Attorney General John "Civil liberties are overrated" Ashcroft has resigned! Now if only Ridge would join him… (Thanks, BoingBoing)
I Feel More Secure Already
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Category Archives: government, law, and politics
Divided We Fall
Here are some interesting perspectives on the red vs. blue mentality that’s causing so much unrest these days.
Church of the Masses: I’M NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT….
"People who go around calling Americans who disagree with them stupid, neo-Nazi, moronic, freedom squelching, bigotted and intolerant theocrats, must then wait a mandatory fifteen minutes before bemoaning the "frightening," divisive, uncivil rhetoric that is splitting us all into two Americas…. I mean, just to keep all of our heads from spinning around too fast."
GetReligion: Take that! No, you take that! (cue: slap)
"If the Dems could manage to stop insulting people of faith, and could take a few steps towards the center on moral issues like abortion, marriage, the Pledge, embryonic stem cells, Israel, they might be able to claim to be the party that is seeking balance in a pluralistic society, leaving the Republicans to appear to be the party of the extremes. But such compromises would infuriate the hard left, and would probably take more moral courage than the Democrats are able to muster."
Scientists scan brains for political clues
Applying some of the same brain-scan technology used to understand Alzheimer’s and autism, scientists are trying to learn what makes a Republican’s mind different from a Democrat’s.
Maybe I’m an idealist, but I am tired of living in a country where people refuse to think, where people refuse to read books, where people prefer to do what they’re told instead of doing what they think. We’re a country of externalized, demonstrative, paranoid imitators. We can’t step away from the TV, we can’t turn off the music, we can’t crack a book, we can’t sit down, face a blank sheet of paper with pen in hand, and dare to scribble a few of our own thoughts. We are a nation that lives between minds instead of in them, and I am sick of it.
Victory! Triumph! Glory!
The Song Of The Pacifist
by Robert Service
What do they matter, our headlong hates, when we take the toll of our Dead?
Think ye our glory and gain will pay for the torrent of blood we have shed?
By the cheers of our Victory will the heart of the mother be comforted?If by the Victory all we mean is a broken and brooding foe;
Is the pomp and power of a glitt’ring hour, and a truce for an age or so:
By the clay-cold hand on the broken blade we have smitten a bootless blow!If by the Triumph we only prove that the sword we sheathe is bright;
That justice and truth and love endure; that freedom’s throned on the height;
That the feebler folks shall be unafraid; that Might shall never be Right;If this be all: by the blood-drenched plains, by the havoc of fire and fear,
By the rending roar of the War of Wars, by the Dead so doubly dear. . . .
Then our Victory is a vast defeat, and it mocks us as we cheer.Victory! there can be but one, hallowed in every land:
When by the graves of our common dead we who were foemen stand;
And in the hush of our common grief hand is tendered to hand.Triumph! Yes, when out of the dust in the splendour of their release
The spirits of those who fell go forth and they hallow our hearts to peace,
And, brothers in pain, with world-wide voice, we clamour that War shall cease.Glory! Ay, when from blackest loss shall be born most radiant gain;
When over the gory fields shall rise a star that never shall wane:
Then, and then only, our Dead shall know that they have not fall’n in vain.When our children’s children shall talk of War as a madness that may not be;
When we thank our God for our grief to-day, and blazon from sea to sea
In the name of the Dead the banner of Peace . . . that will be Victory.
The Heat is On
"Very rarely do they speak out against other members," said Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, who wants Specter voted down. Republican leaders "are putting their finger in the air and seeing which way the wind is blowing. This drama still has to be played out."
Let’s keep the pressure on, folks. Nothing good happens in government if constituants don’t light fires under a few representative butts.
Seeing Purple
The fella at Electoral Vote Predictor has read my mind and produced exactly
the kind of election results map I wanted. It gives a better indication of just
how deeply divided this country is than the simple red and blue maps.
Nobody seems to care about how much healing America needs. The Republicans are patting
each other’s backs and claiming
a mandate from the people and the liberals are turning
their noses up at the “unwashed masses” who elected Bush and/or fleeing
to Canada. Meanwhile, Christendom still can’t agree on what
takes moral priority in politics.
On a side note, the
election cost American tax payers way too much. There are so many programs
that could have benefited from that money. What a waste.