News That Matters » Commentary

Panic of the Plutocrats – NYTimes.com

Jeff Green — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:07:19 +0000

“What’s going on here? The answer, surely, is that Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is. They’re not John Galt; they’re not even Steve Jobs. They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens.”

Panic of the Plutocrats – NYTimes.com.

Tea Party vs the Anti-Christ

Dispatches from the Culture Wars — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:29:57 +0000

This article was first posted at Dispatches from the Culture Wars by Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

Tea Party spokesman and terrible singer/songwriter Lloyd Marcus says that the Tea Party is fighting against the Anti-Christ himself.

Without beating around the bush, I believe the battle being fought in America today goes beyond politics; right vs left. It is a spiritual battle; good vs evil.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Ephesians 6:12

The mindset of the American left is a spirit of Antichrist which is man making himself God.

Before writing me off as a Bible nut, please hear me out.

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Thatcher Meet With Palin? Not So Fast

Dispatches from the Culture Wars — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:02:35 +0000

This article was first posted at Dispatches from the Culture Wars by Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

This is rather comical to me. Last weekend Sarah Palin told a British reporter that she was going to England soon and she hoped Margaret Thatcher would be feeling up to meeting with her:

“I am going to Sudan in July and hope to stop in England on the way,” she said. “I am just hoping Mrs Thatcher is well enough to see me as I so admire her.”

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The Hidden Side of Steven Levitt

Dispatches from the Culture Wars — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:24:09 +0000

This article was first posted at Dispatches from the Culture Wars by Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

I’ve never read Freakonomics, but I know many people who praise it. But this bit of thinking, now a month old but unnoticed by me until this week, doesn’t exactly recommend Steven Levitt as being a sound thinker. In it, he proposes a rather simple standard for when he supports making something illegal. He begins by talking about some of those gray areas:

Most of the time there is broad agreement as to which activities should be made criminal. Almost no one thinks that theft or violence against innocents is socially acceptable. There are, however, a few activities that fall into a gray area, like illicit drugs, prostitution, abortion, or gambling. Reasonable people can disagree as to whether it is appropriate to prohibit such activities, discourage them through taxation or other means, or simply let them flourish. A common feature of these gray-area activities are that they are typically “victimless” in the sense that, unlike a theft or murder, there is no easily discernible victim of the activity. When a drug dealer sells to an addict, both are happy to have carried out the transaction.

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Republican Hypocrisy on Weiner

Dispatches from the Culture Wars — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:57:32 +0000

This article was first posted at Dispatches from the Culture Wars by Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

Rachel Maddow had an excellent segment on Tuesday about Republican hypocrisy on the Anthony Weiner situation. Eric Cantor and RNC Chairman Rance Priebus both called for Weiner to resign from office and demanded that the Democratic leadership force him to do so. Yet both of them refused to take that position when it came to Mark Sanford, John Ensign or David Vitter, all of whom had worse sex scandals than Weiner and all of whom ran for office on a “family values” platform.

Now I couldn’t give a damn what happens to Weiner, but I do think people should be consistent on these issues regardless of political party. If you think that doing this sort of thing disqualifies you from office, that should be true regardless of party. And if you think it’s no big deal, then that should be true regardless of party. As usual, the video is priceless.

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