Spare Change News

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Keep An Eye On Seniors

    Both President Obama and Mitt Romney will need to carefully consider how they approach the issue of Medicare in the coming days. To be sure, the political climate has grown increasingly favorable for President Obama and the Democrats in the weeks following the Democratic National Convention. But with the polls nearly certain to tighten in…

  • The Making of Willard "Mitt" Romney

    Recently disgraced conservative tent-pole Dinesh D’Souza has devoted the last three years of his public life to establishing a sort of determinism in Barack Obama’s administration. Obama’s father, as D’Souza argues in print and film, has wielded incalculable influence on his son’s career as an anticolonial activist, community organizer, academic, and politician. In a Forbes…

  • A New War On Poverty

    In their book, The Rich and the Rest of Us, noted public intellectual Cornel West & broadcaster Tavis Smiley challenge the presidential candidates to at least talk about poverty. Q. What was the motivation behind this book? Cornel West: There were a number of contributing factors that led to the writing of this book. First…

  • Remembering Gil Scott-Heron

    A powerful voice left us at a youthful age of 62 in late May of 2011 when long-term Harlem resident, poet and recording artist Gil Scott-Heron passed away. Scott-Heron was a rapper, poet and musician who was primarily known for his syncopated spoken words, harsh-blunt criticizing poetry performances in the 1970 ‘s and 1980’s expressing…

  • Inaugural

    Now is the time to be generous, now is the time to be brave and patient, to watch how the dove tails up, blinks, sits tight over invisible eggs. Now is the time to protect, a time to risk, now is the time to mother, to become curious, now is the time to father, the…

  • Ballot Question 2: Dying With Dignity or Doctors of Death

    Until he died a couple of decades ago, Princeton and Harvard-educated surgeon Dr. Frederick Phelps was an old school doc based in the central Massachusetts city, Fitchburg. Old school doc means he made house calls. He accepted firewood and handmade gifts as payment from patients without money or insurance, and, when people asked for it…

  • Marian Wright Edelman

    SCN: Thank you so very much; we’re deeply honored that you would take this time to talk with us. It’s my understanding that my predecessors had a brief interview with you concerning your summer program. MWE: Right—which we are very proud of. And it’s just growing and growing. It’s where our movements going to come…

  • When Homelessness Became a Crime

    Many cities have targeted homeless people by creating ordinances that prohibit activities of daily living for the homeless. One set of restrictions focuses on service providers’ feeding programs. Historically, cities have attempted to restrict feedings on public property through zoning laws. In Orlando, Florida, members of Food Not Bombs have been arrested repeatedly for feeding…

  • Race Against Homelessness

    Alex Taylor, 32, awoke at a time on Saturday morning most people pretend doesn’t exist on the weekends. He donned a pair of running shorts and a bright yellow tank top, a stunning choice considering the chilly weather outside. He made his way to Davis Square and signed his name on a piece of paper…

  • Who Will Feed the Children?

    Every force has an equal, yet opposite reactive force states Newton’s Third Law of Motion. Recent politics prove that Newton’s law is applicable elsewhere. Once again a lack of cohesion among bipartisan entities and an ensuing sense of “hyper-partisanship” grows apparent with measures that undermine progress. Yet as the squabbling continues, so does the pain…

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