I highly recommend the weekly news magazine "The Week" to anyone who is interested in learning interesting things the major media sources do not report. It is a great source for learning both sides of the major issues we face rather than depending on the seriously biased reporting of the primary news networks and publications. The magazine's style is to present short summaries of articles from other sources that represent differing viewpoints regarding the debatable issues of the day. But they also include condensed versions of articles with information that is often quite enlightening.
I have not even finished reading the current issue (December 14, 2012) and have already found a lot of good stuff. For example, Michael Barone wrote in the National Review that collecting disability has become a career for many Americans. In 1960 there were 455,000 Americans receiving Social Security disability payments, which was created to help citizens who were too sick or disabled to work. That would have comprised .45% of all adults between the working ages of 18 and 65 (99.0 million). Fifty years later the number of people in the country receiving disability payments has exploded to 8.6 million, or 4.4% of Americans between 18 and 65 (194.2 million). In 50 years the percent on disability increased 10x while the working age population less than doubled.
The primary reason for this disability epidemic is that the government has considerably expanded its requirements to qualify. Now such unverifiable afflictions as mood disorders, depression, and back, knee and joint pain makes people eligible. The author claims that almost 50% of disability payments go to people who claim pain or mental disorders that no doctor can prove or disprove. He also maintained that over the two years 2010 and 2011 only 1,730,000 new jobs were created at the same time 790,000 folks went on disability. Seems that more people are gaming the system every day.
Another report from the Gulf News, based in the United Arab Emirates, laments the Obama administration's 180 degree turn from condemning the Muslim Brotherhood to "giving them red carpet treatment" following the 'Arab Spring', saying that is not only "pathetically opportunistic" but also dangerously naive. The report states the U.S. now seems to embrace the ridiculous notion that Islamists are the only credible political force in the Middle East, totally disregarding the region's liberals and particularly ignoring the younger folks who are doing the protesting. The Gulf States are already looking for new allies in Asia since America "swaps allies at the speed of light." More proof that Barack and Hillary have no clue regarding foreign policy.
My favorite piece from the magazine is a one sentence note published by Salon.com that households with incomes of under $13,000 a year spend an average of 9% on lottery tickets. Obviously there is a reason they are on the public dole - they are stupid. Finally, there is a report on the current baby bust in America. The Pew Research Center found that the U.S. birthrate in 2011 was the lowest ever recorded with only 63 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age. That compares with 71 in 1990 and 122 in the WWII postwar period. Some say Americans are so focused on their own personal fulfillment that they can't be bothered to raise a generation to replace them. Of course the feminazi's have gone apeshit over that comment saying it displays a malicious hostility to women. Regardless, with so few youngsters coming into the world, before long America will resemble a huge nursing home with no one to pay the freight.
All interesting stuff. Welcome to liberal Utopia.
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