Don't expect all postings to be political or controversial though, in fact I hope that some will be generally enjoyable.
With that said, some scary considerations:
- 67% of people on welfare are children (who still wants to cut welfare?)
- 40% of women who divorce between the ages of 25 and 34 end up in poverty.
- The US is one of a very select group of countries in the world to execute both children and mentally disabled. Somalia is the only other country who did not sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Iran, Nigeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan are the only other ones who want to be able to execute their juveniles. That's some good company...
- If you agree with the principle that you can judge a society by the way it treats its weakest members, that doesn't bode well for the US. Consider another population group: in some counties, only 1 in 900 defendants have a jury trial, all others are (politely?) asked by the PD to sign a guilt plea, regardless of whether they in fact are guilty. 1 in 900, that's some stark odds...
- John Gray points to a 'policy of mass incarceration'; 'imprisonment as a means of social control on a scale beyond all others except Russia'. If you then realise that in the UK less than 1 in 1,000 are in prison and that in the US it's about 1 in 100, and that the UK is generally agreed to be a safer place, when then: are US citizens 10 times more dangerous on average, or is there something else going on?
Ok, well if you're this far, let me change topic for a second.
Yes, Cambridge is a bit odd and some of the buildings are 800 years old. Yes, graduation is done in Latin (as is Oxford's by the way). Yes, some colleges require you to wear a graduation-type gown to dinner. And Yes, you are mandated to live within a 3 mile radius of the city center if you wish to receive a degree from this institution (the radius is a bit bigger for PhD students, but not much). That's all for today's taster.
A +.
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