Today's Liberal News

Caribbean Matters: Cruise ships, COVID-19, and the economics of tourism

When winter cold sweeps through parts of the United States, the desire for warmer weather has always sent Americans to places like the Caribbean. Even during this pandemic, U.S. tourists long to go somewhere, no matter the possible risks to their health or to the health of the people who call their holiday destinations home.

Though many tourists arrive by air, pleasure cruising to the Caribbean has a long history.

I Have Some Questions About the World of Teletubbies

There is a dome, post-Soviet and colorful, wired with the kind of technological doodads you might see in a Bond villain’s lair— revolving modernist chairs, disembodied voices rising out of metal speakers issuing orders for the day. A giant ball bounces ominously in the background. People disappear from time to time, but nobody leaves. Everyone seems to be constantly being watched.

A Neuroscientist Prepares for Death

When a routine echocardiogram revealed a large mass next to my heart, the radiologist thought it might be a hiatal hernia—a portion of my stomach poking up through my diaphragm to press against the sac containing my heart.“Chug this can of Diet Dr. Pepper and then hop up on the table for another echocardiogram before the soda bubbles in your stomach all pop.”So I did.

Give Your Money. Give Your Time. Don’t Tell Anyone.

“How to Build a Life” is a weekly column by Arthur Brooks, tackling questions of meaning and happiness. Click here to listen to his new podcast series on all things happiness, How to Build a Happy Life.The end of the year isn’t just the holiday season; it’s also charity season. Estimates of charitable giving indicate that at least 20 percent of all gifts are made in December, when our holiday love for humankind conveniently converges with the end of the tax year.

“His Spirit Reflected a Giant”: Mumia Abu-Jamal Remembers Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Visit on Death Row

Mumia Abu-Jamal remembers South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday at the age of 90. Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting to end apartheid in South Africa. In 2007, Tutu visited Mumia when he was still on death row. “His spirit reflected a giant,” says Abu-Jamal. “He struggled for change with his prophetic voice, his sweet humor, his deep love and his boundless sense of compassion.

Angela Davis on Imagining New Worlds, the Campaign to Free Mumia and the Biden Presidency

World-renowned author, activist and professor Angela Davis talks about navigating the pandemic and an inadequate two-party political system during a time of racial uprising in the United States. She also talks about imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Biden presidential campaign and the protests that erupted from the police killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

News Roundup: U.S. hits new pandemic record; master Senate tactician Harry Reid dead at 82

In the news today: Former Sen. Harry Reid, a giant of progressive politics, died last night at age 82. The nation’s COVID-19 pandemic has now reached yet another all-time high, with a 7-day average now topping a quarter-million new cases per day. And the mass shooter responsible for five deaths in Denver has been identified as a white supremacist who repeatedly advocated for political violence on social media—and wrote a “book” that reveled in such violence.

Anti-vaxxers take over a Burger King, and yes, it’s even more ridiculous than it sounds

What could be possibly more American than a group of cranky a-holes fighting for their God-given right to spread deadly diseases at fast-food restaurants? That’s peak 2021, folks; MAGA mites always save the best for last.

As much as I’d like to dump most Burger King food into Boston Harbor (still a far better choice, I’d argue, than eating it), I don’t think this protest will have the historic impact these anti-vaxxers hope it will.