Charles M. Blow

Very good appearance, but please, someone, get a pillow and suffocate Chris Matthews! He will NOT SHUT UP!!!!

The way things are moving for you, I expect you will have your own show on MSNBC within the year. I am sincere in my praise for you.

Women's health is definitely the major factor there. Multiple wives means competition for family resources and lack of education on what is necessary for early childhood health is the cause of the disparity of the distribution of those resources within the family. Interesting that the rate is lower among the occupied Palestinians. Historically, ... Read Moreoccupation has meant tremendous co-operation among the occupied population. Overall food production is the next component of this problem. Climate change is becoming the clear, prevalent cause of crop failures globally. 2 things give me solace: 1.) Animals adapt. There will always be life if we don't nuke the planet. 2.) Populations stabilize. If we can secure peace, and provide for rebuilding and development then that will provide those people with security, which will mean security for those of us in north america. The technology is there, the question is; is there the will to co-operate? As far as I'm concerned, the age of co-operation started about 60 years ago, but the people who should have been co-operating were too busy competing and missed the memo. So the past 60 years has been a race to the bottom, now starts the race to the future. I suppose all that deserves further explication but what does it matter? I have no influence on any of it anyway.

yep, you're right Bill. Astute observation. Then the problem become how can that be countered? I think there ought to be some mechanism or philosophy to hold journalists and media corporations to account. Something like a Hippocratic oath for journalists. The other component is education. How about publicly funded secondary education? It's worked ... Read Morewell for Ireland. Also because the unemployment problem is broadly structural and not going away, if young people are in school longer, not only do they learn more and have a wider education to formulate their opinions from, they're technically not unemployed because they are in school. In the province of Ontario where I live, the government "streamlined" highschool education so kids are graduating at 17 now. It's absurd. In the 90's when I was in high school, we had a level called OAC that was basically university level courses, so one could hang out and learn about things in depth. Now I live in a rooming house with a 17 year old community college kid that graduated with none of the physics, biology or social studies courses that I had. All the time I have to explain things to him that I assumed he would have understood. Common frame of reference, that's the common problem. Our governments need to develop ways to make the roots of the "grassroots" grow deeper.

Karyl, Now we're talking melting pot/ assimilation versus multi-culturalism. The prom issue is being brought to the fore now by the activism of Morgan Freeman. I could understand if the black community established their own school with their own agenda and received some sort of public funding, something similar to the "seperate" school system here ... Read Morein Ontario for "Catholic" education, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. As an altar boy it meant time off school for weddings and funerals, which more importantly, were opportunities to help other people out, but broadly that system is one of indoctrination to a certain worldview similar to any other system of indoctrination. As far as multi-culturalism is concerned, Toronto has some experiments/ examples under way in several areas including an African school for African immigrants, a court that co-operates with Imams to bring some aspects of Sharia law to family disputes for Islamic families and posting police to schools and having them participate in school sports programs. Things like these strenghthen the community. In modern cities of such diversity and density, these sort of institutional measures are necessary. Now I'm a country boy/ wilderness type and historically big cities are just disasters waiting to happen. I don't like the city, don't go there very often, but I live close enough to have seen what the population growth has done to the local natural resources in 20 years. In the face of the onsetting and rapidly growing threats ofpeak oil and climate change those metropolitan regions are potentially hellish deathtraps. If things go that badly I'm bugging out for the boreal real quick. But in the meantime I have the liberty of objective observation. What's all that got to do with the price of tea in China? Everything and nothing.

I agree with Ms. Sainsbury. Pres. Obama needs to be given a chance to correct what the former president messed up in the 8 years. And it is going to take longer than a year to clean that all up. Now if he will just keep from sending more people to Afganistan, I will be happy but I am afraid he is going to send them anyway. I am still in his corner tho. And hope with all my heart that he can carry on as he promised.

It took FDR 2 terms to get some of his policies instituted, amidst resistance from conservative southern Democrats aligned with conservative Republicans (The Conservative Coalition) and the Supreme Court and corporate America.

It hasn't been a year yet.

I'm in kind of a "death panel" mood, just at the moment. But where to begin? Nurse, could you show one of the Senators in?

It's amazing they are yet following the lead of their former leader in using fear tactics to scare people to vote for them. Even when the platform looks good enough to vote with them they come up with such idiotic thoughts.

Have they no shame whatsoever?

I read this and knew that many who were opposed to the Health care reform was actually being paid by the companies to voice opinions that favored the MONEY and not the people

A pox on the houses of both of the Big Money Parties. As far as I'm concerned they are both utterly useless, corrupted by big campaign contributions, and should be boycotted. Vote for third party candidates who will actually represent the interests of ordinary Americans. I haven't vote for either a democrat or repug in years and don't expect I ever will again.

We just just "vote for a 3rd party" because we'll split among too many parties. Platform first, party second.

The power of individual journalists has been diminished with the expansion of channels into people's minds. The reality is that the corporate domination of media space is at the point where it simply doesn't matter. The fragmentation of bloggers, news, etc... doesn't really dent the power structure or the politics. I don't think it's a question ... Read Moreof personal responsibility, but a question of aggregated structural lack of popular control over the institutions that hold true power--corporate power, the aristocracy of the senate, and the small house. Expand the house, minimize the power of the Senate... then all the informed citizens will have much greater control over their representatives--and it will cost much more to donate money to an expanded house.

Charles, I'm very happy you're on Facebook, not only with your own thoughtful columns, but you also often point out to us other information that should get/have our attention. It's so difficult these days to weed through all the "info-tainment" that now passes as "news."

Thank you so much for your efforts to help us direct our attention to important issues.

I love how the Republican front men like Pence rail about the immorality of taxpayers funding abortions but are relentless cheerleaders for deficit spending on immoral wars started with lies. Who benefits? Of course the war profiteers who, like their Money Mafia Wall Street pals, fund these political power pimps. Unfortunately, many Dems have been at the same troughs.

I really, really am beginning to believe that I'm living in the Twilight Zone.

Morning Charles~I watched you on Morning Joe. It is very striking that emerging details suggest that the Major in Fort Hood was under surveillance for month.s However, agencies failed to communicate about this surveillance and its results thus far. This is a scary theme in the intelligence community. Isn't this the same stonewalling that led to the disaster and tragedy of 9/11??? In your words~"we cannot [continue] to play politics like this."

Finished the show 40 minutes ago. It was fun, but now I'm tired. Been up since 4:15 a.m.

Circular-Tony, sounds like an SNL skit.

ha ha Charles. keep up the good work ;-D

Just finished the appearance. Had a blast. Topics were all over the place.

When you consider Joe's "competition".. O'reilly, Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Glen beck etc... If I had to select a conservative talk show upon which to make an appearance, from that pathetic lot of hyper-opinionated sensationalist Pseudo-Journalists, I'd say Charles made a great choice.

I even respect Joe because he does what none of those other hosts will: he actually lets people of opposing opinions speak, and finish their point. With out throwing Ad hominems at that!

Voltaire said, "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." You, Charles, embody the essence of his statement more than most. I wish more commentators--both right and left--would tone down the rhetoric. I believe, as the ancient rabbis did, "if you take a path and stray too far to the right, you will ... Read Morefall into a raging fire and be consumed; if you stray too far to the left, you will plunge into a raging river of ice and freeze to death; the best way is to walk in the middle."

I'm also very pleased that you're getting so much media exposure. I just hope it will catapult you into the upper strata of writers--unless, of course, you're already there.

It's creepy and as far as I'm concerned this is just another statement being made by another self-loathing black man. Him saying that there is shame in being black.

Never liked him and now like MJ I like him even less. They both have issues and getting light doesn't hide who you really are.