Uncategorized
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Prince vs. Gay Marriage
Despite claims that he was misquoted, The New Yorker is standing by its report that Prince spoke out against gay marriage in a recent interview. So—all the way back in 1980 when Prince was singing, “White, black, Puerto Rican/Everybody just a-freakin,'” he must have specifically envisioned a radically multicultural but strictly hetero love fest. Reasonable…
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Mugabe, At it Again
Zimbabwe continues to present trouble for Southern Africa, as the region pushes to climb out of food, economic, and health pitfalls. President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has led a career shrouded in corruption and isolation. Other leaders in the region, and from over the world, including Kofi Annan, and Jimmy Carter, have called for a…
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Field of Dreams
Despite the government assistance being given to Citigroup, the bank will still maintain its contract with the New York Mets for naming rights of their new ballpark. The New York Mets signed a 20-year contract with Citigroup binding them to forking up $20 million each year for their new stadium’s naming rights. The deal was…
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Obama's Economic Team
The economy is, prehaps, the most pressing issue facing President-elect Obama. The team that he builds will be crucial to his success as a president and our climbing out of this hole, as a country. In a press conference today, Obama and VP-elect, Joe Biden, announced the people whom they’ve trusted to serve as their…
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Citigroup Needs Help
To regulate, or not to regulate—that is the question: Whether it is nobler to let the banks suffer a horrible fortune, or to take arms against this sea of debt. Nobilty and rhetoric aside, the U.S. has largely doubled back on its free market philosophies. As the Washington Post reports, the Treasury Department, the Federal…
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Step Aside
Nov. 24, 2008—The image of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. standing on the lawn at Grant Park in Chicago, tears streaming down his face as he listened to America’s first black president address thousands of adoring supporters, is sure to be one of the iconic images of the historic election It was a poignant…
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The Root's New Look — A Sneak Peek
Dear Readers, Can you believe The Root is approaching the end of its first year? And my, what a year it’s been! As we’ve kept pace with the news and issues that matter to you most, providing you with insightful, provocative and witty commentary that you can’t find anywhere else, we’ve also been listening to…
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Trading Places
Nov. 21, 2008—Folks down with the number crunchers at sites like 82games, Basketball Prospectus, Baseball Prospectus and Football Outsiders, mutter these three little words—small sample size—as if it were a mantra and for good reason. Even those fans with no appetite for algebraic gymnastics with their sport can easily recall some otherwise ordinary player who had…
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NPR: Race and The '08 Vote
Nov. 21, 2008—Race in America was the unavoidable topic at the center of the historic presidential election that ended with Barack Obama being chosen as the 44th president of the United States and the first black person to hold the job. It was a wide-ranging discussion that demonstrated just how much the country had changed…
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The New Old South
Nov. 21, 2008—Being black in South Carolina is not the easiest thing I’ve ever done. Until recently, my sister and I had two white cleaning ladies. And it seems so humorously ironic. My grandmother, the first in our family to move from the South to the North, made a living cleaning the homes of white…