bramble posted this.
bramble posted this.
Matthew Yglesias » Right-Wing Rediscovering Civil Liberties Concerns
Some conservatives are worrying out loud that “the Obama White House is collecting their anti-health care reform emails and compiling them in a master White House database.”
Evil! There should be formal legal constraints against such things!
Wait, wait, what was that?
It used to be that in this country we actually had formal legal constraints that would make it impossible for a president to behave in this manner. Then came George W. Bush, illegal surveillance, massive conservative mobilization in favor of the principle that illegal surveillance must go unpunished, eventual “centrist” accommodation to the view that illegal surveillance must go unpunished…etc, etc, etc
Oh, jeez. Rule of law FAIL.
bramble posted this.
A longer version of the Barney Frank townhall. In addition to having the pugnacity to fight back, Frank also takes Searle’s maxim seriously, namely, “If you can’t say it clearly, you don’t understand it yourself.” Frank understands his position on this issue. It might be informative to go through the YouTube clips of legislators talking about healthcare to see who knows his/her stuff and who is merely spouting talking points.
bramble posted this.
I’m taking inspiration from Barney Frank today.
bramble posted this.
bramble posted this.
Her mother’s hereditary autoimmune disease is treated with expensive transfusions of gamma globulin, paid for by Medicare. Her sister, Louise, was born with no arms and one leg, and is also covered by Medicare, the government-run, health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
“Adolf Hitler was for exterminating the weak, not just the Jews and stuff, and socialism — that’s what’s going to happen.” The Washington Monthly
You want my opinion on this nonsense? Death panels are much too good for some people.
bramble posted this.
“Did you see Obama bowing to the Saudi Prince yesterday?” “They financed his Harvard education,” said another.
“That’s his sugar daddy right there,” said a third.” Obama Birth Certificate Update - Latest on Obama Birth Certificate - Esquire
……..
(via robot-heart-politics)Worser and worser and worser still.
bramble posted this.
In other words, we’re conservative right up until the moment that it costs us.” Ross Douthat on social conservatism and the conservative bent in Judd Apatow’s movies.
The notion that the moral life demands personal sacrifice is embedded in almost every piece of literature that grapples seriously with the tragedy of human endeavor, and I wouldn’t concede that it is a specifically conservative idea, though exhortations about how society will unravel if individuals fail to repress their natural instincts is certainly more salient in conservative rhetoric.
bramble posted this.
Matthew Yglesias » What Is Libertarianism?
I think libertarianism is best understood as a kind of esoteric doctrine. There’s strong evidence to believe that people who overestimate their own efficacy in life wind up doing better than those with more accurate perceptions. It follows that it’s strongly desirable for society to be organized so as to bolster myths of meritocracy. This will lead to individual instances of injustice and to a lot of apparently preventable suffering, but over the long-term the aggregate impact of growth (which, of course, compounds) on human welfare will swamp this as long as we can maintain the spirit of capitalism.
bramble posted this.
Isn’t this the libertarian’s eternal conundrum? He longs to protect the individual from the crowd, but he can only achieve this by aligning himself with this or that crowd, which sooner or later betrays his ideals of individualism.
bramble posted this.
Can’t touch this.
How old am I?
I watched this the night that it aired, and I almost understood its political significance.
bramble posted this.
This Harper’s article has the back story.
bramble posted this.
Matthew Yglesias » Why is American Politics Uni-dimensional?
Quoting Krugman, “Congressional politics is left versus right — end of story.” And MT concludes, “The presence of a meaningful labor movement on the ground has huge implications for how politicians will vote on economic issues. And unions tend to be strong in the same places where people have relatively left-wing views on cultural issues.”
bramble posted this.
bramble posted this.
My my…Lovely use of line and brush stroke. Truly a work of art.
Hey, my Tumblarity dropped from 10 to 7 overnight. The SN&R readers have clearly cut me off like a cruel crack dealer with his pager switched off. So I had to reblog this to get my numbers back up.
