March 2011
“The Defense Department has begun repositioning Navy warships to support possible...”
– U.S. Readies Military Options on Libya - NYTimes.com
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“Mike Huckabee … defends the first couple on issues like healthy eating and...”
– Mike Huckabee full of love for President Barack Obama - Maggie Haberman - POLITICO.com
Um … Politico? Those aren’t actual issues. There aren’t real arguments against healthy eating being a generally good thing. And the President’s citizenship is only an “issue”...
February 2011
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Qaddafi's government is being systematically...
The U.S. Treasury has just frozen $30 billion in Libyan assets. That’s nearly a third of Libya’s GDP. And that’s money in the U.S. alone. This is money that will not be used by Qaddafi to fund a civil war.
To put that in perspective, a similar portion of the U.S. economy would be about $4.5 trillion dollars. That’s the equivalent of our entire bloated defense budget for...
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“I agree with Mitt Romney, who recently said he’s proud of what he...”
– Barack Obama, sinking the political equivalent of a half-court shot.
Whether or not you like Obama personally or politically, you should be able to admire this manuever. Romney would likely be the most electable of the Republican hopefuls in 2012 … if he makes it through the primaries. With...
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“You don’t have to work here. You can work anywhere you want.”
– Mike Hudack, arguing that employers should not be required to negotiate with unions.
The firefighter can quit and put in an an application at McDonalds. I’m sure they’ve got openings for firefighters. The unionized grad student paid poverty wages can quit mid-dissertation. I’m...
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“No one is against employees holding out for more money, but employers shouldn’t...”
– Jeff Miller, who brings a libertarian’s perspective to the Wisconsin’s budget negotiations.
Why not? The employees are forced to negotiate with the shareholders as a group represented by the unified voice of management. Public-sector workers are forced (by law) to negotiate with...
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I heard that the Wisconsin unions are greedy. I also heard that the greed of the rich is what makes capitalism function. Could somebody remind me how much you need to make a year before self-interest becomes a virtue instead of a vice?
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Anonymous funding of attack ads by veiled...
… is (apparently) free speech and should not be restricted. Corporations are people too—and they can petition their government. But when public employees show up at the statehouse to petition their government in person, it’s “manufactured and uncivil unrest” or an attempt to subvert democracy.
I’m having trouble understanding the conservatives today.
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Shared Sacrifice
I’m all for shared sacrifice to get the country back on track and get the budget under control. Could somebody remind me what folks making over $1 million a year are sacrificing?
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Could somebody help me straighten out my talking...
Taking additional money out of our paychecks in order to finance a struggling government is a tax raise, which is tantamount to theft. But taking money that is earned and negotiated out of teachers’ paychecks is nothing at all like a tax increase because …
… why?
ilyagerner asked: One of my favorite quotes comes from Arthur Koestler: "You can't help people being right for the wrong reasons...This fear of finding oneself in bad company is not an expression of political purity; it is an expression of a lack of self-confidence."
I don't think you lack self-confidence in your views about the moral quandaries surrounding any military action and...
I don't think you lack self-confidence in your views about the moral quandaries surrounding any military action and...
“America should lead.”
– Sen. John McCain, advocating a more aggressive U.S. stance toward Libya. McCain was joined by Sen. Joe Lieberman.
When you see McCain and Lieberman together, you should ask which war they want to start, join, or escalate. I pull their quote out to make sure those on the left pushing for U.S....
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Tim Pawlentey is John Edwards for Republicans
I’m pretty confident that he’ll come in a distant third in the Republican primary, be kicked around as a possible running mate, be rejected, and then watch his political career evaporate in a sex scandal.
tragos asked: Somehow the Robinson quotation you posted feels true. It makes intuitive sense. As someone who has thought a great deal about the nature of religion, could you explain why religion, as opposed to spirituality, needs to be difficult and demanding?
“We need people to band together on their common ground to ensure the right thing...”
– Correlations to None
“Spirituality sometimes becomes the invention of a life that makes us emotionally...”
– Marilynne Robinson (via azspot)
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“Government is war, terror, force, coercion, violence and slavery under the...”
– Liberation Frequency (via Daisy Vo)
Well … sort of. Perhaps in the same way that individuals are bile, hatred, infection, rot, and despair masked by a constructed myth of beauty and the illusion of purpose. But that overlooks some pretty important things.
Hyper-focus on the negatives of...
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A No-Fly Zone in Libya?
Implementing a No-Fly Zone in Libya is not something that should be done hastily or with less than extreme caution. Military aircraft cannot be grounded with words alone. A No-Fly Zone would need to be enforced. This means shooting down planes. It means intervening militarily in a brewing civil war.
A No-Fly Zone could save the lives of some of those opposing Gaddafi. But there are serious...
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Caboo, the Akita, is confused
I’m quite excited over a very good case result. He can tell that somethings up—but he doesn’t know what. He’s standing a ways away from me, watching, not sure which direction this is headed.
"Repeal and Replace" is a fake thing
If the Republicans were serious about replacing the Affordable Care Act with something else, there would be no need to first repeal the bill, then start thinking about what to replace it with. They could simply pass a replacement that repeals whatever they wanted to repeal and immediately puts something else in place. Claiming the need to first repeal the bill is simply a way to say, “Sure,...
Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on... →
negevrockcity:
Great scoop by my ex-True/Slant coworker Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone. Pullquote:The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in “psychological operations” to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military...
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London Court Grants Swedish Request to Extradite... →
There’s a bit of good, if somewhat expected news. I know a lot of you support Assange’s work—but there are some very serious charges against him. Extradition and likely prosecution will allow the charges and the evidence to be brought publicly. Assange may be convicted—or he may be exonerated. Either way, there is a rigorous and reliable process through which to determine...
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Round One of the 2012 Election: Madison, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is like the mediocre general who led his entire army straight into an ambush. He probably doesn’t realize how it’s going to end. Yet.
Four things have helped the Republicans lately. First, they have raised legitimate concerns about the deficit—though the specifics of actual plans for reducing the deficit won’t be popular. Second, they have...
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“Giving teachers basic benefits that the private sector has pissed away for no...”
– Making nothing out of something: Ticks and Leeches
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The Justice Department's Decision Not to Defend...
The Justice Department has decided it will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court. As requested, I’m going to attempt to translate this decision from legalese into human.
DOMA prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, even when couples are legally married in the relevant states. Practically speaking, this means that married, same-sex...
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Obama won't defend DOMA, but he will enforce it →
kohenari:
So … maybe we shouldn’t get overly excited about the Obama administration’s decision not to defend DOMA. Because Eric Holder’s letter also includes the following:
Notwithstanding this determination, the President has informed me that Section 3 will continue to be enforced by the Executive Branch. To that end, the President has instructed Executive agencies to continue to comply with...
Anonymous asked: Are you a sheep?
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“The Department has a longstanding practice of defending the constitutionality of...”
– From the U.S. Attorney General
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BREAKING: In a major concession to gay rights... →
(via Politico)
This is a serious step. If the President doesn’t like a law, the Justice Department is supposed to enforce it as written. However, the President is bound to uphold the constitution—which means that if the President doesn’t like a law and independently decides that it’s not constitutional, this sort of thing happens.
But the standard for a President...
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What we value
Capitalism, as we’ve implemented it, rewards:
Hard work
Merit
Luck
Starting out with a lot of money
Except it rewards them in the opposite order. It think most of us are okay with an economic system that rewards hard work. Most of us would prefer a system where success was not largely contingent who your parents were. We don’t need this sort of neo-feudalism. I think we would...
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Rush Limbaugh has Made a Career of Wearing His Ass...
As such, it’s fitting that he take General Pickett’s place in the charge against Michelle Obama’s effort to promote nutritional sanity. Mrs. Obama’s campaign should be about as uncontroversial as possible. Eat more vegetables. Healthy kids are good. Learning about nutrition is good for everybody. Eat things that are good for you instead of things that are bad for you.
But...
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It is nice to see some posts with text in them...
zombiecuddle:
… but the overwhelming majority of stuff on the Tumblr Explore is utter drivel and so I, and probably anyone I would hope to find/reach, will probably not end up appearing in/checking it very frequently.
Idea I am pitching: Tumblr Explore: No Kidz Zone Edition. Only text posts over 500 words in length appear.
I second this proposal—except I’m going to call it...
The Power of Nonviolent Protest →
theatlantic:
A widely read New York Times story last week connected the nonviolent resistance in Egypt with the academic work of an American scholar, Gene Sharp. He is the author of the seminal 1973 three-volumestudy, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, as well as decades of further publications translated into thirty languages.
What are Sharp’s ideas, and how do they help us understand...
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You owe money “in arrears” if you have missed payments on an account and are trying to catch up. The correct term is “arrearage” or “in arrears.” Please do not refer to owing money “in the rear.” That means something else.
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“Plus, I had nothing to wear, and God knew that too.”
– Sarah Palin
I don’t mind semi-public displays of religious faith. I prefer our leaders to be open about what motivates them.
I’ve simply taken an out-of-context quote further out of context. Maybe it was a joke. Maybe?
And I can’t quarrel with the theological statement that an...
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Slashing Budgets, Republican Style
The Republicans are using the deficit crisis created primarily by their wars, their tax cuts, and their financial collapse as an excuse to enact a series of partisan budget cuts.
When Republicans start proposing cuts to things Republicans like, I’ll take their deficit reduction efforts seriously. Until then? They’re just exploiting the crisis they created.
Married Life
Carolyn: Masha informs me that she now has a Jolly Roger shower curtain.
Me: ...
Carolyn: No. We be grownups here.
"Taxation isn't theft". →
In response to the assertion that Taxation isn’t theft, Miss Daisy Vo writes:
Wow. I can’t imagine what we should call the act of taking money against one person’s will and giving it to someone else. Is it good will? Nope, because “good will” implies that you had the freedom to give your property away on your own terms. Then, what is it? Oh, it’s legal so it’s okay? Right, because...
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Can Religion be Replaced?
Mills, noting the frequent use of language that assumes religion is an artifact or historical curiosity that will eventually be replaced or supplanted by human progress, has asked what religion might be replaced by..1 Mills, who is not religious, is remarkably kind to those of us who are.2 I think, however, he’s inadvertently mischaracterized (or perhaps miscontextualized) religion.
...
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More on Protest and Breaking Quorum
I got a few replies to my previous post that merit a response.
Jeff Miller asserts:
Abandonment of one’s job (by teachers or legislators) isn’t information-sharing; it’s breach of contract.
Those two aren’t remotely mutually-exclusive categories. Breaching a non-disclosure agreement is, most obviously, both a breach of contract and sharing of information.
The teachers, for the most...
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Democracy and Obstruction
The Wisconsin protests—and the Democrats’ decision to prevent an undesired vote by breaking quorum raises some interesting issues about the role of protest in response to (or in anticipation of) the actions of a Democratically elected government. Wisconson is not an autocracy. Wisconsin elected a Republican legislature. The Republican legislature wants to do away with public sector...
Responding to my prediction that the Democrats in the Senate lacked the political power and political will to reverse the cut to funding for Planned Parenthood, Marco wrote:
What *do* the Democrats have the political will to fight for? I’m coming up short on answers to that.
I suppose “political will” might have been a somewhat misleading term. It’s not really a matter of...
“And there’s been a wave of propaganda over the last couple of months, which is...”
– “Democracy Uprising” in the U.S.A.?: Noam Chomsky on Wisconsin’s Resistance to Assault on Public Sector, the Obama-Sanctioned Crackdown on Activists, and the Distorted Legacy of Ronald Reagan, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Amy Goodman (via jgh-2)
This is an important observation. The budget crunch...
You can mostly ignore the House of Representatives
They can make $60 billion dollars of politically motivated cuts. That doesn’t actually become law anymore than the pilic option or cap and trade became law when the Democrats controlled the House. The question becomes what will happen next. We’ll get a compromise nobody is thrilled with.
Some cuts will stay. Others won’t. I would guess the cuts to funding for healthcare...
The talk on the apocalypse was long on imagery but...
It turns out a friend had gotten the same mailing and was already planning to go. He took lots of notes. He was stoned.
I wanted the speaker to name the anti-Christ—but the speaker was all coy about it, intimating that it was quite clear who or what the anti-Christ was but not dropping any names. Perhaps we’d need to go to one of the other sessions. He also made it very clear that...
Should I waste my Friday evening aimlessly on the Internet or go to a seminar on the apparently imminent apocalypse?
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On Unions, Schools, and Detroit
evangotlib:
But when you see what Unions have done to America…it’s hard to feel for the folks in Wisconsin. Have you been to Detroit? Have you really dug into the US Public School system? Utter disasters.
Detroit will come back. The school will be saved. But unions need to go in order for this to happen.
Yes, Evan, I have been to Detroit. I have also dug into the public school system....
