Considerations

Politics, business, religion, and culture by Samuel J. Scott and Jeff Guevin

Considerations header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'Culture'

Are We the People We the Problem?

March 10th, 2010 · No Comments · Culture, Politics

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/10/are-we-the-people-we-the-problem/’,size:‘large’} I think Newsweek’s Evan Thomas per­haps gets it right when he says, Gov­ern­ment Is Not the Prob­lem: we are.
Amer­i­can indi­vid­u­al­ism and enti­tle­ment is cer­tainly at its height these days (though, I don’t agree that par­ti­san­ship is).  “What’s in it for me” has become the mantra of the Amer­i­can taxpayer.  […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Are Pizza and Soda Elastic?

March 9th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Business, China, Civil Liberties, Culture, Economics, Education, Health, Law, Politics, Science

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/09/are-pizza-and-soda-price-elastic/’,size:‘large’} A team from Uni­ver­sity of North Car­olina at Chapel Hill seems to think so:
U.S. researchers esti­mate that an 18 per­cent tax on pizza and soda can push down U.S. adults’ calo­rie intake enough to lower their aver­age weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year.
The researchers, writing […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Book Review: “Inbound Marketing”

March 8th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Advertising, Book Reviews, Books, Boston, Business, Culture, Journalism, Marketing, Massachusetts, Media, Personal, Technology, The Boston Globe, The Middle East

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/08/book-review-inbound-marketing/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — If you build it, they will come. And by “it,” the authors of “Inbound Mar­ket­ing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs” mean a qual­ity online-presence sup­ported by effec­tive Internet-marketing.
In the olden days of mar­ket­ing — say, before 2000 — most mar­keters and public-relations pro­fes­sion­als used […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Speak Hebrew, Not Yiddish

March 6th, 2010 · 5 Comments · Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism, Britain, Business, Culture, Europe, Immigration, Israel, Judaism, Language, Personal, Politics, Religion, Russia, The Middle East

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/06/speak-hebrew-not-yiddish/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — When­ever I hear Amer­i­can or Euro­pean Jews speak­ing Ashke­nazi Hebrew on the bus or in syn­a­gogue, I go nuts. And I shake my head at the grow­ing pop­u­lar­ity and revival of Yid­dish among some West­ern Jews:
Although no one knows exactly how many Yid­dish speak­ers there are […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Life in Israel

March 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Culture, Israel, Judaism, Liberal Pundits, Personal, Politics, Religion, The Middle East, War, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/06/life-in-israel/’,size:‘large’} Peo­ple always ask me what it’s like in Israel. Since I don’t usu­ally have hours to respond with a nuanced, lengthy dis­cus­sion, I nor­mally boil it down to one sen­tence: “This coun­try is the per­fect com­bi­na­tion of heaven and hell.”
Bradley Burston, a local colum­nist, puts it another way: “Liv­ing in […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

New Economics Post

March 4th, 2010 · No Comments · Business, Culture, Economics, Europe, Finance, Globalization, Immigration, Law, Politics

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/04/new-economics-post/’,size:‘large’} I’ve pub­lished a new post at the Return of the Great Depres­sion blog on how the grow­ing eco­nomic cri­sis in the Euro­pean Union may frac­ture the nascent sense of continental unity.

[Read more →]

Tags:

Marriage — Brain or Heart?

March 3rd, 2010 · 6 Comments · Business, Civil Liberties, Culture, Dating, Economics, Education, Egypt, Feminism, India, Israel, Judaism, Personal, Politics, Religion, Sex, The Middle East

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/03/marriage-brain-or-heart/’,size:‘large’} Ninth in an ongo­ing series of essays
BANGALORE, India — While I was trav­el­ing to the Sil­i­con Val­ley of the East in Decem­ber 2006 with my Suf­folk Uni­ver­sity M.B.A. class in Boston to study busi­ness there for a week, I popped into a local tourist trap to look at some […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Marketing Mossad

March 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Advertising, Business, Culture, Israel, Law, Marketing, Politics, The Middle East, War on Terror

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/02/marketing-mossad/’,size:‘large’} JERUSALEM — I just received an e-mail adver­tise­ment from the Jerusalem Post con­tain­ing this sub­ject line: “Sup­port the Mossad! Exclu­sive T-shirts Offers!” (The gram­mar mis­take was there as well.) Only $12.
Add this to my “Only in Israel” file. I can only pre­sume it’s a response to the con­tro­ver­sial assas­si­na­tion of […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

You know, like, homosexuality’s bad, okay?

March 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Bible, Christianity, Culture, Religion, Sex

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/03/02/you-know-like-homosexualitys-bad-okay/’,size:‘large’} I con­fess: I don’t know who Miss Bev­erly Hills is, nor do I par­tic­u­larly care.  I find her recent defense of her anti-gay beliefs com­pelling, how­ever.  Espe­cially illu­mi­nat­ing is the pause when she is asked if one can both be Chris­t­ian and gay.
I think Miss Bev­erly Hills’ response – or […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Journalism is a Business

February 28th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Boston, Business, Civil Liberties, Conservative Pundits, Culture, Education, Entertainment, Humor, Journalism, Marketing, Media, Personal, Politics

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/28/journalism-is-a-business/’,size:‘large’} Media Mat­ters for Amer­ica, a lib­eral, media-watchdog orga­ni­za­tion, reflects on how Fox News cov­ered the one-year anniver­sary of the Amer­i­can Recov­ery and Rein­vest­ment Act:
On the one-year anniver­sary of the Amer­i­can Recov­ery and Rein­vest­ment Act, Fox & Friends pur­ported to ana­lyze the results of the bill […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Christian Israel

February 27th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Christianity, Culture, Israel, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Palestine, Politics, Religion, The Middle East

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/27/christian-israel/’,size:‘large’} The Jerusalem Post has unveiled a revamped web­site with a Chris­t­ian sec­tion that con­tains this inter­est­ing arti­cle: “Will Israel Obey God or Man?”

[Read more →]

Tags:

Animal Rights Trump Human Rights

February 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Culture, Europe, Food, Law, Personal, Philosophy, Politics

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/26/animal-rights-trump-human-rights/’,size:‘large’} I love my dog.  I think farm ani­mals should be treated humanely and not spend their lives in fac­tory farms.  Still a new Swiss ani­mal rights law car­ries with it the specter of enforced Jain­ism.
Where does it end?  Will gov­ern­ment some day tell me I can’t eat meat or […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Domestic Violence

February 26th, 2010 · 5 Comments · Culture, Dating, Feminism, Law

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/26/domestic-violence/’,size:‘large’} Win­ning the FoxNews award for spin­ning the truth and con­flat­ing issues is Sam’s recent post Redun­dant Oppressed Men.
Please note that the divorce laws he decries are, as the judge on the first case put it, “old laws.”  They were passed in the “good old days,” when women didn’t have […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

The 24-hour Silly Cycle

February 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Culture, Media, Uncategorized

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/26/the-24-hour-silly-cycle/’,size:‘large’} The Orlando Sentinel’s TV Guy, a news­blog­ger, notes the TV feeding-frenzy over the recent death of a Sea­World animal-trainer.  Also see this piece about the depraved heart of an orca in the NY Times.
It’s pop­u­lar to talk about the news cycle, etc., etc.  Yet, peo­ple gen­er­ally seem fairly uncrit­i­cal of […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Redundant, Oppressed Men

February 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Advertising, Britain, Civil Liberties, Conservative Pundits, Culture, Dating, Economics, Education, Europe, Feminism, Health, Israel, Law, Marketing, Media, Politics, The Middle East

var fbShare = {url: ‘http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/02/26/redundant-oppressed-men/’,size:‘large’}
JERUSALEM — The first of a five-part British doc­u­men­tary on the state of men and man­li­ness in mod­ern, West­ern soci­ety:
Men and mas­culin­ity are being mar­gin­alised. Manly virtues are laughed at, even con­sid­ered dys­func­tional. Men are being edged out of the fam­ily, the work­place and wider soci­ety as […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes