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August 16, 2013

Private Virtue and Public Speech

Sometimes we are not aware of the foolishness of our private speech until our words go public. This is one of the morals of the story of Philadelphia Eagle’s receiver Riley Cooper’s n-word slip. Continue Reading...
August 15, 2013

How Does Your State Rank on Human Trafficking Laws?

Does your state have the basic legal framework in place to combat human trafficking, punish trafficker, and supports survivors? The Polaris Project recently released their 2013 State Ratings on Human Trafficking Laws, which examines the progress states have made in passing legislation to combat both labor and sex trafficking. Continue Reading...
August 15, 2013

Chris ‘Ashton’ Kutcher on Opportunity as Hard Work

PowerBlog readers will be excused for missing this, as I suspect there are not many who frequent the MTV Teen Choice Awards. But don’t let your skepticism prevent you from watching this video of Ashton (really, “Christopher Ashton”) Kutcher’s acceptance speech, in which he exhorts the younger generation to get its hands dirty with hard work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuBSRC1zpHw Continue Reading...
August 15, 2013

Worry is a Poverty Trap

There’s some evidence that the distress associated with poverty, such as worry about where your next meal is coming from, can create a negative feedback loop, leaving the poor with fewer non-material resources to leverage against poverty. Continue Reading...
August 15, 2013

Explainer: What’s Going on in Egypt?

Hundreds of supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi were killed in Cairo this week by Egyptian security forces. The protestors, mostly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, responded by destroying Coptic Christian churches throughout the country. Continue Reading...