What I’m Reading, April 3, 2014

Chris Piascik (chrispiascik.com) [CC BY-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)], via FlickrSorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don’t ‘Create The Jobs’, Henry Blodget, Business Insider, November 29, 2013

Entrepreneurs and investors like me actually don’t create the jobs — not sustainable ones, anyway.

Yes, we can create jobs temporarily, by starting companies and funding losses for a while. And, yes, we are a necessary part of the economy’s job-creation engine. But to suggest that we alone are responsible for the jobs that sustain the other 300 million Americans is the height of self-importance and delusion.

So, if rich people do not create the jobs, what does?

A healthy economic ecosystem — one in which most participants (especially the middle class) have plenty of money to spend.

The Bitters Tears of the American Christian Supermajority, Chase Madar, Al-Jazeera America, March 30, 2014 Continue reading

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Signal Boost: A Teen’s Brave Response to “I’m Christian, Unless You’re Gay”

Dan Pearce, who blogs at Single Dad Laughing, wrote an amazing post nearly two years ago entitled “I’m Christian, unless you’re gay.” The post talks about Pearce’s 27 year-old friend Jacob, who is gay, and who had lost any connection to almost all of his friends and family as a result.

“Every single person I’ve told has ditched me. They just disappear. They stop calling. They remove me on Facebook. They’re just gone,” he said. “They can’t handle knowing and being friends with a gay person.”

I didn’t know what to say. So I didn’t say anything.

“You don’t know what it’s like, man. You don’t know what it’s like to live here and be gay. You don’t know what it’s like to have freaking nobody. You don’t know what it’s like to have your own parents hate you and try and cover up your existence. I didn’t choose this. I didn’t want this. And I’m so tired of people hating me for it. I can’t take it anymore. I just can’t.”

How do you respond to that?

I wanted to tell him it was all in his head. I knew it wasn’t. I wanted to tell him it would get better and easier. The words would have been hollow and without conviction, and I knew it.

You see, I live in this community too. And I’ve heard the hate. I’ve heard the disgust. I’ve heard the disdain. I’ve heard the gossip. I’ve heard the distrust. I’ve heard the anger. I’ve heard it all, and I’ve heard it tucked and disguised neatly beneath a wrapper of self-righteousness and a blanket of “caring” or “religious” words. I’ve heard it more times than I care to number.

That was in November 2011. Several months later, in April 2012, he posted a follow-up, entitled “A Teen’s Brave Response to ‘I’m Christian, Unless You’re Gay,'” in which a mother described how her teenage son came out to her via Pearce’s original post: Continue reading

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