billionaires against universal basic income

states are beginning to experiment with the idea of universal basic income, a small amount of money that all citizens would receive each month to help lift them economically and cover periods when they would otherwise be devastated, such as the result of unpaid medical bills due to low or no insurance, etc.

as you can probably guess, there is a group of billionaires that are fighting this tooth and nail, paying politicians to write bills to outlaw even trying it.

gay marriage consensus(es)

there's an interesting new study out from the public religion research institute that says that the landscape has drastically changed regarding support for same sex marriage. while a little more than 60% of the u.s. now supports allowing gays to marry (a change of more than 20% since 2003), those who oppose same sex marriage think most other people oppose it. this is because most folks who fall in that group tend to only associate with other people who think as they do (as is likely true for the opposing side, as well).

rethinking religion

american culture

aside from the super bowl, america doesn't have just one culture; every region, state, and town has always had its own. if there is one thing that we have in common, it's that we are a nation of people who tend to do rather than talk, and we aren't very good at listening to anyone else - including other americans.

it's a monkey's paw: on the one hand, we've accomplished a lot because of that bloody-mindedness. on the other, we've reinvented the wheel a thousand times regarding things that other countries have figured out that we still haven't (like education). there are good ideas out there in the world. we used to use those and do them one better. now everyone else seems to be doing the cool stuff while we get laid off, fight over scraps, and insult each other.

other countries are taking our spot, and we don't seem to know what to do about it. it's like when 'japanese' cars started out-selling 'american' cars. remember that? everyone in michigan freaked, and you didn't dare park a 'japanese' car in some neighborhoods. but we figured it out - we have competitive cars again, and more 'japanese' cars are made here than in japan.

the only way things won't go down the toilet is if we stop picking at the things that separate us and focus on what binds us. we taught a lot of the world how to do it, and now they're eating our lunch (as they should, if we've taught them right).

we have to get smarter, and get our eyes back on the ball, or we're going to lose.

abortion is fading away

it seems silly that there's so much effort to pass abortion restriction laws meant to prevent people from gaining access to it when abortion numbers are the lowest they've been since 1973, largely due to better sex education and access to contraception (this does not apply to abstinence-based sex education programs; they have actually been found to be less effective at reducing teen pregnancy rates).

we're officially calling this one a dead issue. it appears to be going away on its own.

more education doesn't necessarily mean more opportunity

it used to be true in the u.s. that the best way to better your condition (and your family's) was to become better educated. sadly, that is no longer the case. workers are now more educated than they were in the 60's, but they actually make less in real dollars.

the american dream seems to be, more and more, exactly that.

lazy food stamp recipients?

the gop delights in casting food stamp recipients as lazy, self-entitled, and stay on welfare for life. this video reveals that it's all bunk. (example: the average person on food stamps is on them for 1 year or less, and more than 50% of us will be on some form of 'entitlement' at some point in our lives.)

there's a secret patriot act?

no, not really - but there is a secret body of interpretations of the law that the government is using to remove our remaining 4th amendment rights, according to intelligence committee member sen. ron wyden (d). that includes the obama administration.

according to wyden, the government believes that the patriot act gives it the right to collect and data mine business records, medical records, etc., but tells its constituency the complete opposite.

(and to all the low-wage grunts forced to read elsewhen because we're reporting this, you'll find our naked pictures in the ounce of flesh area. hey, even base-level spooks need a little love.)

rapist acquitted over jeans

'kayso, here's the scoop: a rapist was acquitted solely because the victim was wearing skinny jeans. nope, not kidding. and this wasn't something that happened back in the 70's or something, before we all evolved socially and recognized the self-evident fact that even a woman who walks around completely naked is not necessarily 'asking for it', and has total control over where things go from that point... if anywhere. this just happened. the argument: the pants were tight enough that the rapist could only have taken them off with the victim's help. your honors, we present the following clip for your review. the victim, played by elizabeth mcgovern, is wearing a 1930's ball gown - the equivalent of a wedding dress with an undercarriage constructed out of strait jackets. difficult to remove, yes? yet robert deniro seems undeterred. and she's riding around in the back of a limo with him, after a grand night out where alcohol was probably involved, and it's obvious there's some chemistry and a bit of history there. so watch the clips - we'll wait. done? good. now: is there any doubt in your mind over whether ms. mcgovern at any time gave consent? your honors, we rest our case.

and a psa in a pear tree...

are you, like us, a public service announcement (psa) junkie? long before our foray into the wacky world of pr, these bits of pithy, late-night perfection stuck in our gums like gooey social policy goodness. after the jump, enjoy the best of the best.

should pastors pay to play politics?

you probably know that churches and other religious organizations are tax-exempt, but have you ever wondered why? basically, it's a reward for not getting in the way of politicians and public policy. that being the case, if a given religious leader or group does advocate a particular politician or public policy, they should lose their tax-exempt status, right?

since churches own somewhere between 20 and 25 percent of all of the land in the u.s. - not to mention the tens of billions of dollars that they take in each year - the potential ramifications of this are profound.

on september 28, a group of roughly 80 religious leaders, under the tutelage of a group of right-wing lawyers called the alliance defense fund, plans to deliberately contravene the tax law by openly declaring support for and opposition to political candidates. their argument is that religious leaders, under the guarantees regardin freedom of speech, have a right to engage in this type of speech.

here's elsewhen's position: of course religious leaders have a right to free speech. to our mind, there is an easy solution - one that's already well supported by precedent: if the adf supporters engage in political speech, they should lose their tax-exempt status. and they can exercise their right to free speech in the same free speech zones that the rest of us keep getting herded to. problem solved.

(you're welcome.)

why your 12-year-old shouldn't date

when i was in my teens, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, there was a simple rule regarding when it was appropriate to date: 16, period. now i know why.

in a recent survey conducted by liz claiborne, 1 in 5 kids 13 - 14 years old said that they know someone their age in a physically abusive relationship. 50% said they know of someone their age in a verbally abusive relationship. and sex at these ages actually increases the risk of abuse.

got that moms & dads? it isn't 'cute', it isn't 'mature', it isn't 'the way things are nowadays': it's playing russian roulette with your kids' lives. here at elsewhen, we tend to swing to the left when it comes to social policy, but this is one issue where the old way is the best way.