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Latest Articles: Opinions/Editorials
You’ve been lied to: Freedom and democracy don’t mean same things
Post Date: 2011-09-28 09:30:50 by war
2 Comments
an you tell me the difference between freedom and democracy? I’ve tried this with dozens of people over the years. They almost always look at me blankly, because they’ve been taught the words mean exactly the same thing. They were taught a lie. I’m reminded of this because of a great article my friend Zachary Caceres published Wednesday that centers around mainstream intellectual ignorance on this subject. (If you’d like to know more about where Zach is coming from, check out his TED talk last spring about free cities.) If you’re already familiar with the difference between freedom and democracy, you’ll find his article a treat. I urge you to read it. If ...
Might As Well Vote for Obama
Post Date: 2011-09-27 13:36:29 by Ferret Mike
3 Comments
Grin and Bear It was the name of a Sunday comic strip I loved. Its writer/artist went by the name George Lichty. When I was a kid, he did one I've always remembered. In Stalinist Russia, two bureaucrats with star-shaped "Hero" medals on their chests stand either side of an office safe with a broken door. One of the two is lamenting, "Is terrible news, Comrade! Someone is stealing results of next week's election!" Welcome to 21st century America. You've seen it yourself, and recently. The state-controlled "news" media announce that Michelle Bachmann (or Herman Cain or whoever) wins a "straw poll", while Mitt Romney (or some other zombie) ...
Accept It, GOP: Mitt Romney Is All You've Got:
Post Date: 2011-09-27 13:29:05 by Ferret Mike
12 Comments
There's one part of the Rick-Perry-sucks-at-debatin' story that's been left out: it wasn't just that Perry may as well have been on stage blowing goats for how appalling he was. That's the easy headline. No, the truth is that Mitt Romney kicked Perry's ass all over the Orlando Convention Center last week. When he first announced he was running, pundits across the spectrum expected Perry to just saunter into the GOP saloon, order whiskey, shoot the piano player, down the shot, and take the whore upstairs, all before the doors had stopped swinging. But at the Fox "news"/Google (really?) debate in batshit insane central Florida, it was the Harvard-educated ...
The Liberal Modus Ponens Versus The Republican Modus Tollens
Post Date: 2011-09-27 12:30:42 by lucysmom
12 Comments
In my previous post, “The Republican Modus Tollens”, I pointed out that arguments apparently having the valid form (1) If P then Q (2) Not-Q (3) So Not-P allow for serious irrationality when P represents a matter of well-confirmed scientific theory and Q represents a prescriptive policy preference or a tenet of religious faith. So, to use one of the examples from my previous post, we have arguments about climate change that seem to be guided by the following pattern of thought- (1) If climate change is occurring, then we should regulate CO2. (2) We shouldn’t regulate CO2. (3) So climate change isn’t actually occurring. Of course, probably no opponent of climate ...
The Occupied Turn Occupiers
Post Date: 2011-09-27 10:41:12 by lucysmom
7 Comments
In a recent debate Congressman Ron Paul claimed the United States military had troops in 130 countries. The St. Petersburg Times looked into whether such an outrage could actually be true and was obliged to report that the number was actually 148 countries. However, if you watch NFL football games, you hear the announcers thank members of the U.S. military for watching from 177 countries. The proud public claim is worse than the scandalous claim or the "investigative" report. What gives? We are supposed to be proud of the U.S. empire but to reject with high dudgeon any accusation of having an empire. Abroad, this conversation makes even less sense, because those troops and their ...
The Price of Gold in the Year 2160
Post Date: 2011-09-24 10:09:09 by lucysmom
24 Comments
It’s become quite popular to talk about the price of gold . . . in blogs, the press, at dinner parties. The latest topic of debate is not about the price of gold as a commodity, but about gold as the one and only king money. The basic argument is that 5,000 years of tradition will overwhelm the tyranny of modern government and the fiat printing press. The barbaric relic will defeat socialism, fascism, Obama-ism, and restore liberty to the world, after a terrible economic collapse in which gold-owning visionaries become fabulously wealthy. Perhaps they are correct—or perhaps not. I don’t know what will happen in 10 years. However, unless civilization utterly collapses (which ...
The Social Contract [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-09-23 10:11:31 by war
45 Comments
This week President Obama said the obvious: that wealthy Americans, many of whom pay remarkably little in taxes, should bear part of the cost of reducing the long-run budget deficit. And Republicans like Representative Paul Ryan responded with shrieks of “class warfare.” It was, of course, nothing of the sort. On the contrary, it’s people like Mr. Ryan, who want to exempt the very rich from bearing any of the burden of making our finances sustainable, who are waging class war. As background, it helps to know what has been happening to incomes over the past three decades. Detailed estimates from the Congressional Budget Office — which only go up to 2005, but the basic ...
The Dark Legacy of Reaganomics
Post Date: 2011-09-20 15:04:41 by Brian S
2 Comments
For half a century – from the depths of the Great Depression until the rise of Ronald Reagan – the U.S. government invested in building the nation and funding key research. And the country flourished. But Reagan then reversed those priorities. The results are in, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry It may be political heresy to say so, but a strong case could be made that the greatest American “job creator” over the past 80 years has been the federal government – or put differently, the government built the framework that private companies then used to create profits and jobs. This heretical view also would hold that it was Ronald Reagan’s deviation from ...
Patrick J. Buchanan: Whose Country Is It, Anyway?
Post Date: 2011-09-20 13:25:05 by Brian S
3 Comments
For the third straight year, the median income of the typical American family fell in 2010. Adjusted for inflation, it is back where it was in 1996, the longest period of zero growth since the Depression. And the poverty rate has inched up to 15.1 percent. Both figures, however, should be put in perspective. For example, a family can be classified as poor and own a car, a flat-screen TV and a computer, and have a washer-dryer and a garbage disposal. Folks below the poverty line have their kids educated free in Head Start, for 13 years in public schools, then get Pell grants for college. They get free food stamps and health care through Medicaid. They get subsidized housing and earned ...
June Carbone: Why David Brooks Misses the Real Source of Moral Decay – Thirty Years of Class Warfare Against the Working Class
Post Date: 2011-09-20 10:18:34 by lucysmom
3 Comments
The New York Times told two separate stories earlier this week, with no apparent recognition that they might be related. On September 12, David Brooks published a column decrying the moral “relativism and nonjudgmentalism” of the young. On September 13, a front page story announced that “Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade,’" explaining how the economic decline of the bottom half of the population over the past decade has grown worse during the financial crisis. What do the two stories have to do with each other? Brooks writes as though the country has – or should have – a set of shared values. Yet, he ignores class and cultural ...
Tea Party Gets the Constitution Wrong
Post Date: 2011-09-18 14:07:48 by Brian S
2 Comments
It is now an article of faith in the Tea Party and on the American Right that the Founders wrote the U.S. Constitution to restrict the power of the federal government and protect states' rights. But that analysis is simply wrong. Like any government document, the Constitution can only be understood in the context of what it replaced -- and why. The Constitution superseded the Articles of Confederation, which guided the new country starting in 1777. The Articles granted broad authority to the states with only a weak national government. As the Revolutionary War wore on and during the early years of peace, many American leaders -- including George Washington, John Adams, ...
Lost My Appetite for Olive Garden
Post Date: 2011-09-17 09:35:03 by CZ82
35 Comments
Lost My Appetite for Olive Garden Charlotte Cushman Looks like I won't be eating at Olive Garden anymore. In addition I won't be eating at Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze or Seasons 52, all Darden Restaurants. I have now added them to my list of government suck-ups. (And I normally can't stand the expression "suck-ups", but in this case no other one will do.) On September 15, 2011 Darden Restaurants decided to collaborate with Michelle Obama's childhood anti-obesity campaign. They have announced that they will reduce the amount of calories and sodium in its menu by 20% over the next ten years. It just so happens (I am just ...
Buchanan: The Democracy Worshipers
Post Date: 2011-09-16 19:20:23 by Brian S
1 Comments
"Your people, sir, is ... a great beast." So Alexander Hamilton reputedly said in an argument with Thomas Jefferson. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Hamilton explained: "Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of dictatorship." In his column, "Democracy Versus Liberty," Walter Williams cites Hamilton, James Madison and John Randolph, who wrote of "the follies and turbulence" of democracy, and John Adams: "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a ...
What was Hitler’s Unforgivable Sin?
Post Date: 2011-09-15 19:41:10 by Brian S
38 Comments
Behind the Holocaust var addthis_product = 'wpp-261'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};Editorial Board Review: This article is controversial and contains strong racial tones. It can upset some readers. This article reflects the view of the author exclusively and does NOT reflect the views of VT or any other VT authors, affiliates, sponsors, advertisers or partners. After extensive Editorial Board review, the board has deemed this piece something readers should read, investigate, study, and discuss. Be advised that VT stands for justice, equality, truth, ...
Clueless Republicans Demand More Militarism
Post Date: 2011-09-15 19:00:07 by Brian S
7 Comments
While the Republicans who are running for president seem to have grasped the truth about the economic abyss that the country is peering into, there continues to be an air of unreality whenever the discussions turn to foreign policy and national security issues. Perhaps it is fortunate that the leading candidates rarely venture into those uncharted waters except in the form of simplistic slogans that could well be placed on bumper stickers. Sen. John “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” McCain has been expending most of his strangled rhetoric on defending the indefensible by talking up the “success” of the Libyan adventure, so he has left it to his colleague from Arizona Sen. ...
Head In His Ass James Carville Has Some Advice For Obama
Post Date: 2011-09-15 07:41:04 by A K A Stone
6 Comments
(CNN) -- People often ask me what advice I would give the White House about various things. Today I was mulling over election results from New York and Nevada while thinking about that very question. What should the White House do now? One word came to mind: Panic. We are far past sending out talking points. Do not attempt to dumb it down. We cannot stand any more explanations. Have you talked to any Democratic senators lately? I have. It's pretty damn clear they are not happy campers. This is what I would say to President Barack Obama: The time has come to demand a plan of action that requires a complete change from the direction you are headed. I don't know how else to break ...
The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
Post Date: 2011-09-14 18:45:23 by Brian S
1 Comments
1. Twin Towers Two years from now the staffs of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker will move into the most haunted building in the world. There, the elite of American celebrity photographers, gossip columnists, and magazine journalists may meet some macabre new muses. Aloft in the upper stories of 1 World Trade Center (where Condé Nast publishing has signed the biggest lease), they will gaze out their windows at that ghostly void, just a few yards away, where 658 doomed employees of Cantor Fitzgerald were sitting at their desks at 8:46 AM, September 11, 2001. Not to worry: The “Freedom Tower” -- the boosters reassure us -- will be an enduring ...
Nader: Americans Ignore The Cause Of 9/11
Post Date: 2011-09-13 20:06:12 by Brian S
20 Comments
After attending a 9/11 panel in northwest D.C. on Monday, Ralph Nader told The Nation‘s George Zornick that Americans had mostly ignored the reasons that the terrorist attacks occurred. “All we want to say is that it was a terrorist attack, it was evil, don’t talk about what caused it,” he said. “What really lead to it was, one, we back dictators over there that repress and kill their own people with American arms. Two, we support the Israeli position against the rights of the Palestinian people to have their own state. And three, we have repeatedly failed — no matter how much money we spend — to defend our own country.” “The folly of the ...
Hey GOP 2012ers: You Lie!
Post Date: 2011-09-13 15:16:53 by Brian S
4 Comments
Let's cut to the chase: The GOP presidential field is a pack of liars. That sounds like a rather intemperate assessment, the sort of statement that is motivated by bitter partisanship or blinding ideology. But taking a clear-eyed look at both the false statements hurled at Monday's Republican debate (brought to you by the odd merger of CNN and the Tea Party Express) and those deployed at other times in this still burgeoning primary race, it's difficult to reach any other conclusion. Most of these presidential wannabes are shoveling lies—and forcing fact-checkers to work overtime. Glenn Kessler, who writes the Washington Post's Fact Checker column, spotted numerous ...
Barack Obama Is President; So Why Does The World Hate Us Even More?!
Post Date: 2011-09-12 20:54:52 by Sebastian
4 Comments
In liberals’ frenzy to elect Barack Obama in 2008, no one was quite as far out to sea as Andrew Sullivan, a respected columnist for the Atlantic website. He served up his “Daily Dish” by the plateful. Here’s perhaps the hottest example of his rhetoric—quoted endlessly around the blogosphere-back then: “A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is ...
Ron Paul: Foreign Occupation Leads to More Terror
Post Date: 2011-09-12 12:55:00 by Brian S
4 Comments
Ten years ago shocking and horrific acts of terrorism were carried out on US soil, taking over 3,000 innocent American lives. Without a doubt, this action demanded retaliation and retribution. However, much has been done in the name of protecting the American people from terrorism that has reduced our prosperity and liberty and even made us less safe. This is ironic and sad, considering that the oft-repeated line concerning the reasoning behind the attacks is that they hate us for who we are - a free, prosperous people - and that we must not under any circumstances allow the terrorists to win. Though it is hard for many to believe, honest studies show that the real motivation behind the ...
Why We Don't Miss Rummy
Post Date: 2011-09-12 12:46:31 by Brian S
3 Comments
It was (literally) a blast from the past, a tableau of familiar faces from the last Bush administration, but the men on stage had less hair — except for Michael Medved’s wonderfully bold, black moustache. The author and talk-show host was the moderator of a discussion sponsored by the Jewish Policy Center, a think tank that seems to be so intertwined with the Republican Jewish Coalition that they share the same executive director. Held at the 92nd Street Y just days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the discussion was supposed to be about lessons learned and future challenges. Getty Images I learned a few things, alright. For one, Donald Rumsfeld, the former defense ...
New Blue Nightmare: Clarence Thomas and the Amendment of Doom
Post Date: 2011-09-11 10:15:51 by A K A Stone
26 Comments
Lord of the Rings aficionados know that the evil lord Sauron paid little attention to the danger posed by two hobbits slowly struggling across the mountains and deserts of Mordor until he suddenly realized that the ring on which all his power depended was about to be hurled into the pits of Mount Doom. All at once the enemy plan became clear; what looked like stupidity was revealed as genius, and Sauron understood everything just when it was too late to act. Jeffrey Toobin’s gripping, must-read profile of Clarence and Virginia Thomas in the New Yorker gives readers new insight into what Sauron must have felt: Toobin argues that the only Black man in public life that liberals could ...
Memo to Congress: Impeachment probe needed now!
Post Date: 2011-09-10 10:03:05 by A K A Stone
3 Comments
Barack Obama is indeed succeeding in his plans to "transform America," but not in the way voters expected on Election Day in 2008. The number of the president's actions that arguably qualify as impeachable offenses is staggering. The question before the country is what to do about it. True, Obama faces the voters in 14 months, and that will be seen by many as a reason to avoid the turmoil of an impeachment proceeding. But one process has nothing to do with the other. Elections proceed on an established calendar, but if he has committed acts that warrant removal by way of impeachment, that process should proceed independent of the election calendar. While impeachment must ...
With Freedom Under Assault, We're Told We Must Moderate?
Post Date: 2011-09-07 17:48:41 by CZ82
1 Comments
With Freedom Under Assault, We're Told We Must Moderate? RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I always go back and forth on whether to mention things said about me. Because it's inevitable that I will elevate whoever it is that's doing the talking about me. So it's something I have to judge issue by issue, knowing full well that I can turn a nobody into a somebody by mentioning them. You don't want to do that, but at the same time if the nobody says something that offers an opportunity to make a point to millions of people, then you roll the dice on elevating the nobody into a somebody. Now, the nobody in this case is a nobody to you. He is a somebody to the intellectual elite. ...
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