Conservatives of convoluted thinking love to impugn the left for being quasi-compassionate while at the same time taking credit for being compassionate for those who are in need through no fault of their own. Then they diminish the list of the deserving by frowning on what they holistically perceive undeserving, such as teenage mothers are sluts, but ignore their courage or stupidity not to abort, object to health care for poor children whose parents are shiftless and can’t lift a finger to l...
I am as equally tired of hearing that there were no WMDs as I am hearing “well, no, but there was still the intent” as though that were sufficient “findings” to justify war. The entire area of discussion is bogus because what’s done is done, and we’re stuck with a tragic blunder that needs remedying. I had written at the outset of the preëmptive strike that it was pure shock and awe brouhaha because the UN was always at war, led by Clinton’s sporadic bombings of Iraq and countering the period...
How can a majority favor Bush in response to a poll that says the country is headed in the wrong direction and is in need of change? Apparently the inference here is that the president is on training wheels and in the next four years he will get better at it. Let’s be patient, though the president himself is never patient, there’s a good chance he will begin at least to seek advice from the moderates of his party instead of God and His evangelical disciples. Why, he might even behave himself ...
What are your solutions? Here are some examples: 1. Stick with more of the same. 2. Iraqi forces to fight insurgents, with a small contingent of US troops as advisors only. 3. The administration threatens to pull out U.S. Forces unless Russia, Germany and France support NATO occupation with their own substantial forces. 4. Build up a strong American security force clustered round UN peacekeeping forces in Baghdad. 5. Guarantee Ayatollah Sistani majority Shi’a re...
The term Single Payer has somehow become linked to socialized medicine even though Medicare has been operating under this method for decades. As far as I know, there aren’t very many who are against the care of the elderly, and many of the young without insurance of their own are paying into this fund for distant future care as well as partially paying for current senior citizens. So why the concern that this single payer anathema is nothing but a conspiracy of big government to socialize medi...
Often critics of critics like to use sophistry to pervert an argument. If the assertion is that conservatism in its purist terms tries to preserve what is considered the best of tradition without first analyzing the value of tradition it wishes to preserve, the critic counters that “the best of tradition” is self-explanatory and that which does not merit traditional value is dismissed. Asked just what is the best and the worst, the reply is that any thinking or action that goes against what i...
How is it the pundit volume goes up significantly when hard working full time toilet cleaners who nevertheless need government assistance in variable forms, while criticism of profitable large and corporate farms receiving subsidies is on mute? Could it be that most farmers, with the exception of their hired hands, are long standing white male citizens as opposed to the presumption that toilet cleaners of America are black or Hispanic of whom a good share are women? I suppose, decibels of cri...
Teaching to some is a manufacturing job, in which only the face of the product changes each year. Missing from politics is the poetry of true passion. In my youth, the girl most cherished was content with a 15 cent movie, an ice cream soda and a kiss at her front door. Those who pray the loudest must think God is hard of hearing. True prayer is unvarnished verse. What this country needs is simply a damn good thinker in the White House. True wealth is measured by ...
Driven by the disastrous economic conditions in the early ‘30s, FDR proposed a second bill of rights not as a constitutional entry, but as an enduring policy for pragmatic action to guide the nation through crisis and the future: • The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines in the nation; • The right to earn enough to prov...
On the one hand, conservatives feel they have to emphasize that they are for free enterprise, as if liberals weren’t; on the other hand, they resent trial lawyers for being entrepreneurial. Conservatives believe that to strike against big business is somehow illegitimate. This alien mind-set loves an argument that relies on straw men illustrations and thinks it has a corner on wisdom. When a sleazy lawyer tries to ram rod a frivolous case in behalf of his obese client against a junk food chai...
While investigations of UN corruption in the oil for food program, another accounting firm for the UN monitoring the stewardship of oil proceeds since the invasion and US Iraqi reconstruction, discovered that funds, amounting to hundreds of millions, doled out with little effort to justify or account for expenditures. The old story, easy come easy go. … Because of Iraq instability, precluding accountability, fifty-four donor nations have withheld their pledges in reconstruction, but now promise...
Sowell, the conservative syndicated columnist is once more viewing the nation through the right eye. He is concerned, because the country is divided, that voters will not vote rationally and suggests that voter choice should be base on informed decisions. That’s like saying ghetto schools should strive for elitism or the voting should be limited to an aristocracy. His troubled concerns are naturally limited to the ignorant left: • S...
It is clear, particularly from JU, that the draft is dead in the water. The recent congressional rejection, in which only two voted for the draft, supports this — an obvious foregone conclusion. Still, I ask why all the word-mongering over terrorism? Could it be that we are in Afghanistan and Iraq? That we are committed to “hunt down and kill the terrorists”? The answers are obvious, but as long as deficits can be extended to the moon, and as long as congress is motivated to insure that its ow...
The Associated Press reported the two year old anti-terrorism agency, Transportation Security Administration, had an anniversary banquet costing Homeland Security a half million dollars. To its credit, the Homeland Department’s inspector general found no justification for bonuses averaging $16,000 higher than any other federal agency. The inspector general also found that only 3% of non-executive employees received bonuses. The TSA defended the extravaganza on the basis that executives did no...
• The appointment of at least two more Supreme Court Justices like Scalia and Thomas is not just going to affect Roe vs. Wade but a host of others in behalf of the Christian Right — stem cells, faith-based initiatives, religious tests for employment in religious groups, funds for AIDS with abstinence and no contraceptives, vouchers for parochial school. • &...