Mar 27, 2012 | Foreign Policy, mic, Terrorism, World Affairs
Published: PolicyMic (March 27, 2012)
Of all my experiences as a graduate student, none can match the time I spent as a teaching assistant for Said Samatar. A professor of African History at Rutgers University-Newark, Samatar is the kind of scholar every up-and-coming aspires, or at least should aspire, to emulate: Intelligent, accessible, puckishly funny (he liked to prepare students for tests by quoting Dante: “Abandon all hope ye who enter here”), and armed with a biography that makes one pause before whining about your own petty travails.... Read Original Article
Mar 22, 2012 | Abortion, Conservativism, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2012), Gender and Sexism, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Religion and Religious Issues, Republicans
Published: PolicyMic (March 22, 2012)
Is it fair to claim that the Republican Party is waging a “war on women?”
Let’s look at the facts. Although the phrase in question only regained its political fashionability within the last few months, the sad truth is that the Republican Party’s hostility to women’s rights traces back much longer than that.... Read Original Article
Mar 14, 2012 | Health Care Reform, mic, President Obama, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
As the Supreme Court prepares to start its hearings on President Barack Obama’s health care reform legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA), it makes sense that conservatives and libertarians are eager for the case to proceed as quickly as possible. After all, any ruling issued before November 2012 will constitute some manner of victory for their cause: A complete overturning of the bill will be celebrated as a vindication of the anti-PPACA position and a humiliation for Obama, a complete upholding of it can be used to freshly galvanize the right-wing base against the president (especially given the failure of party frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum to accomplish that task), and a ruling rejecting the individual mandate while maintaining the rest of the measure would force Obama into a fight with Congress over an alternative to the mandate (of which there are at least nine), one that could be used to paint him in an unflattering light at the height of the election season.
... Read Original Article
Mar 12, 2012 | Conservativism, Economic Policy, History, Liberalism, Libertarianism, mic, Other Media, Political Ideologies
Editor’s Note: The author is responding to Michael Suede’s article here. Suede responded to the author’s original article.
This is my response to PolicyMic pundit Michael Suede’s editorial “America’s Founders Were Pro-Big Government, But Only Because it Suited Their Interests.” I respond to each passage in its own right, with the different sections indicated by quotes and ellipses.
... Read Original Article
Mar 4, 2012 | Conservativism, Democrats, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2012), Liberalism, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Republicans
Published: PolicyMic (March 4, 2012)
Thanks to his recent victories in the Michigan and Arizona primaries, Mitt Romney once again has emerged as the strongest contender for the Republican presidential nomination. As such, I think it is appropriate to draw attention to the unique dilemma he will pose to liberals in the event that he is the ultimate victor in Tampa.... Read Original Article
Feb 28, 2012 | Abortion, Civil Liberties, Conservativism, Gender and Sexism, mic, Other Media, Pennsylvania, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Religion and Religious Issues, Republicans
A new bill proposed by Pennsylvania Representative Kathy Rapp would require any woman seeking an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound. During this procedure, the doctor would be forced to put the view screen in her field of vision so she could see the fetus and observe its heartbeat.
... Read Original Article
