UK Progressive

The Boston Marathon Bombers and the Theory of Relative Laziness

Tina Dupuy — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:00:20 +0000

by Tina Dupuy My working theory—you could call it a philosophy, or a freestanding reason of how the world works—is what I call the Theory of Relative Laziness. It goes like this: Never attribute anything to conspiracy, coordination or planning when laziness could explain it. Call it Occam’s Armchair. While perusing the weirder corners of [...]

Six Claims on Detainee Torture, Skewered

ProPublica.org — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 06:00:33 +0000

by Christie Thompson ProPublica Among the news that ended up being buried in the events last week: A nonpartisan think tank, the Constitution Project, released a scathing, 577-page report on the U.S.’s treatment, and torture, of detainees in the aftermath of 9/11. The investigation began in 2009, after Obama opposed creating a “truth commission.” With a Senate investigation of detainee [...]

Illegal Abortion and ‘The Way of the World’

Tina Dupuy — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:00:40 +0000

by Tina Dupuy The Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, run by Dr. Kermit Gosnell was one of the few places in the state to provide late-term abortions. From witness accounts the clinic smelled of cat urine. There was a free-roaming, flea-infested feline that reportedly defecated all over the medical facility. The clinic, described [...]

The Dis-Uniting of America (2): Social Issues and The Demographic Split

Robert Reich — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:00:43 +0000

by Robert Reich My first reaction on hearing of the Senate’s failure to get 60 votes for even modest measures to regulate the flow of guns into the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, such as background checks supported by 90 percent of Americans, was to be furious at the spinelessness of the four [...]

Boston Strong!

admin — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:00:26 +0000

by Janet Landry-Borden On March 5, 1770 three men were killed on the streets of Boston in what came to be known as the Boston Massacre. Two more died later from their injuries, and several more were wounded. It took five years for the British to begin to feel the tremors of the outrage of that [...]

Boston Strong, Wicked Pissah Strong!

Denis G Campbell — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:04:01 +0000

This is The (Wicked Proud) Monday Line by Denis G. Campbell Run if You Can, Walk if You Must, But Finish for Boston. That sign greeted runners in Sunday’s London Marathon. It’s been an emotional week where Boston’s finest did what was needed to tighten the dragnet around two marathon bombers and show the world [...]

400K Hiroshima Atomic Bombs Per Day

Robert Hunziker — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:00:10 +0000

by Robert L. Hunziker The energy of four hundred thousand (400,000) Hiroshima atomic bombs is how much energy imbalance Earth is absorbing because of global warming… per day! This imbalance was explained by Dr. James Hansen, one of the world’s foremost, and most celebrated, climate scientists, wearing blue jeans, a white Polo button-down shirt, and [...]

Why This Is the Worst Recovery on Record

Robert Reich — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:00:46 +0000

by Robert Reich The biggest economic debate is between Keynesians (who want more government spending and lower interest rates in order to fuel demand) and supply-side “austerics” (who want lower taxes on the wealthy and on corporations to boost incentives to hire and invest, and who see government deficits crowding out private investment). But both [...]

Double Dose: In Second Case of Flawed Drug Research, FDA Response Was Slow and Secretive

ProPublica.org — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:00:35 +0000

by Rob Garver and Charles Seife, Special to ProPublica This week, we reported that the Food and Drug Administration left medicines on the market for years after discovering they were approved based on fraudulent studies by Cetero Research, which did testing for drug companies worldwide. Turns out that wasn’t an anomaly: The agency’s slow, secretive response in [...]

Why Jackie Robinson Still Matters

Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:04:05 +0000

by Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad There are some things in our society that matter and need not be explained. We live in a society where we have forgotten about the things that matter. We find ourselves explaining things that shouldn’t have to be explained and paying attention to things that we should give absolutely no [...]