It's a little surprising and relieving to see that a writer has created a brave book like Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy. The writer, Ross Perlin, has written an entire book about the exploitation of interns.

It is true that a great deal of these interns come from some sort of background of privilege and financially sound upbringing. While interning at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC, this was most definitely the case. However, for each WASP who fills in a new position, there are the children recent immigrants, middle class kids and others who are just trying to beef up their resume.

The Heritage Foundation at least paid me, even if it wasn't great money. However, across the country, especially in cities, there is the strange phenomenon of people being hired for unpaid jobs. A war was fought in this country to abolish forced slavery but it seems that voluntary unpaid labor goes on unabated. It goes well beyond student interns and has begun to crawl into the actual media work force. Magazines like The Stranger in my hometown Seattle, Washington, have often “employed” photographers, writers and many others without any pay or very little. The Huffington Post, a supposed bastion of progressive thought, doesn't pay its writers at all, with the excuse being that their writers are earning “exposure.”

Local newspapers also often pay around $35 to $50 for articles for writers. At a certain level, I can't blame them for being mean as hell with cash, since it's not exactly flowing for them, but suffice it to say when I tell people with normal, profitable careers like garbageman, janitor or McDonald's manager what they pay in the publishing world, they are horrified.

Guam politics are a really interesting thing. Unlike on the mainland, there isn't as strong of a Republican/Democratic division and policies and attitudes don't seem to become rock solid based on one's party affiliation. 

Ray Tenorio, the lieutenant governor of the island, has made himself unpopular with quite a few people due to his political maneuvers. Among these has been preciding over and enacting a law that would attack the laissez faire treatment of animals on the island: