Democracy is as good as its participants. An informed, interested & engaged citizen is the lifeline of a healthy society. A liberal citizen is vital to our American democracy as a conduit for progress. This liberal citizen advocates humanism, scientific reason, and a progressive culture of life.
Obama's approval rates are in the low 40s, but as for handling the economy are even way, way lower. Another interesting poll (Gallup), perhaps more troubling is that the president is in a tight race with all top Republican contenders. What I sense is that the country is trying to decide whether Obama presidential material--someone who can lead not just delegate his responsibilities to Congress and try to compromise on the lowest possible denominator. The window for him to do anything to reverse this perception (with a great dose of reality) of an ineffective leader is closing.
The president came out swinging against Congress just before he went on a ten-day vacation on a posh island where he's photographed playing golf. Nice swing, Mr. President. Admittedly, he has a better swing with a golf club than he swings against his political adversaries. It's actually amazing that the GOP hasn't paid a bigger political fine for bringing the country to the edge of insolvency. That the GOP was actually able to fight for and win amidst a recession tax breaks for the very wealthy!
Soon, the GOP will argue for a tax increase. The payroll taxes have been reduced under Obama's stimulus package [how many people know this??!!] but are slated to go up next year. This has been money directly into the pockets of working people. But, it's been a reduction only for the workers not the employers, so why should the GOP be in favor of this? Oh, they said letting the Bush tax cuts expire would be a tax increase. Let's see how the handle this one. And, let's see how this president handles it too.
But, There's Hope in Extremism
I still think the GOP will go for Perry, unless someone else declares soon who may be stronger (I doubt it), or unless the Texas governor has a secret closet. If I were selecting one of the current GOPers, I'd pick Huntsman. But he's "crazy" as he Twitted recently. He believes in science, evolution, and other facts--but this is not what this extremist party wants right now.
So, you have Perry who wants to be President of the US and who doesn't believe in science, nor does he understand the meaning of the word science & scientific theory. Or, doesn't know how old the earth is. Do you? Does it matter?
Elections have consequences, and of course there are differences among candidates and the policies they pursue. They may be playing poker with our chips though, and this isn't good for our country. Leadership is important, and not only in implementing policy, but also to set the narrative. These are the stories we tell ourselves. People repeat slogans, ideas, myths, because they've been indoctrinated without bothering to analyze.
This is not something anyone wants to hear--that they parroting away. Yet, ask what do people mean by freedom ? Why do they reject evolution (one of the strongest scientific theories we have), climate change? Or, that they believe the earth is a few thousand years old? Or, that creationism [read: the Xtian myth, not any other] should be taught in public schools? Leaders who shared those beliefs would be marginal not presidential contenders!
Maybe this election will highlight those differences, that is, between a weak president and a right wing extremist. That's Obama's best hope, because he doesn't seem "to get it" nor does he seem to "go for broke" [as Savannah Guthrie asked Gibbs on Meet the Press] and fight for what's right not what the Republicans will allow him to have.
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What kind of society, exactly, do modern Republicans want? [...] They say they want a smaller government but that can’t be it. Most seek a larger national defense and more muscular homeland security. Almost all want to widen the government’s powers of search and surveillance inside the United States – eradicating possible terrorists, expunging undocumented immigrants, “securing” the nation’s borders. They want stiffer criminal sentences, including broader application of the death penalty. Many also want government to intrude on the most intimate aspects of private life.
"They call themselves conservatives but that’s not it, either. They don’t want to conserve what we now have. They’d rather take the country backwards – before the 1960s and 1970s, and the Environmental Protection Act, Medicare, and Medicaid; before the New Deal, and its provision for Social Security, unemployment insurance, the forty-hour workweek, and official recognition of trade unions; even before the Progressive Era, and the first national income tax, antitrust laws, and Federal Reserve.
They’re not conservatives. They’re regressives. And the America they seek is the one we had in the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century."
Santorum is Right: The Conservatives Won't Win the Smart Thinkers
The conservative disposition lies in the individual's own temperament, and his aversion to progress. The elites always used the conservative disposition of the masses to extract their loyalty. The "bargain" has been God, religion, morality, stability, the known-and-true. Primitive taboos against innovation and change. Education and tolerance of diversity are deadly threats to conservatism!
Donate to Good Charities
The Role of Government
You be the judge!
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Below, a place tea-baggers would love....
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Basics of Critical Thinking
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
On Occasion, Size Does Matter!
Sure, we can all attain a high material life with ever-increasing possessions. The whole world hopefully will become like us someday--by which time we'll be even more prosperous and wealthy.
What? We need 6 Earths to do that? Noooooooooo!
A Form of Child Abuse
I have an affinity for education, but I define education as a means to learning, not indoctrination. Every child starts with a blank slate, so it's up to the parents and the society-at-large to rear this young human being into a critically-thinking adult. When you teach religion as fact--like people literally turning into pillars of salt, snakes bite the sinners, the earth is only 6,000 years old, and all that garbage--then it's a form of child abuse. It's stunting the development of the human mind and turning people into obedient ignoramuses.
As it often happens, especially around xmas time, I get into discussion whether the US is a Christian country. [discussed here in an earlier...
Even Fools Should Have Free Speech! Idiocracy Further Exposed...
Dangerous Attitudes
"Forty-four percent of the American population is convinced that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead sometime in the next fifty years. According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry here on earth. It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen—the return of Christ.
It should be blindingly obvious that beliefs of this sort will do little to help us create a durable future for ourselves—socially, economically, environmentally, or geopolitically. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency."
With beliefs like this, who cares about climate change? Maybe Marge Simpson is right...
An Easy Step to Help the Environment
Do you get tons of catalogs that clutter your mailbox? Catalogs that you don't really use since it's easier and more up-to-date to simply use the internet? Here's something you can do to help yourself and save a few trees: Catalog Choice, a sponsored project of the Ecology Center, whose mission is to "improve the efficiency of catalog distribution by reducing the number of repeat and unsolicited mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices."
Give it a try. It's free & easy.
Quoting intelligence...
"Being a cynic is contemptibly easy. If you let yourself think that nothing you're working on is ever going to make a difference, why bust your tail over it? Why care? If you're a cynic, you don't have to invest anything in your work. No effort, no pride, no compassion, no sense of excellence, nothing...
..Any good teacher will tell you that aiming at the lowest common denominator is poor practice. In communicating anything, you do better if you aim slightly above the heads of your audience. If you make them stretch a little, they respond better. If you keep aiming at the dumb ones, you never challenge them and you bore the hell out of the bright ones. You also commit the grievous and pernicious error of thinking the that people is dumb. One of the most horrific results is that the people start to think so themselves."
--Excerpts from Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?
Understanding Evolution: We're Here 'Cause of It!
It's amazing that the majority of Americans--sadly, including students--not only don't understand the theory of evolution, but they reject one of the strongest scientific theories we have in favor of superstition, myths, and theories with no evidence or rule of reason!
And, this is a more serious explanation by Richard Dawkins..
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