Our country is as rotten as a Minneapolis bridge, yet our politics is more of a clown show than ever, with tire gauges and celebrity slurs instead of squirting flowers and slapsticks. The more completely these matters are devoted to symbols rather than issues, the more obsolete Parties become: they’re less political entities than production [...]
Over one hundred years ago Mark Twain pointed out what it means to “support the troops” in this prayer, the unspoken thought behind any prayer for victory in war:
O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — [...]
Ezra Klein joins Jason Zengerle in defending Barack Obama against the silly plagiarism charge leveled by Hilllary Clinton, and in the process reveals some confusion about what ghostwriters actually do:
“Moreover, as Jason Zengerle reminds us, Clinton has written two books, both with ghostwriters, one in which she didn’t even credit the ghostwrite in the acknowledgments, [...]
Not exactly a living document:
With the original First Amendment “Freedom of Speech” looking on, admirers of the U.S. Constitution in the Washington D.C. National Archives Building today were ordered to leave for wearing tee-shirts reading “Impeach Bush and Cheney.”
Via Positive Liberty
I support no one for president. Not. A. Soul. No matter who takes the wheel later this year, the ship will remain on the same destructive course for quite some time. Enjoy shuffleboard and bingo while you can, and try not to spill your Mai Tai on the deck.
Dennis Perrin
If religion is the opiate of the masses, then the Democratic Party is the methadone of those who have learned to use a Web browser.
Michael J. Smith
Of course, it’s not religion that is the opiate, but politics. Anyone who thinks that one can harness the power of the State to steer the State in the [...]
[T]he libertarian position has at its core the flawed idea that state power can be constitutionally constrained, that if we write it down and enforce it vigilantly, the state can be confined to a limited sphere of acceptable action that will secure life and liberty and property and a few other basic rights. Yet in [...]
In a recent Jeremiad, James Howard Kunstler talks about who’s to blame for the ongoing financial meltdown, and in so doing, illustrates precisely the kind of thinking that is the true foundation of the problem.
What we’re also seeing is a crisis of authority on top of a crisis of capital, and it will probably lead [...]
“Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Tom Lehrer
Ron Paul’s position on Iraq is quite simple; so simple, in fact, that he states it in three words: “Just come home.”
And yet, despite all the bloviation on the right about “phony soldiers” and the troops’ determination to “finish the job,” guess what?
A study by the Center for Responsive Politics found Paul received more campaign [...]
Publishers of Truth (QuakerQuaker.org)
