Category: Health of the Republic
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Happy Tax Day!
And I mean that non-ironically. I don’t like paying taxes, but I am proud to do it. Taxes are not only necessary to maintain the way of life we value. They are a direct investment in the very concept of civilization. Taxes are the explicit statement that we are a community and we have…
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The defining feature of modern Republicanism
It’s not small-government. It’s not anti-tax screeds or culture war crusades. It’s not being pro-big business or pro-gun. It’s not being anti-choice or anti-gay. It’s not suport of “traditional marriages” or of non-traditional “special interrogation”. It’s not being pro-Gitmo or anti-drone or pro-Keystone or anti-FEMA. It’s not even being sexist or being racist. It’s a…
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De-tuned
I wrote this nearly five years ago. I was mad then; now I’m more or less just resigned. The intellectual commons is being fenced off, now more than ever. I think we’re losing more than outlets for creativity or profit; we’re losing the shared language to remember who we were, who we are. ============== De-Tuned…
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Newshound explains: The Curious Case of the Silent Filibuster
http://newsbound.com/the-silent-filibuster/ This is a really good, really clear, and (mostly) nonpartisan explanation of the rise of the silent filibuster in the US Senate — where it came from, the damage it does, how it might be fixed.
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Noah Smith on the Rise of the Machines
Here’s a worthwhile read from Noah Smith on the future of an economy where most work is done by robots. I’ve actually thought about this for a long while. How can a democracy survive if all the economic oomph lies in the very few owners of capital? As much as he was (justifiably) derided, President…
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Sure, but just imagine how sorry you’ll be if the British invade…
Kellermann found people turned those guns on themselves and others in the house far more often than on intruders. “In other words, a gun kept in the home was 43 times more likely to be involved in the death of a member of the household than to be used in self-defense,” he says. (Source: NPR)
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Raw Deal
TR had the Square Deal. FDR had the New Deal. Harry S has the Fair Deal. Barack Obama will have the Raw Deal. So a debt-ceiling “deal” has been reached. Going in to this, the President was willing to compromise but had a few lines in the sand: What did he get? None of these. …
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Can seeing a US flag turn you Republican?
And if so, what can be done about it? A study referenced in Discover has the provocative conclusion that seeing a small American flag while completing a political questionnaire can induce the respondents into being more Republican, even up to 8 months later. Is our society doomed by our optic nerves to surrender to the…
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The debt ceiling and the 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment is more-or-less the Swiss Army knife of the US Constitution. It defines citizenship, extends constitutional protections to state constitutions, and so on. Lately, it’s become popular to posit that it also holds the key to avoiding a default of US credit. Specifically, Section 4 reads 4. The validity of the public debt of…
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National Constitution Center endorses torture
Well, by extension. They’ve invited John Yoo to participate in a forum on “A Conversation on Civility and Democracy in America” — apparently without a blink of irony, too. Yoo, you might recall, is the author of the infamous Torture Memos, that said the United Stated could and would abandon its obligations under the Geneva…