Live & Let Live “Live and let live” is not an absolute. When Dirty Harry challenges his captive with “Make my day” and is counter challenged, then death is the result. If the Maryland snipers resisted arrest there would be no qualms if they were sent off in body bags. So with “let Muslims be Muslims” is prima-facie for religious freedom, yet does not mean they are free to hate, maim or kill. From the Dark Age to the Puritans, let Christians be Christians had to be qualified in face of fatal...
Globalization has been kicked around lately as it should be what with China trade dominance and NAFTA in shambles. In itself it is a positive because opening up trade routes since ancient times generated civilization. Yet globalization has always been controlled by thugs, such as in the slave trade and the exploitation of much poorer or less advanced countries. This has not really changed. Since China can exploit its own labor by offering western capital an attractive bottom line to produce o...
Ever since Roosevelt and Truman were shot down in their efforts to institutionalize health care, the US has been wary of “socialized medicine.” That Medicare in itself was passed is owed to JFK — nostalgia and legacy. Slowly, however, the nation is more wary of the monolithic determinism of the AMA, the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies dictating the terms of health care. They abhorred Medicare because it acted as a check and balance against the laissez-faire profit motive in as...
Does it make any sense to rebuild Iraq’s schools when millions of kids here are stuck in obscene portable classrooms? And how about the billions for Iraq’s infrastructure when we’re stuck with pre-WWII railways and inner cities?Why is it that Medicare is an exclusive club for the elderly when untold millions of average citizens can’t afford even basic health care, let alone major medical? Compassionate conservative is a misnomer; rather, it is reactionary with a passion. Nowadays liberal ...
John Nichols’ [The Nation, political magazine] “...Rural Strategy” is dead wrong for presidential candidates. On the contrary, “If they” [the farmers] ”pay serious attention” long enough to recognize their own distorted psyche, perhaps strides toward their interests will be reasserted. Nichols himself admitted that after the FDR improvement of the farmer’s status, the farmer in the 50s went back to his old rugged individualism ways and the Republican party. Of course, the same can be s...
Most of us think the stock market is the sole indicator of a good or bad economy. However, with so much investment going overseas, it doesn’t tell the whole story. More important is labor statistics. The top retailier, for instance always seems to lead the pack in job creation, but most of it is part time and roughly at minimum wage, but its greatest impact on creating jobs is abroad by importing tons of foreign made goods. There was a time when buying American was the patriotic thing to ...
I’m a believer in political dialogue and debate. There comes a time, however, when too much of a good thing must end, such as the over abundance of Democratic candidates. Sharpton and Kucinich have had their say but are going nowhere. As much as I admire Braun’s magnificent reason and balance, there is little hope for her, though surely if one of the candidates should become president, there will be a place for her. Lieberman with his hawkish posture and tendency to swivel at the slightest hin...
Though a full third of the nation is poorly educated are they without common sense, too? -- hardly. Common sense, however, is constantly bombarded with the amoral static and sophistry of the right wing, such as: Every one should be free to pursue the American dream of wealth -- without stating the odds are equivalent to winning the lottery -- let alone the ultimate dream of good health, happiness and helping the less fortunate. Fifty percent of Americans own stock therefore com...
Brad Wardell pointed out in one his recent articles on the character of America, that the federal government is but a small part of governance compared to all that is done on state and local levels. This is not an isolated view among conservatives who still carry the vestige of rugged individualism in their hearts pumping through their veins governmental malnutrition as though the US were just any country advocating the law of power, rather than enlightened, constitutional law. That locals have ...
In the fifties the slogan for Big Business was “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” The inference, of course, is that the largest company and employer is bound to have a beneficial effect on the economy in profits, growth, improving wages and growth of the middle class to sustain business activity. Today this economic concept is lost. “What’s good for Wal-Mart is not necessarily good for the country.” For the implication here is that this current largest company and emp...
I was embarrassed during the 2000 campaign when the Democrats kept harping on the soaring DOW, which to the average person means very little since the books are always cooked to suit the whims of the time. The millions of modest stockholders that politicians are always heralding possess a piece of the action by pensions mainly in mutual funds which seem never to rise or fall very much. There are scandals, of course, where a corrupt company cajole employees to invest in their employer, such as ...
Those that see in black and white and ignore the grays make for far easier problem-solving. It is no mystery the Bush ‘03 State of The Union offers to “confound the designs of evil men...our calling,... a blessed country is to make the world better.” It is far simpler to accept the statement at face value than to delve into its grays. A pesky liberal, however, is driven by some weird “noble discontent” and expects clarification: Is evil confined to al Qaeda or to all evil men in the “axis” a...
In the old days — dating myself here — the Hearst columnist Westbrook Pegler, whom I read only to get my juices going over his unmitigated hatred of Eleanor, Franklin, and Harry, I at least was apprised of the irrational opposition to the New and Fair Deals. So, too, with Bill O’Reilly, though not to the same extent since I’m much older and heard it all before, but he is more intense over current culture is why I read him once in a while; and now I could not resist an addendum to my “Why Liber...
On my sister’s birthday, December 13th, she got an extra kick to celebration by the capture of Saddam Hussein. It was particularly joyous to her because her granddaughter had served in Iraq. Seeing this once feared tyrant so disheveled and disoriented was a moment devoutly wished. Here was a man who sent his sons to go out in “glory” while he cowered in a living tomb. Over the months, in hearing the Democratic candidates criticizing Bush for his failure to find bin Laden and Saddam, I felt ...
In the “Family of Politics” issue last year of The American Prospect, I suppose a liberal magazine needs the luxury of self therapy in repeating the painfully obvious — what the heck the conservatives harass us obsessively with their trite commentary. Still, I find it vexing to read such commentary as: Portes’ “Many children of immigrant parents are not living out the American Dream. Until better jobs and schools materialize, they are at risk of becoming the next underclass.”Coontz: “The m...