been cheated.
If [...]