Lee Jeffries: Portraits of the Forgotten Homeless

by Nomad

Lee Jeffries started out as a sports photographer but after a chance encounter with a young homeless person on the streets of London, his career took a completely different turn. Since that meeting Jeffries has dedicated his time taking photographic portraits of the homeless in Britain and in the United States. As our source explains:

Shooting exclusively in black and white, Lee Jeffries’ 135+ pictures can be viewed in his Flickr Photostream. The majority are closeup portraits with incredible detail. Each photograph exudes so much raw character and depth, you find yourself studying each shot with great intensity.

Here are a few examples from a much larger collection which can be found  on Flickr.

Class Mobility: Why Moving Up is Just a Dream for Many American Children

by Nomad

Recent studies about class mobility in America reveal some interesting findings on upward mobility- the core principle of the American Dream. 
They suggest that one key factor between making that dream a reality or not could just be where you happen to live.

A recent study, commissioned by  the Equality of Opportunity Project and funded by the National Science Foundation, made some interesting correlations. Researchers found that areas with greater mobility-where people can rise out of the class they were born into- tended to have five characteristics: 

• less segregation, 
• less income inequality, 
• better schools, 
• greater social capital,
• more stable families. 

Researchers are quick to point out that the study was more about finding patterns. The study was not an attempt to decide what is a cause and what is an effect.  In any event, the findings themselves provide valuable information about the state of cyclical poverty in the US.

Where You Call Home

One factor is simply where you live. For example, the cards are stacked against the poor in the Southeast and the industrial Midwest. Basically, if you are poor there, you're stuck. 

On the other hand, if you are born poor in in the Northeast, Great Plains and West, including in New York, Boston, Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, Seattle and large swaths of California and Minnesota, you may be able to climb out of the inherited hole. At least, there's a chance.

Pastor Hagee and Blood Moon Nonsense: Promoting Superstition and Fear

by Nomad

Megachurch pastor, televangelist and author John Hagee is warning the world that the lunar eclipses today is just God is cracking down on rule-breaking mortals. 

Such superstitious nonsense is nothing new. More than any other natural phenomenon, eclipses have been used frighten the under-educated and gullible.

Just when you thought it was safe to go forward into the future, now this. After we somehow survived the end of world predicted by the Mayans, we poor humans are clearly not out of danger just yet. 

The Raw Story has a article about the pastor of Texas’ Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas., John Hagee who has apparently dusted off his well-thumbed copy of the 1970 End Times bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth. The world will face a wrath of God that will make the Mayan's 2012 non-event look like a Harpo Marx with a seltzer bottle and a cream pie. 

The End of the Age.. Again

Hagee told his congregation that the astronomic events will be God's way of warning of an upcoming cataclysm involving Israel, Russia and a “world-shaking event that will happen between April 2014 and October 2015.” 

"Every time this has happened in the last 500 years, it has coincided with tragedy for the Jewish people followed by triumph. And once again, for Israel, the timing .. is remarkable."

It's strange, a critic might say, that God forgot to warn the Jews about the Holocaust with a couple of red moons.

According to the article:

“Is this the end of the age?” Hagee asked during a recent sermon, before quoting Acts 2:19-20: And I will show wonders in Heaven above and signs in the Earth beneath, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.”

“I believe that the heavens are God’s billboard, that he has been sending signals to planet Earth,” he explained. “God is literally screaming at the world, ‘I’m coming soon.’”

In actuality, today's' lunar eclipse, scientists inform us, will be the first of four in six month intervals. These eclipses are often referred to as “blood moons” because of their appearance (not for any supernatural reason).  Astronomers tell us that's simply due to sunlight shining on the moon filtered by the Earth’s atmosphere. However, to the Texas pastor, the event is God's way of clearing out the orgy, a kind of closing time last call for humanity.

Are GOP Governors who Reject Medicaid Expansion Violating their Residents' Civil Rights?

by Nomad

If the first duty of government is to protect its citizens then isn't access to health care included in that idea? 

Are the 21 governors that rejected the Medicaid expansion violating their state residents' civil rights? 

It has been long recognized that the first duty of government is to protect the people. Everything else- including party politics and budget considerations come after that responsibility. (This was something that even Ronald Reagan recognized.)  

The Most Basic Duty of Government

The idea that government has its special duty is based on the so-called Social Compact that pre-dates (but is upheld by) the US Bill of Rights and the Constitution. 

It works like this: The government has a duty to protect and in turn, all citizens conditionally surrender their absolute freedom (but not surrender absolutely) as a form of consent. Furthermore as subjects, all citizens were obliged to contribute- in the form of taxes and in the form of general compliance- to maintain the general welfare of the nation.
More and more we see some- especially in the Tea Party- calling to question this compact. 

Teddy Roosevelt and The Necessity for Government Regulation

by Nomad

Women and Politics: Why We can Never Go Back to the 1950s

by Nomad

In my formative years (which, as far as I can tell, haven't ended) there was a popular tune was by Helen Reddy called "I am Woman." It became a kind of anthem to the Feminist Movement of the 1970s. It was a song that clearly changed lives.

Back then, I couldn't understand what the fuss was about back then. I mean, apart from the dubious grammar, my thought was "Okay, you are woman. Wasn't it obvious?" Since that time, the tides of enlightenment through liberation have swept in, left their marks and in some ways, swept out again. 

For some people, the fact that women really are people who deserve the same rights as the male population isn't all that obvious and some of these people somehow find themselves in positions of power.

In any event,  related to that idea,  here are two articles from women I thought I would share with you. 

First, there one by Kimberley A. Johnson, the author of The Virgin Diaries. It is called "Why I Am Leaving The Democratic Party And Voting Republican." 

Here's an excerpt:

I imagine this will come as a great shock to many but I have decided that rather than vote for the losing team in November, I will vote a straight Republican ticket.

I have been singing the liberal song for so long now and it just isn’t working. I have asked so many senators and representatives to support the Equal Rights Amendment because for some crazy reason, I thought women should earn as much as men for the same work. They just ignore me. Every time I turn around, I hear Republican women telling me that pay inequality is just a myth. Men say it too. Rick Perry just said it is ridiculous to even discuss it, and he has GREAT HAIR!

She goes on to say:

I think the main reason why I have decided to vote Republican is because I am just sick and tired of worrying about my rights. It’s exhausting. Voting is such a pain anyway. I could be at the mall getting my nails done and ENJOYING a nice massage and some Republican man can pay for it. I am sick and tired of having to make every decision myself.

I tend to think she might be pulling my leg. What do you think?

NYT Editor John Swinton and The Truth about the Independent Press

by Nomad

The American journalist, orator, and fighter for progressive causes, John Swinton (1829-1901) has long been forgotten by the public but his comments on the Independent press of his day seems strikingly familiar to our own.

To Fawn at the Feet of Mammon

In 1880, newspaper publisher, New York Times chief editor and orator John Swinton was the guest of honor at a banquet for the press. When a toast was raised to the independent press, Swinton reportedly had this rather surprising announcement:

THERE is no such thing in America as an independent press, unless it is in the country towns. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write his honest opinions, and if you did you know beforehand that it would never appear in print.

I am paid $150.00 a week for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with—others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things—and any of you who would be so foolish as to write his honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.

The business of the New York journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his race and his country for his daily bread.

You know this and I know it, and what folly is this to be toasting an "Independent Press." We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping-jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men.

We are intellectual prostitutes.