Perhaps I’d feel differently if Bird Flu was the only Big Bad the Big Media has thrown at us in the past 6 years. But it’s not. Flood. Iraq. Terrorist Attack. Neighbors. Asteriods. First Graders. Blogs. (Maybe I’ll finish finding links later, maybe not.) Call me cynical, but bird flu feels FUDdy. Especially when something […]
Category: America
Four Articles Encouraging Impeachment of George W. Bush
The Center for Constitutional Rights recently released Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, a $10, 144-page paperback they’re encouraging you purchase for your House Representative (that’s where impeachment hearings need to start). From Onnesha Roychoudhuri’s interview at Alternet.org, here’s the basics of the 4 articles: Warrantless wiretapping of Americans in the U.S. “This constitutes […]
Patriot Act Misuse – Ignorance or Opportunism
Thanks to Bruce Schneier for pointing me to Mark Steyn’s excellent ‘Long war’ is Breaking Down into Tedium column in the Sun Times. Steyn lists out some actually happened examples of companies and financial institutions invoking the Patriot Act without reason. Given the complexities of most legislation and the Asking Questions = Unpatriotic attitude of […]
Why Health Coverage Shouldn’t be Tied to Employers
“Weyco and Scotts Miracle-Gro, based in Marysville, Ohio, are in the vanguard of a growing effort by business to brake soaring medical costs by regulating such unhealthy employee behavior as smoking” Health coverage as a benefit of employment no longer makes sense – financially for employers or employees. Expecting employers to foot the bill and […]
Public Information Shouldn’t Require a Subpeona
I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately. I consider all my web searches, this post – and generally anything that’s not email or an instant messsage – public. Now, I’m cool with 1 million random results from the index being handed over to the government under one single condition – anyone, anyone at […]
Happy Holidays from St. Anthony Village
This is the second winter we’ve spent in the house and the second winter somebody covered a city firetruck in lights, turned the carols up to 11, strapped a sleigh on the back, threw Santa in it, and drove around the village spreading holiday cheer. Like the summer’s helicopter ping-pong drop – it makes both […]
First Graders With Plastic Butter Knives Are New Threat
Somehow the remote got stuck on local Fox News this evening. Leading to a long armchair parenting conversation about the appropriate punishment for an 8 year old unwittingly bringing a butter knife to school. In western Wisconsin growing up with all sorts of guns, bows, and arrows in the house, I’m comfortable with the responsibility […]
On The Federal Government Only Running Military and Post Office
I’m grabbing a late morning coffee at the Dunn Bros in downtown St. Paul. Like all Dunn Bros, this is a great place for eavesdropping (surpassed only by the Nicollet Mall location). The gentlemen next to me are have a very in-depth political current events discussion. Considering the low number of good coffee shops between […]
George Lakoff on Katrina – Failure of Moral Values
In a nice follow up to my earlier There’s No Helping the NeoCons post, George Lakoff comments that Katrina was not only a natural disaster and federal failure, it was a complete failure of the Republican moral and political philosophy. (emphasis is Lakoff’s) “The [right-wing conservatives] central principle: Government has no useful role. The only […]
There’s No Helping the NeoCons
A while back, I read George Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant. It was extremely helpful in understanding how progressives and neo-conservatives frame issues differently and their underlying values. From it, I learned NeoCons see asking for help a sign of weakness. That all assistance is charity and charity should be abolished. That if you’re […]