Is insanity one of their membership criteria? Really, what is it about far-right-wing ideology that attracts the violently psychotic? As the author below notes, it can't help that the apparent carriers of this disease--the loony creme de la creme, if you will--are awarded their own radio and TV shows.
The Tragic Arkansas Shooting and Conservative Hate Speech - AlterNet
The irony and tragedy of course is that, under the more humane, civilized, liberal conception of the public good that F.D.R. fostered and conservatives have tried to erase, America would have had a system of universal health care in place, one that could have provided this man with the psychological/psychiatric services he clearly needed, before he finally snapped. (Mental-health benefits are rarely offered by low-wage employers like Target, and even sliding-fee clinics can be prohibitively expensive on a Target worker's paycheck.)
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The opposite of "wordsmith"
Are You Going Forward? Then Stop Now - BBC
This article only scratches the surface. For a real sense of how managementgabble has corrupted our thinking, our language, and our culture, I strongly encourage you to read "Death Sentences: How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language" by Don Watson. It will optimize your outside-the-box thought processes and comprehension enhancement routines going forward.
This article only scratches the surface. For a real sense of how managementgabble has corrupted our thinking, our language, and our culture, I strongly encourage you to read "Death Sentences: How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language" by Don Watson. It will optimize your outside-the-box thought processes and comprehension enhancement routines going forward.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Republicans and Democrats are not the same. Not exactly.
I don't quite buy the easy rhetoric of pox-on-both-their-houses, they-are-equally-vile party equivalency. Democratic pols at least occasionally consider the interests of those of us in the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution. And I believe their attitudes toward us are, on average, less contemptuous than the average Republican's.
Still, I understand the cynicism. Politicians of all stripes are far too beholden to their contributors--too consumed by the need to "dance with the ones that brung them," as the late, great Molly Ivins used to quip--and too willing to profit from their government connections once they leave public life. The only way out, in my view, is the enactment, at long last, of honest, thoroughgoing campaign-finance reform. But until that day comes, here are two articles that remind us why such reforms are so urgent--and why the accompanying cynicism is not so unreasonable.
Candidates For Sale - Rolling Stone
Where Obamaism Seems to be Going - The Progressive
Still, I understand the cynicism. Politicians of all stripes are far too beholden to their contributors--too consumed by the need to "dance with the ones that brung them," as the late, great Molly Ivins used to quip--and too willing to profit from their government connections once they leave public life. The only way out, in my view, is the enactment, at long last, of honest, thoroughgoing campaign-finance reform. But until that day comes, here are two articles that remind us why such reforms are so urgent--and why the accompanying cynicism is not so unreasonable.
Candidates For Sale - Rolling Stone
Where Obamaism Seems to be Going - The Progressive
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Humor break
This has nothing to do with politics (unless you want to draw an analogy to the answers the Administration gives at press conferences. It's not a bad comparison, actually).
From failblog.org:
From failblog.org:
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
We’re finally reaping the whirlwind
The Heart of the Economic Mess - Robert Reich's Blog
Exactly. And if (unlike Reich) we rightly reject the Great Education Myth, one of two things must happen. Either wages for lower- and middle-income people are going to have to come up considerably, through a revitalized labor movement, government intervention, heavily rewritten rules of trade, etc.--i.e., through what I assume will be a fundamentally forced and strenuously resisted change in behavior by companies--or most Americans are going to have to accept a much lower standard of living, which few will be willing to do. Either way, the social and policical impacts will be concussive--to put it mildly.
The heart of the matter isn't the collapse in housing prices or even the frenetic rise in oil and food prices. These are contributing to the mess but they are not creating it directly. The basic reality is this: For most Americans, earnings have not kept up with the cost of living. This is not a new phenomenon but it has finally caught up with the pocketbooks of average people.
Exactly. And if (unlike Reich) we rightly reject the Great Education Myth, one of two things must happen. Either wages for lower- and middle-income people are going to have to come up considerably, through a revitalized labor movement, government intervention, heavily rewritten rules of trade, etc.--i.e., through what I assume will be a fundamentally forced and strenuously resisted change in behavior by companies--or most Americans are going to have to accept a much lower standard of living, which few will be willing to do. Either way, the social and policical impacts will be concussive--to put it mildly.
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