My father-in-law (now deceased) sometimes commented that the United States needed an aristocracy to give a "face" to our nation. He suggested that this arrangement would allow the power-holding leaders of the United States to spend more time doing the hard work of government in a less ostentatious and more effective…
The Bush Administration has viciously attacked the press (e.g., the New York Times) for daring to question some of the Administration’s many abuses of power. The current scandal reported by the NYT concerns the Bush Administration’s decision to secretly monitor bank records.
Today, however, we celebrate the right of the American people to do far more than criticize their government. Today, Bush himself undoubtedly waved a flag and admired some fireworks to celebrate, as patriotic, the rights of the people to violently overthrow their government when their government fails them. In short, the Fourth of July is about recognizing that there is no more fundamental American right than the right of the citizens to violently overthrow their our own government when their government attacks their fundamental rights. On the Fourth of July, many people even celebrate the Fourth of July by references to God, suggesting that even God approves of revolution to take down unjust governments.
Given this undeniable meaning of Independence Day (what else could it mean), it is ironic that President Bush would criticize the right of the citizens and their free press to do something actually much less threatening to those holding powerful office: the right to investigate and promulgate information about government abuses.
But this is only one of the many abuses of this Administration. For others, see here and here and here, three of many extensive lists available on the Internet.
In this context, I found it interesting to review some of the …
Just look at our intense national confidence! Ergo, we are doing well as a nation! Not so fast, scientists have warned. There is actually an inverse relationship between one's own incompetence and one's awareness of one's incompetence. In a 2003 article entitled "Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence," psychologists…
This new portrait of the United States by the British, as reported by The Daily Telegraph. People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll. The United…
We are all descended from kings, according to a recent MSNBC article about experts who have combined computer science and genealogy. Even without a documented connection to a notable forebear, experts say the odds are virtually 100 percent that every person on Earth is descended from one royal personage or another. "Millions…