Maya Angelou - I Am Human

An interview in memory of Maya Angelou (April 24, 1928 - May 28, 2014). 'If a human being dreams a great dream ... if a human being dares to be bigger than the condition into which she or he was born, it means so can you.' 

Documentary: 'Daddy I Do'

"Daddy I Do" examines Abstinence-Only Education versus Comprehensive Sex Education in America and its influence on the rates of teen pregnancies, abortions, and STDs, as well as poverty and sexual abuse. Directed by Cassie Jaye. Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the 2010 Cannes Independent Film Festival. DVD available here.

Our Egalitarian Eden

Elizabeth Pennisi Science
Hunter-gatherers—and presumably all our ancestors—lived as equals

Force Protection Alpha in Effect

Brian Terrell Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Drone warfare is based on the lie that war can be made more exact, limited and humane through technology.

The Ukraine Crisis and the New Cold War

UE General Officers UE
We reaffirm UE's historic position. We favor peace and friendly, equitable economic relations between nations. We favor negotiations rather than military confrontation to resolve disputes, including this one. We believe the countries that defeated Nazism in World War II, including the U.S. and Russia, should work together against any resurgence of racism, anti-semitism and fascism in Europe. United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, (UE)

NBC News Confirms Attempt by Edward Snowden to Go Through Channels at NSA

Kevin Gosztola Fire Dog Lake
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams asked Snowden, "When the president and others have made the point that you should have gone through channels, become a whistleblower and not pursued the route you did, what's your response?" "I actually did go through channels and that is documented," Snowden answered. "The NSA has records.

New Voices for Change in U.S. Cuba Policy

Bill Faries and David Lerman; DeWayne Wickham
Interesting new developments calling for end of ban on travel and trade with Cuba, and for full normalization of relations with socialist Cuba, our closest neighbor in the Caribbean. Open letter to Obama signed by former government officials, including ones who served in his Cabinet. Business groups in the U.S. are now clamoring for a change in policy. Today, Thomas Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headed a business delegation to Cuba.

Attack on Piketty’s Capital Gets it Wrong

Mike Konczal; Jennifer Rankin; Chris Giles; Neil Irwin
Piketty's central theme is not that inequality of the ownership of wealth is going to skyrocket. The central theme is that the 1% already owns a lot of the capital stock, and the capital stock is going to get gigantic relative to the rest of the economy. Whatever the weakness this meg-tome and mega-best seller, there is no denying - the rich are getting richer, the poor, poorer. (And Piketty is not a Marxist.)