The Times They Are A’Changing. Or Are They?

Date: 13 Sep 2012 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The recent colorful tirade by Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe against a legislator who demanded the Baltimore Ravens owner fire linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo for supporting gay marriage and the overwhelmingly positive response to it by football fans and players alike are heartwarming developments.  It shows how far we’ve come.  But the fact that voters in four … Read More

The Thoughtful Voter’s Guide to Same-Sex Marriage

Date: 31 Aug 2012 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This November voters in four states–Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Washington–will be voting on whether to legalize or ban same-sex marriage. After 20 years of debate one might reasonably ask why another report on same-sex marriage would be necessary. Our reply is that although the debate has been long it has often generated more heat than light. We learn best through … Read More

Anti-public schools candidates crushed in Wisconsin

Date: 17 Aug 2012 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

With public schools under attack everywhere, a inspiring victory came out of Wisconsin last week.  The American Federation for Children (AFC), a pro school privatization group funded by billionaires from Michigan and millionaires from several other states, entered a slate of candidates in Democratic primaries for the state Assembly and Senate. The battle was joined when … Read More

Encouraging Corporate Crime

Date: 16 Aug 2012 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 1 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Almost daily we read about another apparently stiff financial penalty meted out for corporate malfeasance. This year corporations are on track to pay as much as $8 billion to resolve charges of defrauding the government, a record sum, according to the Department of Justice.  Last year big business paid the SEC $2.8 billion to settle disputes. … Read More

For Quality Customer Service Go to Government, Not Business

Date: 14 Aug 2012 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In 2012 we accept as received wisdom that government is unresponsive while a competitive marketplace forces private business to offer quality customer service.  So when Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX) introduced his warmly received bill, The Government Customer Service Improvement Act, we considered his announcement a truism, “When taxpayers interact with a government agency, they deserve the … Read More

(Corporate) Crime Most Definitely Pays

The New York Times reports that on August 7 a federal judge approved a settlement between the Justice Department and Morgan Stanley. Here’s the crime. In 2006 Morgan Stanley entered into a complex swap agreement with the New York electricity company KeySpan that gave it a stake in the profits of a competitor, enabling both to … Read More

Charter Schools and Kudzu

Date: 5 Aug 2012 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 1 Facebooktwitterredditmail

On this, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the first charter school, kudzu comes to mind. In the 1930s the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) paid farmers $8 per acre to plant this Japanese vine whose deep root structure helps reduce erosion and enrich depleted soil. Farmers planted more than 1.2 million acres. Twenty years later … Read More

Revolution of the Thirsty

Karen Piper, Professor of English at the University of Missouri in Columbia informs us of a factor behind the spring uprising in Egypt the mass media missed:  the privatization of water. The American media focused mainly on internal corruption and oppression. They did not report on the role of the international superpowers in influencing the Mubarak … Read More

The Health Care Debate: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Date: 27 Jul 2012 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Nowhere is the phrase American Exceptionalism more appropriately used than when describing our debate over health care.  Outside the bubble that is the United States health care is viewed as a right, recognition that sickness and injury can strike anyone despite their best efforts and an acknowledgement of a basic obligation civilized societies have to its … Read More

1 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 61