Archive for the ‘Common-Place Book’ Category
Bill Moyers on Corruption
We are witnessing a marked turn of events for a nation whose DNA contains the inherent promise of an equal opportunity at “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” We were not supposed to be a country where the winners take all. The great progressive struggles in our history were waged to make sure ordinary […]
Bush: Being There
Suddenly I'm put in mind of Chauncy Gardener*, the main character in Jerzy Kosinksi's Being There: Bush is a man who has never been anywhere and never done anything, and yet he has been flattered and cajoled into being president of the United States through his connections, all of whom thought they could use him […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
Garrison Keillor on Liberal Conservatism
The Republican Revolution has gone the way of all flesh. It took over Congress and the White House, horns blew, church bells rang, sailors kissed each other, and what happened? The Republicans led us into a reckless foreign war and steered the economy toward receivership and wielded power as if there were no rules. Democrats […]
Uphold Which?
Then Jamie Raskin, professor of law at American University, testified [on 1 March 2006, at hearings in the state legislature of Maryland] as to why the amendment [denying marriage equality to gays and lesbians in Maryland] should not be passed. At the end of his testimony, one of Maryland's most insane ultra-far-rightwingers, republican Senator Nancy […]
Abso-Bork-ly Amazing
Via Josh Rosenau ("Respect for Dissent"), we find that Robert Bork can still say the most amazing and alarming things. Quoting others quoting Bork writing in the National Review: Liberty in America can be enhanced by reinstating, legislatively, restraints upon the direction of our culture and morality. Censorship as an enhancement of liberty may seem […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Whither Democracy
Some days I expect I'll soon wake up and discover that the only democracies left are in Latin America. [Avedon Carol, "It's busting out all over", The Sideshow, 4 March 2006.]
Moyers on the New Gilded Age
Bill Moyers, in a piece about the curious symbiosis between Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, corruption and the Northern Marianas Islands, wrote Back in the first Gilded Age, Boies Penrose was a United States senator from Pennsylvania who had been put and kept in office by the railroad tycoons and oil barons. He assured the […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Brown Accuses
Via Pam's House Blend ("The Lying Bastards in the White House"), this fascinating quotation from an AP story: …[Former FEMA director Michael] Brown's appearance in front of the Senate investigative panel came as new documents reveal that 28 federal, state and local agencies — including the White House — reported levee failures on Aug. 29 […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Christian Tyranny & Original Intent
I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. (Jefferson discussing the fight over the establishment of one form of Christianity in the U.S. to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800. Peterson, Merrill, ed. Jefferson: Writings. New York: Literary Classics of the U.S.: Distributed […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Beginning One's Life Story
One of [Philip] Pullman's* beliefs is that your life begins when you are born, but your life story begins when you realize that you were delivered into the wrong family by mistake. [From: Laura Miller, "Far From Narnia", The New Yorker, 26 December 2005 & 2 January 2006 (double issue), p. 58.] ———- * Philip Pullman is […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, The Art of Conversation
The Gilded Age II
The Gilded Age has returned with a vengeance. Washington again is a spectacle of corruption. The promise of America has been subverted to crony capitalism, sleazy lobbyists, and an arrogance of power matched only by an arrogance of the present that acts as if there is no tomorrow. But there is a tomorrow. I see […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Writing
Frontiers of the Mind
New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war [i.e., World War II] we can create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life. — President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a letter […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Peter Medawar on IQ
I've been rediscovering the erudite and rather fabulous Sir Peter Medawar. The two bits below are from a piece that he calls "further footnotes" to a book review of his called "Unnatural Science"* 1. The question of the single-number valuation of IQ. Several correspondents have spelled it out to me that both athletic prowess and […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Writing
Aliens Removing Human Brains?
SOME 3.7 million people claim to have been abducted by aliens. Only 11 per cent of Americans believe in evolution. Type "Flat Earth Society" into the Google search engine on the internet and you will have a choice of 466,000 sites. How did we get this stupid? One explanation is that the aliens doing all […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Speaking of Science
Reassurance-Op
Is it just me, or does anyone else find this swaggering confidence on the part of the President less than reassuring? I take this issue very seriously," he [Bush] said. "The people of the country ought to rest assured that we're doing everything we can. [Gardiner Harris, "Fear of Flu Outbreak Rattles Washington", New York […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Representative Mediocrity
Harriet Miers: cronyism or representative mediocrity? When Richard Nixon, no fan of the Supreme Court, nominated the forgettable G. Harrold Carswell thirty-five years ago, Senator Roman Hruska defended the nomination with an unforgettable bit of wisdom: “Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Ascent of Science
I recently finished reading the massive but excellent book The Ascent of Science, by Brian L. Silver (Oxford University Press, New York, 1998). I had noted many passages that caught my eye as I read, and have shared some. As usual, I got behind, so here are the remainders. Linnaeus, in 1735, commented, "It is […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Katrina: Whose Chaos?
So, conservatives spin this as the result of the "liberal media" out of control, liberals spin it as conservative hysteria out of control. I don't think this report is all that surprising, but with all the spinning most everyone seems too dizzy to see what the real lessons are. In New Orleans' whiter, affluent western […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Plus Ca Change...
Connecticut Civil Unions on October 1
My friend Ron Suresha, who lives in New London, CT, sends me this press release concerning the beginning of civil-unions for same-sex couples in that state. This is cool: when was the last time you saw a press release that read excited? He asks that we circulate, so, as part of the historic record: Subject: […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
Taxes Buy Civilization
How I look forward to the day when I can again pay my fair share of taxes to a government that uses it to keep buying civilization, rather than trying to destroy it. [Shakespeare's Sister, "It’s Not Penance Unless You’re Sorry, Though", 27 September 2005.]
In: All, Common-Place Book