Merry Christmas and Holidays from the Bears to our readers.

by Rev. Nathan Detering (Unitarian Universalist Church at First Parish Sherborn, MA) Once upon a time in those days after Thanksgiving when Rt. 9 is transformed from its normal craziness into something like a hornet’s nest after you poke it with a stick,there was a minister, a pastor, who thought it was a good idea […]

by Dale Coberly SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON SOCIAL SECURITY HOW THE “COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET” LIES TO YOU A group that calls itself “Committee For A Responsible Federal Budget” wrote what it claims to be “Setting the Record Straight on Social Security.”  The article needs to be responded to at some length, […]

Via Econospeak Barkley Rosser ponders taxes and distribution: Taxes And Income Distribution: The Way It Was And The Way It Is Got invited on to the local TV station today to discuss income distribution thanks to the recent statements about the matter by President Obama and Pope Francis, only to upset the local anchorman by telling […]

Pro Publica points us to the expendable temp worker trend and with data. Via Truth out comes more: A groundbreaking 2010 study of Washington state’s workers’ comp claims found that temp workers in construction and manufacturing had twice the claims rate of regular workers doing the same type of work. If your injuries were caused […]

America’s fastest growing crime problem points us to some numbers: When we talk about crime at the city level, we tend to focus on violent crime and property crime. These two categories don’t encompass the entire universe of illegal behavior, but they cover crimes that a) have victims, and b) local police can actually  investigate. […]

Trans Pacific Partnership is Not Especially Important Paul Krugman argues that the Trans Pacific Partnership is no big deal: I’ve been getting a fair bit of correspondence wondering why I haven’t written about the negotiations for a Trans Pacific Partnership… The answer is that I’ve been having a hard time figuring out why this deal […]

Brendan Nyhan at Columbia Journalism Review reminds us to be careful about debating budget priorities: How should the United States choose among the difficult tradeoffs it faces in setting the federal budget? There’s no one correct answer, but you wouldn’t know it from coverage of the budget deal between Senator Patty Murray and Rep. Paul […]

Via Alternet comes this reminder: News media should illuminate conflicts of interest, not embody them. But the owner of the  Washington Post is now doing big business with the Central Intelligence Agency, while readers of the newspaper’s CIA coverage are left in the dark. The Post’s new owner, Jeff Bezos, is the founder and CEO […]