by Walter Brasch It isn’t cheap to attend a high school prom. Emulating Miley Cyrus, Megan Fox, or any celebrity that People magazine naively believes is one of the 50 most beautiful people in the whole wide world, is an avalanche of expenses that could easily exceed the cost of a year’s supply of beer for a college freshman. Americans spent about $6.6 billion on proms in 2008, according to the...

Seems that it is not as unusual as some would have us think

I may not agree on a philosophical, emotional, political or economic basis, but as a practical matter, we simply have to eliminate all discretionary domestic spending, and drastically reduce Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. This may lead our nation quickly to a corporate feudalism. But if there are no plausible alternatives to the declining status quo, we might as well embrace dystopia and make the worst...

I get to see Ezekiel Isaac Malekar at least twice a year. A pleasant person wearing a kippah, Malekar is a permanent invitee at many Indian government’s national functions, including the birth and death anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi at the Gandhi Smriti, in the heart of New Delhi, where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. Sitting next to a Maulvi, a Muslim teacher/scholar, Malekar recites passages from...

It seems that when it comes to the Middle East, President Obama can’t win. With blistering criticism from Israelis over his assertion that peace talks with the Palestinians be based on the 1967 borders, this article from Samidoon of the Palestinian Territories rips into Obama as insincere about wanting justice for Arabs, and criticizes America for long favoring Arab despots and Israel. For Samidoon,...

The factoid, from the June Harper’s Index, sent my blood pressure north and my fingers to the keyboard: Amount of federal money that went to National Public Radio in 2010: $2.7 million To Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University: $446 million WTH?

Douglas Blackmon: In the first sentences of an opinion issued last week by the state Supreme Court, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein declared without qualification that the Georgia Charter School Commission was illegal because of an “unbroken … constitutional authority” existing since the adoption of the 1877 Constitution giving only “local boards of education” the power to create k-12 public schools....

Jared Loughner, who killed six and wounded thirteen in the January 8 assassination attempt on Congresswoman Giffords, had a troubling and well documented history of mental and emotional disturbance. An upcoming competency hearing is scheduled in court to determine his ability to stand trial. More than 200 emails have now been released as well as other records from his time at Pima Community College. A pattern...

Has the United Nations outlived its usefulness? For Bolivia’s Bol Press, Professor Alvaro Cuadra of Chile’s Universidad ARCIS writes that just as the League of Nations collapsed when World War II broke out – making it’s failure obvious, the U.N., born out of WWII, has similarly proven itself incapable of many of its central tenets, including ‘saving future generations from the...

The Importance of Being Tony Kushner by Michael Winship Coincidence combined with foresight on the part of my girlfriend Pat — she bought the tickets months ago — landed us at a performance of Tony Kushner’s new play, just days after the executive committee of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) board of trustees held an emergency meeting and scrambled to reverse an earlier board...

As almost anyone with a comprehensive world view well knows, America’s future lies not in having the mightiest military but in marshaling its extraordinary assets — its people, its infrastructure and its renewable resources — to assure a more secure 21st century. That the wonks at Foreign Policy magazine recognize that reality in publishing a paper titled “A National Security Narrative”...

The contrast between the way we approach national security and defense in the United States and the way we approach public education could not be more stark. This is not just a matter of budget allocations. It’s about the paradigm we use to evaluate the effectiveness and success of our military missions, versus the paradigm we use to evaluate the effectiveness and success of public education in this country....

I’m eagerly looking forward to being instructed on why this isn’t racist (emphasis is in original):

In an increasingly global economy that permits multinational private enterprises to pit near slaves against working people with the full support and acquiescence of most sovereign governments, who do you think is going to win? It has become a meaningless mantra and a silly shibboleth to say we need better educated workers in order for Americans to compete globally. It’s Pure Bullshit. Despite endless campaign...

The burly man with two days growth of beard at the ticket booth looked down at the young lad. “How old are you, son.” “I’m seven, sir.” “How come you’re not is school?” “My school’s closed, sir.” “You come to see the circus?” “Yes, sir.” “That’ll be five bucks. Plus the extra sales tax for education. And, I’ll need to see your citizenship papers.” “Enjoy the circus,...

Yesterday TMV’s Resident Ranter Marc Pascal posted an article titled “WHEW! Thank you Governor Brewer! But it’s just not enough anymore”. In his piece, Marc praised Arizona’s governor for vetoing the Birther Bill that would have required presidential candidates to provide proof of natural born citizenship and the Guns on Campus bill. Both bills passed the legislature with large majorities. He went...

For those seeking to understand the growing suspicion in Mexico that the “drug war” is being used as a pretext for U.S. intervention if not outright invasion, this article by Gilberto Lopez y Rivas of Mexico’s La Jornada will undoubtedly prove illuminating. This is history from a Mexican point of view – and it is anything but flattering to the the United States. For La Jornada, Gilberto...

Milt Priggee, www.miltpriggee.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Frank Buckles, the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I — of nearly 5 million Americans who served during that war — died last month at age 110. Buckles, who served in England and France, was a member of a steadily aging and shrinking group of heroes from our “early” major wars — where I am also including World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War — the Veterans...

Some of the ancient Greek philosophers stressed moderation in all things. That entails avoiding extremes in any direction in how we think, speak, act, believe and organize our lives and societies. It is a simple call for balance, flexibility, openness to various ideas, fidelity to all the facts, an honest effort to find the truth, and a good-faith effort to negotiate reasonable compromises. It is a plea for...