Global
How lion-like the Democrats sound as they circle around Social Security, bellowing their defiance! After years of servility, some of them even presume to shake their fists at Alan Greenspan and hurl insults at the man.
When the chairman of the Federal Reserve put in a decorous word for Social Security "reform" last month, House Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada called Greenspan a "hack." Paul Krugman, who primly chastised Ralph Nader back in 2000 for disrespecting Greenspan, now pelts the chairman with rotten cabbages on an almost weekly basis in his New York Times column.
Presumably enough Democrats realize that if they can't put up a fight on Social Security, then the last supposed major reason for anyone to support their party will have disappeared. (To anyone claiming choice is as powerful a reason, I will offer the obvious, which is that the Republicans will never formally move to rescind the legality of abortions. They will merely continue in the enterprise, in which countless Democrats have colluded, of making it harder and harder for poor women to get one.)
When the chairman of the Federal Reserve put in a decorous word for Social Security "reform" last month, House Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada called Greenspan a "hack." Paul Krugman, who primly chastised Ralph Nader back in 2000 for disrespecting Greenspan, now pelts the chairman with rotten cabbages on an almost weekly basis in his New York Times column.
Presumably enough Democrats realize that if they can't put up a fight on Social Security, then the last supposed major reason for anyone to support their party will have disappeared. (To anyone claiming choice is as powerful a reason, I will offer the obvious, which is that the Republicans will never formally move to rescind the legality of abortions. They will merely continue in the enterprise, in which countless Democrats have colluded, of making it harder and harder for poor women to get one.)
AUSTIN, Texas -- Freshly returned from a week of intellectual sparring at the Conference on World Affairs, the annual gabfest in Boulder, Colo. (the late jazz critic Leonard Feather called it "the leisure of the theory class"), I find making connections between headlines mere child's play.
After a week of contemplating Persian poetry, the possible aphrodisiac effect of black licorice, American foreign policy, what we do in the name of God (an actual panel title), war and medicine, I scarcely blink, much less boggle, at such simple topics as tax policy, international finance, terrorism and offshore money laundering.
After a week of contemplating Persian poetry, the possible aphrodisiac effect of black licorice, American foreign policy, what we do in the name of God (an actual panel title), war and medicine, I scarcely blink, much less boggle, at such simple topics as tax policy, international finance, terrorism and offshore money laundering.
An Open Letter to:
Hon. Walter B. Jones Jr.
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
Hon. Walter B. Jones Jr.
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
Dear Congressman Jones,
I was glad to open the New York Times last Monday and see the headline:
“In Steinbeck’s Birthplace, a Fight to Keep the Libraries Open.” After
visiting Salinas, Calif., over the weekend, I was eager to find out whether
the disturbing and uplifting events there would gain any significant
national coverage.
It was a close call. Other than the medium-length Times article, accompanied by a photo of an 8-year-old girl standing next to an endangered library, the media coverage was sparse. And the Times piece -- while doing a good job of focusing on the danger that all three public libraries in Salinas might close by midyear -- bypassed the connections that many participants in a 24-hour “read-in” had made between lavish spending on war overseas and a funding crisis for libraries at home.
It was a close call. Other than the medium-length Times article, accompanied by a photo of an 8-year-old girl standing next to an endangered library, the media coverage was sparse. And the Times piece -- while doing a good job of focusing on the danger that all three public libraries in Salinas might close by midyear -- bypassed the connections that many participants in a 24-hour “read-in” had made between lavish spending on war overseas and a funding crisis for libraries at home.
It is amazing how little was said in US mainstream media about the decision by Israel's supreme court recognizing some non-Orthodox conversion to Judaism. Israeli and European papers debated this issue clearly revealing that Israel is the only country in the world that recognizes members of a particular religion as nationals of the state entitled to automatic citizenship regardless of where they live and what their current citizenship happens to be (or even if they want such "right").
Despite a concerted propaganda campaign with billions spent, most Jews chose to live outside Israel and most are non-Zionist or even anti-Zionist. Zionists thus made sure on many occasions that persecuted Jews have only one place to migrate (e.g. by pressuring the US Congress and the German government not to increase Soviet Jewish migration to the West but to insist on migration to Israel).
Despite a concerted propaganda campaign with billions spent, most Jews chose to live outside Israel and most are non-Zionist or even anti-Zionist. Zionists thus made sure on many occasions that persecuted Jews have only one place to migrate (e.g. by pressuring the US Congress and the German government not to increase Soviet Jewish migration to the West but to insist on migration to Israel).
I celebrate your new robotic fleet,
the unmanned killer plane technology.
Behind a far-off screen controllers mete
out surprise attack on unsuspecting enemy.
They continue to war, denying defeat,
and punishing us for the philanthropy,
of our reward expectant GOP elite.
I too face hidden bombers I can’t see,
when I patrol that same endangered street,
so I need robots who will die for me.
the unmanned killer plane technology.
Behind a far-off screen controllers mete
out surprise attack on unsuspecting enemy.
They continue to war, denying defeat,
and punishing us for the philanthropy,
of our reward expectant GOP elite.
I too face hidden bombers I can’t see,
when I patrol that same endangered street,
so I need robots who will die for me.
Hello from Brookings Hall.
My name is Meredith, and I am one of about 20 Washington University students occupying the admissions office in Brookings. We're determined to continue our sit-in until the chancellor, Mark Wrighton, agrees to negotiate a living wage for all campus employees. Right now anyone directly hired my the school earns a living wage, but subcontracted custodians, groundskeepers, and food service employees start off at $7.50 an hour. This is is a far cry from the $9.79 per hour with full benefits that the St. Louis Board of Aldermen decided was enough to survive. Washington University is not a poor school; we could easily pay our workers adequately if only we considered them more important than plasma screen TVs in the library and other amenities. We need to show Chancellor Wrighton what our priorities are, and we need community support to do so. We hold rallies on the quad outside our window every day at noon and 5 and have started a tent city there as well.
Even if you've heard more than enough about Terry Schiavo, it seems useful
to consider why Bush's political grandstanding backfired. Over seventy
percent of Americans, including solid majorities of self-described
evangelicals, opposed the intervention of the White House and Congress.
Those surveyed mistrusted the Bush administration's blatant disregard for
local control, the rule of law, and the right to be protected from a
capricious federal government.
Their responses also speak to a broader shift in how we deal with difficult end-of-life issues. For twenty years, gradually increasing majorities have agreed that for all our technological inventiveness, what some people need most is the right to die in peace.
You'd think that this belief--that the most difficult intimate decisions must be our own--would also raise support for maintaining the right to abortion. But it hasn't. In the 30 years since Roe v. Wade, support for keeping abortion legal, and without onerous restrictions, has stayed even, at most, and new onerous restrictions keep getting imposed.
Their responses also speak to a broader shift in how we deal with difficult end-of-life issues. For twenty years, gradually increasing majorities have agreed that for all our technological inventiveness, what some people need most is the right to die in peace.
You'd think that this belief--that the most difficult intimate decisions must be our own--would also raise support for maintaining the right to abortion. But it hasn't. In the 30 years since Roe v. Wade, support for keeping abortion legal, and without onerous restrictions, has stayed even, at most, and new onerous restrictions keep getting imposed.
The central lesson in the Terri Schiavo case is not to be found in the
broad area of right to life. A freedom to choose a merciful end for a
long-suffering and much beloved relative within the bounds of the law is
likewise a diversion from the truth. What needs to be understood and
remembered by the American people is the unprecedented and obscene level of
hypocrisy exhibited by the GOP majority in Congress, and by the Bush White
House.
Hypocrisy is said to be the tribute vice makes to virtue. Both executive and legislative branch Republicans are pandering to their fundamentalist Christian base by deceitfully claiming those virtues implied by the phrase, "culture of life." The hypocrisy lies in the fact that any true belief in the sanctity of life would have to include a stand against capital punishment, and a total aversion to pre-emptive wars based on deceit. And the vice which spawns such hypocrisy is a sordid eagerness to turn a political profit from the suffering of innocents like Terri Schiavo who cannot even protest their manipulation.
Hypocrisy is said to be the tribute vice makes to virtue. Both executive and legislative branch Republicans are pandering to their fundamentalist Christian base by deceitfully claiming those virtues implied by the phrase, "culture of life." The hypocrisy lies in the fact that any true belief in the sanctity of life would have to include a stand against capital punishment, and a total aversion to pre-emptive wars based on deceit. And the vice which spawns such hypocrisy is a sordid eagerness to turn a political profit from the suffering of innocents like Terri Schiavo who cannot even protest their manipulation.