While Chris Hedges offers us a more traditional 'liberal christian' analysis, With Global Capitalism Exposed as a Sham, All the Global Elite Have Left Is Pure Force - Delegates from the world's wealthiest nations gather this week for G-20, walled off from protesters by a National Guard combat battalion recently returned from Iraq. In which he brings the ethical and moral authority to the discussion of secular economic isssues. Clearly these two groups need to get together and work out what they want their religious faith to offer the rest of the world.
Roots of Right-Wing Populist Rage--Christian Right offers us a critically important notion:
Listening to the rhetoric and reading the placards at recent right-wing events has led many progressive observers to conclude that "these folks are nuts!" Well, they are no more crazy or ignorant than most Americans (stifle that giggle), but they do live inside a bubble.That clearly is the important mark to remember. We all come into the discussion with some framework, some set of apriori's. Last night I was looking at the modus ponen ( if p then q; p; therefore q ) and how if you assert (p:"good thing happens"; q:"bad thing happens") one has a good reason to 'accept' that since a good thing happened, it logically follows that a bad thing must happen. Well, no. That major premise has to be shown to be TRUE for the form of the argument to take one where one did not want to go.
We all live inside our own bubbles in terms of where we get our information. If you grew up listening to right-wing libertarian talk radio and conservative Christian televangelism programs you might be able to break out of that that bubble, but it is difficult, and the exception, not the rule.
{ I will return to the problems of vetting conditions elsewhere. }So we will need to work on the 'presuppositional' positions, see, and hear, what people are both explicitly asserting, as well as which stack of implicit assertions were made as well. At that point we can have at least reasonable, and perchance informed discussion. Wherein we can at least define the actual points under discussion and/or disagreement. { allow me to re-iterate so that I am clear. I am not asking for "can't we all just get along" - but for a way to have a reasonable and rational discourse. }
Oh god no! Repealing Just One Special-Interest Tax Break Would Pay for Healthcare Reform. Guess Which One. Would this be a bad time to talk about stopping the RED Socialist MortguageKorruptions? Since clearly no truly wacko FeeMarketeer would want the massive disruption of the economy that would come by allowing tax deductions for mortguages. Now would they? I mean, we want that smaller government thingie where it is not pushing the socialist agenda of social engineering by socialistly offering RED Socialist TaxCuts to corrupt the Free Trade In Free Markets!!!! Think of the Children!!!
Pictures the first step on the road to Idolatrous Icons! The Missile Defense Debate In Maps - no seriously why exactly SHOULD the americans be defending the cheese eating defeatist kapitulationist cut and runners in EuroLand???
This could get interesting Watch This One Closely where we learn that a former finance chair for hitlary has been indicted for defrauding banks of some $300 MILLION! and as noted, MIA: Due Diligence shouldn't banks have been involved in some form of due dilligence about those whom they be giving the big bucks to??? Or in an age of deregulation, would banks regulating themselves be way too close to the whole RED Socialist RegulatoryThingie! You know, some sort of Today it is Self Regulation, Tomorrow it is the Gulags of Stalinism!!!
You think that is stoner, cope with Glenn Beck: McCain Would Have Been Worse For America Than Obama - yes, Glenn "theInfoTainer" Beck is, uh thingusIzing again.
On the other side, the fifth most influential blogger reports on Playing With Matches and Dave Neiwert rebuttal of critiques of his book.
It would also be nice to get to say, Our Only Chance to Improve Financial Regulation Is Now. There is also the companion point Labor Market Indicators - where there is this unpleasant discussion about how things were not always kinder and gentler back in the 1973-4 and 1981-2 recessions.
Should we get terps for the civilian sector too? Military’s Forgotten ‘Terps’ Get Some Love where we learn
These men and women — called “terps” in soldier slang — do so much more than the most sophisticated Phraselator ever could. Their cultural insights, and their ability to read the situation on the ground, can save lives.What? Persons who are not merely there to help with torturing folks? Persons engaged in constructive work?
== This may not be the real world, but it was what I found at the time. ==