The Wednesday Curator – 4/16/14

April 16, 2014

After a few days off for Pesach/Passover, it’s Wednesday and that means Wednesday Curator time. This has been the toughest of weeks for I read so much good stuff, and have struggled with what to share. Here goes nothing!

I loved the “Grapes Of Wrath” Is 75, But Its Depictions of Poverty Are Timeless story on National Public Radio. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Global Rankings Study:  America in Warp-Speed Decline was written by CJ Werleman and posted at Salon on April 9. One of my friends says we need to be positive, and I get that, but we can’t ignore facts either. And there are some mighty unpleasant facts here!

I thought my friends on the Far Right believed, above all else, in the market. Capitalism rules!!! So why, then, would the Kansas legislature tell the Fox Broadcasting Company—yes, that Fox—it can’t show Cosmos in Kansas. Read Kansas to Black Out “Cosmos” Show Over Controversies for details.

Michael Lind is a really smart guy, and a great writer. Here’s his piece, America’s Next Great President:  Why Obama’s Departure Paves the Way For the Next FDR, from Salon on April 12.

And there’s this piece of joy:  The Syrupy Tale of How Jews Invented Kedem and Modern America. This story appears in the April 18 issue of the Jewish Forward. The story begins “Pour yourself a glass of wine—this is a story that needs a little extra time set aside.” I didn’t, and I should have! (I receive the Forward every other week in the mail. A relative was its business manager almost 100 years ago, when it was the Jewish Daily Forward and probably still had an edition printed in Yiddish. My partner Lowell Rothschild also gets it, and after having him share lots of articles I decided I wanted my own copy. Receiving it in the mail always gives me a lift!)

And finally, here’s yet more proof—another White House Seder story—that President Obama is not a closet Muslim:  My White House Seder.

Bonus post:  Jim DeMint: The Federal Government Had Nothing to Do With Emancipating the Slaves was written by Elias Isquith for Salon on April 9. (No, I did not sit down and pull stories from Salon, all at once. The site offers some terrific writing, and these stories caught my eye as they appeared.) This piece brought to mind one of my very favorite quotes from one of my heroes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan:  “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

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