Archive for the ‘Common-Place Book’ Category
Economic Equity & Social Tolerance
The Democrats who defeated them can be expected to hold these seats indefinitely. Historically Republican districts going back to the founding of the GOP in the Civil War are turning into Democratic bastions. After the failure of Reconstruction, the South became wholly Democratic, the Solid South, and the basis of a Democratic Party that was […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Disease vs. Cure
Religion is the one area of our discourse in which people are systematically protected from the demand to give good evidence and valid arguments in defense of their strongly held beliefs. And yet these beliefs regularly determine what they live for, what they will die for and—all too often—what they will kill for. Consequently, we […]
In: All, Common-Place Book
The Bully-in-Chief
At this point, nobody should have any illusions about Mr. Bush’s character. To put it bluntly, he’s an insecure bully who believes that owning up to a mistake, any mistake, would undermine his manhood — and who therefore lives in a dream world in which all of his policies are succeeding and all of his […]
No Republicans Fit to Endorse
The New York Times explains why it won't be endorsing a single Republican Congressional candidate this year — something they can't remember ever happening before: To begin with, the Republican majority that has run the House — and for the most part, the Senate — during President Bush’s tenure has done a terrible job on […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Moyers on Wealth, Power, & Democracy
These are paragraphs I selected from Bill Moyers' "America 101", a speech he gave in San Diego on 27 October 2006 to the Council of Great City Schools. […] Despite continued growth in the economy, real median household income declined between 2000 and 2004. Between 1980 and 2004, real wages in manufacturing fell 1 […]
Bond on Civil Rights
Marriage is a civil right. If you don't want gay people to marry in your church, good for you. But you can't say they can't marry in your city. — Julian Bond, NAACP Chair [Said in reference to a state constitutional amendment referendum that would ban marriage equality for gays in Virginia. Quoted in "NAACP […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Bush's "Katrina Foreign Policy"
This [Bush] administration has given us a Katrina foreign policy—mistake upon mistake upon mistake. Unwilling to give our troops the armor that they need. Unwilling to have enough troops in place. Unwilling to give them the Humvees that they deserve to protect them. Unwilling to have a coalition that is adequate to be able to […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Those Cracking Noises
Krugman suspects that the juggernaut may be more not than previously suspected. At its core, the political axis that currently controls Congress and the White House is an alliance between the preachers and the plutocrats — between the religious right, which hates gays, abortion and the theory of evolution, and the economic right, which hates […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Our Story So Far…
I can't help but feel sorry for my old Republican friends in Congress who are fighting for their political lives. After all, it must be tough explaining to voters at their local Baptist church's Keep Congress Conservative Day that it was their party that took a $155 billion surplus and turned it into a record-setting […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Seeing What One Sees
I was reading an article* in the New York Times in which the author is trying to describe the excitement among mathematicians over the apparent proof of the "Poincaré conjecture"# by Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman. There's human interst and mystery, too, since there's a million-dollar award on offer to the one whose proof sustains three […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Eureka!
Bad Science & Bad Religion
The times when I agree with something Deepak Chopra says are rare enough that this seemed worth noting: I was trained as a scientist, but you don't need that to realize how badly the waters are muddied between religion, science, and politics these days. When John F. Kennedy ran for President in 1960, there were […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Speaking of Science
Rumpole & Terrorism
Here's a little story* that could always turn into an inconveniently larger story and gives one a bit of hope. The headline, "Rumpole author claims UK is selling out to fascism" seems a fair summary. John Mortimer, who created all those wonderful Rumpole stories, plans a new book to be called Rumpole and the Reign […]
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book
"No Hereditary Kings in America"
I have read through Judge Anna Diggs Taylor opinion* in the federal case of ACLU v. NSA, i.e., the federal case over the constitutionality of the President's authorizing the NSA to spy wholesale on Americans without warrants. It makes good reading, with an interesting section (Part IV) on "The History of Electronic Surveillance in America". […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
The Rapturous Bush
Whatever Bush's personal beliefs, the ideology of the Christian right is both familiar and congenial to him. This strange amalgam of ideas can perhaps throw light on the behaviour of a president, who, it is said, believes that God chose him to lead the world to Rapture, who has little interest in social reform, and […]
A Few Runs Don't Win the Game
Last week Washington's Supreme Court ruled that its state's ban on same-sex marriage did not violate its state's constitution.* Similarly, the New York appeals court found a little while back that marriage should be reserved especially for heterosexuals, to protect children and our species. Dan Savage, in an op-ed in the NY Times,# wrote A […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
John Marin on Good Art (NPG III)
John Marin (1870-1953) rivals John Singer Sargent on my short list of favorite artists. He painted almost-but-not-quite abstract scenes in watercolor with an amazing vitality, not to mention his eye for color and line.# I have been thinking of Marin for a couple of reasons. As I mentioned before, we recently visited the Delaware Art […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Music & Art
Park on Flakes & Snowflakes
Bob Park on Bush's "historic" veto: STEM CELLS: PRESIDENT BUSH CHOOSES SUPERSTITION OVER SCIENCE. On Wednesday, Mr. Bush vetoed the "Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act." The first veto of his presidency was exercised to protect surplus embryonic stem cells in fertility clinics from research, thus preserving their "dignity" so they can be put out with […]
Gay Games & Cho
A government that would deny a gay man the right to a bridal registry is a fascist state. [Mararet Cho in her film "Notorious Cho"; quoted in Jason Anderson's July 2002 review of the film for Toronto Eye; reminded by: Sarah in her interesting piece about the opening of this year's Gay Games,* "Lois Lane'ing […]
Economic Growth: A Spectator Sport
Paul Krugman: Here’s what happened in 2004. The U.S. economy grew 4.2 percent, a very good number. Yet last August the Census Bureau reported that real median family income — the purchasing power of the typical family — actually fell. Meanwhile, poverty increased, as did the number of Americans without health insurance. So where did […]
Talk Show Host Rejects Homophobia
Not that this furthers our understanding any of incomprehensible "gay Republicans", but it is good to know that homophobia is not always treated as just another opinion in the name of "journalistic balance": [In North Carolina, KZL radio's “Murphy in the Morning Show"] host Jack Murphy stated [to a notoriously homophobic Republican guest], “To compare […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics