Bill Gates: "Sometimes Americans get the impression that we’re shouldering the whole burden of development and that, ultimately, our aid doesn’t make a big difference. I see it very differently. We’re providing strategic investments that link up with many other investments to systematically make a better, more prosperous and safer world. If we do it … Continue reading Bill Gates’s plan to assist the world’s poor
Health, abortion issues split Obama administration and Catholic groups
Washington Post: "The latest dispute centers on a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services in late September to end funding to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to help victims of human trafficking, or modern-day slavery. The church group had overseen nationwide services to victims since 2006 but was denied a new … Continue reading Health, abortion issues split Obama administration and Catholic groups
The Ideological Fantasies of Inequality Deniers
Jonathan Chait: "The underlying facts, like the facts of climate change, are stark. Over the last few decades, income growth for most Americans has slowed to a crawl, while income for the very rich has exploded. That’s a reversal of the three decades following World War II, when all income groups got richer, with the … Continue reading The Ideological Fantasies of Inequality Deniers
The GOP’s latest tax gimmickry: Soak the poor
EJ Dionne: "Reagan’s optimism has thus been replaced by crabby put-downs of the less affluent. Perry said it directly in his announcement speech: “We’re dismayed at the injustice that nearly half of all Americans don’t even pay any income tax.” Considering the other injustices in our society, this seems an odd and mean-spirited obsession. “Tax … Continue reading The GOP’s latest tax gimmickry: Soak the poor
Obama to announce actions on housing, student loans
Reuters: "President Barack Obama this week will announce a series of actions to help the economy that will not require congressional approval, including an initiative to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages, according to a White House official."
Pope: Freedom from hunger is essential part of right to life
Catholic News Service: "Pope Benedict XVI appealed for immediate and long-term relief for the world's hungry, saying the right to adequate nourishment is a fundamental part of the right to life."
Gadhafi killed in crossfire
CNN: "Libyans cheered the fate of ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi into the early hours of Friday after his death in what Libya's transitional prime minister described as a crossfire that followed his arrest by revolutionary forces."
Cambodian kids and sex trafficking
Breakthrough malaria vaccine tantalizingly close
CNN: "A malaria vaccine has eluded scientists for decades, but preliminary results from a phase 3 clinical trial in Africa are providing hope. The data suggest that the vaccine, known as RTS,S, cuts the number of malaria cases in half."
Why Is Obama Sending Troops Against the Lord's Resistance Army?
Max Fisher: "Part insurgency and part cult, the Lord's Resistance Army has waged a 20-year campaign of terror across Uganda, where it originally formed in opposition to the government there, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and Sudan. It raids villages, massacres for no other purpose than bloodlust, enslaves child soldiers and … Continue reading Why Is Obama Sending Troops Against the Lord's Resistance Army?
The Whole Life Democrat 