Category: Uncategorized
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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…
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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.
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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”
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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What’s new in civil rights?
Justice under Bush: the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has shifted its focus. New hiring policies. New cases. Fewer offices. via
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Naming of Parts
From Henry Reed’s Lessons of The War: I. Naming of Parts To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday, We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning, We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day, To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens, And to-day we have…
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Re-liberation Theology: Imperialism, Insurrection, Insurgency
It’s old news that the US is scaling back in Afghanistan. With NATO in charge, there seems little chance that various national caveats to the standard rules of engagment will enable the military forces there to beat back the warlords. I doubt that anyone even thinks that’s a legitimate goal; most seem convinced that we…
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“To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception”
My disposition is basically skeptical, but Kierkegaard cuts to the heart of skepticism’s fault here: “If it is true–as conceited shrewdness, proud of not being deceived, thinks–that one should believe nothing which he cannot see by means of his physical eyes, then first and foremost one ought to give up believing in love. If one…