No “Change” In Obama’s Drone Doctrine

The Article: Don’t Look For “Change” In Obama’s Drone Doctrine by Savannah Cox in The Speckled Axe.

The Text: We see it in the headlines every day: Obama will be on the right side of history. In the social stratosphere, he righted himself recently via “coming out” of his own moderate and pragmatic closet in favor of gay marriage (albeit at the state level). To justly associate himself with the “99%” majority, Obama aligned himself with aging plutocratic dissenter Warren Buffett while his wife Michelle sat next to Buffett’s now-famous secretary at the State of the Union Address. Meanwhile, his fumbling attempt at affordable healthcare—one whose roots can easily be traced to the work of none other than presidential hopeful Mitt Romney—awaits its fate this June. This is the hope and change that Shepard Fairey so colorfully promised back in 2008, right?

Not necessarily. Amid the flurry of Obama’s so-called “novel” policies and plays on the political chess board, many of the same strategies of fact manipulation, deceit and political posturing spring eternal. No, he’s not Bush—and thank God for that. But in terms of counter-terrorism, when the Obama administration’s strategies employ the same disregard for dehumanized civilians via drone strikes and the simultaneous generation of misleading nomenclature to soften the political blowback that would occur if, God forbid, Americans really knew how their tax dollars were being spent in the name of “freedom,” one has to wonder how different the two presidents actually are. Yes, we’re scheduled to exit Afghanistan and Iraq for good in the coming years, but when the administration’s drone war only emblazons the cause of the same groups against whom American troops fought extensively and expensively for nearly a decade, what have we really accomplished?

Continue Reading

Are You Addicted To Facebook?

The Article: Can These 6 Questions Tell You If You’re Clinically Addicted to Facebook? by Brian Fung in The Atlantic.

The Text: American medical discourse is chock full of addictions these days. There’s video game addiction. Porn addiction. Gambling addiction. Internet addiction.

And of course: Facebook addiction. At least, that’s according to Norwegian researcher Cecilie Schou Andreassen, who says people who can’t get enough of the social network show many of the same signs of withdrawal and mood swings associated with gambling junkies.

Although Facebook is not a chemical like alcohol or cocaine, she said in an email to The Atlantic, Facebook users can fit the criteria for addiction that are applied to other things.

Continue Reading

Fear And Loathing In America

The Article: Fear And Loathing In America by Hunter S. Thompson.

The Text: It was just after dawn in Woody Creek, Colo., when the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City on Tuesday morning, and as usual I was writing about sports. But not for long. Football suddenly seemed irrelevant, compared to the scenes of destruction and utter devastation coming out of New York on TV.

Even ESPN was broadcasting war news. It was the worst disaster in the history of the United States, including Pearl Harbor, the San Francisco earthquake and probably the Battle of Antietam in 1862, when 23,000 were slaughtered in one day.

The Battle of the World Trade Center lasted about 99 minutes and cost 20,000 lives in two hours (according to unofficial estimates as of midnight Tuesday). The final numbers, including those from the supposedly impregnable Pentagon, across the Potomac River from Washington, likely will be higher. Anything that kills 300 trained firefighters in two hours is a world-class disaster.

Continue Reading

Lebron James Only Deserves My Ire

The Article: I Hate Lebron James by Adam Gallagher in The Speckled Axe.

The Text: “In this fall I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.” With this awfully constructed sentence, LeBron James forever cemented his place in the long and tragic history of Cleveland sports. What’s more, in one fell swoop, he instantly became the most polarizing athlete on the planet, outpacing the nymphomaniac Tiger Woods.

Hailing from Cleveland, I know many people that would say something along the lines of: “It’s not that he decided to leave Cleveland. It’s the way he did it.” To be sure, “The Decision” was a supreme illustration of the profound self-absorption of the modern athlete. Why make us all listen to the serpentine, sycophantic Jim Gray vomit out canned questions for so long before announcing you’d be going to South Beach, LeBron? Ok, so “The Decision” was obnoxious, fatuous, and demonstrated LeBron’s profound lack of self-awareness.

Nonetheless, this whole the way he did it sentiment is plain bullshit. The reason that I despise LeBron is because he left Cleveland. He is a traitor. Not only do I simply hope that LeBron doesn’t win, I pine to watch spectacular failures on his part. For this, I can thank LeBron, because he has provided me with ample moments to revel in his pure, unadulterated cowardice.

Continue Reading

What Teachers Really Want To Tell Parents

The Article: What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents by Ron Clark on CNN.com.

The Text: This summer, I met a principal who was recently named as the administrator of the year in her state. She was loved and adored by all, but she told me she was leaving the profession.

I screamed, “You can’t leave us,” and she quite bluntly replied, “Look, if I get an offer to lead a school system of orphans, I will be all over it, but I just can’t deal with parents anymore; they are killing us.”
Unfortunately, this sentiment seems to be becoming more and more prevalent. Today, new teachers remain in our profession an average of just 4.5 years, and many of them list “issues with parents” as one of their reasons for throwing in the towel. Word is spreading, and the more negativity teachers receive from parents, the harder it becomes to recruit the best and the brightest out of colleges.

So, what can we do to stem the tide? What do teachers really need parents to understand?

Continue Reading