Recently by Scott Barzilla

Our collective response to the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy has been predictable. Americans' collective response to tragedy is both a testament to the better angels of our nature and a large part of the problem. These kinds of events strike at the very core of our soul and hit a chord so deep into what frightens us individually as people and collectively as a nation. So, before we begin any sort of debate we must...

If this election has shown anything it is that both parties are campaigning hard to attract the middle class. Both sides acknowledge that the middle class has taken it in the teeth over the past several years. Of course, both sides have alternative views as to why that happened and what needs to be done about it. This so far is normal in terms of elective politics.Let me say this, I believe Mitt Romney and...

"It's not the way that you say it when you do those things to me, it's more the way that you mean it when you tell me what will be." --HeywardI often get Paul Krugman and Thomas Friedman confused, so I can't remember who addressed the now infamous 47 percent first, but it is clear that the statements weren't as much gaffes per se, but Freudian slips. The statement most telling wasn't made by Mitt...

I was minding my own business this morning and reading the City and State page when I happened upon the letters of the day. Certainly, I am used to bad opinions based on shoddy facts. That's what we get from the general public. What got my blood boiling on this day were the two yahoo's questioning Lisa Falkenberg's recent piece on Ted Cruz because "she did not understand the constitution."My feelings on the issue are...

A lot of progressives are ecstatic about the Paul Ryan selection on the part of Mitt Romney. I'm not so sure that it is a great pick for the Democrats on that level. After all, Ryan follows the ethically challenged Dick Cheney and the intellectually challenged Sarah Palin. He looks presidential and he can actually find a coherent thought without the help of a flashlight. I'm not as thrilled about the prospect of Joe Biden debating Paul...

As someone that spends more than his fair share of time analyzing statistics, I am more acutely aware than most on how statistics can be manipulated to prove anything you want. So, I could march out here with some fancy numbers and blow everyone's minds, but we all know that someone else can do the same on the other side. I prefer to bring a little something we call common sense to the discussion. I...

If life were a department store, sports would be the toy section. That is how someone once described the relationship between sports and real life. Occasionally, the lines between entertainment and real life are blurred. In this past year, the people at Penn St. University have made sure that those lines would be gone forever. Unless you've been living in a cave, you've heard the name Jerry Sandusky and that name has forever changed the...

I was sitting in on a conference call at work when our national supervisor announced that one in two college graduates this year would either be unemployed or underemployed. I believe it. I took this job about two weeks ago and it is described as an entry level position. I make minimum wage unless I reach certain sales incentives. As you might suspect, I never dreamed I'd be making minimum wage when I walked across...

I tried to get through a Jonah Goldberg column this morning. It's a semi-regular exercise in futility I try when his columns appear in the Chronicle. For those that want to try the same game I will give you a leg up here. Since most of you likely don't have the stomach for it, I'll provide the reader's digest version.The source of frustration began with the whole story that Mitt Romney supposedly hazed a fellow...

My mother in law proved a point that I had learned back in my political science days. Back in 2004, she said the Democratic party was dead. I'm not quite sure what led her to that conclusion. John Kerry wasn't exactly an exciting candidate and he still narrowly lost the election to George W. Bush. Congress was in the hands of the Republicans, but things had been worse. I suppose it was wishful thinking.My in...

There's an old expression that talks about finding out how the sausage is made. The general idea is that people are usually fine with the outcome, but when they take a look at the process that goes into creating the outcome, they suddenly lose their appetite. Sausage seems to be number one on that lists of products that people don't want to watch being made. Government might soon replace sausage on that lists.A political history...

One of the beauties of not running for office is I don't have to mince words. So, I'll say it again, David Dewhurst is a jackass. The current Lt. Governor is running for Kay Bailey Hutchinson's senate seat and I'm tempted to vote for him. Why would I do such a stupid thing? Well, it would get him the hell out of Texas now wouldn't it.Now, how did we get to this point? Well, Dewhurst...

This morning, MS-NBC reported that Mitt Romney paid the same of amount of money in taxes on his 113 million dollars of income last year as Barack Obama did on his three million dollars in income. That's not percentage people. That's actual dollars. Of course, I'm sure your president isn't getting hosed by the IRS, so we are left to wonder exactly who is getting hosed on this deal.Mitt Romney is Republican candidate that has...

As Desperado has pointed out so eloquently in his own way, the economy, foreign policy, and national security are not the most important issues in 2012. Yes, they are always important in any election, but if the past week has taught us anything it is that the structure of the Supreme Court and the entire judicial branch is at stake. Right now it is a 5-4 court in favor of the conservatives.The 2012 election is...

The headline makes this look like I have gotten sucked into a time warp. We're going to party like it's 2009. However, the subject of this particular tribe is much more recent in fact. So, bear with me as we set up the groundwork. The political debate shifted in the past few weeks to the issue of women's health and contraception in particular. I'm surprised that no one thought of the the public option as...

Rick Santorum is picking up steam these days in spite of himself and some ardent supporters. After all, I think the whole aspirin between the knees bit is a bit worn out. Santorum suggested there was a double standard in how Obama was treated following the Jeremiah Wright flap. Apparently, Obama was given a pass. I don't seem to remember it that way, but let's just take the man on his own words.He said that...

Update: Astrogirlkel has informed me that some teachers have allegedly looked the other way and some were accused of actually passing students along to the pedophile(s).In a story that demands a second read to be believed, a California school district has removed its entire staff because two of its members were charged with sexual abuse. Apparently, they take sexual abuse so seriously over there that they decided that 99 percent of the staff that was...

The Mitt Romney comedy tour continues in full force. At a recent speech he managed to piss off people from the left and right at the same time. He told America that he doesn't care about the poor and that if the safety net needs to be fixed he'll fix it. Of course, he came back and tried to fix his little gaffe, but these things take on a life of their own. For most of...

In his state of the union, President Obama urged all of the states to raise the dropout age to 18. To prove I'm not simply a sheep I will say that is absolutely the wrong thing to do. In fact, I think that's moving it in the opposite direction that it needs to go. The big problem is that public school curriculum stop serving the needs of the majority the minute they all step into...

It's been a long time. I want to introduce myself. My name is Scott Barzilla and I am unemployed. Back in November, things were picking up. I had what seemed like a firm offer from an insurance company and I got a holiday job at Barnes and Noble. That job went away when the holidays ended and the insurance company is still doing background checks. Meanwhile, I've shelled out nearing 500 dollars getting certified. It's...