Web Letters | The Nation

Ladies, Don't Fall for Moderate Mitt!

No jive

God gonna bless you, my lady! God is gonna bless you for telling the truth! Regardless of party affiliation! I had a confession to my beautiful black woman self! There is absolutely nothing wrong with finding qualities I love in both parties! After all, Lincoln was not a Democrat and that man did more for my people than any other president in the history of this country! Thank you and God bless you for callin’ it like you see it! To the Nation editorial staff, God bless you too, for allowing Ms. Pollitt the freedom of speech! I have been reading online for a minute. Time to stop bootleggin’ and subscribe! This black woman right here loves herself The Nation! (Even considering your cruise, but you sailing around the inauguration of the president. Can’t do both. Must chat with a few of y’all.) Progressive! Captivating! Honest!

Do You Only Have a Brain? On Thomas Nagel

If only

One sympathizes with your concern that Nagel’s critique will be exploited by those who intend mischief. But if you want to guard against such mischief—or counter it—you’ll need to do a much better job showing where Nagel’s reasoning goes wrong. Take just one howler as an example: “approximately 1 percent of children born to women over 40 have Down syndrome. This fact is a perfectly adequate explanation of why a particular child has Down syndrome…“ Why does Bobby have Down? How on earth do you think that this statistic counts as an adequate answer to the question? The fact that it may be the best we can do just now doesn’t increase its “adequacy.” Surely we can do better. Indeed, recognition of the inadequacy of our present understanding of Down syndrome is at least one of the things that drive continuing research. Like I say: If you want to keep Nagel’s book—and its reasoning—from be exploited by mischief-makers, you’ll need to do a lot better, too.

The Inescapable Gender Wage Gap

Vision 2020 video

Nikki Muller did a video a few months ago about graduating from an Ivy League School (Princeton/Harvard) and dating. It was also about finding a well-paying job while trying to become an actor in LA. Drexel University liked it so much they asked Nikki if she could do something for their Vision 2020 program that is advocating for equal pay for women by 2020. Nikki was more than happy to work with them and gathered together some friends and colleagues and put together a fun and informative video. Thought you might enjoy it.

Shut Up About the Jews Already...

Surely you jest

At last, an article that puts the role of the Zionist neocons with regard to the bulk of the American Jewish community into perspective (and it’s almost as bad in the UK). But why on earth the fantastically over-the-top start? I thought it must be a joke, but just in case it isn’t, I have to say that the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are about as far removed from being crucial to the future of humanity as the color of my lipstick. If the author wasn’t being serious, then the joke should be made a bit more obvious. Otherwise, all the good stuff in the rest of the article is tainted by the opening hype.

I think that climate change, desertification, hunger, terrible poverty, the continuing wars, refugees, our destruction of our environment… all these are far more significant than the Israeli-Palestine conflict. I would totally agree that religious fanaticism has in the past and could well in the future lead to tragic and insane consequences. But a number of countries have had the Bomb for many years and all that happens is that we have these smaller conflicts. Horrible, indeed, and usually avoidable. If Israel dropped its nuclear bombs, then I would say that that would be the end of Israel in any Zionist sense. If Iran does get the bomb, then neither side will use it.

Do You Only Have a Brain? On Thomas Nagel

Nagel’s critique of Darwinism

Brian Leiter and Michael Weisberg say: “We take no stance on Nagel’s hypothesis that if our moral faculties are simply the result of evolution, they cannot be reliable measures of objective moral truth.” How can you possibly avoid taking a stance? For if Nagel is right, then a great many of us, i.e., all of us who believe in the existence of objective moral truth (and this would surely include many evolutionary biologists) will be forced to conclude that the evolutionary account is unsatisfactory.

Investigation: Two Years After the BP Spill, A Hidden Health Crisis Festers

Sick on the coast

My family also has health issues that I am struggling with. My two sons, 4 years and 13 months, both have to take steroid breathing treatments everyday now. My 4-year-old used to be healthy and never sick, now I’m so scared because he can’t catch his breath. My daughter also has had problems with her throat. They all have visited the doctor over twenty times this year. I maxed out my insurance with what was said to be a headache I had for over two months. My aunt who works in Gulf Shores with my fiancé, has a bagful of medicine that she takes for a cough that hasn’t gone away and it’s been a month and a half. She said some days she can’t catch her breath and it is scary. My fiancé can’t eat, nauseated all the time. I have spoken to so many sick people, it is sad. This all began this year. I have never been this sick in my life, and every time I say it’s the oil spill, people laugh. This is no laughing matter, we need help down here on the coast or our health will fail.

Why Should the Left Support Obama?

Obama will do more than just occupy the White House

After four years it’s hard to say that anyone has President Obama figured out. Compromiser-in=Chief? Friend of but scorned by Wall Street? Ruthless drone attacker? Man of halfway measures to cure full-on disasters?

Sure, he has great excuses: worst economic collapse in eighty years, a changed work environment that will never see resurgence of low-skilled or semi-skilled manufactuing jobs, united opposition of the wacko right and the super-rich, abetted by Fox and its media friends.

My final conclusion is that he tried to do what he felt was achievable in view of the all of the foregoing opposition. Sure, healthcare reform catered to providers and insurers; but he got healthcare. He got extended unemployment and COBRA when needed and aid to the states.

Could he have fought like hell? Sure. But the GOP would still have filibustered him to death.

The Republicans can achieve their primary goal, a lower tax burden on the rich at the expense of the common good. Their thirty-year assault on the tax code has succeeded in driving wealth upward. Obama is—and I believe will be, if he is re-elected—an impediment to their achieving that goal.

That, and Supreme Court appointments, means that Obama will have a valid function for four more years.

Patricia Williams: Paul Ryan's Libertarian America

Out the other side of his mouth

Wisconsin congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan portrays himself as a free market–loving, fiscally responsible, socially conservative guy. However, during the Wall Street bailout debate, he emphatically argued in Congress on behalf of the Wall Street. To quote, “Heaven help us if we fail to pass this [referring to then–Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s three-page proposal seeking $700 billion to bail out Wall Street banks], I fear the worst is yet to come.” Thanks to C-SPAN and Michael Moore’s film Capitalism: A Love Story, the video clip is preserved. The Etch-A-Sketch makeover is not only applicable to the Republican presidential candidate Romney but also to the vice presidential candidate Ryan.

Mitt Romney, Monsanto Man

Monsanto’s minions in our government

Your reporter just wrote a long-winded article on Monsanto and Mitt Romney, which took up a bit of his time to write. What concerns me is that your reporter neglected to point out where many of Mansanto’s people are working today. And why not write about how the American people’s food source is killing them and their families?

In the article written by Ronnie Cummins, founder and director of Organic Consumers Association and posted July 11, 2010 at 8:47 pm, “The Unholy Alliance: Monsanto, Dupont & Obama,” Cummins states that “Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice President, is now the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods” and “Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center, is now the director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.”

Shouldn’t this be more of a concern for Wayne Barrett, as well as every American, since we are about to place our votes for another presidential term? The time to wake up and take note on what’s happening now—the real news.

Women for Paid Sick Days

The fight in Orange County

The article on paid sick time was appreciated. We in Orange County are currently experiencing fall-out from a defeated attempt to put an earned sick-time initiative on the county ballot for November 6, 2012. Citizens for a Greater Orange County collected 50,000 vetted petitions to earn a place on the ballot. The Orange County commissioners and the Orlando Chamber of Commerce maneuvered to deny it from getting on the ballot. The Orlando Sentinel is covering the story, citing the loss of voter confidence in their elected officials. County Mayor Teresa Jacobs ran her campaign in 2010 on her history of ethical behavior as a previous commissioner. This story just keeps getting more intriguing, with deleted text messages to a Disney lobbyist by one of the commissioners during the commission meeting while the debate about the measure was ongoing for six hours on September 11. It occurs to me that this story could make interesting reading for progressives who support earned sick time. Orange County was chosen due to the high number of service-industry jobs and no sick time for employees, much less healthcare. Scott Maxwell of the Sentinel has written several pieces calling out the county commissioners, and there have been investigative reports done on the NBC affiliate, WESH. The Chamber of Commerce has been knee-deep in fighting to keep this measure off the ballot. I hope that someone on your staff pays attention to this. Chris Hayes on MSNBC covered it in a brief piece recently as well. I hope this gets your attention.