new england Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

News Roundup – Aaron Hernandez, Edward Snowden, The Voting Rights Act

I wish I were able to find something intelligent and thoughtful to say about Aaron Hernandez. To those of who you don’t follow football, or even sports for that matter, Aaron Hernandez is the All-Star tight end for the New England Patriots. Two years ago, it could be argued that Aaron Hernandez, along with his partner, fellow tight end Rob Gronkowski, revolutionized the NFL. Most of the time, when a team comes out with two tight ends, they’re showing you their running formation. Both Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski are relatively fast. They run good routes and they have good hands. Suddenly, teams don’t know if the Patriots were going to run the ball or pass the ball. Injuries to both tight ends really hurt the New England Patriots last year. Right now, I have nothing intelligent to say about the fact that Aaron Hernandez appears to be embroiled in a murder investigation. All I know is that if I were a 23-year-old football star earning millions of dollars to play a game, I would do everything I could to make sure that I could play that game as long as I possibly could.

Oh my goodness, could we give it a rest!!! Every time I turn on the radio or TV somebody’s talking about Edward Snowden (here, here, here, here there’s more). Where is he? Why did he leave Hong Kong? Why is he in Moscow? Why didn’t he make his plane? I don’t care. Seriously. I really don’t care. Between today and yesterday, I was listing to progressive radio and I heard callers, on one hand, praise Edward Snowden as one of the greatest Americans since George Washington. On the other hand, another caller was badmouthing him for giving secrets to the Russians. People, get a grip. Right now, all we know is that Edward Sowden was smart enough to get a job working for some company that was contracted by the NSA. We also know that he’s taken some sort of technology. He is told us that our government has the ability to spy on us with little or no provocation. That is it. I’m sorry, I don’t know if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. I wish I knew. I wish I could get caught up in this frenzy and either erect a statue to Snowden in my front yard or to start burning effigies of him. I don’t know. Do you? (By the way, don’t listen to the mainstream media. They don’t know either.)

When I first moved to North Carolina back in 2005, I was surprised at how easy it was to vote. I didn’t need to give a pint of blood. I really didn’t even need my voter registration card. I went in and I gave them my name. They looked me up and asked me to verify my address and that was it. I was ready to vote. I did not have to vote on a specific day. I had several days, actually a couple weeks in which I could vote. It was easy. That is thanks to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Now, like the Andy Griffith Show, those days are gone. Today, the conservative justices on the Supreme Court earned their pay. It has been 50 years since the Voting Rights Act passed and conservatives have been plotting to kill it ever since. So, today, instead of killing the whole Voting Rights Act, they decided to simply gut the middle of it. Andrew Koppelman wrote, “The Supreme Court has a long history of declaring that the problem of racism in the United States has been solved. It did that in a series of decisions just after the Civil War, striking down civil-rights and anti-lynching laws and paving the way for decades of racial segregation. And today it has just done it again.” I agree with him 100%. He goes on to say, “The fact that things have gotten better hardly means that the act is no longer necessary. It may just mean that it is operating successfully. Ginsburg writes: “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” Still more, “When it struck down the lynch laws in the 1880s, the court lectured Congress on the need to rewrite its statutes to comport with previously unheard-of constitutional limitations. No rewriting occurred. There was no more Federal civil-rights legislation until 1957.” Professor Koppelman is correct. He knocks it out of the park. To be honest, I don’t see any easy fixes. I don’t see Congress rushing to the rescue because there are enough conservatives in the House to prevent any meaningful legislation to pass. Our best bet is to take back the House in 2014. I’m not sure how we can do that if the ballot box is stuffed against us.

By ecthompsonmd|2013-06-25T22:32:41-04:00June 25th, 2013|Domestic Spying, Obama administration, Sports, Supreme court|2 Comments

NFL: Week 16

I stopped giving a weekly update of the NFL a couple months ago. First of all, a weekly update took way too long for me to write. Secondly, there was so much flux from one week to the next, I couldn’t thoughtfully tell you who I thought was good and who I thought was bad.

There are certain things that we knew at the beginning of week 16. We knew that the San Francisco 49ers were very good. They quite possibly may be the best team in the NFC, maybe the best team in football. They made a huge statement by flying across the country last week and beating the New England Patriots, in New England, in the cold rain.

Well, it is week 16 and we’ve learned a lot more about the NFL. Briefly, let me run it down to you like this. The Dallas Cowboys have played above my expectations. They lost today to the New Orleans Saints because their defense, in my opinion, was unable to make plays. Tony Romo is playing out of his mind. For the last six weeks, he has really been playing some outstanding football. Very few quarterbacks in the NFL have been playing as well as Tony Romo. The Washington Redskins, unlike the Dallas Cowboys, have been playing extremely well on both sides of the football. Robert Griffin, III is the real deal. He throws the football with touch and accuracy. He is one of the league’s highest rating passers. The New York Giants, on the other hand, have been imploding. If you’re a Dallas Cowboys fan, like I am, it’s been beautiful to watch. Here’s the deal. The New York Giants have a great defensive front four. They must dominate for the Giants to be able to cover up their relatively weak secondary. On offense, they have to be able to run the ball. Victor Cruz hasn’t been making those great plays like he did last year. The combination, failure of their front four and their inability to run the football, has made them an extremely mediocre team. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2013-11-03T18:20:55-04:00December 24th, 2012|NFL|Comments Off

Inequality is up, way up

From Reuters:

The analysis found that inequality has risen not just in plutocratic hubs such as Wall Street and Silicon Valley, but also in virtually every corner of the world’s richest nation:

Inequality has increased in 49 of 50 states since 1989.
The poverty rate increased in 43 states, most sharply in Nevada, ravaged by the housing bust, and in Indiana, which saw a rise in low-paying jobs.
Twenty-eight states saw all three metrics of socioeconomic well-being worsen. There, inequality and poverty rose and median income fell.
In all 50 states, the richest 20 percent of households made far greater income gains than any other quintile – up 12 percent nationally.
Income for the median household – in the very middle – fell in 28 states, with Michigan and Connecticut leading the way.
The five largest increases in inequality all were in New England: Connecticut first, followed by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The decline in manufacturing jobs hit New England’s poor and middle hard, while the highly educated benefited from expansion in the biotech and finance industries.
The only state that didn’t see a rise in inequality: Mississippi, which had an insignificant dip. The Magnolia State was one of the few to post a drop in poverty and a rise in income, but it still ranks worst in the nation on both counts.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-12-19T06:50:31-04:00December 19th, 2012|Economy|Comments Off