We’ve been hearing a lot about the war on women, which is real enough. But there’s also a war on the young, which is just as real even if it’s better disguised. And it’s doing immense harm, not just to the young, but to the nation’s future.
Let’s start with some advice Mitt Romney gave to college students during an appearance last week. After denouncing President Obama’s “divisiveness,” the candidate told his audience, “Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.”
The first thing you notice here is, of course, the Romney touch — the distinctive lack of empathy for those who weren’t born into affluent families, who can’t rely on the Bank of Mom and Dad to finance their ambitions. But the rest of the remark is just as bad in its own way.
I mean, “get the education”? And pay for it how? Tuition at public colleges and universities has soared, in part thanks to sharp reductions in state aid. Mr. Romney isn’t proposing anything that would fix that; he is, however, a strong supporter of the Ryan budget plan, which would drastically cut federal student aid, causing roughly a million students to lose their Pell grants.
So how, exactly, are young people from cash-strapped families supposed to “get the education”? Back in March Mr. Romney had the answer: Find the college “that has a little lower price where you can get a good education.” Good luck with that. But I guess it’s divisive to point out that Mr. Romney’s prescriptions are useless for Americans who weren’t born with his advantages.
… What should we do to help America’s young? Basically, the opposite of what Mr. Romney and his friends want. We should be expanding student aid, not slashing it. And we should reverse the de facto austerity policies that are holding back the U.S. economy — the unprecedented cutbacks at the state and local level, which have been hitting education especially hard.
Yes, such a policy reversal would cost money. But refusing to spend that money is foolish and shortsighted even in purely fiscal terms. Remember, the young aren’t just America’s future; they’re the future of the tax base, too.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste; wasting the minds of a whole generation is even more terrible. Let’s stop doing it.
Paul Krugman, The New York Times, “Wasting Our Minds.”
Go read the whole damned thing.
(via inothernews)
This. As a Mama, I’m doing all I can to help support AG’s future academic plans, but I’m no dummy and we’re no Romneys.
(via foregotheparable)
Tomorrow’s lunch: shrimp w/tofu skirataki, broccoli, kale and some laughing cow cheese. Raw zucchini and mini bell peppers. Light string cheese w/turkey snack bites and almonds. A pear w/cashew butter. (Getting better about better (ie more interesting) lunches.)
“Adolescence is best enjoyed without self-consciousness, but self-consciousness, unfortunately, is its leading symptom. Even when something important happens to you, even when your heart’s getting crushed or exalted, even when you’re absorbed in building the foundations of a personality, there comes these moments when you’re aware that what’s happening is not the real story. Unless you actually die, the real story is still ahead of you. This alone, this cruel mixture of consciousness and irrelevance, this built-in hollowness, is enough to account for how pissed off you are.”
― Jonathan Franzen, The Discomfort Zone
TRUTH.
Meet Oscar. He’s a baby chimp. When he was 3, his mom was killed by a leopard. This typically would have been a death sentence for Oscar. But then something extraordinary happened. Oscar was adopted by the alpha male in his clan. (This doesn’t normally happen with chimps.)
(Source: curiouscharisma, via tktc)
Hillary Clinton, in an appearance at the United Nations yesterday, declared that it is a “violation of human rights” to commit violence or discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation. WATCH. (via theatlantic)
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(via ourmaninchicago)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Two (via stellaarticles)
(Source: searchingperfection, via tktc)
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15Rolling Stone’s political correspondent Tim Dickinson explains how the tax policies pursued by the Republican Party have changed in the past 14 years — and says those changes have led to greater economic inequality in our country. (via nprfreshair)
(via nprfreshair)
Tim Dickinson on the neoconservative ‘starve the beast’ strategy that was designed to create a fiscal problem by cutting taxes. [full interview here] (via nprfreshair)
(via nprfreshair)
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JCPenney Introduces QR Code Gift Tags That No One Will Ever Use
I literally laughed out loud at that last sentence.
(via ourmaninchicago)Sigh. QR codes. Lame.
(via ourmaninchicago)
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Some days I just really don’t want to track this stuff.
My walk home generates some pretty sights. (Taken with instagram)
Superman Fan Mike Meyer Shares Donated Comics & Collectibles With Children’s Hospital
It didn’t seem like there could be a better ending to the case of Mike Meyer than the return of his vast collection of Superman comic books and collectibles following their alleged theft by a man who pretended to be his friend, but we think you’ll agree this is it. As we reported previously, the comics community rallied in support of Meyer, a 48-year-old lifelong Superman fan who lives on part-time work at McDonald’s and Social Security for a mental disability, by organizing a drive to replace the items that had been so cruelly stolen. With his collection now recovered by police and the alleged thief in jail, Meyer took a cue from the selfless superhero he idolizes by donating to a local children’s hospital the excess items that were donated to him.
STLToday.com reports that six boxes of Superman items were made available to the St. Louis Children’s hospital’s Wednesday bingo game last week, which quadrupled the number of prizes usually available to the facility’s sick and injured kids.
“When you make somebody happy, it does something for you, too,” said Meyer, in the best tradition of the Man of Steel.
Read more at ComicsAlliance.so happy.
Some days, you just need to be reminded that good things do happen in this crazy, fucked-up world we’ve created.
:D
Gonna cry
The Good Guys won this time.
This is why Superman is better than Batman.
Oh dear.
