"Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right."
- H.L. Mencken
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Novak: Bush employing platform shoos to keep party in line
Take this for what it is worth. Traditionally the Republican platform has been ignored after the convention. Apparently it now is being abandoned prior to the convention. Hubris or just neoconservative realism?
Take this for what it is worth. Traditionally the Republican platform has been ignored after the convention. Apparently it now is being abandoned prior to the convention. Hubris or just neoconservative realism?
Monday, August 02, 2004
Yahoo! News - Ricky Williams Reportedly Failed Third Drug Test
Wow. Marijuana use cost Ricky $650,000 in fines last year. Another victim of the insane war on drugs (drug-taking people).
Where are the moralists? The clergy? The civil rights crowd?
Wow. Marijuana use cost Ricky $650,000 in fines last year. Another victim of the insane war on drugs (drug-taking people).
Where are the moralists? The clergy? The civil rights crowd?
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
An Echo, Not a Choice
The case for (hold your nose now) Kerry. Actually it is the case for going fishing.
The case for (hold your nose now) Kerry. Actually it is the case for going fishing.
Friday, July 23, 2004
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Monday, July 05, 2004
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Who is Uncle Joe?
I have pasted the following anlysis from a blog called The Volokh Conspiracy, which is generally quite good. They have University of Chicago law school professor Cass Sunstein on this week as a guest blogger. Sunstein has a new book coming out which he is promoting. I have changed his recent post by changing the name of his hero. Guess who he is talking about?
"Uncle Joe's speech wasn't elegant. It was messy, sprawling, unruly, a bit of a pastiche, upbeat, and not at all literary. It was the opposite of Lincoln's tight, poetic, elegiac Gettysburg Address. But because of what it said, it has a strong claim to being the greatest speech of the twentieth century.
"Uncle Joe began by emphasizing that the "supreme objective for the future" -- the objective for all nations -- was captured "in one word: Security." Uncle Joe argued that the term "means not only physical security which provides safety from attacks by aggressors," but includes as well "economic security, social security, moral security." Uncle Joe insisted that "essential to peace is a decent standard of living for all individual men and women and children in all nations. Freedom from fear is eternally linked with freedom from want."
"Uncle Joe looked back, and not entirely approvingly, to the framing of the Constitution. At its inception, the nation had grown "under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures."
"But over time, these rights had proved inadequate. Unlike the Constitution's framers, "we have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence." As Uncle Joe saw it, "necessitous men are not free men," not least because those who are hungry and jobless "are the stuff out of which dictatorships are made." Recalling the New Deal, he cut to the chase: The nation had "accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed."
"Then he listed the relevant rights:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
Having catalogued these eight rights, Uncle Joe said that "we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights." Uncle Joe asked "the Congress to explore the means for implementing this economic bill of rights—for it is definitely the responsibility of the Congress to do so."
I have pasted the following anlysis from a blog called The Volokh Conspiracy, which is generally quite good. They have University of Chicago law school professor Cass Sunstein on this week as a guest blogger. Sunstein has a new book coming out which he is promoting. I have changed his recent post by changing the name of his hero. Guess who he is talking about?
"Uncle Joe's speech wasn't elegant. It was messy, sprawling, unruly, a bit of a pastiche, upbeat, and not at all literary. It was the opposite of Lincoln's tight, poetic, elegiac Gettysburg Address. But because of what it said, it has a strong claim to being the greatest speech of the twentieth century.
"Uncle Joe began by emphasizing that the "supreme objective for the future" -- the objective for all nations -- was captured "in one word: Security." Uncle Joe argued that the term "means not only physical security which provides safety from attacks by aggressors," but includes as well "economic security, social security, moral security." Uncle Joe insisted that "essential to peace is a decent standard of living for all individual men and women and children in all nations. Freedom from fear is eternally linked with freedom from want."
"Uncle Joe looked back, and not entirely approvingly, to the framing of the Constitution. At its inception, the nation had grown "under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures."
"But over time, these rights had proved inadequate. Unlike the Constitution's framers, "we have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence." As Uncle Joe saw it, "necessitous men are not free men," not least because those who are hungry and jobless "are the stuff out of which dictatorships are made." Recalling the New Deal, he cut to the chase: The nation had "accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed."
"Then he listed the relevant rights:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
Having catalogued these eight rights, Uncle Joe said that "we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights." Uncle Joe asked "the Congress to explore the means for implementing this economic bill of rights—for it is definitely the responsibility of the Congress to do so."
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Bush to screen population for mental illness
Presumably, this is a joke. Let us see. I plan to be first in line for the screening.
Presumably, this is a joke. Let us see. I plan to be first in line for the screening.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Monday, June 07, 2004
Not Even a Hedgehog - The stupidity of Ronald Reagan. By Christopher?Hitchens
Novak is much more generous; but Hitchens, the dirty commie, has a point.
Novak is much more generous; but Hitchens, the dirty commie, has a point.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Sunday, May 16, 2004
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Low Rates, High Expectations
A freebie from Jim Grant. (The subscription for his newsletter goes for $760 per annum.)
A freebie from Jim Grant. (The subscription for his newsletter goes for $760 per annum.)
Saturday, May 15, 2004
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