The March edition of Harper’s Index has been published. Here are some excerpts:
Number of refugees arrested in the United States on terrorism-related charges since 2001: 10
Number of natural-born U.S. citizens: 320
Number of people killed by political or religious extremists on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001: 93
Percentage of these deaths attributable to far-right-wing political extremism: 52
Number of times TSA inspectors attempted to sneak fake weapons through passenger checkpoints last year: 70
Number of those attempts that were successful: 67
Number of active oil and gas wells on U.S. wildlife-refuge land: 1,665
Estimated amount G20 nations spent in 2014 on climate-change-adaptation assistance for poorer nations: $4,500,000,000
On direct subsidies to fossil-fuel producers: $77,000,000,000
Portion of U.S. retirees who return to work within two years of retirement: 1/4
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2004—Pure and Simple: Equal Rights:
Thirty years ago this month, Right-to-Life activists in Boulder, Colorado—scurrilously egged on by the local, chain-owned daily newspaper—challenged one of the nation’s earliest tendrils of what they called the “gay agenda.”
Then, as now, the gay agenda was a quintessential American agenda— the acquisition of equal legal protection by yet another group of our country’s second-class citizens. At issue in Boulder was not gay marriage or civil union, but another basic right: non-discrimination in employment. Shortly before Christmas, 1973, the nine-member city council—with its two-year-old liberal majority at the helm—passed one of the first four or five such ordinances in the U.S. Some gay activists and progressives to the left of the council had wanted something more: a clause proscribing non-discrimination in accommodations.
The legislation was initiated by Mayor Penfield Tate II, elected by the unpaid council as the first black mayor in Colorado history, chosen in a city with less than 2% African-Americans. A lesbian acquaintance told Tate she had been fired specifically because of her sexual orientation. Tate knew about injustice first-hand. And he saw the matter quite simply: an abrogation of the constitutional right of every American not to be legally diminished for background or belief or biology.
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On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: “Soft-core porn” flap over latest Cruz ad. Is he abandoning the “redemption” demographic?Armando identifies his key moment of the latest Dem debate. Malheur standoff finally ends, naturally in a glorious Blaze o’ CrazyTM. In defense of superdelegates.
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