The Angry Bear

The US Constitution was their best effort to answer the question, “How should it be?” Then, they were seeking a new and better way of governance. Now, some two-hundred-forty years later, a latter-day majority of Justices on the US Supreme Court, the one charged with interpreting the Constitution, are saying, “This is how it should be.” The one, asking; the other, dictating. Merely a matter of word order? Hardly. Whereas their focus was on getting the...

An important reason to read history is to gain a perspective on current events. If you watch exclusively mainstream media television, particularly Fox News, you might be forgiven for the belief that things in this country are the worst they have ever been in history. “1877: America’s Year of Living Violently” by Michael Bellisiles is one effective antidote to that impression.The panic of 1873, when a post-Civil War speculative bubble burst, launched...

Can architects and designers make a difference in the climate emergency? Carbon Upfront, Lloyd Alter, One prominent English architect says we should just shut up and draw, we don’t matter much anyway. I am single-minded when teaching sustainable design at Toronto Metropolitan University: it is all about carbon, carbon, carbon, the issue of our time. My students are urban, interior, and fashion designers in The Creative School at TMU....

Coronavirus update: mid year 2023  – by New Deal democrat I haven’t done an update on the state of COVID since March or April. As we are halfway through the year, and just past the July 4 holiday get-togethers that sparked summer waves in the past, let’s take a look. Covid isn’t gone, but it is very much in a lull. Almost all case tracking by governments is gone. But Biobot’s wastewater monitoring, which has been very reliable, continues....

Infidel talks about the costly flops by the movie making behemoth executives and brought to us at our nearby Big Screen theater only to be disappointed and bored whichever comes first. Hopefully, there is good buttered popcorn . . . Infidel753: Cultural dinosaurs and creative exhaustion, Infidel753 Blog It’s no secret that American movies are in the doldrums.  By a recent estimate, all of Disney’s last eight big films flopped, losing a total...

A brief essay for July 4, 2023  – by New Deal democrat Selections from Brutus, the anti-federalist who argued against the Constitution’s institution of the Supreme Court: “When great and extraordinary powers are vested in any man, or body of men, which in their exercise, may operate to the oppression of the people, it is of high importance that powerful checks should be formed to prevent the abuse of it. “[T]hose who are to be vested with...

How does this article fit into Angry Bear’s typical offering? It doesn’t really or it does if you believe it to be an issue of economics, personal economics, and education. An education to be careful how and where your credit cards are used. My rule(s) of thumb. If it takes too long to process a credit, ask questions about there being a problem. If the person leaves the area from where you can watch them transact the purchase, there should be an...

July 4, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox-Richardson (written July 3) And on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”For all the fact that the congressmen got around...

Manufacturing and construction sectors continue downward pull on economy  – by New Deal democrat As usual, we start the month with new manufacturing and construction data. The ISM manufacturing index goes all the way back to the 1940s, and has been a very good short leading indicator of recession throughout that time (although nothing’s perfect!). However, since the “China shock” started 20 years ago, with so much offshoring of...

I (run7511) resurrected this commentary from March 2013. It is a realistic commentary about what John Roberts is all about. A take on what they were discussing then and how SCOTUS is reacting today. WASHINGTON — As the justices of the Supreme Court struggled with the question of same-sex marriage this week, politicians in Congress kept handing down their own verdict. One after another, a series of lawmakers in recent days endorsed allowing gay men...