Salon.com > David Sirota http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 02:41:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Resolved: In 2013, I’ll stop paying attention to Rush http://www.salon.com/2013/01/01/resolved_in_2013_ill_stop_paying_attention_to_rush/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/01/resolved_in_2013_ill_stop_paying_attention_to_rush/#comments Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13159054 I've never been one for New Years resolutions, but, then, I've never been a father before, either. That means up until now, the symptoms of my early onset Old Jewish Man Syndrome -- anxiety, neurosis, self-hate and attendant gastrointestinal distress -- mostly affected just me, and not a small child. So I figure if there's a first time for everything, then 2013 is as good a year as any to come up with 10 resolutions that, if fulfilled, hold out the hope of making me a better and healthier dad, husband, writer and overall person.

Some of these will seem trivial, and others will seem more serious. My guess is that at least a few will ring true for you - and if they don't, well, at least you can have a good laugh at my expense. Here they are in no specific order:

1. I will stop lying to my exercise machine: When it comes to my relationship with workout machines, I am nothing short of a pathological liar. Whether at home or on vacation, I tell the machines I meet that I weigh 173 pounds when I really weigh about 10 pounds more than that. In other words, when I program my workout, I tell the machine I'm the weight I want to be, but not the weight I actually am. Why do I do this and what the hell do I really think I'm getting away with?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/01/resolved_in_2013_ill_stop_paying_attention_to_rush/feed/ 37 Could a black director have made “Django”? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/could_a_black_director_have_made_django/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/could_a_black_director_have_made_django/#comments Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:40:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156489 For two reasons, Quentin Tarantino’s "Django Unchained" was all but guaranteed to ignite a conversation about race in America.

First and foremost, the film dares to break a major taboo. Specifically, as the New York Times critic A.O. Scott put it, "Django" dares to show "regenerative violence visited by black against white instead of the reverse" -- a narrative that "has been almost literally unthinkable" in American life, much less in big-budget pop culture productions.

Second, the film does that in the immediate aftermath of a racially charged election that saw a black man reelected to the White House with the most diverse (read: non-white) coalition in presidential history.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/could_a_black_director_have_made_django/feed/ 104 Chick-fil-A’s latest horror http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/chick_fil_as_latest_horror/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/chick_fil_as_latest_horror/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:25:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155231 As my son enters the so-called Terrible Twos, I've become keenly aware of one thing that makes them so terrible: awareness. After 24 months outside the womb, kids slowly but surely start becoming cognizant of what they have, what they don't have -- and what they want. At this point, too, kids begin more fully processing how the world works -- or at least what the world is telling them about how the world works.

Advertisers obviously know all of this. They not only know that kids will go full-on terrible in annoying their parents into buying stuff they realize they want, but also that two-year-olds are already starting to develop their own future preferences. Hence, when my son hears the discrete piano tune and Ed Harris' soothing voice on the radio and then cheerily shouts "Home Depot," it is a sign that he is already equating home projects with the local-business-crushing orange Godzilla -- just as that Godzilla's marketing team hopes. Same thing for the Happy Meal, whose child-focused marketing equates junk food with emotive joy and cheap toys -- a terrible-yet-irresistible combination for a two-year-old.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/chick_fil_as_latest_horror/feed/ 56 Pentagon, CIA likely approved “Zero Dark Thirty” torture scenes http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/pentagon_cia_likely_approved_zero_dark_thirty_torture_scenes/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/pentagon_cia_likely_approved_zero_dark_thirty_torture_scenes/#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150700 Through a scathing letter to Sony Pictures about its new film "Zero Dark Thirty," Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D), Carl Levin (D) and John McCain (R) have made national headlines by publicly chastising the studio for turning its film into a piece of revisionist history. The lawmakers note that while the film bills itself as "based on first-hand accounts of actual events" and as an act of "journalism," the truth is that it substantially deviates from the facts. Specifically, its narrative portrays torture as "effective in eliciting important information" related to the killing of Osama Bin Laden, even though CIA records prove this is not true.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/pentagon_cia_likely_approved_zero_dark_thirty_torture_scenes/feed/ 13 Time to profile white men? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13146907 Yesterday, during a cable news discussion of gun violence and the Newtown school shooting, I dared mention a taboo truism. During a conversation on MSNBC's "Up With Chris Hayes," I said that because most of the mass shootings in America come at the hands of white men, there would likely be political opposition to initiatives that propose to use those facts to profile the demographic group to which these killers belong. I suggested that's the case because as opposed to people of color or, say, Muslims, white men as a subgroup are in such a privileged position in our society that they are the one group that our political system avoids demographically profiling or analytically aggregating in any real way. Indeed, unlike other demographic, white guys as a group are never thought to be an acceptable topic for any kind of critical discussion whatsoever, even when there is ample reason to open up such a discussion.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/feed/ 183 Don’t talk about gun control! http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/dont_talk_about_gun_control/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/dont_talk_about_gun_control/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13125237 How many right-wing media voices were citing the shooting in Portland, Ore., this morning to trumpet the sanctity of gun rights and say we shouldn't even talk about gun control? How many of them were making this perverse argument at the very moment the Newtown, Conn., shooting was taking place? And how many of those voices are the same ones who, when it comes to other issues, decry "political correctness"?

The answers to these questions should be obvious: almost certainly, a lot of them. And that is a sign that for all the conservative histrionics decrying liberal "political correctness," the most powerful and most committed "p.c. police" in America are on the right -- specifically, those on the right who claim that any critical discussion of the limits of the Second Amendment must be suppressed because they insult the political ideology of conservatives.

This form of "political correctness" is so routinized that we barely recognize it as the censorship system that it truly is. And as mass shootings become a staple of American life, this system is now ubiquitous.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/dont_talk_about_gun_control/feed/ 40 Let’s stop subsidizing mansions! http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/lets_stop_subsidizing_mansions/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/lets_stop_subsidizing_mansions/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:58:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123999 With Congress finally starting to have a serious conversation about our revenue crisis, there are obvious reasons to limit the amount of mortgage interest that Americans can deduct from their taxable income.

First and foremost, current law -- which allows homeowners to deduct interest on mortgages up to $1 million -- is extremely expensive for the country. As federal data show, it costs roughly $100 billion a year, making it the third largest expenditure woven into the tax code.

That huge outlay might be justified if the deduction was a widely distributed, middle-class program. But with only about a third of all taxpayers earning enough to make it worthwhile to itemize their tax returns, just a quarter of all tax filers ever actually utilize the deduction. Add to this the fact that the deduction can be used for second homes, and the result is a write-off that mostly benefits the wealthy. In dollar-figure terms, it is a deduction that, according to the Tax Policy Center, saves $5,460 for someone making more than $250,000 a year and only $91 for those making less than $40,000 a year.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/lets_stop_subsidizing_mansions/feed/ 102 Fracking fights back http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/fracking_fights_back/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/fracking_fights_back/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13122175 Most of the legal news about Colorado these days revolves around whether or not the federal government will try to use the courts to prevent the state from implementing its new marijuana law. That's certainly an important story, but arguably just as important is the impending -- and possibly precedent setting -- legal battle here over the future of oil and gas drilling after the city of Longmont voted to ban hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking") within its boundaries.

That vote wasn't some fluke. Following Pittsburgh's lead, both Republican and Democratic residents in the city voted overwhelmingly to ban the controversial natural gas extraction process after reports from (among others) the Environmental Protection Agency, Duke University, the University of Colorado and the fossil fuel industry itself documented fracking's potential hazards. Yet, despite all of this, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) just announced that his administration will officially back any lawsuit brought by those same firms against Longmont's new law.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/fracking_fights_back/feed/ 3 Karl Rove won’t surrender race card http://www.salon.com/2012/12/10/karl_rove_wont_surrender_race_card/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/10/karl_rove_wont_surrender_race_card/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:21:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13120171 Lee Atwater's claim to fame was his pioneering use of racially divisive imagery in political messages that, superficially, didn't seem to be about race at all. The most infamous examples, of course, were Atwater ads like the "Revolving Door" and the Willie Horton spots. Under the guise of a colorblind message about criminal justice, those spots homed in on African-American criminals in a deliberate effort to stoke racial fears among whites. In employing such a formula, the ads embodied the now-standard dog-whistle tactic for racial messaging -- a tactic that itself was an outgrowth of Atwater's guiding political principle about euphemistic language.

"You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger,'" he said. "By 1968 you can’t say 'nigger' -- that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/10/karl_rove_wont_surrender_race_card/feed/ 64 Jim DeMint: The right’s new kingmaker http://www.salon.com/2012/12/09/jim_demint_the_rights_new_kingmaker/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/09/jim_demint_the_rights_new_kingmaker/#comments Sun, 09 Dec 2012 12:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13118679 In the Washington media, there is a well-established tradition of respecting what I've long called the No Money Rule. Simply put, in the day-to-day coverage of politics, D.C. reporters tend to avoid focusing on the power of money over both parties, knowing that openly mentioning that influence is seen as uncouth in Washington's elite circles. It is viewed this way because talking about corporate cash, campaign contributions and corruption exposes politics for what it really is: not some high-minded intellectual exchange, not an honorable debate between statesmen, not even a competitive sport between ideological players, but instead a hideous greed-driven melee between moneyed interests -- one enabled by both parties and, quite often, much of the media itself.

Because of this No Money Rule, then, nobody should be surprised that there was almost no mention in any of the media of the real news behind Jim DeMint's announcement that he is leaving the U.S. Senate to head the Heritage Foundation. And that real news is this: His announcement is perhaps 2012's most biting message yet about the supremacy of money in American politics. Yes, even in a year whose presidential race was utterly dominated by super PAC special interest cash, nothing tells the story of where the true authority in politics lies than a sitting senator leaving a top post in the national government to lead a corporate-funded think tank.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/09/jim_demint_the_rights_new_kingmaker/feed/ 11 Grisly tabloid photo captures our inhumanity http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/grisly_tabloid_photo_captures_our_inhumanity/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/grisly_tabloid_photo_captures_our_inhumanity/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:47:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13117596 To publish or not to publish? That was the debate in media circles this week after the New York Post printed a horrifying photo of a man named Ki Suk Han who had been pushed onto the subway tracks and was trying to avoid getting hit by a train. In its typical bombastic fashion, Rupert Murdoch's tabloid offered up the image as cheap, decontextualized news pornography for infotainment junkies. "Doomed" blared the headline in giant type, with the macabre subhead telling readers "this man is about to die."

The Post's singular goal, of course, was to attract eyeballs. To do that, the paper's editors opted to tap into the same impulse that prompts drivers to gawk at grisly highway accidents. In response, critics, like my Salon colleague Mary Elizabeth Williams, excoriated the paper for engaging in a "shamelessly tasteless stunt" that was all about exploitation.

"This wasn’t like the historic front page stories of the My Lai massacre, or of crowds lynching men in the South, or of Kent State: photographs of dead bodies that arrived with a demand for action and justice," Williams wrote, summing up the pervasive criticism. "They were pictures that told a bigger story about a major news event ... What does the Post have to say, aside from the fact that an apparently disturbed man pushed a commuter toward his death?"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/grisly_tabloid_photo_captures_our_inhumanity/feed/ 12 Why can Limbaugh speak, but not Costas? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/04/why_can_limbaugh_speak_but_not_costas/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/04/why_can_limbaugh_speak_but_not_costas/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:13:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13114385 One way to understand Bob Costas' comments about gun violence during halftime of NBC's Sunday evening football game is to interpret them as yet another example of media self-absorption. And in fact, by turning a horrific story of domestic violence and suicide into a cheap story about the overwrought reaction to a professional commentator, the national press did proudly fulfill the timeless jeremiad of "Broadcast News" to "never forget (that) we're the real story, not them."

But as repulsive and predictable as that narcissism is, it did inadvertently spotlight a significant problem plaguing our civic discourse. Call it Shut Up and Sing Syndrome.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/04/why_can_limbaugh_speak_but_not_costas/feed/ 73 Social security’s most media-friendly foe http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/social_securitys_most_media_friendly_foe/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/social_securitys_most_media_friendly_foe/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2012 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13111961 For those familiar with Ayn Rand's writing, the question "Who is John Galt?" is succinct shorthand to summarize conservatives' ideological campaign against government. But to really appreciate how that crusade operates on a day-to-day basis in the most important political battles of the moment, the best question right now is, "Who is Maya MacGuineas?"

The incurious political press' answer to that query can be seen in a quick Google News search of her name. As you will see, she is one of the most oft-quoted, and therefore influential, "experts" in the so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations. Most often, she is simply described by Washington reporters as the president of the "nonpartisan" Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and, in that role, as the lead coordinator of the so-called "Fix the Debt" coalition.

Though words like "nonpartisan" are designed to cast both groups, and MacGuineas herself, as apolitical and ideologically dispassionate, the boards of both organizations (which you can see here and here) are teeming with business executives and lawmakers-turned-corporate lobbyists. That is, they are teeming with precisely the kind of hyperpartisan, ideologically driven Big Money interests that have a financial stake in balancing the budget in a way that at once prevents tax increases on the rich and cuts or privatizes social programs.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/social_securitys_most_media_friendly_foe/feed/ 7 Could the Nate Silver approach work in Hollywood? http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/could_the_nate_silver_approach_work_in_hollywood/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/could_the_nate_silver_approach_work_in_hollywood/#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13110398 If the recent political era has taught us anything, it has reiterated the enduring truth of George Santayana's aphorism about memory and duplication. Whether once again watching tax cuts fail to deliver a promised economic boost or witnessing more wars fail to deliver stability, we are reminded that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

But then, as much as those haunting words are meant as a warning, technology is today coding Santayana's principle into society's operating system, as if mimicking history is an admirable objective. Indeed, whether it’s movie studios, record companies, government intelligence agencies or corporate human resources departments, algorithms that use the past to predict -- and create -- the future are making more and more decisions.

For those employed in creative endeavors, it's comforting to believe that technology's use in the information economy begins and ends with the kind of straightforward processes (data entry, dictation, etc.) that require little cognitive analysis and even less artistic thinking. Yet, as Christopher Steiner shows in his mind-blowing new book "Automate This," algorithms taking into account past commercial successes are being deployed by the film and music industries to choose which movie and album proposals will be produced. What's more, an increasing number of the algorithms' selections have proven profitable.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/30/could_the_nate_silver_approach_work_in_hollywood/feed/ 4 Will the religious right take on GOP racism? http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/will_religious_right_take_on_gop_racism/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/will_religious_right_take_on_gop_racism/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:23:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13110147 Ask yourself: If you heard the following comments, what kind of person would you guess said them?

I believe (I've benefited) because I'm Caucasian. I believe that black men have less opportunity, less tenure and shorter time (to prove themselves in the workplace) ...

I think men of color have a more difficult road to tread and I think many people don't realize it ...

I've heard (people) say it doesn't matter what color (an employee) is (when they fire him). To me that offends every person of color out there. It is as if to suggest that everything is done on a fair scale. It's not done on a fair scale. Men of color don't have the same privileges or opportunities and they are under greater pressure when they step in (to a job) ...

For some reason our culture has dialed up something that causes us to have less confidence in people of color.

Now ask yourself: What would your reaction be if you discovered that those comments were made not by a civil rights activist or a liberal politician subsequently being decried as a "race baiter" by right-wing media outlets, but instead by one of the best known Christian conservative icons in America? You'd probably have trouble believing that was true.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/will_religious_right_take_on_gop_racism/feed/ 2 Don’t blame commercialism for your shopping madness http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/dont_blame_commercialism_for_your_shopping_madness/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/dont_blame_commercialism_for_your_shopping_madness/#comments Wed, 28 Nov 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13108642 Another Black Friday has come and gone, and the tradition of stuffing our faces and then violently welcoming in the holiday season lives on. This year, our post-Thanksgiving shopping ritual once again delivered a real-life, shopping-themed version of a Stallone flick from the 1980s. It was, indeed, a montage of Americans brawling with, stomping on, and shooting at one another. Moreover, if every year adds its own unique imprimatur to the now-standard bedlam -- for example, 2008's miscarriage and 2011's trampled corpse -- this year's special addition was death by headlock.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/28/dont_blame_commercialism_for_your_shopping_madness/feed/ 11 End the drug war http://www.salon.com/2012/11/16/end_the_drug_war/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/16/end_the_drug_war/#comments Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13099804 What's next? Amid all the munchie-themed jokes from reporters, political elites and late-night comedians, this remains the overarching question after Coloradans voted overwhelmingly to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in the same way alcohol is already legalized, regulated and taxed. Since those anti-drug war principles are now enshrined in Colorado's constitution, only the feds can stop this Rocky Mountain state – if they so choose. But will they? And should they even be able to?

The answer to the former is maybe. Barack Obama campaigned for president pledging to respect state marijuana laws, and his Justice Department in 2009 issued a memo reiterating that promise. But by 2011, the same Justice Department countermanded that directive and authorized a federal crackdown. Now, with the results of the 2012 election, Colorado's Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has been forced into the awkward position of fighting off the feds in defense of a state constitutional amendment he tried to defeat.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/16/end_the_drug_war/feed/ 6 End the war on weed! http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/democrats_push_obama_to_lay_off_pot_states/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/democrats_push_obama_to_lay_off_pot_states/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:35:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13072647 The decades-long fight to end the Drug War - and specifically, the absurd war on marijuana - received a huge boost in the 2012 election, as Colorado and Washington became the first states to vote to legalize and regulate cannabis. Following those historic votes, a new poll shows the vast majority of Americans want states - not the federal government - to decide for themselves whether to legalize pot. Meanwhile, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) took to national television to amplify the message of that poll, demanding that the federal government to respect states whose voters have spoken.

The problem, of course, is that the Obama administration may cite the 1970 Controlled Substances Act as statutory rationale to try to force states to continue an expensive and inhumane war on weed that unnecessarily arrests and incarcerates thousands of Americans each year.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/14/democrats_push_obama_to_lay_off_pot_states/feed/ 13 Phony school “reform” agenda takes a beating http://www.salon.com/2012/11/13/phony_school_reform_agenda_takes_a_beating/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/13/phony_school_reform_agenda_takes_a_beating/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13069595 If your only source of news about American education came from docu-propaganda like "Waiting for Superman," Hollywood politi-schlock like "Won't Back Down" and elite-focused national news outlets in Washington, D.C., and New York City, you might think that the so-called education "reform" (read: privatization) movement was a spontaneous grass-roots uprising of good-old-fashioned heartlanders generating ever more mass support throughout the country. You would have no reason to believe it was a top-down, corporate-driven coalition of conservative coastal elites trying to both generally undermine organized labor and specifically wring private profit out of public schools, and you would similarly have no reason to believe it was anything but wildly popular in an America clamoring for a better education system.

In other words, you would be utterly misinformed -- especially after last week's explosive election results in three key states.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/13/phony_school_reform_agenda_takes_a_beating/feed/ 16 Tax the rich! http://www.salon.com/2012/11/12/obamas_2012_tax_mandate/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/12/obamas_2012_tax_mandate/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:35:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13069328 In a media-driven nation whose lingua franca is story and whose culture is obsessed with narrative arc, 2012 not surprisingly delivered a television-powered presidential campaign rooted in oversimplified parable. Republicans manufactured the tale of an up-from-the-bootstraps businessman working to defeat a communist Manchurian Candidate. Democrats, meanwhile, told the tale of a grounded, grassroots middle-class populist working to stop a ruthless Gordon Gekko disciple from performing a hostile takeover of the federal government. Both fables were deceptively creative with the facts, often driving the campaign debate into free-association collages of phrases like "you didn't build that," "apology tour" and "Bain Capital." Considering this, one way to read the election result is to conclude that Americans simply didn't want a plutocrat in the White House and that therefore, there is no single policy mandate for the winner.

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