Nothing fries the circuits of the proud, ostensibly principled American progressive psyche to the same degree of fricassee as the Right (Troglodyte Division) in its fullest and finest bellow. From my safe, snowball throwing perch on the Canadian south coast, I read, mark, and inwardly digest the US presidential campaign detritus flung northward. I am constantly amazed at how readily Democrats rise to the bait cast so effortlessly by the baying conservative sportsmen.… [Read more]
“You have no idea how loud that is,” a man abruptly stated to a a younger man man listening to music on the train yesterday.
The older speaker continued, standing tall in his neatly pressed suit and well-worn baseball cap, angrily sighing between statements. “You don’t know, do you? You have no idea how loud and annoying that is.” He didn’t stop his verbal attack, despite confused looks from innocent bystanders, “It’s really like bees..just buzzing in my ear.” His tone was condescending and disgusted at best.… [Read more]
“We take care of our own.”
- Bruce Springsteen
Somewhere on the other side of the world, ably representing us as America’s most traveled Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton knows well from 2008 the Obama advantage as a campaigner. The burdens of the Oval Office in trying and recovering times did not diminish the optimism and confidence of President Obama.… [Read more]
Are you ready for the election cycle to end? When all is said and done, between each cycle we experience two years of debates, campaigns, SuperPACs, television commercials and online pop-up ads. That’s a bit much. The good thing is that all of this will come to a close soon, though not soon enough for those of us who’d like to see the decision made so that congress can get back to doing their job…whatever that may be.… [Read more]
This November when Americans go to the polls to cast their vote, they will have three presidential candidates on the ballot; Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Gary Johnson.
A few days ago Johnson, a member of the Libertarian party, was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Like many Americans, I had no idea who Johnson was.… [Read more]
The following post originally appeared on jesuswasademocrat.org (now http://jesuswasnotarepublican.org/, which will be launched on Tuesday) on January 14, 2012. Although it was acutely relevant during the Republican primary, it remains as relevant today. I hope you enjoy it!
The anti-intellectual bent of the Republican Party is really nothing new. … [Read more]
In some states, Evangelical Christians comprise more than 50% of the Republican electorate. In addition, the Republican electorate is, in 2012, almost exclusively right-wing in ideology. It is therefore accurate to say that generally, right-wing Christians make up the majority of Republican voters. The question is, “Is the term or the notion of a right-wing Christian an oxymoron, either literally or essentially?” Put in another way, is saying the term right-wing Christian tantamount to saying something like “gay Nascar?” Alright, alright, give me a break!… [Read more]
Just when you thought they had all the various groups of vulnerable citizens adequately disenfranchised, the Republican Party decides to stick it to students as well (now, they are attempting to stick it to women and children instead. I’ll explain in a minute). How can these guys and gals possibly get re-elected? It’s a mystery to many thinking folks.… [Read more]
Watching the landscape, or cityscape, pass by in the windows as music is playing too loudly in the background, and I sometimes feel like I’ve warped into a music-video world. It helps if the music is fast enough to keep time with the view, is catchy, but more obscure than pop (this isn’t about a sing-a-long), and bonus points for esoteric lyrics that require some level of reflection.… [Read more]
In one breath, they scream, “Class warfare! Class warfare!” In the next, “It’s statistically insignificant!” Well, which is it? They can’t have it both ways. The they to which I refer, is the ever-duplicitous and incessantly histrionic Republican Party. The it, is the Buffett Rule. If it is truly insignificant, then how can it be considered class warfare?… [Read more]
In a recent TED talk, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke eloquently on “The danger of a single story.” In her talk she spoke of how “the single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story”:
.… [Read more]
One minute, I’m proud as hell of this country, the good old U.S. of A. The next minute, I wish Jerry Garcia was still alive and we could all just float upon a cloud of patchouli while group-hugging all the way to drug-induced enlightenment. Sometimes, I get inspired thinking about how far we’ve come in such a short time (sans the drugs) in some respects; but as soon as I am again steeped in the issues of the current day, I want to grab this country by Florida and drag it out to the woodshed for a proper switching.… [Read more]
As Sarah Palin might say, “You betcha!” Maybe that was too easy… Perhaps a better query is, “Should governance be moralistic?” At least it’s a bit more challenging. Assuming that governance in the U.S. is all about “we the people”, and the “collective good” is the ideal, then the answer should also be a resounding “Yes!” Of course, if we were talking about some right-wing dictatorship (that we, the U.S., were so fond of aligning ourselves with a few decades ago and are now in the business of removing at gun point — oops!… [Read more]
Can’t we all just get along? Sometimes Progressives disagree; that’s human nature. But we need to learn to do so without being disagreeable. We need not concern ourselves with the divisiveness the Republicans appear to be going through. It’s time we got OUR house in order! Re-electing our President to a second term is the common goal that should unite us.… [Read more]
“R” or “D“?
After all of the primaries, debates and caucuses are over, in November the nation’s registered voters will pull a lever or toss their vote away if it’s via Diebold machines and it comes down to this: vote Republican or vote Democrat.
Much of the time, I don’t care for categories and classifications because, while they have practical applications, they often don’t take nuances into consideration.… [Read more]
One thing that the libertarians are extremely good at is channeling the anger at Democrats for the Republican misdeeds. The methodology is rather simple and this is how it works.
Although we have moved forward by one week, events we discussed this week may make us wonder if we’re going backwards. Here we are in 2012 and we’re revisiting things that took place during the McCarthy era: loyalty oaths that threaten our ability to function as a democracy and ramped-up requirements that threaten trample on voter’s rights.… [Read more]
What a week! We started the week with a national holiday, the annual celebration of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream reminds us that we have come so far as a nation but we still have a long way to go. When we take time to look at how far we have to push forward in order to make that “more perfect Union”, we have to take a step back to see where we went wrong.… [Read more]
When you enter your local AT&T or Verizon Wireless store, chances are you are not thinking about your local and national candidates running for office. And why should you? What you may not know is that a portion of the money you spend on a new iPhone or Android could go toward helping causes that you don’t support. … [Read more]
A DINO is not a dinosaur. A DINO is a Democrat In Name Only – those who align themselves with the political left in name but, at key voting times, leave some of us wishing that they, too, were extinct. That stated, the announcement by Senator Ben Nelson, ‘Democrat’ from Nebraska, that he will not seek re-election next term may turn into an example of liberals and progressives seeing that we should be careful of what we wish for.… [Read more]
