The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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9-NINE-NEIN

By The Liberal Mob on Thu, 11/17/2011 - 9:32pm |

We have been pretty quiet here at the Liberal Mob for the past couple of months. I assure it is not because we no longer yearn to provide you with our obvious liberal biases in the form of “wannabe” journalism. Alas, we are all full-time students and have had little time to devote to you, our tens of faithful readers. Let me disclose right of the bat that the title of this post is a bit misleading. So if you clicked on this blog post in the hopes of getting an in-depth explanation/analysis of republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s tax plan, stop reading now.

Unfortunately, thus far Mr. Cain himself has been unable to fully articulate how the plan will work. So I am currently unable to do an anlysis on it. I have recently been informed by Mr. Cain’s campaign that as a liberal voter I am incensed that there is an “articulate” African American Conservative candidate. So I would be unable to give an unbiased analysis anyway. I have been further informed by teh Cain campaign that, as an African American voter, I have been brainwashed by Barack Obama. So I guess that means that my analysis of anything Herman Cain says or does really doesn’t matter. Anyway...

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In Memory of Jack Layton

By The Liberal Mob on Wed, 08/24/2011 - 6:42pm |

Jack Layton, 1950-2011.

Jack Layton was only a man.  That is clear.  But he was a very rare sort of man, and a very rare sort of politician.  He was sincere in a way that few in his profession ever are.  He was optimistic and forward-looking.  He was a man who garnered the respect of his political opponents in a way that would be nearly unfathomable in America.  (Indeed, it was nearly unfathomable in Canada.)

But sadly, he was indeed only a man.  Mortal.  His death on Monday may not have been a shock in light of his long-running battle with cancer, but it was depressing nonetheless.  And now we are left to reflect on what is missing from the world as a result.

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I Don't Want Uncle Sam To Be My Best Man

By The Liberal Mob on Mon, 08/22/2011 - 3:22pm |

As the token black guy at of The Liberal Mob blog, I have been informed by my cohorts that it is my responsibility to conform to their pre-disposed stereotypes and be against all things “gay", including same-sex marriage. However, being the token gay guy of this blog I am also required to be pro gay rights. But I think I have found a way to split the difference. Please feel free to leave a comment telling me if you think I have failed to live up to either of these stereotypical roles that have been laid out for me. Worst case scenario: Even If I fail I will still be a gay black guy which increases the chances I will get a scholarship for graduate school, right? If only I were an impoverished, blind, Jewish, Native American, lesbian in a wheelchair with a learning disability. The scholarship money would be rolling right on in! But alas, nobody is perfect.

DISCLAIMER: If you are either easily offended by political incorrectness or do not have a sense of humor you should not have read that introduction.

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Science: It Works

By The Liberal Mob on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 3:19am |

 

 

In light of the fact that the past week or four have been politically asinine, I thought it would be nice to take a detour from our usual musings on politics, economics, and whatnot. I’ve chosen instead to focus my attention today on a topic that has never once let me down like ridiculous budget deals and underwhelming elections so frequently do, and that topic is science. In just a few short weeks, we’ve had announcements of mind blowingly important discoveries ranging from water on Mars to an almost unbelievable cure all for viruses that doesn’t seem to be possible. With this much progress taking place it’s hard to believe that these magnificent scientific developments aren’t on the front page of all of the important blogs and newspapers.

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Keep On Rockin' in the Third World!

By The Liberal Mob on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 2:33am |

It is difficult to convey to people here in the United States the severity of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Somalia. When the average American hears that there are people starving to death somewhere in Africa it comes as no surprise. We have heard this so many times throughout our lives that we have come to expect it and sadly, to even accept it as an inevitability. It is for this reason that we here at the Liberal Mob have blogged about the situation taking place on the Horn of Africa a couple of times in recent weeks. First about the Failed State status of Somalia and how it compounds and worsens the ecological and humanitarian crises taking place there, and later why the United Nations & the International community had trouble responding quickly and decisively declaring a famine.

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Why Perry Is Dangerous (And Also a Nut)

By The Liberal Mob on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 1:13am |

The rare Texan Loon (R-TX) in his natural habitat.

There has been a lot of concern about Rick Perry as of late.  Most of this centers around the prayer rally he hosted just prior to announcing his candidacy.  There was commentary on this from all the places you'd expect.  There was also some from places you might not, too. 

Perry's religious views and religious grandstanding, though, are less of a big deal than other things.  What is a big deal is his idea of how government works, and how America should be run.  To put it simply: Gov. Perry might believe in a thing called "The United States of America".  But it seems evident that he doesn't believe in a United States of America.  It is a key distinction, and one with major consequences.

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Standard & Very, Very Poor

By The Liberal Mob on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 9:55pm |

 

 

Over the weekend, and into today, there has been much sound and fury about Standard and Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating to AA.  Unfortunately for S&P (or fortunately for the rest of us), it turns out that it is signifying nothing.  It is now left to the rest of us to wonder: what is happening here, what does it mean for us, and what does it mean for S&P?

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Where Do We Go From Here?

By The Liberal Mob on Thu, 08/04/2011 - 6:47pm |

The title asks a question, so here is a picture of The Question.

 

The last few weeks have, with good reason, worried liberals and others.  Once again, we have seen the only political party that even attempts to speak for any of our concerns fail horribly.  The debt ceiling debate was an inherently winnable policy fight on a number of different grounds.  While the ultimate deal (as we noted in its aftermath) is better than we could expect considering how badly the Democratic leadership failed, it still amounts to a loss in terms of the debate.  It legitimizes Republican bad economics.  It legitimizes "austerity".  None of this is particularly good.

Given all that, it's worth taking a moment to figure out how the Democratic Party can recover strategically from this sort of a failure.  It's a good question.  Fortunately, there are answers.

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I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire: Part 1

By The Liberal Mob on Thu, 08/04/2011 - 12:27am |

It is not uncommon to hear Americans complain about the United Nations (UN) and the participation of the U.S. within it. These critics, very often, simply don’t get it.  They don’t understand the reasons why the UN was created and what the goals of the institution are, and it is vital to understand those reasons in order to understand the United Nations.

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