February 2012
93 posts
gallen asked: I've often wondered if an appropriate rebuttal to someone blathering on about how the US is a Christian nation wold be "If you have to assign any one religion on the US, it was actually formed as a deist nation."
The Jefferson Bible
I was asked for this to be reposted in a different way. So here you go:
You can buy a copy of the Jefferson Bible on Amazon and elsewhere. But I wouldn’t run for office today with a copy in my hand!
For those of you who don’t know, Jefferson excised the miracles from the Bible—he literally took a razor and cut them out. There is substantial textual evidence that the miracles were added later,...
seltaire asked: It funny Jefferson was able to cut up a Bible in the 18th Century ... I think if he did that now, he'd be burned at the stake.
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Separating Church and State
This year’s Republican primary has brought the return of the culture war: the war between those who some allege to be godly against others presumed to be ungodly; the war between those who insist they are moral against those who are found to be immoral. Front and center in the culture war this year has been contraception, most notably things like the birth control pill, the morning after...
“I believe I am kindly enough in nature, and can be moved to pity and to pardon...”
– Abraham Lincoln, refusing to pardon Nathaniel Gordon, who was executed for slave trading.
Wonklife: President Obama as an alien →
They say that President Obama is a Muslim, but if he isn’t, he’s a secularist who is waging war on religion. On some days he’s a Nazi, but on most others he’s merely a socialist. His especially creative opponents see him as having a “Kenyan anti-colonial worldview,” while the less adventurous…
Just choose an argument, people, and stick with it. Please.
True Love
True love. Is it normal is it serious, is it practical? What does the world get from two people who exist in a world of their own? Placed on the same pedestal for no good reason, drawn randomly from millions but convinced it had to happen this way – in reward for what? For nothing. The light descends from nowhere. Why on these two and not on others? Doesn’t this outrage justice? Yes it does....
echotangowhisky asked: Are there other political blogs you might suggest? Also, thank you for being so sensible in your posts. I hate the sensationalized crap that I find everywhere else.
Scanning the Heavens: Close the Tamms Supermax... →
michaelgizzi:
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced plans to close 14 government facilities, including two prisons, Dwight Correctional Center (a women’s maximum security facility in Livingston County), and the Tamms Super-Max Prison in far southern Illinois. While I think the arguments for closing Dwight are…
Who Does Congress Represent?
michaelgizzi:
Twenty years ago I first read a book by this title - “The Best Congress Money Can Buy,” and today it is more relevant and out of control than ever.
Professor William Domhoff provides a great deal of data on wealth distribution in the United States, but I want to focus on just one chart:
We supposedly live in a democratic Republic, yet, 42% of the House and 43% of the US...
“Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion...”
– Flannery O’Connor
—some days I think this about lots of things I read.
rickrosswifey asked: that post really bothers me; i.e., the part that states that democrats want a larger "helpful" part of the government, and a smaller "hurtful" part of the government" and republicans vice versa. i feel that statement is incredibly biased. you think republicans want a less attention/financial focus on the education system, less evaluation on the safety of food and drugs,...
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Republicans and "Smaller" Government
One constantly hears that Republicans are the party of small government while Democrats are the party of big government. And, of course, the person making this claim usually makes it clear that small government is good and big government is bad.
Except, of course, this characterization of the two parties’ positions on government is factual twaddle.
Think about it this way: some parts of...
With regards to your post about Iran, and the US...
Tensions with Pakistan are certainly high. And we did the bin Laden raid and continue to do drone strikes without Pakistani permission.
But there is no prospect that the United States will seek to invade Pakistan as it did Iraq. Nor is there any prospect that the United States will engage in a systematic series of massive airstrikes against Pakistan as it is considering against Iran and its...
Why Might Iran Want a Nuclear Weapon?
Well, here’s one observation:
The United States has never so much as spat at a nation that possesses a nuclear weapon.
Just a thought.
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.
William Carlos Williams
taniabunke asked: Why AV (Instant Run-Off) rather than a different non-FPTP system? AV sometimes ends up with thing like the UK Labour leadership elections last year, where a candidate who got a very small proportion of the first-ranked votes ended up winning, which seems counter to the principal of electoral democracy. Wouldn't some version of PR (or perhaps a PR and FPTP system as in Germany or Scotland) be...
anticapitalist asked: What is your opinion on alternate voting systems like Single Transferrable Vote and Instant Run-Off Voting?
Now It's Illinois' Turn
The House AGRICULTURE Committee in Illinois has now decided transvaginal probe ultrasounds ought to be required in at least some cases when women seek abortions.
As my friend Mike Gizzi says: the AGRICULTURE Committee. Because women are apparently cows.
And let’s be clear: ALL THIS TO GET A PROCEDURE THAT IS LEGAL!
It’s time to stop abusing women in the law.
“That’s the big thing that progressives are trying to say, that it’s rape and so...”
– Dana Loesch, contributor for CNN and Big Journalism, defending Virginia’s controversial new ultrasound laws, which require the vaginal insertion of a probe, during the February 17th broadcast of her St. Louis radio show. (via manicchill)
—It is clear that the only response to this is to...
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Mitt didn't have to do it ...
So as Mitt Romney continues to fail to entice conservatives to his campaign cause, a thought:
He didn’t have to do it.
He didn’t have to try to appeal to the Republican Party’s conservative base to win the nomination. Indeed, “Massachusetts Mitt” might have been better situated to win the nomination.
Think about it.
In 2008, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, among...
vonnegutchild asked: What do you think the odds are of Obama's reelection? I'm just curious because everybody I meet is either heavily anti-Republican or has one republican candidate they're obsessed with. Thank you for enlightening me with your posts, I'm politics-ignorant these days!
“Amniocentesis does, in fact, result more often than not in this country in...”
– Rick Santorum
—it just boggles. Just boggles.
On George Takei
Yesterday, I posted George Takei’s remembrance of the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt signing the order the led to the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese persons across the American west during WWII, all for the sin of being, well, Japanese or of Japanese heritage. This order, which the United States later apologized for but which was upheld at the time by the Supreme Court in...
I Guess I've Made it on Tumblr ...
I am now getting spam fan mail alerting me to my chance to win an iPhone 4 from Tumblr, all if I just enter my email on some site.
Oh, and they LOVE my blog.
I am awaiting solicitations from Nigerian princesses looking to have me deposit large amounts of cash in a bank on their behalf. That’s alway worked out well for me.
From George Takei
70 years ago today, the President signed a decree that sent me and my family to a prison camp. Hear my story, and learn how you can help fulfill our pledge: Never Forget. Never Again.
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Getting Old: The Clues
So I stopped by the lobby shop in the student center at my university the other day to pick up my usual morning libation. The student worker behind the counter had a textbook on abnormal psychology open on the desk. I, being cute, asked, “get many ‘Abby Normal’ jokes in class”? (Click the link to see the joke.)
To which I received a blank stare.
She had, she later...
From a Politics Editor: A Request
Well, I’m taking a piece of advice from a former politics editor and soliciting suggestions for Tumblogs to follow. I am interested in politically-oriented blogs, not necessarily only about the US, that do thoughtful, analytical pieces about political and social life. Reblog sites and snark-havens, while they have their charms (and a few places in my existing “follow” list)...
Running Chicken: Inside #Politics →
This goes for me, too—Politicalprof. Well put, Ari—
kohenari:
Back in May 2011, I wrote a post that complained about the sad state of the Tumblr Politics tag; I wrote another in July 2011 because I thought there ought to be somewhere to feature more global political content. There’s been a whole lot more written about the tag over the past few…
On Word Barf
Earlier today, Ilya Gerner posted a comment he termed “word barf.” I agreed, and for the sake of simplicity let me take the time to reproduce the comment that induced this reaction here. It’s mercifully short.
In a simpler time Sigmund Freud struggled to understand what women want. Today the significant battle is over what women are for. None of our culture warriors are anywhere...
So When Did I Become A Politics Editor?
And was someone going to tell me? Or tell me what to do?
Just wondering …
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On the Tumblr #Politics Tag
There is an interesting and it seems to me entirely appropriate debate going on on Tumblr right now about how the #Politics tag works, the kinds of posts that get marked with it, and in particular whether the vile and hate-filled bloviations of one of the Tumblr #Politics editors, Ryking, ought to lead to his removal from his post as a #Politics editor.
I must confess to more than a little...
“In a simpler time Sigmund Freud struggled to understand what women want. Today...”
– James Polulos, “What are women for?”
Can anyone translate WTF this says? I don’t speak word-barf.
(via ilyagerner)
—I think I could translate what Ilya has aptly described as “word barf.” Unfortunately, the translation does not improve the original. Think of the wonderful image...
“I get such a chuckle when these things come out. Here we have millions of our...”
– Foster Friess, the billionaire who has single-handedly paid to keep Rick Santorum in the presidential race, explaining, well … who really knows?
from Andrew Rosenthal
“What is going on in California? How’s this? Congresswoman, you saw what happened...”
– FOX News commentator Eric Bolling, commenting about Democratic, and African American, Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ over-the-top statement that Republicans John Boehner and Eric Cantor are “demons.”
Umm, crack pipe? Mr. Bolling insists that he was kidding, but that is one might...
“A member of Parliament to Disraeli: “Sir, you will either die on the...”
