Citizenship

Focus on the Family

Family is the beginning of compassion, not the limit.

Lunatic Nation

Of course, Kansas is a metaphor for the entire nation, a country where people jump for the opportunity to seize the red winding sheet and eagerly spread the grain upon which the Four Horses of the Apocalypse will dine.

Leadership

But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
They will all say:
"We did this ourselves."

Ahnold Perspires and Aspires

The man-of-steroid-flabbed-muscles who squats in the Governor's Mansion appears to be ready and willing to reenact his roles as The Terminator in real life.

Politics vs. What is Important

Everyone talks Fear: the Bushites tell me that terrorists prowl the streets, armed with nuclear-tipped balsa-wood gliders; the Kerry-outs tell me that four more years of Bush will destroy the nation and offer no plan for reversing the situation.

Fight Fight Fight

The comment woke me up to the fact that I was nothing more than a gladiator in a pit, one who could never lay a killing stroke, never die, and never transcend the walls of the arena.

Never may Happen

In a year, I will be waving my hands trying to stop the Buffalo Herd from jumping off some new cliff and they will be there, doing it to me again.

The First Liberals

This bizarre history helps to explain the strange events of the Twentieth and early Twenty First centuries.

Abraham Lincoln

You -- an ordinary citizen -- could make an appointment at the White House and talk to the man himself.

A Fast One

Big Brother might be fishing because they don't like what you say about them. And in no time, you're a fish out of water, suffocating.

Political Soccer
Think of politics today as a soccer match. The wRong holds that they get a point every time they kick...

Participatory Democracy
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." Emma Goldman I was thumbing through my beloved Northern Sun catalog this...

Post Nine Eleven

We often say 'Live for today'. That's America's problem these days. We're all still standing at the Battery watching the twin towers come down.

Too Far and Not Far Enough

The Media went too far by broadcasting the scenes of the World Trade Center attack over and over again until people were crawling under their coffee tables, screaming as they thought they heard the Bernoulian screech of wind riding over the wings of jets plowing into their neighborhood.

But What Are They For?

There was plenty of complaining about what elements of the Left and the Right were doing wrong -- especially the Left -- but very little talk about what these self-professed Gen Xers actually stood for, except "We've got to bring the flag back" and "We've got to fight terrorism".

Return to the Center

Sorry for the skimpiness of these thoughts. Sorry that I haven't spoken about my love of eavesdropping. The heat has given me a headache.

Standing up to Conserva-Bullies

I only want clowns like this out of office. They want me dead

How the Russians Won the Cold War

Supposedly we lost in Vietnam. But what lessons did we learn? We're repeating it in Iraq and we're repeating the mistake of the Soviets in Afghanistan.

America's Thebans

The voters who support Bush and say that because he is the president he can tell no lies -- because when he speaks, they accept his reversals of fact as truths --are America's Thebans.

Flag Desecration

I was present at a flag burning, once.

Killing Off Our Symbols

The country is in ruins and as some of us strive to reconstruct the beauty and the good of what was, others pull down bricks from the walls of civil gold and smash at our heads.

Defining Patiotism

If support for actions is limited to war making, then I am screwed.

Fourth of July

Not talking about the Constitution on the Fourth is like having Christmas without the nativity story or a passover seder without questions from the children.

Naming Things

I propose a constitutional amendment -- to both the state and federal constitutions -- that would prevent the memorialization of any individual in the name of any government property for a period of fifty years following their death.

The New Slogan

Excuse me you may ask? How did you get to be socialist and libertarian?

Flag Washing

Americans see the flag as themselves. Do something to the flag and it is done to them. This is why they become so irate when you destroy it

Everybody point....

Unless liberals and progressives unite for a new vision and say no to the DLC, Bush will be succeeded by a Democratic Nixon who will give us new My Lais and new child casualties

J. Alfred Prufrock Politics

Or is it going to be more J. Alfred Prufrock politics: "Do I dare? Or Do I dare disturb the Universe?"

Rah Rah Doesn't Make for Change

The Republicans promise me "War and Oppression" and the Democrats, it seems, offer me "A Little Less War and Oppression".

Put this on your blog 2....

A voice is more powerful than any bullet because once uttered, words can be repeated over and over, whispered, shouted, or painted on walls. They cost nothing, you don't need to buy in. This is real liberty.

Put this on your blog....

GUNS DON'T MAKE FREEDOM.
PEOPLE DO.

Whoa Joel?

If liberals won't treat people like me as human beings and talk seriously about our grievances, it will not be our fault if we vote our consciences. That's what a thoughtful and informed voter is supposed to do.

A Rebuttal to Post-War(?) McCarthyism

Pardon me, but I am an American and I am exercising my right of free speech to criticize this adventure. No, it is not preserved by force of arms. It is preserved by using it fearlessly.

War Blogging

I'd like to confront an erroneous view that is going around in some circles, one that is epitomized by the folksy saying that there are three positions on every issue: yours, mine, and the Truth. I feel that this is a cop out, a way of avoiding adjusting your take on events when the facts don't support it.

Hope for the Species

A walk down the aisles and a thought given to the effort it took to assemble them quickly dispels the demon who chants "people are bad, people are bad".

Molotov Cocktails at Demonstrations

When peace activists saw such people during the Vietnam era demonstrations, they'd surround them with a mass of people and walk them over to the police to be arrested. Strangely . . . they were rarely prosecuted.

Notice to U.S. Counter-Terrorism Operatives

I think you should know that a major terrorist activity is set for March 17 2003 at the United Nations Building.

Little Boys as Hostages

It's time to apply Amnesty International principles here. Bush and his cronies must be held accountable.

New Battle of Lexington

Where now the embattled students stand

And let out the shout heard round the world.

Right and Left

From the perspective of God, facing them as He would a congregation, the Democrats are on the Right Hand, sitting with the Son.

Court Finis

I accepted a deal: $80.00 traffic school (as opposed to $200 to $300).

Court

Back to court tomorrow.

Court 3

Have I become so familiar to them? What awaits me? Merry recommendations of my courtesy or a scorpion's tail behind a door?

Court 2

The court and I have the same interest -- to see that things are done lawfully. We're allies in this. There is no reason to treat anyone with disrespect.

Politics of Despair

If we prevail, it will be because we did not give up when things looked grim.

Court

I shall remain polite and respectful.

Apathy or Want of a Purpose?

What good is a superficiality set against a superficiality?

The Passport Office

Its form led me to suspect a sanctuary more stupendous than that superintended by the Great White Throne in Zion National Park and more closely guarded than the Great Mosque in Mecca

A Good Precedent

One Ethel Darlinger tried unsuccessfully to get her insuror, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, to pay for her expensive chemotherapy treatments. It dallied, delayed, and ultimately refused. The day following her funeral, her husband received the negative reply to their last appeal.

Lott vs. the Wimpocrats

I've not liked Lott for years. I've been dismayed to watch his rise to the Senate leadership. Bet we won't ever see him run for president, though. He knows he could never stand the test of an actual majority of voters, much less a Senate elected by a true majority of voters.

Civics Lesson

The South County Court House is....laid out, as befits Orange County's ultra-militaristic outlook, like a pentagon, complete with an open ground zero in the middle.

9-11 and the Reichstag Fire

We've lost freedom and we've been told to smile smile smile.

Suppressed in the USA?

Question: if Anne Coulter can openly talk about having liberals shot, why wasn't Vidal's piece publishable in the USA?

Looking to the Real President for Leadership

President Gore, if you say the word, the People will follow.

The Booing at Wellstone's Funeral

The Democrats can win if they validate the just anger that people feel about the stolen election, the war against our will, and other follies of the Bush Administration.

It's the lack of Vision, Stupid!

People flooded to the support of the late Paul Wellstone when he put his fears of defeat aside and voted his conscience. They respected his courage. Wellstone had a program. The rest of the Party seems like a bunch of nodding dummies.

I did my duty

What the Democrats seem to lack is a sense of unity and purpose against a media machine. I fear many will give up now.

God Bless America

....and guide us....

Election Eve

You should vote as if democracy itself depends on it," says the email from People for the American Way. I intend to do just that.

Cassandro

Last year at this time, we worried because we felt that we could do nothing to stop terrorists from attacking us. This year we fret that we can do nothing to stop our government from doing whatever it pleases.

Oh dear

Somehow, the intent of the constitutional amendment is thwarted by substituting the sick for the sick.

Home of the Brave?

if war is about courage, why so many expressions of patriotism that suggest that the thing we should do is hide?

Fighting for America

The reasoning of the day seems to be: "Be glad that you live in a free country where you can say nice things about the president and not be arrested for it."

American Religion

The people who practice this aren't being Jews or Christians or whatever first. They're practicing the American faith which, conveniently, has as one of its tenets a mocking adherence to individuality ~as long as you don't face off against the American military machine and its ways of violence~

America the Seralgio

The eunuch who is supposed to be working for us and following our commands is running the show as he pleases.

Labor Day

While others howled about the baseball strike, I merely asked for the rest of the story: what about the toilet scrubbers, the counter clerks, and the groundskeepers?

Viva La Nonviolent Revolution!

...if you want to help a terrorist, the best thing you can do in his book is install more draconian measures.

One Nation, Indivisible

Over the last few generations....some zealots have allowed government encroachment, Roman style, into religious affairs.