Despite the fact that I remain above the fray, and the fact that I don’t know who I am going to vote for, the current set-up has its inspiring moments. The current inspiration is the nation-wide journalistic dogpile with Dan Rather on the bottom of it.
Wishing I Could Vote for Bush
There are quite a few reasons, actually. But none of them push me over the line. After eight years of Clinton, it has been comparatively pleasant to have a government staffed with grown-ups. Add to that the fact that Jean-Francois Kerry is, in countless ways, insufferable. N’est pas? Couple this with the fact that Bush …
A Vietnam War Crime
Well, it seems that Vietnam is not only back in the news, but is back in a visceral way. Since we are all reliving this, and I had no real outlet for addressing any of it at the time, allow me just a few thoughts. I watched a few minutes of John Kerry’s 1971 Senate …
Showboat
One recent political surprise is the fact that the swift boat controversy has actually become a controversy. Normally this kind of thing just gets buried. I don’t know if this issue has feet because of Internet coverage, because of Fox News, or because there are some Democrats who don’t really want a Kerry win to …
Refuse the Benefits First
Another flap has broken out at the University of North Carolina, where a Christian student organization was denied status as a student organization because they declined to sign a statement that said non-Christians were welcome to be members and officers in the organization. Of course, this has caused something of a hissy fit on the …
Is Skulk a Great Word or What?
The word skulk just captures it, you know? For those who read this blog from other parts of the great wide world, I hope the posts on our local intoleristas have not been too boring. But it should really not be boring for anyone, offering, as it does, a window that gives us a view …
A Two Party System
I have to qualify my political observations on a regular basis because it is always and everywhere assumed that to speak the truth about the Democrats makes one a Republican. But I am not a Republican. I belong to that school of thought which maintains that we have a two-party system: the Evil Party and …
George Orwell, Call Your Office
One of the problems that Orwell had in his classic 1984 is that of a disjunct between the inhabitants of the world he was describing and the inhabitants of the world in which people were reading his book. In other words, while Big Brother held everyone in thrall with propaganda that was believable to them, …
Polling As Farce
In all cultures, at all times, a great deal can be learned by looking at what everyone assumes together — left wing, right wing, moderate, libertine, conservative, or anarchist. In our day, virtually everyone assumes the legitimacy of polling as a way of spot-checking what demos, the people, has to say at any given moment. …
Ronald Reagan, R.I.P.
The passing of Ronald Reagan is important on a number of levels. Commentators have noted everything from the impact on the current election, to legacy of Reagan’s anti-communism. There is much to add on all this, but in the current context I simply want to note one thing. This is coming from someone who voted …