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. […]
Entries Tagged as 'Culture'
Are We the People We the Problem?
March 10th, 2010 · No Comments · Culture, Politics
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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?”
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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 […]
Tags: animal rights
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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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