Recent Activity

  • Pay Effective Teachers What They Deserve
    Transitionland signed the petition | about 1 month ago
  • Equal pay for equal work!
    Transitionland signed the petition | about 1 month ago
  • Demand House Republicans Support President Obama's American Jobs Act
    Transitionland signed the petition | about 1 month ago
  • Support The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 (H.R. 4170)
    Transitionland signed the petition | about 1 month ago
  • Heretical Thoughts
    Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

    I don't know, Michael.


    Sometimes, when I drift off into bored daydreams, I imagine a team of Swedish human rights lawyers visits the US for two weeks, surveys our federal and state prisons, and then proposes a total overhaul. And we do it.

  • A Not-Boring, Quite Different Aid Worker Reading List
    Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

    'Kabul in Winter' by Ann Jones has been recommended to me.


    'The Key to My Neighbor's House' by Elizabeth Neuffer isn't about aidworkers, it's about civilians caught in the Bosnian and Rwanda conflicts, and their search for answers, peace and justice after surviving the atrocities that claimed their loved ones. I couldn't put this book down once I began reading it, and to describe it as a heart-and-gut-wrenching read would be an understatement. (Side note: Elizabeth Neuffer died in Iraq. This was her last book.)


    'The Oath' by Khassan Baiev is about a Chechen doctor's struggle to uphold the Hippocratic Oath while treating injured civilians and combatants during the first and second Russian-Chechen wars, and is a good medical relief/humanitarian ethics/war-and-health book. It's fast-paced and very readable.

  • How (Not) To Impress A Playmate in Kabul
    Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

    Michael, that was possibly your best post ever.

  • 10 Signs That You've Been Overseas Too Long
    Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

    That's.....tremendous.

  • 10 Signs That You've Been Overseas Too Long
    Transitionland commented on the article | over 2 years ago

    "In any debate about copyright infringement, you come down firmly on the pro-piracy side.  Unless you're talking about the bastards who simply smuggle a videocamera into a movie theater and then market the resulting product as a clean copy.  They can burn in hell."


    This gave me a hearty laugh. Indeed. Hardly a day goes by I don't think, "Gee, I wish I could buy the entire last season of this 'Man Men' show everyone is talking about for five bucks from the toothless guy who hawks bootleg DVDs in front of the market" or "Man I wish I could buy designer knockoff leather ankle boots from a surly babushka for the price of socks in the US!"

  •  Four Reasons Everyone Should Care About Global Health
    Transitionland commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

    The normative/realist balance here is interesting. Well put, especially no. 1.

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