Better than Redistributing Income

Richard D Wolff Truthout
Bringing democratic decision-making into the core organization of enterprises provides the best chance for a less unequal initial distribution of income than is now common in most societies. Transition to an economy where many enterprises were organized as WSDEs would likely proceed further in reducing income inequality.

Was the American Revolution Really Just A Counter-Revolution to Avoid the British Mandate to Its Colonies to End Slavery

Herbert Calhoun Op Ed News
The "so-called" American Revolution was not so much a "revolution for freedom against Great Britain, per se," as it was a shrewd and carefully calculated set of moves on the global chessboard of Real Politik, that amounted to a "Counter-Revolution" against freedom: That is to say, it was a revolution against ending freedom for its slaves and other slaves around the colonial empire.

Friday Nite Videos -- May 16, 2014

Portside
Alabama Shakes - I Ain't the Same. Muscle Shoals: The Movie and the Music. Wealth Inequality In America. Movie: Chef. The Teen Brain: Under Construction.

Muscle Shoals: The Movie and the Music

This movie  transports us to the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the unlikely breeding ground for some of America's most creative and defiant music. Muscle Shoals has inspired some of the most important and resonant songs of all time. At its heart is Rick Hall, who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama's cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. Greg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Mick Jagger, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals' magnetism and mystery.

Wealth Inequality In America

A must see video reveals staggering wealth inequality in the United States, and also how far we, the public, are from understanding just how unequal we are. 

Movie: Chef

Jon Favreau wrote the script and heads a scintillating cast in Chef. Carl Casper suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner (Dustin Hoffman). In Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen—and zest for life and love. (Correction: an earlier version incorrectly identified the scriptwriter Jon Favreau as the same Jon Favreau who was a White House speechwriter. -- moderator.)

The Teen Brain: Under Construction

When does a person really become a 'grown up?' Surely age can't be the only determining factor. Laci Green looks at how the brain matures and what it means- from a scientific perspective- to be an adult.

Contextualizing the Hobbits

Jyoti Madhusoodanan PLOS One
While very little in paleoanthropology is ever “settled,” a new study represents an important step forward in terms of settling that the "Hobbit" people were really a different human species, and not pathological individuals of Homo sapiens. The question that remains to be answered definitively is which species of archaic Homo is the most likely ancestor of Homo floresiensis.