The award of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to president Obama was initially a big surprise and has since become a major embarrassment as his atrocious record on war and civil liberties becomes more apparent. A past award to Henry Kissinger, who really should have been charged with war crimes, was another major embarrassment.
A formal inquiry is now underway against the officials who [Read more…]
Via Jerry Coyne, I learned about a debate in 2006 in which Christopher Hitchens gave a full-throated defense of freedom of speech and on the evils of religion, and how religion survives by restricting or intimidating speech. His talk lasts about 20 minutes and is in four parts, the first of which is below, with the rest being prompted at the end.
I am becoming more and more of a First Amendment absolutist on free speech. I can [Read more…]
The Daily Show looks at how politicians pander to their constituencies.
This clip appeared on January 31, 2012. (To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
Listen to Newt Gingrich speaking yesterday in Cleveland:
“You think about an Iranian nuclear weapon. You think about the dangers, to Cleveland, or to Columbus, or to Cincinnati, or to New York,” Mr. Gingrich said. “Remember what it felt like on 9/11 when 3,100 Americans were killed. Now imagine an attack where you add two zeros. And it’s 300,000 dead. Maybe a half-million wounded. This is a real danger. This is not science fiction. That’s why I think it’s very important that we have the strongest possible national security.”
He’s right when he says that this is not science fiction. No self-respecting [Read more…]
… and will set soon.
The Republican nominating race continues on its bizarre trajectory.
I wrote a couple of months ago during the first Newt Gingrich surge that Rick Santorum had a right to feel aggrieved with his god because although he is a true believer, god had not granted him his moment in the sun the way that he had with all the other candidates (Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry) who also felt that god wanted them to be president. It is true that god being so fickle and a bit of a tease pulled the rug from under all of them, like he did with Tim Tebow, but at least they all briefly enjoyed the limelight. Even Donald Trump, of all people, briefly rose to the top of the polls, even though he never declared his candidacy.
But his god has answered Santorum’s prayers. Although none of the caucuses and [Read more…]
Yesterday a three judge panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision upheld the ruling of US District Court judge Vaughn Walker that Proposition 8 (that reversed the policy allowing same sex marriage in California) was unconstitutional. This ruling will likely be appealed to either the full Court of Appeals or the US Supreme Court and until such time as they uphold the appeals court ruling or decline to hear it, the ban on gay marriage in California will continue.
One of the things that really puzzle me is [Read more…]
It is no secret that it is an article of faith in the Republican party that tax cuts are always good and almost all their candidates had tax proposals to do so. Via Kevin Drum, I came across a handy chart created by the Tax Policy Center that showed the effect of these cuts and what is clear is that most of the benefits go to the very wealthy. Herman Cain’s plan even raised taxes on lower incomes while cutting those of the wealthy.
These people could not be more transparent about their devotion to serving the interests of the rich.
They say that at social gatherings one should avoid politics and religion to avoid disharmony. But this rule is frequently broken when people feel that they are with like-minded people where they can say things without fear of being contradicted. My social circle consists of self-described liberals who are all Obama and Democratic party supporters. They are people who view themselves as politically conscious and they raise issues of politics all the time and, at least in the US, politics is closely intertwined with religion, so that supposedly taboo topic comes up too.
During the period leading up to the elections of 2008, these social gatherings were pretty much a love fest, with all of us hoping that Obama would win and [Read more…]
John Hodgman of The Daily Show tells the 99% to be patient, that soon they too will be in the 1%.
To get suggestions on how to view clips on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post. This clip appeared on February 2, 2012.
Political cartoonist Ted Rall points out that it does not mean the same thing to everyone.
