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The Two Politics
In the United States we have two politics. Competitive Politics The first, I’ll call “Competitive Politics,” is the two-party system of pugilism, evidenced by our incessant competitive metaphors. We talk about horse races, boxing matches, and football. So outdated is this vision of politics, that we even use war metaphors as evidence of only two…
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Bullying Isn’t Free Speech–Even in Michigan
Matt’s Safe School Law, otherwise known as Michigan’s “anti-anti-bullying law” is an embarrassment and juvenile. It is the pre-emptive self-defense of bigotry, and just like the nation’s first foray with the Bush Doctrine, this has a profound effect on people’s real lives. It hurts people. Real people. Not mythical, hypothetical, potential people. Real, living people…
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Politics in the Park
In a city park, over the weekend, this conversation probably occurred: Geoffery: Did you read that Paul Krugman post? The one about hypocrisy? Dillon: No! What did that old miser have to say? Geoffery: He noticed that we seem to have different feelings about our leaders’ indiscretions depending on their political party. Dillon: Can’t be. …
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How about we occupy the church?
Of course the teens should occupy the church; but not just teens. Us! We should occupy the church! We should demand a better church! We should lay claim to our leadership of an institution that today only benefits some! Brian Kirk asks in a column for Patheos: “Should we help teens occupy the church?” which…
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7 Billion reasons to stop being selfish
Welcome to the world number 7,000,000,000! Now wait a second… oh! 7,000,000,001! Wait a few more seconds…There’s 7,000,002! Congratulations new babies, families, and all! This happy and joyous occasion! We can ignore the suffering for a little while, anyway! There are a few things that surprise me when they don’t hit people in the gut.…
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Fixing the problem of college costs
Student loan debt recently broke $100 billion for the first time in history. It isn’t like we couldn’t see this coming. Virtually no wage increase for the bottom 95% over the last thirty years. Annual tuition increases above inflation rate. State payment cuts to universities. Decreased scholarship opportunities. The end result is college costs have…
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The excuse of fear: “nonlethal” force and the powerful
In the week between when the world discovered Sgt. Shamar Thomas, some dudes went crazy. The viral video of an Iraqi veteran chastising the New York police department for arming up against their own civilians as if it were a war zone was a wake-up call to the sleeping public. These public protesters aren’t impudent…