Constructive gadfly
stevendedalus's Articles » Page 12
July 22, 2008 by stevendedalus
  To the disappointment of the Obamacans, it is nevertheless just as well Barack has turned the page to Hillary’s southpaw centrism—and Bill’s for that matter. For had Obama continued the rhetoric in pandering to the non-pragmatic progressives, he would end up in the trash bin of McGovernites. The country conceivably is ready for change and a Black American not of the color of Wright and Jackson, it is definitely not prepared for the color of Move-on Quixotism. Actually Obama’s ori...
May 9, 2008 by stevendedalus
Obama’s becoming a resident of Chicago impelled him to join the ranks of the Black community and its streets if he were to ever become a public figure. His joining the most popular church also became inevitable if he were to draw on black connections. After all, he was born into white culture and because of his mother’s travels in a sense he became a world citizen, if not a nomad . He cannot be faulted for wanting to belong, particularly having married a black woman. Being highly int...
May 9, 2008 by stevendedalus
One thing you must give credit to Clinton’s campaign is that she has toughened Obama to look beyond the “fairy tale” of change and to admit to the full range of many cultures of the Democratic Party. Far from being a drain on the strength of the party she has actually highlighted the undercurrent forces of Democrats who are not liberal elitists and also need a voice. As a young man voting for Adlai Stevenson twice I learned the hard way that glowing oratory and intellectual arr...
May 9, 2008 by stevendedalus
  Biofuels: A Hoax   I’m guilty of thinking alternative fuels as a panacea until I realized that many of them require disproportionately more energy to produce. In the case of biofuel it not only consumes more energy but frighteningly jeopardizes food abundance, ending in price gouging. Plus the increased use of fertilizers draining off into the Gulf creating health hazards and depleting fish life. By ignoring soil preservation farmers are wrecking the planet by relea...
March 21, 2008 by stevendedalus
    With the current controversy over loudmouths from the pulpit  like Reverends Hagee and Wright spewing hatred for government and fellow man, is there any wonder that the Founding Fathers erected the separation wall between church and state? For the Fathers knew the power of pulpit over lording ignorant flock to do God’s bidding in consonance with the passion of preachers bereft of reason and that the few intelligent among members would shrug it off without public in...
March 19, 2008 by stevendedalus
  Pundits again are applauding Obama; this time over his speech on race. In so doing, however, they are inserting another bias by qualifying that Obama’s thoughtful oratory may only reach understanding with the suburban educated class already claimed to belong to Obama and that the blue collar, uneducated “knuckleheads” of Hillary supporters will not be capable of absorbing its “nuances.” However, these nuances clearly were meant to safeguard his virtuall...
March 14, 2008 by stevendedalus
John McCain, remember the Colorado Rockies. A long layoff can lead to a sweep by a well-toned Democratic candidate who's been through the wars of campaigning.
February 23, 2008 by stevendedalus
Do you think Hillary will throw in the towel if [apparently when] she loses Texas and Ohio? Or if she wins one of them will she hang on by her fingernails till Pennsylavania?
February 23, 2008 by stevendedalus
If you didn't give a damn what family friends or anybody thought of you what religion would you choose or are you comfortable with your present faith? Or perhaps you'd prefer none at all?    
February 22, 2008 by stevendedalus
Thank the gods, there's only one more Democratic debate; the past half dozen have been boring, hearing the same tunes from each one. There's really no debate when everyone agrees but for such minor differences. Of course this "historic" primary contributed to the candidates having to walk on eggs, fearing the race or misogyny card. 
February 22, 2008 by stevendedalus
    As an FDR democrat I’m pleasantly surprised to tip my cap to Senator Grassley in his attempt to investigate the materialistic excesses of some rock star televangelists who allegedly violate federal tax laws by accepting unreasonable personal gifts from members and church proceeds, such as Rolls-Royces, jewelry, vacation homes, and private jets. The senator wants to make sure churchgoers aren’t getting ripped off. Echoes of the 1980s when televangelist Jim Baker wa...
February 21, 2008 by stevendedalus
  Defending Secularism Lisa Miller’s “defense of secularism” is a courageous piece. There has been too much of made pf religion, particularly in Newsweek that’s beginning to look like an encyclopedia of the world’s religions. Miller, in zeroing in on the word secularism, sums up the idiocy of undue emphasis on faiths incessantly conjuring another form of class warfare—separatists vs. modern churchgoers. In my heyday a secularist was one who bel...
February 21, 2008 by stevendedalus
  Is it so strange that Ted Kennedy et äl have come out of the closet for Obama, or is there some truth to the grapevine that the JFK speech writer Ted Sorensen is behind Obama’s “oratory”? Then again, maybe Gov. Deval Patrick is the ghost writer--whatever. And btw, did JFK’s speeches make the invisible difference in barely beating Nixon?  However, after tonight's Wisconsin primary, it is evident that Obama is the general election candidate and we hav...
January 23, 2008 by stevendedalus
Primaries ought to be curtailed. We are bombarded with the same old emotive, repetitious prolixity without factual and practical substratum—not to mention outrageous $millions wasted in crisscrossing the country, TV ads, pointless debates for the exclusive pundits and YouTube to revel in. Candidates should have greater credentials, along with an elaborate multi-point position paper exposed to scrutiny, analysis. Each contestant should be required to hold press conferences defending his/her po...
January 23, 2008 by stevendedalus
The Washington Post’s economic guru accuses the primaries candidates in both parties of throwaway promises in the battle for the nation’s progeny. As an example, Hillary is “reclaiming the future for the nation’s children.” Samuelson suggests this is rubbish because he predicts: “today’s young workers and children are about to be engulfed by a massive income transfer from young to old.” He reasons that social security, Medicare and Medicaid primarily for the agéd is now 40% of the federal budget...