A new Salon.com book review gives us the depressing and infuriating answers to how much the Iraq adventure is costing the citizens of the United States. The book, written by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, is titled "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict." In…
I've spent a lot of time studying Republican political anatomy. You see, I'm not only an armchair anthropologist, but I'm a social neuro-surgeon (a brand-new expertise, created today). After careful review of all available relevant data, I have developed a precise chart (click on the thumbnail below) detailing each of…
I received this email from a regular reader in response to one of my responses to my Creationism in Florida Schools post:
“The real question that comes to my mind after reading this St. Petersburg Times poll is, should we allow popular demand to decide what is taught in science classes?”
How about for deciding what is taught in science, deciding tax policy, setting social programs, setting foreign policy, etc., etc., etc.? Should we allow popular demand to decide for these as well? I think we currently do, and I think it is with the same disastrous results. The next logical question is how should we pick the deciders? The problem is, we will never move to the next logical question.
What was considered ancient political wisdom at the time of the Caesars was: If the people can vote themselves bread and circuses, they will. Concentration of capital is the primary benefit of a taxation system. It allows big things to be done by a people of whom no individual member can afford. Government social programs (a form of insurance that used to be the province of churches, thus the tradition of tithing) are an example of dilution of capital. As is the Economic Stimulus Package that raced through our government checks and balances without much of either.
The examples of Ancient Greece, the Medici families (practically an empire unto themselves), the California legislature, and the Summerhill project (as described in the book by A.S. Neill) show that, …
I watched a few minutes of a Sunday morning Fox political program, and noticed that their fair and balanced coverage of presidential politics had several distinct spins. On the republican side, McCain is the anointed candidate. On the Democrat side, the race will be decided by the super-delegates. Every bit…
According to this video by JustforeignPolicy.org, Iran once was a democracy. Until a foreign power crushed that democracy in 1953. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJRcOF7rEfQ[/youtube] The take-away message from this video: it doesn't have to be the way it is currently portrayed to be between Iran and the U.S. The history of relations between…