So a proposed policy looks sensible and helpful. Is it really? Here are some things to think about when evaluating policy proposals.
Are you suuuure that policy is a good idea?
Tag: policy
Who’s afraid of the big, bad science?
This country is in a crisis of scientific illiteracy. On the everyday level, many people aren’t familiar with even the rudiments of the scientific method, critical thinking, and how they function, issues that have real and serious repercussions for society — in a prominent recent example, people who can’t comprehend how vaccines work are endangering […]
Our policy is killing women — and we don’t care
Much of the talk about the ‘war on women’ has surrounded our country’s horrific approach to reproductive justice and the crackdown on reproductive rights across the United States. Every year, more and more bills targeting cis women are introduced — term limits for abortion, mandatory ultrasounds, stiffer requirements for facilities offering abortion services, funding cuts […]
When Big Ag Claims to Be Helping ‘Small Farms’
When big corporations, especially groups and trade associations of big corporations, appear to be lobbying for small businesses, I always get deeply suspicious. I see no particular reason why these firms should support smaller rivals in the industry, even if they are small and unlikely to ever threaten the larger company’s market share, because this […]
Deconstructing the ‘Model Minority’ Myth
The Asian and Pacific Islander community has long been heralded as a ‘model minority’ in the US, with people pointing at the success of some individuals as some kind of evidence that there is a right way to be an immigrant, and a right way to be a person of colour in the US. If […]
If You Fear Mentally Ill People, Why Won’t You Fund Our Care?
Society’s deeply ingrained fear of mental illness has ancient roots; we are not the first or the last culture to turn away from those who don’t mesh with our expectations for performance, emotions, and competence. At the same time, though, the options for managing mental illness are broader and more effective than they ever were […]
Mental Health Policy: Actual Mental Health Services Are A Good Place to Start
A few months ago I read an interesting piece in The Seattle Times about the creation of a mental health crisis center that provided emergency beds for patients in distress discovered on the streets. It offered a radical new alternative to the city’s existing framework for handling people in a state of mental health crisis, […]
Our Affordable Housing Policy Is Out of Whack
Affordable housing is a pretty basic need: People require places to live, ideally safe, clean places with access to running water and electricity. And yet, it’s proved fantastically difficult to provide in the United States, where land is a commodity and many people struggle to survive on low incomes. Consequently, the government has promoted all […]
Turning the Border Into A War Zone
Good fences, goes the saying, make good neighbours. Walls and fences have been used as messaging for thousands of years; early humans probably made a point of building fences as soon as they could figure out how to do it. We’re fond of fences as a method of social control, a firm reminder of who […]
If Pot’s So Green, Why Does It Cause So Much Environmental Degradation?
Over the summer, a multi-agency law enforcement crackdown swept into Northern California to tackle the growing practice of marijuana cultivation in state forests. Hundreds of thousands of plants were netted, over 100 arrests were made, and the crews also uncovered substantial amounts of garbage and polluting material. Pesticides. Herbicides. Fertilizer. Straight up garbage; food wrappers, […]