Zionist boycott
Lifelong Zionists explain why they’re boycotting Israel to save it from the harm it has caused itself by continuing the occupation and refusing to give all people full citizenship. Via The Washington Post.
Disparity up
Judges are getting more discretion in prison sentencing, writes Dara Lind in Vox. Good news: The length of prison sentences is going down. Bad news: Racial disparity in sentencing is on the rise.
Fewer tests
Obama has joined forces with the left-right anti-testing coalition proposing U.S. children should spend no more than 2 percent of their school year on standardized tests. Via The New York Times.
Free college
As Bernie Sanders proposes making college tuition free, Vox suggests looking not at Denmark, as Sanders does, but to Scotland instead. And the economic lessons are not as clear cut as you might think.
Conservative attack
Last week the right-wing Freedom Caucus was on the attack. This week those same hardliners are under attack for compromising conservative values by backing Paul Ryan. Via The Washington Post.
Why Carson?
Voters explain to The New York Times why in Iowa Ben Carson is leading Donald Trump. “That smile and his soft voice makes people very comforted.” His comments on Nazis and gun control, and slavery and abortion don’t hurt with the evangelical base either.
Blame Palin
Who to blame for dysfunction in the GOP? Trump? Carson? The Freedom Caucus? Nope. Sarah Palin and her Republican operative backers, writes William Daley in The Washington Post.
Baby Hitler
Friday New York Times Magazine released the kill-baby-Hitler online poll sparking a tidal wave of think pieces.
We asked @nytmag readers: If you could go back and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it? (What’s your response?) pic.twitter.com/daatm12NZC
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) October 23, 2015
Would you?
Vox dives into the philosophical questions that would determine practically, scientifically and ethically how one should respond. Ethicist Janet Stemwedel argues in Forbes that killing baby Hitler was fundamentally unethical and that “instead of decisively removing one moral monster, you’re likely to end up creating another one.” Kevin Drum, in Mother Jones, has a much simpler response: “I’m not an especially bloodthirsty guy, but hell yes, I’d do it.”
Drought over
Whether the Mets or Royals win, this year’s World Series is sure to end a decades long drought, points out The New York Times. But whose?
Photo credit: CPT Palestine, Creative Commons, Flickr.
