Category: Uncategorized
-
What’s up with democrats who don’t believe in the demos?
“Quoting Madison or Tocqueville about how contemporary instituitions operate in 2006 has little more merit than reading sheep’s entrails.” There’s a quote that makes a civic republican like me sit up and take notice. While Madison and Toqueville could never have imagined today’s society, they pretty much told us what would go wrong with institutions…
-
North Korea’s got da bomb
Oh my. Although, really, this just means we have to start feeding them. I make a low probability that they nuke China… say 1%. Look for an article on the Power and Interest News Report tomorrow. If this old report is correct, we only have ourselves to blame: our hawkish post-9/11 axis of evil spiel…
-
Why the Bombings Mean That We Must Support My Politics
I always have trouble expressing my feelings on 9/11. Finally, someone has done it for me. Of course the World Trade Center bombings are a uniquely tragic event, and it is vital that we never lose sight of the human tragedy involved. However, we must also consider if this is not also a lesson to…
-
November, 2006
Electoral-vote.com appears to be a mostly non-partisan polling site covering all 33 Senate races this November. Their battleground page is especially helpful. Interestingly, the Democrats are projected to end up two seats down, but some people wonder whether the “sixth-year effect” may win a couple of Republican-leaning races. Not me, since I don’t know anything…
-
What electoral politics isn’t: policy-driven
Paul Waldman argues: If there’s one thing Republicans have understood and Democrats haven’t, it is that politics is not about issues. Politics is about identity. The candidates and parties that win are not those aligning their positions most precisely with a majority of the electorate. The winners are those who form a positive image in…
-
Statelessness strikes again.
2 Lodi residents refused entry back into U.S. They’ll be allowed re-entry if they’ll submit to FBI interrogation in Pakistan, without a lawyer. Obviously, they could have been arrested on this side of their trip and then interrogated here, but this way they can be tortured.
-
A picture. An epitaph.
Defenseless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame. W.H. Auden, “September 1, 1939”
-
Proof
Saw the movie version of Proof the other night. It’s a nicely written mystery, masquerading as a family drama. I especially liked these lines: “If I go back to the beginning. I could start it over again. Here. I could go line by line. Try and find a shorter way. I could try to make…
-
Lamont’s win and campaign finance
Still getting the bugs squared away here, and I lost a long post on Lamont’s win in Connecticut. The short version: 1. Beware a Republican win against a split “Democratic” ticket. 2. Lamont spent less money than Lieberman, so money doesn’t always unseat incumbents. 3. Speech beat Lieberman, not finances. We should re-separate the two.…
-
Artifacts of culture? Or artifacts of barbarism?
The Diamond Age has arrived, but no one will admit it. Experts chafe at the mass-production of diamonds. The leading gem analysts refuse to rate them. Duh. “If we could succeed, at a small expenditure of labour, in converting carbon into diamonds, their value might fall below that of bricks.” Capital, Karl Marx You should…