In Defense of the Electoral College

There are some valid reasons to keep our disliked method of selecting the president; apparently Obamacare will be a “gold mine” for those willing to invest; meanwhile, the NYPD has decided to racially profile Caucasian men. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

Oliver Stone’s ‘Untold History’ If you thought Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States—a ten-part documentary series premiering November 12 on Showtime—would offer a series of conspiracy theories concerning the American past, you would be wrong.

In Defense of the Electoral College The Electoral College is widely regarded as an anachronism, a nondemocratic method of selecting a president that ought to be superseded by declaring the candidate who receives the most popular votes the winner.

The Meaning of a Do-Nothing Election In the fall of 1948, Harry Truman barnstormed the country by train, repeatedly bashing a “do-nothing Congress,” and so snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in that year’s presidential campaign.

An Idea Too Sensible to Try, Until Now Most of the tech entrepreneurs I’ve met are in their 20s and seem younger, animated by the idea of a limitless future.

American Council on Education May Recommend Some Coursera Offerings for College Credit The American Council on Education has agreed to review a handful of free online courses offered by elite universities and may recommend that other colleges grant credit for them.

26 ways to profit from ‘Obamacare’ It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with Obamacare, you might as well generate big profits from it.

A Petraeus Puzzle: Were Politics Involved? The director of the C.I.A. has resigned over an extra-marital affair two days after a Presidential election in which the Agency’s role in Libya was of burning concern—what is really going on here?

How Nonprofits Can End Up Becoming a Drain on City Budgets Nonprofits in America range from small community charities to large national and international organizations and universities, hospitals, art museums, religious institutions and more.

Housing the Invisible: Finding Homes for LGBT Seniors Old age often hits LGBT seniors hard.

Will the Democrats Tax the Rich to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff? Literally the day after the election a sudden “urgency” gripped the nation: the imminent danger of the so-called “fiscal cliff” — the national automatic tax increases and spending cuts due in January.

NYPD to Racially Profile White Males Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced today in a joint press conference that, following a recent study on race and “going-postal” homicides, the New York City Police Department will revamp its Stop and Frisk crime prevention policy by instructing officers to stop and frisk male Caucasians.