The Case For Socialized Law

The Article: The Case For Socialized Law by Noam Scheiber in The New Republic.

The Text: Maintain and refine, maintain and refine. That’s how progressives talk about the welfare state these days. After nearly a century of expanding government with programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and food stamps, suddenly the best the left can come up with are relative stutter-steps like universal pre-K. Liberal Democrats all but concede that Obamacare marked the end of their activist ambitions. Hereafter, we will all take vigorous walks and watch prestige dramas on HBO.

But there’s still at least one major social-welfare project the left must see through before anyone considers its mission accomplished. The issue is the vast injustice that arises from the way the law is applied to different classes of citizens.

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Stop Embarrassing Yourselves, One Percenters

The Article: One percenters, stop embarrassing yourselves! by John Macintosh in CNN.

The Text: Tom Perkins, a well-known venture capitalist, got himself in hot water when he compared the “progressive war on the 1%” with Nazis’ treatment of Jews in World War II. Although Perkins apologized for his comments, he stood by his main point that anger at the rich is a wrong and dangerous attitude.

It’s easy to dismiss Perkins’ sentiment as nothing more than the ill-advised ravings of a cantankerous, thin-skinned old man. But it also illustrates just how bizarre things have gotten for some wealthy people, who find themselves in a new socially constructed category and on the wrong side of a resurgent but elusive political ideal, facing off against mesmerizing populist adversaries.

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The Three Most Bizarre Reasons For Banning Drugs

A handful of decades ago, leaders banned opium out of fear that–get ready for this–consumption of it might lead to totally wacko interracial relationships. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

A Couple Things You Shouldn’t Compare To The Holocaust

When a friend drinks too much and passes out on your couch, avoid calling your living room Poland.

West Virginia And Stockholm Syndrome

The Article: West Virginians say they don’t fault coal industry for water crisis by Wilson Dizard in Al Jazeera.

The Text: Many West Virginians don’t blame the coal industry for the spill of a coal-processing chemical that has tainted the water of 300,000 people around Charleston, the state capital.

Indeed, some of those who live in parts of coal country — much of which is suffering from decades-long legacies of mining pollution — say coal is the state’s only hope for employment and progress.

To the outside observer, mining can look like a blight on the Mountain State, not a blessing, with dozens of white and gray scars of blown-off green mountaintops across southern West Virginia visible in satellite images from miles above.

But the feeling on the ground can be very different.

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