tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34259612012-01-25T18:46:14.479-06:00goetheaan online notebookgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.comBlogger4111100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-72633465478856037052012-01-25T18:45:00.001-06:002012-01-25T18:46:14.486-06:00Congratulations!Gabrielle Gifford resigns: mission accomplished for the NRA and Rush Limbaughgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-12986363202085342412011-07-05T14:05:00.002-05:002012-01-09T14:21:49.314-06:00The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People's Money out of their Pockets, tho' only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money, justly due from goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-19343473217095077532011-07-03T14:03:00.004-05:002011-07-03T14:30:40.901-05:00Brian Kemp, Georgia's Secretary of State, engages in bad logic in the pages of the Washington Post (with impunity, of course)Regarding E.J. Dionne Jr.’s June 20 op-ed column, “Rigging the 2012 election”:An analysis of votes cast in Georgia with the photo ID law in place refutes Mr. Dionne’s assertions that voter-ID laws will reduce voter turnout among minority groups. Georgia started requiring a goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-58188379040505911562010-11-09T20:39:00.000-06:002010-11-09T20:40:42.405-06:00New article by William Irwin Thompsongoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-89025825187939044362010-11-03T09:27:00.002-05:002010-11-03T09:28:24.135-05:00Whenever cultural or political progress is made toward greater human rights and freedom, there is always a backlash mounted by greedy racists. In the wake of the Bush-Cheney disaster, progressives were bold enough to elect a president with a name which echoed two groups which are despised by the party of resentful, racist, greedy, jingoist children which currently goes by the misnomer of Americangoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-91160096083411615492010-08-15T12:09:00.005-05:002010-08-15T12:18:21.448-05:00Rather than debate how our economic system has transitioned into plutocracy, Republicans have decided to make the "Ground Zero Mosque" demagoguery into an election campaign.Question for Republicans: how far should the anti-mosque area around the World Trade Center site extend? The new cause celebre for Republicans is that it should be larger than two blocks. Should it be a half-mile? One mile? goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-36501126687991977562010-07-27T22:11:00.001-05:002010-07-27T22:12:06.753-05:00Hot, humid might. So stillthe smoke from my cigardrifts straight up.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-58040291973890683842010-06-02T06:26:00.006-05:002010-06-02T06:31:23.186-05:00The enantiodromia of the British Raj --- Indians became Britishized and Westerners became Indianized. Thus the 19th and 20th century explosion of new religious movements in the West.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-80311178024444025322010-06-02T06:26:00.002-05:002010-06-02T06:28:35.945-05:00My latest book review on Amazongoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-31315454940974155152010-06-02T06:26:00.001-05:002010-06-02T06:27:23.391-05:00In a dry, warm house, people worry and complain.Outside, birds are singing in the rain.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-11174957088373699632010-02-21T18:32:00.003-06:002010-02-21T18:36:37.527-06:00Just as a blindness towards one's own failings is a necessary foundation for hypocrisy, so an ignorance of history is a necessary foundation of fanaticism. Thus, the teaching of history acts as a buttress against fanaticism.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-88339341230173741702010-02-03T19:10:00.003-06:002010-02-03T19:13:54.510-06:00On the way home from work, I heard a commentary by Daniel Schorr in which he said that America's unipolar moment is over, and that China is now beginning to vie with the US for supremacy. Thank you George W. Bush voters.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-26195399907029002902010-01-05T14:53:00.001-06:002010-01-05T14:55:00.590-06:00While people argue about whether global warming exists, the Arctic melts.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-32074009235975360402009-11-18T10:40:00.000-06:002009-11-18T10:41:39.347-06:00Andrew Sullivan: What Sarah Palin revealsThe WSJ and TWS have long ago lost any intellectual credibility. They use sophism to maintain power. Their cynicism and/or denial mechanisms are deeper than most mortals can imagine.We knew that about a charlatan like Kristol and a nihilist like Rove. But what I didn't fully come to terms with, until the Palin farce, was the full extent of John McCain's goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-57695891371805745052009-11-12T15:58:00.002-06:002009-11-12T15:59:03.283-06:00New abbreviation for Obama: FDR2.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-33111753187537849102009-09-24T14:28:00.002-05:002009-09-24T14:33:53.632-05:00Anti-government hysteria pushed by Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Republican politicians, FOX News, and CNN finally bears its predictable fruit.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-54021398299267730992009-07-27T09:13:00.001-05:002009-07-27T09:14:16.085-05:00It is not only, as Emerson said, the good reader which makes a good book, but it is also the good eye which makes a good world.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-87024352007832099362009-06-09T09:43:00.013-05:002009-06-09T11:31:55.955-05:00"A coward and an idiot"On 6 June 2009, in retaliation for astute blog-posts which made Ed look foolish, Ed Whelan vindictively "outed" pseudonymous blogger publius, publishing on the National Review website publius' real name and employer. Whelan did so under the heading "Exposing an Irresponsible Anonymous Blogger" and spun as a principled move rather than a childish stunt. He also sent an emailgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-61976736998883308402009-05-31T21:04:00.005-05:002009-06-01T06:48:54.039-05:00Good riddanceWith the murder of Doctor George Tiller, the religious right has shot itself in the foot. Here's to hoping that the wound is fatal. A doctor who --- in the eyes of the law at least --- was an innocent citizen, gunned down in church while his wife was in the choir. Any conservative who fails to unambiguously denounce these tactics has stepped into the territory of Al Qaeda-style goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-43037008115873107882009-05-26T13:24:00.003-05:002009-05-26T13:30:42.715-05:00Poor libsEnemy of humanity John Yoo:Liberals have missed their chance to put on the Court an intellectual leader who will bring about a progressive revolution in the law.Thanks for the crocodile tears, but I'm guessing that Obama will get to appoint another justice in the next eight years.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-68159327719343213032009-05-20T14:59:00.006-05:002009-05-20T15:25:46.178-05:00With their amusingly absurd and fact-free "going Galt" rhetoric, Republicans combine Ayn Rand's egotistic materialism with their Christian fundamentalist dogma. Thus, on their view, specific, narrow religious values should be enforced on a diverse population (the criminalization of abortion, discrimination against homosexual behavior, the regulation of birth control, etc), but any regulation of goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-62885643069138279492009-04-21T13:40:00.005-05:002009-04-28T15:38:42.186-05:00Neocon: We have to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein is torturing people, and my hightened sense of morality won't tolerate that. Liberal: But won't that make other countries angry at us?Neocon: Well, we'll torture people in order to keep us safe from those countries. Liberal: I thought your hightened sense of morality couldn't abide by torture?Neocon: What are you, a pussy?goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-75671661775794866762009-04-14T15:46:00.002-05:002009-04-14T15:56:44.734-05:00Indeed, for purposes of civil liability, the torturer has become like the pirate and slave trader before him hostis humani generis, an enemy of all mankind. —United States 2nd Circuit Court, Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, 630 F.2d 876viagoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-82522001626300828532009-03-04T16:39:00.001-06:002009-03-04T16:41:11.752-06:00Obama has made Rush Limbaugh into the Sister Souljah of the right.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-10620714670205467232009-03-03T10:30:00.001-06:002009-03-03T10:30:34.401-06:00We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended. That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution. What we know now is likely the least of it.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-33464840078475366912009-02-08T15:17:00.002-06:002009-02-08T15:18:03.103-06:00To the Ombudsman of the New York TimesIn his 6 Feb 2009 column "Phelps Needs Less Idle Time, Not More", George Vecsey refers to unnamed "studies" that show that marijuana usage affects reasoning (the exact, and oddly pedestrian words were "...there are studies that say the stuff is bad...").Which studies was he referring to? In a column in which the author condescendingly and flippantly assumes goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-79734697488643731722009-02-04T14:25:00.000-06:002009-02-04T14:26:16.321-06:00Sent to the Downers Grove Reporter:We need to do something, not nothing. For the last thirty years, our politics have been dominated by anti-government ideology. Look around at the roads, our schools, and our economy. Has this ideology truly improved our lives, or our country? President Obama's stimulus package is necessary to begin to repair the fabric of our society from decades of neglect. goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-44054819525144368432009-01-29T19:12:00.002-06:002009-01-29T19:14:18.098-06:00Republican politicians explicitly bet against the American economyThey can cram down a stimulus package without Republican support," said Kyl, "but if that happens, then when, as we believe, in six months or so, when the American people say, 'Wait a minute, we're not better off. In fact, we're worse off than we were six months ago. Who is responsible for this and what can be done to fix it?' goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-83468797225403368032009-01-29T10:50:00.002-06:002009-01-29T10:54:32.211-06:00Rush Limbaugh, the leader of the Republican Party, seems to be fixated on having gay sex with Obama.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-53831486959184154642009-01-28T10:19:00.000-06:002009-01-28T10:20:42.735-06:00goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-89307072116920925202009-01-22T11:37:00.011-06:002009-01-28T10:22:01.233-06:00Obama's inauguration represents the greatest public relations defeat for Al Qaeda in their short history. Bush represented everything that made the Third World suspicious of America --- he was born filthy rich and enormously privileged, is a fundamentalist Christian, borderline illiterate, and has no knowledge or interest in anything outside of his own circle. He was the epitome of the goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-23588008536816271752009-01-21T13:38:00.001-06:002009-01-21T13:40:03.604-06:00from: scott zimmerle to: dharsanyi@denverpost.com,openforum@denverpost.com,gmoore@denverpost.com,dhaley@denverpost.comdate: Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 1:37 PMsubject: re: Is dissent still patriotic?Obama challenges Americans to have "a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves." So if you find massive concentrated power in Washington a turn-on, you've found your higher purpose.Isgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-10378700632411579742009-01-21T12:09:00.004-06:002009-01-21T12:16:39.769-06:00Some passages from Obama's Inaugural Address that I highlighted:The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God–given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.......we reject as false the choice goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-21586968819476733242009-01-20T11:32:00.006-06:002009-01-22T11:35:38.927-06:00Obama's Inaugural Address was inspiring and yet strongly unsentimental. Here is my favorite line so far:...there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.Reminds me of the medieval Persian poet Rumi's line to the effect that when the body suffers, the spirit rejoices.Also: if any conservatives take the time to actually listen togoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-30322966237384263382009-01-14T13:00:00.002-06:002009-01-14T13:04:12.523-06:00I am ready to predict the Republican nominee for President in 2012. The nominee will be...(drum roll please)...Jack Bauer!(Shhh...don't tell them he's a fictional character. Let's let it be a surprise.)goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-48625484686948394002009-01-05T16:02:00.001-06:002009-01-05T16:02:43.618-06:00Can we blame the recession on Obama yet?goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-11838836914429357062008-12-17T15:53:00.002-06:002008-12-17T15:55:14.514-06:00America, look: Obama is charting a new path. He does not demonize Republicans or his opponents on the left, either --- even when they try to demonize him. He ran a campaign that he would have been proud of even if he had lost --- but he won. His opponent ran a campaign that he should be ashamed of --- and he lost. This is a huge difference from the Bush campaigns which were despicable and immoralgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-10221032298037632972008-12-17T15:28:00.004-06:002008-12-17T15:30:21.624-06:00Obama's selection of Vilsack for Agriculture is a terrible pick. Vilsack represents continued subsidies for big agri-business which is what has put the small farmer out of business. Very disappointing.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-51378005710181662812008-12-17T10:32:00.000-06:002008-12-17T10:33:29.514-06:00to: rossdouthat@gmail.comdate Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 10:31 AMsubject re: Thinking About TortureYou haven't dealt with the fact that support of torture (not torture-lite) is now an article of faith among Republican Presidential candidates and among the rank-and-file of the Republican party. Watch the Republican primary debates again. Someone with your stance would not only have been driven out of goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-34796020467533063262008-12-16T17:09:00.002-06:002008-12-17T10:34:52.479-06:00Scott Horton: Bush can be charged with over one hundred counts of capital crime.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-53614968952522534492008-12-16T14:09:00.000-06:002008-12-16T14:10:24.471-06:00Obama should have chosen Patrick Fitzgerald as Attorney General.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-44318508434567882202008-12-11T11:59:00.003-06:002008-12-11T12:02:38.830-06:00Email to Camille PagliaProfessor Paglia:In your column "What do The Clintons Have on Obama?" you said:The slaughter of the Holtzbergs and other Jews at Chabad House should be a wake-up call to Western liberals who believe that jihadism can be defeated through reason and happy talk.That's a straw man. Name one liberal who believes this.Scott Zimmerle, Carol Stream ILgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-34655945472979564692008-12-10T11:35:00.002-06:002008-12-11T12:02:17.839-06:00Email to Senator Dick Durbin sent via his websiteSenator Durbin, I am a strong supporter of you and President Obama. Former Governor George Ryan approved of the sale of commercial driver's licenses to unqualified drivers. His crimes resulted in the death of a California family. Ryan is guilty of serious crimes. Your recommendation to pardon Ryan is irresponsible, all the more so in light of the goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-7055306051583357622008-12-10T10:54:00.011-06:002008-12-10T11:42:09.988-06:00So Rod Blagojevich, who I voted for, is a fool, a thief, an ethical moron, a criminal. I hope that he is impeached, and that he goes to jail for decades. My responsibility as a voter was to measure his character as best I could, to compare it to that of his opponent, and to vote for the better candidate. It appears that I chose wrongly.You will note that this reaction is different from the goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-60752184491864784472008-12-01T10:52:00.003-06:002008-12-01T10:57:54.206-06:00L'Obama, ossia L'Avvento del Messia: Opera in Tre Attigoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-53993261088056258712008-11-28T11:08:00.004-06:002008-11-28T11:40:24.478-06:00I watched the Zeitgeist films on the suggestion of a good friend. Although I have various disagreements with each of the conclusions the filmmakers arrive at, the films are impressive pieces of filmic art, coming from an independant, idealistic group with a well-defined vision. Most things that you come across on peer-to-peer networks which are ostensibly about ideas tend to be of the most ugly, goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-12791959742153795982008-11-19T12:37:00.002-06:002009-01-21T11:17:59.812-06:00goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-75196644277951900392008-11-16T17:05:00.002-06:002009-01-21T11:19:40.164-06:00The HUMMER H2: wasteful, ostentatious, self-absorbed, with a pretense of toughness, but in fact quite delicate and weak.The perfect symbol of the Bush years.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-8904793596238086532008-11-10T11:23:00.003-06:002008-11-10T11:26:35.159-06:00If eight years of having the world run by Bush, Cheney, Rove, and DeLay turns out to be the price we had to pay in order for the Goldwater-Reagan-Bush conservative movement to decline into irrelevance, will it have been worth it?goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-66562618175553361542008-11-07T09:53:00.016-06:002008-11-09T19:41:03.679-06:00Nora Ephron:People like me sometimes wonder what it would be like to be involved in mistakes that end up killing people; we wonder about sleepless nights and remorse and guilt. Bill Kristol exists to remind us that these are pathetic liberal fantasies, and that some people are never sorry. Only last week I saw Kristol on television continuing to defend Sarah Palin: she was a bright woman, he was goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-87416014971569485822008-11-06T07:16:00.032-06:002008-11-14T13:17:23.970-06:00What is shocking about this election is that Republicans were able to convince 56,542,266 Americans to vote to keep Republicans in power. After eight years of criminally incompetent mis-rule, 56 million Americans said: "More please!" There are a few understandable, but ultimately incoherent, reasons for this. 1. Personal conservativism and the successful demonization of political opponents. Some goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-32922056676430973372008-11-05T15:44:00.003-06:002008-11-14T09:46:17.473-06:00November 5, 2008By William Irwin ThompsonThe historical aura that seemed to hover over Barack Obama when he spoke to the Democratic convention in 2004 has now proven itself to be no fanciful projection but an accurate perception of his unique arete and destiny. But the Daimon that merely hovered above has now moved into the calm and assured center of his being. As Obama spoke to the world at goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-52720677041575991602008-11-03T16:32:00.001-06:002008-11-03T16:34:04.129-06:00Andrew Sullivan's eloquent, reasoned, and conservative endorsement of Obama.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-59546805390940510732008-11-03T15:59:00.001-06:002008-11-03T16:01:26.874-06:00Steve Benan:That there are Americans who are told they have to wait in lines up to 10 hours is a genuine national disgrace, but what about those who want to cast a ballot, but simply don't have the luxury of taking three or five or seven or 10 hours to stand in line? For some, their employers won't tolerate that kind of break. For others, who get paid by the hour, it's simply too expensive to goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-34750119456239195792008-11-03T14:40:00.005-06:002008-11-03T15:21:58.351-06:00Shorter McCain-Palin: * income tax progressivity = Marxism* following Bin Laden's instructions on Iraq = putting country first* diplomacy = treason* up = down* black = whitegoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-11364254748924719632008-10-30T15:37:00.006-05:002008-11-03T15:20:31.374-06:00We've set this country up so that most people can't walk to a corner store or a coffeeshop. We have a public transportation system which is barely worth mentioning. We are totally dependant on cars for every trip we make.General Motors needs $15b, or they're going out of business.This is like the only opthomologist in a town full of myopic people going out of business.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-38891633737971249632008-10-29T19:57:00.005-05:002008-10-30T10:30:35.126-05:00For all the fuss they made about Bill Clinton's sex life (including, ultimately, his impeachment and an unsuccessful attempt to remove him from office), isn't it ironic that Republicans are going to vote for an adulterer over a faithful husband? Does character count, or doesn't it? Or is "character counts" just another cynical ploy, used to convince religious people to vote against their own goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-68641538945349344662008-10-29T14:12:00.003-05:002008-10-29T14:18:37.369-05:00Sean Quinn:Tonight we'll be at the Obama-Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Florida, and we're breaking in from Miami, where John McCain just concluded his "Joe the Plumber" rally at Everglades Lumber.After the rally, we witnessed a near-street riot involving the exiting McCain crowd and two Cuban-American Obama supporters. Tony Garcia, 63, and Raul Sorando, 31, were suddenly surrounded by an angry mob.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-37765052759632376012008-10-25T13:57:00.001-05:002008-10-25T14:05:57.931-05:00"Socialism" is the latest target for Republican politicians to demonize. I don't begrudge Republicans demonizing things --- after all, that's all that they know how to do. But here is socialist Senator Bernie Sanders shellacking Alan Greenspan in a way that could definitely appeal to ordinary, working-class Americans, even those who might normally call themselves "conservatives".If the economy goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-80535822542844432792008-10-23T11:54:00.002-05:002008-11-03T15:02:08.539-06:00(Click to enlarge.)goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-64537797805258588482008-10-22T14:24:00.003-05:002008-10-22T14:30:17.925-05:00I made this chart from Pollster.com's national poll data. Positive numbers equal Obama lead; negative equal McCain lead. Each data point is the average of each day's national polling numbers.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-74490601558809082902008-10-21T14:33:00.006-05:002008-10-22T09:26:44.756-05:00This is a graphic from a WSJ article about the scary scary laws those horrible liberals will enact if they get the Presidency plus 60 Senate seats. Among the scary scenarios is included "Representation for District of Columbia"The District of Columbia has more people living in it than Wyoming does.I think that everyone can agree that it would be completely outrageous if Wyoming was not goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-18232525007033154352008-10-21T07:21:00.005-05:002008-10-21T09:23:52.440-05:00McCain supporters heckle, mock and shout at early voters:Photographer Joe Eddins and I headed over to the closest one and found a steady line of voters hoping to cast ballots early. Most seemed to be Obama supporters and several had come from the rally. Nearly all the voters were black. Also at the polling site was a group of loud and angry protesters who shouted and mocked the voters as they goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-49488883687271709032008-10-20T20:34:00.007-05:002008-11-03T15:16:38.785-06:00I have a question for my friends in the Christian Right. Did you accomplish what you wanted to in the Bush years? Did they bring about the Millennium? Did they usher in a new religious revival? If so, congratulations. You have two more months to revel in your Golden Age before Barack Hussein Obama takes power.If not, why not? What stood in your way? You controlled all three branches of the goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-10206852913329477702008-10-19T14:03:00.007-05:002008-10-19T15:56:49.996-05:00Josh Marshall says McCain's prospects are better than they might appear:McCain's final strategy relies on two pillars. The first is aggressively playing to voters' fears of electing a black president. Make no mistake: not just his campaign in a general sense, but McCain himself and his top handful of advisers, are banking on the residual racism in a changing America to get them over the finish goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-60121528773703954542008-10-16T09:48:00.009-05:002008-10-18T11:12:51.932-05:00So McCain has run a dishonest, cynical, desperate, racist campaign, accusing Obama of all kinds of things which everyone knows are blatantly false, like "palling around with terrorists", as well as the usual policy distortions which we have come to expect from Republican politicians. In his most important action as candidate for the Presidency, McCain made deeply cynical decision, choosing a goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-939563757270330882008-10-14T14:05:00.002-05:002008-10-14T14:07:58.578-05:00After endorsing Obama, Christopher Buckley, son of the founder of modern conservatism William F. Buckley, resigns from the National Review:While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-17359688091977834432008-10-14T12:24:00.004-05:002008-10-14T12:29:51.605-05:00According to Nate Silver's statistical model, Obama has a 53% chance to win in a landslide. McCain...not so much.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-5274967693014330332008-10-14T11:04:00.002-05:002008-10-14T11:07:00.848-05:00Kevin Drum makes predictions:*If Obama wins, unemployment will average about 5 percent. If McCain wins it will average about 6 percent.*If Obama wins, real GDP growth will average about 3 percent per year. If McCain wins it will average less than 2 percent per year.*If Obama wins, poor families will see their incomes grow by more than $6,000 during the next eight years. If McCain wins their goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-79367377211782237262008-10-09T15:02:00.003-05:002008-10-10T14:19:01.834-05:00Bev Conover:It’s bad enough that right-wing talk show hosts call for people’s deaths -- and we saw how that played out when Jim D. Adkisson shot up the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, killing two and wounding five, because he hates liberals as well as gays -- but for a vice presidential candidate to hurl verbal bombs that could lead to a man’s death is not just over the top, not goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-54718034207148385622008-10-08T15:20:00.005-05:002008-10-08T15:27:15.143-05:00Obama hits 90% likelihood of winning election in Nate Silver's statistical modelgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-55121453470267419422008-10-02T21:04:00.008-05:002008-10-03T09:32:54.397-05:00Watching the VP debate, I think that Sarah Palin will really appeal to Americans, especially the most illiterate ones. She is Exhibit A in the complete, total, absolute failure of the American educational system.Anyone who watched this debate and thinks that this mental chipmunk is qualified to be President of the United States of America should be unqualified to vote.This is not American Idol, goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-81094081692478008262008-09-29T16:01:00.001-05:002008-09-29T16:04:45.773-05:00Frank Schaeffer (son of Francis Shaeffer):Turns out the Evangelicals would rather vote for a pagan reprobate compulsive gambler windbag philanderer of mediocre intellectual capability than for a well qualified fellow Christian (both in word and deed) because the reprobate windbag is white and their fellow Christian is black.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-71996413578072067992008-09-23T16:17:00.002-05:002008-09-23T16:22:21.532-05:00Wick Allison, "A Conservative for Obama", D Magazine:Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much asgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-28804334490319841432008-09-23T14:57:00.004-05:002008-09-23T15:13:03.895-05:00William Irwin Thompson, "Thinking Otherwise: On Predicting the Obvious" in the Wild River Review:But you may not have noticed - though Senator Joe Biden has - that every neocon policy, global or domestic, has turned out to be wrong, and that rather than being the world's single superpower, we are now an empire in rapid decline. We are now so in hock to China that the deficit-freighted dollar has goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-30875757541765218752008-09-18T21:00:00.004-05:002008-09-18T21:08:02.290-05:00Steve Howe's solo towards the end of "Siberian Khatru" on Live from Montreux. Gorgeous!Then they follow it up with "Magnification", which I just can't get into...goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-20032566931289532002008-09-18T16:36:00.001-05:002008-09-19T12:10:15.969-05:00Sarah Palin makes Dan Quayle look like Albert Einstein.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-84011469901187454192008-09-18T16:36:00.000-05:002008-09-18T16:37:59.595-05:00The Republican Party is bad for the economy.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-58965086710738546492008-09-17T10:29:00.002-05:002008-09-17T10:30:16.183-05:00When political agendas overcome sprituality, the church becomes an arm of a political party.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-31384009241860710132008-09-15T01:05:00.000-05:002008-09-15T01:06:39.479-05:00These guys should be out of a job.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-64215800046308400712008-09-12T11:27:00.001-05:002008-09-12T11:27:56.939-05:00What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues. Many people in our great land might have difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" exactly. But not to recognize the name, as obviously was the case for Palin, indicates not a failure of last-minute cramming but a lack of attention to any foreign-policy discussion goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-39000226891309645382008-09-09T23:28:00.002-05:002008-09-09T23:31:49.503-05:00What would it take, hypothetically, for the press corps to call McCain out for being a cynical, amoral, lying pervert?It seems the McCain campaign is determined to find out:goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-28806259522206650742008-09-09T17:09:00.018-05:002008-09-23T15:09:29.452-05:00Asha and I went to the Wisconsin Wool and Sheep Festival, and while watching this guy shear sheep by hand, I saw Matthew Dallman, someone who I havent read in a few years. So I decided to check out his blog and see if he is still an enthusiastic National Review-style right-winger. Yup. This despite being influenced by two writers who are also important to me, Camille Paglia and Ken Wilber (goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-29349054142753230112008-09-03T18:21:00.003-05:002008-09-03T18:28:43.910-05:00Peggy Noonan, a card-carrying member of the right-wing minority, says: It's over.For once, I believe her!goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-75852049252639737892008-09-03T14:46:00.001-05:002008-09-03T14:47:59.360-05:00The aptly-named Andy McCarthy, responding to a version of the hypothetical I outlined below, is either high on crack, or (more probably) lying.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-53516201091669237132008-09-03T12:35:00.004-05:002008-09-03T12:43:32.155-05:0013.167%...is the probability that an average 72-year-old will not live to turn 76.Therefore, if McCain is elected, those are the actuarial chances that in McCain's first term, Sarah Palin, two-year governor of the smallest state in the union, a state with less people than some Congressional districts or (for example) DuPage County, will become President of the United States.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-35928716577843975882008-09-02T14:22:00.008-05:002008-09-02T19:36:13.742-05:00Dr. James Dobson, professional hypocrite: Its okay for Palin's teenage daughter to have a baby...because Palin is a right-wing Republican and a fundamentalist Christian.Can you imagine the reaction if this were Obama's teenage daughter having a baby? It would be nothing but 24/7 sky-is-falling moral panic over epidemic teenage promiscuity. CNN would have the threat-down siren going goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-91216824244853737412008-08-29T11:23:00.009-05:002008-08-29T13:34:46.398-05:00So the top of the Republican ticket is a senile, cancerous septuagenarian and the bottom is the first-term governor of Alaska. Prior to November of 2006 (you know, two years ago), she was the mayor of the triving metropolis of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 6715).This is the most qualified person?Are we supposed to take this seriously?What. A. Joke.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-60487051799233782022008-08-26T11:29:00.002-05:002008-08-26T14:09:48.799-05:00Frank Serpico has a blog.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-1220537099237087862008-08-25T17:04:00.006-05:002008-08-25T17:22:12.338-05:00A study in contrastgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-1304218261952078032008-08-25T12:41:00.015-05:002008-08-25T16:40:24.894-05:00If John McCain had an ounce of personal integrity or self-respect, would he be teaming up with the people who smeared him, as well as manipulated voters' bigotry in order to help the ethically retarded George W. Bush win the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary? Specifically (emphasis mine),Anonymous opponents used "push polling" to suggest that McCain's Bangladeshi born daughter was his own, goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-78343870285099553422008-08-19T13:10:00.002-05:002008-08-19T13:10:58.805-05:00Six-word critique of McCain's foreign policyWe need more options than escalation.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-88391415334708913352008-08-13T18:50:00.001-05:002008-08-13T18:50:55.875-05:00Alternate realitiesPBS, NPR and the BBC: Russia just attacked a US ally!!CNN and MSNBC: John Edwards had an affair two years ago!!FOX NEWS: I don't watch FOX. You think I'm an idiot?goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-53413722833832802172008-08-13T18:48:00.002-05:002008-08-19T13:11:48.810-05:00Tin-foil hat thoughtsIf I were Putin, I would rather face a US head of government who was 71, bitter, and easily provoked (and therefore easily manipulated) into impotent rage rather than a calm, pragmatic, and slow-to-anger 47 year-old. And if the 71 year-old was the head of the political party who benefited from aggressive nationalism and a heightened sense of crisis in foreign policy, I might goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-39814745395176101872008-07-23T11:45:00.000-05:002008-07-23T11:46:31.805-05:00Questions for Congressman Peter Roskamgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-1847971408268324842008-07-07T10:23:00.000-05:002008-07-07T10:24:04.528-05:00Conservatives And Jesse Helmsgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-24873796986921168022008-06-17T15:34:00.002-05:002008-06-17T15:35:38.723-05:00Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;Where knowledge is free;Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;Where words come out from the depth of truth;Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;Where the mind is led forward by goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-19259910601116070312008-06-16T16:00:00.006-05:002008-06-17T21:35:57.088-05:00Walt Zlotow's letter to Congressman Peter RoskamCongressman Peter Roskam150 S. Bloomingdale Road, Suite 200Bloomingdale, IL 60108Dear Congressman Roskam,Lack of moral courage appears to be a hallmark of your Congressional career these past seventeen months.With your keen and insightful intelligence you know as well as the roughly two thirds of Sixth District constituents that the Iraq war was goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-73376779789023369122008-06-13T15:21:00.000-05:002008-06-13T15:22:25.093-05:00Dennis' Kucinich's historic momentgoetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425961.post-81524433506535869782008-06-13T15:12:00.003-05:002008-06-13T15:15:29.449-05:00Nicely said...the conservative movement -- not as it exists in the fantasies of its idealistic proponents but actually existing conservatism -- is a solid block of pro-tyranny sentiment, with only a few outliers to throw things off....A vote for McCain is a vote against habeas corpus; a vote for McCain is a vote for an elected dictator, not a president. It's as simple as that.goetheanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15719480062271188223noreply@blogger.com0