Browsing PBH By Articles

Severe Conservative Syndrome

The Article: Severe Conservative Syndrome by Paul Krugman in the New York Times.

The Text: Mitt Romney has a gift for words — self-destructive words. On Friday he did it again, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that he was a “severely conservative governor.”

As Molly Ball of The Atlantic pointed out, Mr. Romney “described conservatism as if it were a disease.” Indeed. Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, provided a list of words that most commonly follow the adverb “severely”; the top five, in frequency of use, are disabled, depressed, ill, limited and injured.

That’s clearly not what Mr. Romney meant to convey. Yet if you look at the race for the G.O.P. presidential nomination, you have to wonder whether it was a Freudian slip. For something has clearly gone very wrong with modern American conservatism.

Start with Rick Santorum, who, according to Public Policy Polling, is the clear current favorite among usual Republican primary voters, running 15 points ahead of Mr. Romney. Anyone with an Internet connection is aware that Mr. Santorum is best known for 2003 remarks about homosexuality, incest and bestiality. But his strangeness runs deeper than that.

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Decriminalize Drugs And Drug Abuse Goes Down

The Article: Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal by E.D. Kain in Forbes.

The Text: Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.

Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:

“Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

“There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,” said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

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The Santorum Surge: One Man’s Culture War Is Another’s Flaccid Flop

You know your party is having a bad election year when it’s only February and they’re already screeching about social issues. After all, opposing parties generally save the sideshow gimmicks until the tail end of the race, when the galvanizing potential of rational arguments has diminished and a few successful stump speeches built on divisive demagoguery may be the difference between the Oval Office and the equally circular process of finger pointing until you find out precisely where you went wrong. But in a sea of blunders, hysteria and snarls that now define a major political party in decline, it might be easier if you instead ask where—if anywhere—you went right. Or actually, it might be better if you didn’t ask anything at all. Rather, you must distract.

That’s exactly what today’s Republican Presidential contenders, namely Rick Santorum, are doing. And in some ways, it makes sense: the economy is on the rise, Obama’s approval ratings are no longer below freezing, and his administration has demonstrated its foreign policy prowess by successfully removing two of the world’s most despised men—Osama bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi—from power. Not too shabby given that Obama accomplished all of this while dealing with a House and Senate led primarily by individuals with as much flexibility as slabs of granite.

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US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions

The Article: US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions by John Atcheson on Common Dreams.

The Text: The United States is headed for a plutocratic dystopia where a few gated communities sit like islands amidst a sea of bitterness, misery, and want.

Why?

Because the country is running on lies, myths, deceptions and distractions. Not surprisingly, they aren’t working very well for us.

Let’s run through a few of the most destructive lies and myths.

Corporations and the uber rich are the job creators: Uh, no. Corporations are sitting on over $2 trillion dollars in un-invested profits. What jobs they are creating are in China and other countries – which, by the way, engaged in huge government funded stimulus programs when the Great Recession first hit. Which brings us to our next myth…

Government can’t create jobs: This particular whopper is just plain counterfactual. Obama’s much maligned stimulus program created some 3 million jobs and would have created more if he hadn’t caved to Republicans and limited its size and agreed to put 40% of it into unproductive tax cuts. In short, government does create jobs – no one else can or will when there’s not enough consumer demand to justify corporate expansion. And as long as the middle class’s wealth is getting siphoned off by the 1%, there will not be enough demand.

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Internship Opportunity With The PBH Network

The PBH Network is pleased to offer internship opportunities designed for college students or young professionals who seek more experience in social media, online brand management, and content coordination and marketing. Interns will only need to work from a location with fast and reliable Internet access, and have the added benefit of drafting a schedule that corresponds with their availability. The primary tasks are day-to-day site maintenance and content promotion on various social networking platforms.

All applicants must have experience with social networking sites, a basic comprehension of image editing, and a strong interest in social media and online promotion.

We ask that all applicants submit the following:

– A detailed résumé.
– A one-page letter stating qualifications and what you are looking to gain from an internship.
– Any necessary documents for college credit.

Please send all application materials to [email protected].