Ursus books

Dr. Seuss Enterprises, a private company, has chosen to respond to consumer desires while seeking to maximize the sales of their products in the long run in a capitalist free market. To this end, it has announced that it will no longer sell six individual children’s books written decades ago by Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, because of the books’ racist depictions of Asians and Blacks. This decision has engendered fury and cries of “political correctness” from the right — the same people who usually view the unfettered free market as the paragon of individual freedom. As is often the case, a bit of historical reality ought to be injected into this conversation. When I was a young man destined for a career as a physician and medical historian, my mother, an eighth-grade English teacher, presented me with two books from our home. They had been childhood storybooks read in the 1940s by my oldest sister. They were scribbled with my late sister’s crayons. My mother told me … [Read more...] about What Dr. Suess can still teach us

If you want to get a gander as to where our narcissistic, snowflake culture is at these days, actress Kelly Marie Tran just scored a full-blown Hollywood Reporter cover story for — get this — “surviving” mean tweets. You remember Kelly Marie Tran, the poor woman stuck with that awful Rose Tico role in 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Rose Tico is not Tran’s fault. She didn’t create that dreadful, humorless, self-righteous character. Nor is it her fault that director Rian Johnson thought it would be appealing to have her spend the entire movie walking around with a smug face — a face that would be deemed “punchable” on a man. Nevertheless, the unfair world being what it is, she was still hit with some of the blowback, and now we’re being asked to celebrate her fearlessness for “surviving” mean tweets. Here are some lowlights in an article titled: “The Resurrection of Kelly Marie Tran: On Surviving ‘Star Wars’ Bullying, the Pressures of Representation, and ‘Raya and the … [Read more...] about Nolte: Rich, Privileged Kelly Marie Tran Hailed for ‘Surviving’ Mean Tweets

Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and author of the book, "Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party." Follow him on Twitter @julianzelizer . The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN. (CNN) President Joe Biden is on the cusp of a major legislative victory. If all goes according to plan and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is signed into law, Biden will have scored an early triumph in his presidency. The Covid-19 relief bill will provide a wide range of benefits, from direct payments to American families, money for vaccine development and distribution, small business relief, more substantial subsidies for the Affordable Care Act , a child tax credit, a higher Earned Income Tax Credit, federal funds for state and local governments and much more . Julian Zelizer Given the scale … [Read more...] about Biden’s historic victory for America — no thanks to GOP

Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson Marianne Williamson Rush Limbaugh dead at 70 Marianne Williamson discusses America's "soulless ethos" Marianne Williamson discusses speaking at People's Party Convention MORE told Hill.TV that excluding a minimum wage hike from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill is a reflection of more moderate Democrats. She said that while many components of the package will help struggling Americans, it's still limited in scope. “It’s like rescuing people who are drowning in the center of the ocean, but you put them back on the shore and they’re still living as little more than serfs in their own land,” she said. "The real devil here is not in the details, it's in the big picture. The big picture is that we have transitioned to a rigged economy, an economy in which still a very few people are able to win. And this does nothing," Williamson added, referring to the relief bill. The Senate … [Read more...] about Marianne Williamson: Refusal to hike minimum wage is part of ‘rigged economy’

Here’s something interesting, that might come as a pleasant surprise: Except for five small countries, the U.S. is at the top of vaccination rates when compared to the rest of the world. So how did this happen? And who gets credit? Since we’re now more than a month into Joe Biden’s presidency, credit for the success of the COVID-19 vaccination program — from its creation last year to its distribution this year — can be shared between the Democratic 46th president and the Republican 45th president, Donald Trump Donald Trump Biden to sign executive order aimed at increasing voting access Albany Times Union editorial board calls for Cuomo's resignation Advocates warn restrictive voting bills could end Georgia's record turnout MORE . Of course, there’s another category that transcends the partisan political framework: the non-partisan hero. For a year now, frontline emergency workers have been saving lives — and sometimes losing their own lives in the process — … [Read more...] about Is nonpartisan effectiveness still possible?