The Huffington Post: Iraq Plagued With Deadly Violence For Much of 2013

Iraq

The Huffington Post is running an article on the resurgence of deadly violence in Iraq.  The article contends that 2013 has been the most deadly year in Iraq since 2008.

The article in The Huffington Post is linked below.

The Huffington Post: Deadly Violence in Iraq

CNTV: China Celebrates its Unmanned Moon Mission Chang'e 3

The People's Republic of China

The article at CNTV is linked below.

CNTV: Chang'e 3 is a Triumph

"In a congratulatory message sent by the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission, the success of Chang'e-3 mission was hailed as a 'milestone' in the development of China's space programs, a 'new glory' of the Chinese people in their exploration of the frontiers of science and technology and 'outstanding contribution' of the Chinese nation in the mankind's peaceful use of the space.

The photographing started at about 11:42 p.m. Beijing Time, when the six-wheeled Yutu moved to a spot about 9 meters north to the lander.

The color images, live transmitted via a deep space network designed by China, showed the Chinese national flag on Yutu. It marked the first time that the five-star red flag had pictures taken in an extraterrestrial body."

---CNTV

Kathryn Joyce at The American Prospect: Those Who Have Left and Denounced Protestant Fundamentalist Homeschooling

Kathryn Joyce's article at The American Prospect is linked below.

Kathryn Joyce: The Stories of Some Who Fled the Fundamentalist Homeschooling World

"In the past, those who left Quiverfull and homeschooling families had to look for help through an informal grapevine of survivors. Now the young rebels are using their organizing skills to build a full-scale online network. They share stories and connect on sites like Homeschoolers Anonymous and No Longer Quivering. They strategize about how to combat the homeschooling establishment on the Protect Homeschooled Children Working Group; offer practical and moral support through the Quiverfull Sorority of Survivors; and collect data on abuse cases at Homeschooling’s Invisible Children. Through a group provisionally called Ruthslist, they’re organizing safe houses and compiling a 'Quiverfull daughter escape guide.' They’re finding a new sense of purpose to replace the one they were once assigned by their parents, always motivated—sometimes haunted—by the thought of the siblings left back home and the old friends who are 'still in.'"

---Kathryn Joyce, The American Prospect 

Homeschoolers Anonymous

Homeschooling's Invisible Children

The Economist: The Unmarried Single Female Vote Has Been Breaking Big for the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party

The article at The Economist is linked below.

The Economist: Unmarried Female Voters Becoming a Key Demographic for the Democratic Party

"The slow decline of marriage is upending American politics. In the 2012 presidential election, unmarried women accounted for nearly a quarter of all votes cast. Their votes went decisively to Barack Obama, by 36 percentage points.

You might not think that a group that runs from not-yet-married college students to inner-city single mothers and divorced professionals had much in common. Yet unmarried women are spectacularly loyal to the Democrats—if they vote, which many do not. (Widows are outliers, voting more like married women.) The “marriage gap” dwarfs the sex gap, by which women as a whole have long favoured Democrats: Mr Obama beat Mitt Romney by a less dramatic 11 points among female voters."

---The Economist 

Lost Angeles Times: Coverage of Images From the Moon Transmitted by China's Lunar Surface Probe

The People's Republic of China

The Los Angeles Times article by Barbara Demick is linked below.

Los Angeles Times: Lunar Surface Photos From Chinese Lunar Vehicle

"Chinese state media early Sunday began transmitting images and video taken by its moon rover, a gold-hued unmanned exploration vehicle named the Jade Rabbit after the story of a mythological Chinese moon goddess who kept a pet rabbit.

The images were sparking excitement among space enthusiasts."

---Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times 

Associated Press: China's Lunar Vehicle Chang'e-3 Transmits Photo of Lunar Surface, December 14, 2013

The People's Republic of China

The Associated Press article by Louise Watt is linked below. The photo of the surface of the moon is included in the below article.

Associated Press: China's Space Probe on the Surface of the Moon

"China on Saturday successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, state media said, the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon."

---Louise Watt, Associated Press

NASASpaceFlight.com: Coverage of "Jade Rabbit" and "Chang'e-3," the Two Major Components of the Unmanned Machinery Landed on the Moon by the People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China

NASASpaceFlight.com coverage is linked below.

NASASpaceFlight.com: Coverage of China's Unmanned Moon Landing

"China’s Chang’e-3 and the lunar rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit) have landed on the lunar surface at 1:11 pm UTC on Saturday. The duo were launched by a Long March 3B on December 1, which was followed by a nominal flight into lunar orbit and subsequently China’s first soft landing on the Moon." 

---Rui C. Barbosa, NASASpaceFlight.com 

The People's Republic of China Has Landed an Unmanned Space Vehicle on the Surface of the Moon

The People's Republic of China

Coverage of China's historic unmanned moon landing is linked below.

Space.com: Coverage of China's Unmanned Moon Landing

CNN: Coverage of the Unmanned Moon Landing Made by the People's Republic of China

SpaceDaily.com: Article on the Landing of China's Moon Vehicle and Rover

BBC: Coverage of the China's Historic Unmanned Landing on the Moon

The National Journal's Beth Reinhard: The Demonization of Welfare Recipients

Beth Reinhard's article at National Journal is linked below.

The National Journal: The Politics of Welfare Bashing

"The welfare queen, she has risen.

Spawned by Ronald Reagan to turn blue-collar whites against the Democratic Party, then buried by Bill Clinton with a law 'ending welfare as we know it,' she's been excavated under the first African-American president as Republicans inveigh against the costs of health insurance and food stamps for the poor.

Twenty-five Republican-led states have—astoundingly—rebuffed billions of federal dollars under Barack Obama's signature health care law to offer Medicaid insurance to more poor people. To justify this unprecedented rejection of federal relief, these governors and state lawmakers say they just do not believe Washington will keep its promise to pick up the tab. Republicans in Congress are egging them on, denouncing Obamacare's disastrous launch as proof of the arrogance and folly of big government."

---Beth Reinhard, National Journal 

In the Last Nine Seasons (2005-2013) in Major College Football, Only Four States Will Have Produced BCS National Champions

From the 2005 major college football season through the 2013 season (9 football seasons), only four states will have produced national champions---those states being Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and Alabama.

The BCS champions (or potential champions) from the 2005 season through the 2013 season are listed below.

2005: University of Texas
2006: University of Florida
2007: Louisiana State University
2008: University of Florida
2009: University of Alabama
2010: Auburn University
2011: University of Alabama
2012: University of Alabama
2013: Either Florida State University or Auburn University

Regarding this small club of BCS champions (or potential champions) from the last nine football seasons (2005-2013), it is worth noting that, during the 2009 season, Alabama defeated Texas (the 2005 champion), and during the 2011, Alabama defeated LSU (the 2007 champion).

When Florida State and Auburn face each other in the BCS Championship Game on January 6, 2014, each will do enjoying the status of being prior BCS national champions--FSU in 1999, and Auburn in 2010.

For nearly a decade college football's coveted crown has been worn only by a handful of teams from a smaller handful of states---all of these states being former members of the Confederacy.  This fact might raise the question for some universities as to whether big-time college football is a worthwhile path for certain universities to travel upon, particularly for non-Southern universities in areas where football enthusiasm in general is lagging.

Admittedly, BCS championships are not the only factors in measuring a given program's success, utility, and viability.  If that were the absolute case then, in a given year, only the BCS national champion could be said to have played a season worth playing. Most, however, would say that such a perspective would be over-doing it.

In major college football, there exists a plethora of bowl games, each bestowing a measure of glory to respective teams who participate, and especially to those who win.  Moreover, the college football regular season provides a large number of teams the opportunity to produce a "big win" warranting national attention and publicity.  Not to be ignored as well, is the fact that major college football games of whatever match-up and status, provide a measure of entertainment for thousands of people.  Some college football programs, though modest in terms of winning and fame, send players to the NFL from time to time, thus bringing a bit of notoriety to the school.  To some extent, college football can and has served to build some sense of community on some college campuses. In short, major college football has its virtues, and only some are mentioned here.

What then, is to object about the current nature of big-time college football?

Some of the problems facing major college football are beyond the purview of this post.  The matter of football-related brain injuries, for example, might prove to be a danger to the viability of football in general.  Put another way, American football just might be facing an existential threat due to inexorable safety issues.  If the data continues to break in such directions indicating that football is inherently,  irreversibly, and intolerably dangerous, then American tackle football might well be on the road to extinction.  But that jury, per the proverb, is still out.

Another objectionable matter facing big-time college football that likely has not been fully played out is the contradictory nature of college football economics.  Simply put, big-time college football is a multi-million dollar industry in which all but unpaid laborers (i.e. the football players) generate millions of dollars of revenue for football programs and licensed vendors. But like the issue of football-related brain injuries, the depths of college football economics is beyond this post's scope.

The matter of big-time college football and its relationship to the central academic mission of institutions of higher learning is not under the microscope here as well.  As big-time college football has grown in prominence, it remains a very open question as to whether high-profile athletics are compatible with the fundamental purpose of a college or university.  But…again, that matter is beyond the breadth of this post, though all three of these controversies deserve in-depth attention, and sooner rather than later.

While these above-mentioned issues should be of most pressing concern, I do contend that big-time college football faces additional problems, and one of them--as I see it--warrants a brief discussion here.

Here's the claim:  Major college football, as currently structured, will probably continue to produce a very limited number of successful programs, while the vast majority of college football programs will languish in on-field and financial mediocrity...or worse. And like a society in which extreme inequality of wealth can undermine social stability in general, so can such disparity of on-field results render instability in the viability of the overall big-time college football system.

Given time, some universities just might conclude that maintaining a highly expensive football program is an exercise in futility.  They might, in turn, tire of being homecoming opponent cannon fodder for larger and more powerful football teams.

In an era of skyrocketing salaries for high-end coaches, high-profile recruiting of elite high school football prospects, extravagant stadiums and facilities (a recruiting-boosting endeavor), the arc of major college football appears to be bending in a direction in which high-end high-profile programs further separate themselves from middling and lower-end programs.  Seemingly, the football rich are getting richer, and the have-nots possessing fewer avenues for getting ahead. College football, in short, seems increasingly a system of caste, not conferences. Such a situation, as I see it, should motivate the NCAA and its member schools to seek reforms to bring greater parity to major college football.

I am not arguing here that everyone should get a trophy; nor I am arguing that college football quit keeping score.  Any sports league will have winners and losers; it's inherent to competitive sports.

But I do contend that the college football world should seek to implement prudent reforms that would tilt the playing field toward greater parity among the 100-plus major college teams.  Such reform has happened before.  A little over 30 years ago, the NCAA instituted scholarship limitations on football programs, a move that did much to democratize college football.  The limitation of football scholarships created greater parity in college football by disallowing programs from stocking its football program with a disproportionate amount of good players--a practice that heretofore had kept less prominent programs from significantly upgrading their stock of talent.

By the 1980s, the breadth of good major college football teams had expanded.  No longer were a handful of teams disproportionately dominant. The reforms had worked, to some degree.

But trends in the last several years suggest that problematic levels of inequity are back, a point indicated  in the first part of this post.

Athletic leagues of whatever type are at their best when there is a high level of competition between teams. Such leagues have achieved something special when all teams possess a reasonable chance to compete for the brass ring. The rules of the league, as such, should be designed to bring about such parity.

The NFL has demonstrated that reasonable parity can be achieved between teams in an American football system, all without resorting to giving everyone a trophy. Few would argue that such a relative parity has undermined the popularity of professional football.  In terms of TV viewership, the NFL's Superbowl is America's largest sporting event.

Arguably the two great factors in facilitating greater equity among NFL franchises has been the player draft and player salary caps.  Through the player draft, losing teams routinely get the first shots at college players, and as such, allows a recently low-performing team to stock up on talent.  Via the salary cap, it is very difficult for a large-market franchise with high revenue to go out and simply purchase a championship team made up of high-priced free agent players.

One can only imagine the talent disparity that would result in the NFL if the best college football players could choose the NFL teams on which they would play.  But that's largely how the college football system works: The best high school football players get to choose which program they wish to play for.  For the most part, in big-time college football, winning teams get the advantage to re-stock their rosters with players that will allow them to stay dominant.  In the NFL--the highest level of football that there is--it is just the opposite.

In short, I believe that some sort of geography-based college draft might go a long way to bringing greater parity to the college game.  Such a draft will undoubtedly be complex and clumsy, but I see no reason to believe that it can't be done.

Regarding salary caps, the college game does not have as strong of a comparison, regarding players at least. But I would argue that, in terms of coaching salaries, the NCAA should implement reforms that restrict the salaries of coaches in the member schools.

Under the current rules, a given school of means can offer tens of millions of dollars to a coach that the school feels will enhance its football fortunes.  Other schools that might like the services of that same coach, however, cannot compete in that market.  The have-not school, though, will be expected to compete--from time to time--with the schools that can afford the top-shelf coach.

I contend that the further democratization of major college football is a worthwhile goal, assuming that medical science does not find reason to shut down the sport in general--thus rendering other reforms moot.  But such a democratization of the sport is unlikely to happen organically.  To get there, the NCAA and member institutions have to embrace significant reform, and become--oddly enough--more like the NFL.

----Mark Leavins

The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky: American Conservatives Have Routinely Failed to be "on the Right Side of History"

Michael Tomasky's article at The Daily Beast is linked below.

Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast: The American Right's Habit of Being Wrong

"When has the American right ever--ever--been on the right side of history?

The answer is almost never.  Indeed, history is an unfolding, and more or less constant, vindication of the people who were thinking ahead, who weren't happy with things the way they were and saw they had to change, and who have been on the side of personal liberation and de-concentration of political power. Those people are virtually by definition liberals and reformers and radicals."

---Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast 

Time Magazine Names Pope Francis as the 2013 "Person of the Year"

Pope Francis

The Time article is linked below.

Time: Pope Francis, 2013 "Person of the Year"

"But what makes this Pope so important is the speed with which he has captured the imaginations of millions who had given up on hoping for the church at all. People weary of the endless parsing of sexual ethics, the buck-passing infighting over lines of authority when all the while (to borrow from Milton), 'the hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed.' In a matter of months, Francis has elevated the healing mission of the church—the church as servant and comforter of hurting people in an often harsh world—above the doctrinal police work so important to his recent predecessors. John Paul II and Benedict XVI were professors of theology. Francis is a former janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and literature teacher."

---Howard Chua-Eoan and Elizabeth Dias, Time 

C.J. Werleman: The United States of America is Increasingly Looking Like a Failing Nation

The United States of America

C.J. Werleman's article in Alternet is linked below.

C.J. Werleman: America Failing

"America has become a RINO: rich in name only. By every measure, we look like a broken banana republic. Not a single U.S. city is included in the world’s top 10 most livable cities. Only one U.S. airport makes the list of the top 100 in the world. Our roads, schools and bridges are falling apart, and our trains—none of them high-speed—are running off their tracks. Our high school students are rated 30th in math, and some 30 countries have longer life expectancy and lower rates of infant mortality. The only things America is number one in these days are the number of incarcerated citizens per capita and adult onset diabetes.

Three decades of trickledown economics; the monopolization, privatization and deregulation of industry; and the destruction of labor protection has resulted in 50 million Americans living in abject poverty, while 400 individuals own more than one-half of the nation’s wealth."

---C.J. Werleman, Alternet 

Washington Post: Radical Tea Party Republican Congressman Steve Stockman to Run Against Incumbent Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn in a GOP Primary Challenge

The article in the Washington Post is linked below.

Washington Post: Radical Conservative Congressman Steve Stockman to Challenge Senator John Cornyn, a Fellow Republican

"In doing so, Stockman not only threw a wrench in Cornyn’s plans. He also intensified the broader GOP civil war that is vexing the lives of Republican senators like never before. Seven of the 12 up for reelection next year now face capable or potentially tough primary challengers, including the two top-ranking Republicans and a third who used to serve in leadership."

---Washington Post

Nikos Konstandaras of The New York Times: Greece and Its Looming Demographic Disaster

Greece

Nikos Konstandaras' article in The New York Times is linked below.

Nikos Konstandaras of The New York Times: The Looming Demographic Problem for Greece

"The Greeks are in a struggle for survival. And the odds are piling up against us. The fight is not only on the economic front, as we try to meet our commitments under an international 240-billion-euro bailout deal that has resulted in greatly reduced incomes, higher costs and taxes, and an overriding sense of insecurity. The danger is even more basic: Deaths are outnumbering births, people are leaving the country, and the population is aging so fast that in a few decades Greece may be unable to produce enough wealth to take care of its people and may cease to be a viable nation state."

---Nikos Konstandaras, The New York Times 

National Journal's Matt Berman: The Politics of Festivus, Feats of Symbolic Strength for the Airing of Grievances

Seinfeld's Frank Costanza (played by Jerry Stiller)

The Father of George Costanza and Festivus

The National Journal article is linked below.

National Journal: Festivus Gets Political

"The Wisconsin and Florida state capitols will both have Festivus poles on display this holiday season. In Wisconsin, a silver pole is already standing between two nativity scenes in the packed rotunda. A sign hangs on the pole promising an airing of the grievances on the 23rd, but no feats of strength 'due to liability issues.'"

---Matt Berman, National Journal 

Dave Zirin of Edge of Sports: Analysis of the Jameis Winston Situation

Dave Zirin's column at Edge of Sports is linked below.

Dave Zirin: The Jameis Winston Situation

"College football culture will place a black man on a pedestal as long as he can deliver bragging rights, championships, and millions of dollars in revenue to small-town colleges and universities. Off the football field, or after your playing career ends, good luck. If Florida’s system of criminal justice has sent any discernable message this past year, it is this: if you are an African American teenager, you want to be Jameis Winston, not Trayvon Martin."

---Dave Zirin, Edge of Sports 

The Florida State Seminoles and the Auburn Tigers Will Play for the BCS College Football National Championship

Coverage of the BCS Bowl picture is linked below.

Sports Illustrated: BCS Rankings, December 8, 2013

AL.com: The SEC Extends its Consecutive BCS Title Game Appearances to 8 Years, the State of Alabama to 5 Years

NBC Sports: Florida State vs. Auburn for the BCS Title Game

ESPN: Coverage of the 2013 BCS Bowl Picture

Jacob Helbrunn of The American Prospect: 2001 Article Chronicling the Role of U.S. Conservatives as Apologists for South Africa's Apartheid Regime

South Africa

Jacob Heilbrunn's 2001 article at The American Prospect is linked below.

Jacob Heilbrunn: American Conservative Apologists for White-Rule in South Africa

"Exposing the conservative crusade for South Africa is not a matter of engaging in retrospective moral condemnation. Conservatives were arguing against liberals who stated that it was imperative to isolate and condemn South Africa. Liberals correctly understood that ostracizing a white ruling class that posed as an avatar of Western civilization might sap its confidence and cause it to lose its putative moral edge. Perhaps most important, liberals grasped a fundamental moral truth: The struggle for liberty and justice in South Africa, as Robert Kinloch Massie shows in his magisterial new Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years, was a direct continuation of the American struggle for civil rights. Just as conservatives were on the side of repression in the American civil rights battle, so they joined ranks with the tyrants in South Africa."

---Jacob Heilbrunn, The American Prospect 

Igor Volsky and Zack Beauchamp of Think Progress: From William F. Buckley to Jerry Falwell to Dick Cheney, a Timeline of U.S. Conservative Opposition to the Anti-Apartheid Cause of Nelson Mandela

President Ronald Reagan
and Conservative Author William F. Buckley

Igor Volsky and Zack Beauchamp's timeline at Think Progress is linked below.

Think Progess: Opposing Mandela's Cause, From Buckley to Reagan to Falwell to Cheney

"The world is celebrating Nelson Mandela as a selfless visionary who led his country out of the grips of apartheid into democracy and freedom. But some of the very people lavishing praise on South Africa’s first black president worked tirelessly to undermine his cause and portray the African National Congress he lead as pawns of the Soviet Union.

In fact, American conservatives have long been willing to overlook South Africa’s racist apartheid government in service of fighting communism abroad."

---Igor Volsky and Zack Beauchamp, Think Progress 

The American Conservative's Patrick J. Deneen: The Unwise Responses of the American Right to Pope Francis and Evangelii Gaudium

Pope Francis

Patrick J. Deneen's article at The American Conservative is linked below.

The American Conservative's Patrick J. Deneen: American Rightwingers and Pope Francis

"Since the release of Evangelii Gaudium there have been countless articles and commentary about the economic portions of Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation. Some of the commentary has been downright bizarre, such as Rush Limbaugh denouncing the Pope as a Marxist, or Stuart Varney accusing Francis of being a neo-socialist. American conservatives grumbled but dutifully denounced a distorting media when Pope Francis seemed to go wobbly on homosexuality, but his criticisms of capitalism have crossed the line, and we now see the Pope being criticized and even denounced from nearly every rightward-leaning media pulpit in the land."

---Patrick J. Deneen, The American Conservative 

The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart: Though He Receives Bi-Partisan Praise in the U.S. Now, Nelson Mandela Was Once Disliked by Much of the American Right

Nelson Mandela
1918-2013

Peter Beinart's column at The Daily Beast is linked below.

The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart: Nelson Mandela Was Not Always Popular With the American Right

“In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan placed Mandela’s African National Congress on America’s official list of ‘terrorist groups. In 1985, then-Congressman Dick Cheney voted against a resolution urging that he be released from jail.  In 2004, after Mandela criticized the Iraq War, an article in National Review said his ‘vicious anti-Americanism and support for Saddam Hussein should come as no surprise, given his longstanding dedication to communism and praise for terrorists.’ As late as 2008, the ANC remained on America’s terrorism watch list, thus requiring the 89-year-old Mandela to receive a special waiver from the secretary of State to visit the U.S.”

---Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast

Salon's Joan Walsh: American Rightwing Opposition to Nelson Mandela

Flag of the African National Congress,
South Africa's Current Ruling Party

Joan Walsh's article at Salon is linked below.

Salon's Joan Walsh: Much of the American Right Opposed Mandela

"Ronald Reagan made it a priority to fight domestic and international divestment efforts — efforts that, in the end, helped pressure the South African government to enter negotiations and free Nelson Mandela. Reagan vetoed an amazingly (if belatedly) bipartisan bill to impose tough sanctions on the apartheid regime. Of course then-congressman Dick Cheney had voted against the sanctions in 1986, and he defended his position while running for vice president in 2000, telling ABC: 'The ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization … I don’t have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago.'"

---Joan Walsh, Salon 

Denver Nicks of Time: U.S. Unemployment Rate Down to 7 Percent

The article by Denver Nicks of Time is linked below.

Time: U.S. Unemployment Rate Has Fallen to 7 Percent

"November’s employment gains, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, beat Wall Street expectations. Four consecutive months of strong hiring have cut the unemployment rate to a 5-year low. The unemployment rate dropped from 7.3 percent to 7 percent."

---Denver Nicks, Time 

The New York Times: American Unemployment Rate is at its Lowest Point in Five Years

The New York Times article is linked below.

The New York Times: U.S. Unemployment Rate Down to its Lowest Point in Five Years

"While the 203,000 jump in payrolls in November was an improvement over the 158,000-a-month rate that prevailed in the summer, it is not much better than the 198,000 level in the first nine months of 2013."

---Nelson D. Schwartz, The New York Times 

Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013

Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013



December 5, 2013: At 95 years of age, South Africa's Nelson Mandela died. Nelson Mandela fought against the white-supremacist Apartheid regime in South Africa, ultimately 27 years of imprisonment at the hands of the white-controlled South African government. He was released in 1990. He became President of South Africa in 1994, serving one term in office.



Above: Nelson Mandela---Revolutionary and Statesman; Nelson Mandela walking free in 1990

Baldwin County High School Student Tributes to Nelson Mandela

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: Reductions in American Pregnancies and Abortions

Sarah Kliff's article in the Washington Post is linked below.

Washington Post's Sarah Kliff: Recent U.S. Trends in Pregnancies and Abortions

"The pregnancy rate for American women between 15 and 44 dropped 12 percent between 1990 and 2009, according to a new Center for Disease Control report out today on pregnancy and abortion. In 2009, there were 102.1 pregnancies per 1,000 women, a drop from 115.8 pregnancies per 1,000 women in 1990."

---Sarah Kliff,  Washington Post 

Washington Post's Carol Morello: U.S. Pregnancy Rate is Down, Per Government Data Through 2009

The Washington Post article is linked below.

Washington Post: The American Pregnancy Rate is Down

"The report only examined the trajectory of pregnancy rates through 2009, stopping there because more recent data on abortions is not available yet. But newer statistics on birth rates suggest the decline is continuing, though not as quickly as it did in recent years when the recession accelerated trends well underway."

---Carol Morello, Washington Post 

The Raw Story's David Edwards: Rush Limbaugh Claims that Pope Francis is "Ripping America"

Rush Limbaugh

David Edwards' article at The Raw Story is linked below.

Raw Story: Limbaugh Unloads on Pope Francis, Claiming That the Pope is "Ripping America"

"This is the president citing the pope, his new best friend, because the pope is ripping America, the pope ripping capitalism…"

---Rush Limbaugh, Radio Show, December 4, 2013, Quoted by The Raw Story 

Benjamin H. Harris and Melissa S. Kearney of the Brookings Institution: Twelve Things Worth Knowing About the Lower End of the American Middle Class Demographic

The Brookings Institution article is linked below.

The Brookings Institution: 12 Things to Know About the Embattled Segments of the American Middle Class

"Compared to families living in poverty, families in the struggling lower-middle class are more likely to be headed by a married couple, to have a second adult worker, and to be headed by an individual with some college education. Those in the struggling lower-middle class still face many of the same challenges as those in poverty, however, including food insecurity and a reliance on government programs for income support."

---Benjamin H. Harris and Melissa S. Kearney, The Brookings Institution

Washington Post's Kathleen Parker: Conveying the Awful by the GOP

Kathleen Parker's column at the Washington Post is linked below.

Kathleen Parker: What the GOP Conveys is Awful

"Democrats have targeted the GOP’s soft spot, which is a hard line on social services. Thus, when Republicans want to drastically cut food stamps, it is a piece of cake (and not the moldy sort Marie Antoinette suggested the peasants eat) to designate conservatives as cruel and heartless.

When Republicans say the health-care plan is doomed, a train wreck, a disaster, etc. — and offer no hopeful options — they appear to be rooting only for failure."

---Kathleen Parker, Washington Post 

Politico's Stephanie Simon: Globally Speaking, Educational Mediocrity is the New Normal for American 15-Year-Olds

Stephanie Simon's article at Politico is linked below.

Politico: American 15-Year-Olds Nothing Special on World Stage

"Average American scores on PISA tests haven’t budged in a decade, despite bipartisan efforts to shake up the status quo through reforms such as mandating more frequent testing, publicizing student proficiency rates and opening public schools to competition from charter and private schools.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the U.S. performance 'a picture of educational stagnation.'"

---Stephanie Simon, Politico 

Robert Scheer at The Nation: In Praise of What Pope Francis Said About Capitalism

Robert Scheer's article in The Nation is linked below.

Robert Scheer at The Nation: The Pope and Capitalism

"Forget, for the moment, that he is the pope, and that Holy Father Francis’ apostolic exhortation last week was addressed “to the bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful.” Even if, like me, you don’t fall into one of those categories and also take issue with the Catholic Church’s teachings on a number of contested social issues, it is difficult to deny the inherent wisdom and clarity of the pontiff’s critique of the modern capitalist economy. No one else has put it as powerfully and succinctly."

---Robert Scheer, The Nation 

Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine: Obamacare Lives!

President Barack Obama

Jonathan Chait's column at New York Magazine is linked below.

New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait: Obamacare is Surviving

"So what are we fighting about? How smoothly the law operates, and how many customers it manages to enroll by the end of Obama’s term, are open questions. Likewise up for debate is whether Obama’s approval ratings will recover. But these are not fundamentally questions about the life or death of Obamacare. They’re about how much political pain Democrats in Congress must endure. We’re not fighting over health-care policy. We’re fighting about the midterm elections."

---Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine 

The Nation's Dave Zirin: Deep South College Football and the Intersection of College Athletics, Culture, and Race

Dave Zirin's column at The Nation is linked below.

The Nation: College Football in the Deep South and its Larger Socio-Cultural Dynamics

"For the uninitiated, The Iron Bowl is the annual game between two of college football's most intense interstate rivals, Auburn and Alabama. This past year's game was like nothing we have ever seen, arguably the most exciting college football game ever played, as Auburn withstood a 99-yard touchdown pass and came away with a 34-28 victory. Auburn beat the number one team in the country and did so on a 108 yard missed field goal return for a touchdown with no time left."

---Dave Zirin, The Nation 

The Daily Beast's Sheila A. Bedi: The Social Costs of Mass Incarceration

The article by Sheila A. Bedi in The Daily Beast is linked below.

The Daily Beast: The Many Costs of Mass Incarceration

"One in 100 adults in the U.S. lives behind bars. One in nine African-American men
 are imprisoned. This country’s addiction to incarceration has not made us safer, 
but has instead imposed upon us an untenable, senseless tax while unfairly 
targeting poor communities of color and perpetuating crime and violence 
in our neighborhoods. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and activists 
on the left and the right are taking action to roll back imprisonment rates."

---Sheila A. Bedi, The Daily Beast 

Per Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post, Auburn's Victory in the 2013 Iron Bowl is "the Greatest Ending in the History of Sports"

Mike Vaccaro's column at the New York Post is linked below.

New York Post's Mike Vaccaro: The Greatest Ever Ending in Sports

"Nobody rushes to judgment more than sports fans. We love what we just saw. We want to sanctify what just happened by giving it historical context, and as a result we jump to conclusions easily: THIS was the best Super Bowl ever. THIS was the greatest Final Four of all time.

Mostly, given time to digest it all, we sheepishly come around to the fact that maybe we got a little carried away.

Just not this time. This is fact:

The ending to Saturday’s Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn was the greatest ending in the history of sports. There. I said it."

---Mike Vaccaro, New York Post 

Sporting News' Matt Hayes: The 109 Yard Return by Auburn's Chris Davis was "the Greatest Play in College Football History and the Greatest Finish in College Football History…"

Matt Hayes' article at Sporting News is linked below.

Sporting News: Auburn's Iron Bowl Miracle at Jordan-Hare

"That’s what this is all about. When you break down the greatest play in college football history and the greatest finish in college football history into its purest form, it’s about beating the other team that has tormented you for two seasons."

---Matt Hayes, Sporting News