How journalists covered Mussolini and Hitler

From Smithsonian.com: Mussolini was a darling of the American press. Hitler was called “Germany’s Mussolini.” “Sober” German politicians would emerge to soften Hitler’s radical plans. See any patterns?

Syrians rescue a far-right German after a car crash

They could technically be considered enemies, but some Syrians seeking refuge stepped in when Stefan Jagsch, an ultranationalistic National Democratic Party (NPD) candidate at this month’s local elections in the Hesse region, was injured in a car accident. Their humanity forced the party — whose members are working like crazy to keep asylum-seekers out of …

This is what it means to be a good human being

We’re No. 16!

According to the Social Progress Index, we rank 16th behind countries such as Canada, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Germany and you get the idea. For our purposes, the index defines social progress as the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and …

Germany and solar power

And here’s more on Germany and solar power.

Is it smart to provide a child care subsidy to keep children out of state-run centers?

Or does such a subsidy, as they’re discussing in Germany, simply keep more women out of the workplace? You can read the New York Times story here. You can read an examination of such a policy here: cg2405 [pdf]. The report’s a little long, so skipping to the conclusion: We find that raising prices for …