Portside

Bill Gates' critique of Thomas Piketty is revealing for what it overlooks

Democrats may save their senatorial bacon by realizing that supporting something that has broad support may actually win them votes.

Artist Nickolay Lamm, inspired by his own and his relative’s struggles with body-image issues, wondered what Mattel’s Barbie doll would look like if she weren’t such an anatomical freak.

Mesches is an artist who has illuminated -- in the style of medieval manuscripts -- his own FBI file. “I loved the way they looked, those black strokes, like Franz Kline color sketches. I also thought, ‘This is history, and, hey, this is my history.’”

Protests, including those that often turn violent, have become a common feature in the Ukrainian capital, and more are expected as the October 26th parliamentary elections approach. On Tuesday, violence broke out when protesters from the ultra-right wing Svoboda and Right Sector parties marched on parliament to demand recognition and rehabilitation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which was allied with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Furious over the Philadelphia School Reform Commission's move to unilaterally cancel its teachers' contract, 3,000 people shut down North Broad Street on Thursday, vowing more disruptive action if the panel's action is not undone.

The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), the regulatory commission responsible for the stewardship of that state's natural resources and the environment, has sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggesting Russian President Vladimir Putin is bankrolling anti-fracking activists in the United States, and in particular those working in Denton, Texas, where voters will be deciding on the state's first proposed city-wide fracking ban November 4.

Three years after the Fukushima disaster, 25,000 people evacuated from the region closest to the nuclear reactor station have been told that it will take 120 years before they can return safely to their homes. Tens of thousands of other evacuees who lived outside the most contaminated area, and who the government says will be able to return soon, say they will never return because of the ongoing danger of nuclear contamination.

The political manipulation of the irrational fear of immigrants spreading disease is part of an historic pattern in United States. The recent calls for a blanket prohibition on travel from West Africa is prejudice, plain, and simple: prejudging an entire group of people, based on the sickness of a small handful. They echo the kind of bigotry directed at other immigrant groups arriving in this country since the 1800s.