February, 2012 archive
Ex Party Lincoln 0
In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jackie Hogan considers how Abraham Lincoln would fit in with today’s Republican Party. The conclusion: Not a chance.
A snippet:
Strike Two: He didn’t advertise his faith. The debate over Lincoln’s religious beliefs is a heated one. But there is good evidence that he questioned Christian orthodoxy, perhaps not so surprising at a time when biblical verses were routinely used in defense of slavery (See Note–ed.), an institution he found morally repugnant. While it is true that Lincoln frequently evoked the Divine in his speeches, he never took up membership in a church, and certainly never spoke publicly about his personal relationship with Christ.
___________
Note: Sound familiar?
Tebow on the Knee 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., takes a look at the Tim Tebow fuss. After contrasting Tebow’s actions with what passes for normal amongst football players (grandstanding, hot-dogging, leg-breaking, and the like), he considers some of the reasons why Tebow’s actions have attracted so much attention.
He concludes that the reaction to Tim Tebow’s actions must be viewed within the context of those who debase faith (and the faithful) by using it (and them) to earthly ends:
Moreover, it becomes a whirl of God talk and God iconography, a cross as fashion statement, a WWJD bracelet, a football player kneeling on the field.
But that is faith externalized for public consumption, faith that runs the risk of being shiny and superficial. It doesn’t speak to the decisions we make, the people we are, when despair comes creeping into the midnight hour. Nor does it speak to any obligation toward the scabrous, the lost, the unwashed, the impoverished, the disgusted, the detested, the detestable. Indeed, those whose faith is most loudly externalized are often the ones most silent on that obligation.
Endless War 0
Steve Chapman discusses the efforts of the neocons and others who think bombs are always best to drum up another Great and Glorious War. A nugget:
(snip)
This panic requires a total disregard for everything we have learned during the nuclear age. Since World War II, assorted enemies and rivals have acquired nuclear stockpiles: the Soviet Union, China, Pakistan and North Korea. All of them have learned that they are useless as offensive weapons against other nuclear states and their allies.
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*I don’t think it’s a prevailing wisdom among policymakers, but just among those who monger and hunger for war, but they are a vocal lot with the ear of the press.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Foreclosures help you get back in touch with nature:
(snip)
The property, which is under foreclosure, is perhaps one of the most spectacular examples of blight caused by the collapse of Miami’s real estate market. But it’s not the only one.
QOTD 0
Charles Dickens, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.
Stray Thought 0
Once upon a time, I thought it shock rhetoric to gain publicity; but, as I watch the antics over birth control and women’s health care from the old white men who run the Republican Party and the Catholic Church, I begin to muse that the thought of being in the presence lady parts which are not under their direct, dictatorial control does, indeed, induce in those old white men some sort of visceral Freudian terror, which compels them to seek control said lady parts.
Taxing Reality 0
At Bloomberg, David Abromowitz points out the the history of the Boys from Bain directly undercuts Republican orthodoxy that taxing capital gains deters investment:
Bain’s haul is further evidence that fair tax rates don’t hold back profit-seeking capitalists, at least until those rates reach a point that no one is proposing. From 1984 until 1999, the top rates on capital gains — the profit from investments as opposed to compensation for work — were often at 28 percent, and never lower than 20 percent. Indeed, in 1987, under President Ronald Reagan, the 20 percent rate rose to 28 percent — a 40 percent increase in potential taxation of Bain investment profit. (Yes, Reagan did raise taxes, even on capital.)
This will, of course, have no effect on Republicans, since their tax policies are founded on one principle: the principle that wishing will make it so.
Great Moments in Wrong Ideas 0
More like “anger mismanagement”:
Talking about picking the wrong place to act out . . . .
Dustbiters 0
I forgot to check whether the FDIC was dining out on the town yesterday evening.
It was. Two more blanked banks:
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Foreclosures still going strong:
“Prices are falling not just at the lower end, but prices have decreased in almost all price ranges,” said Vinod Agarwal, an economist at the university.
Despite the steadily declining number of homes on the market, sales of foreclosures and distressed properties are driving prices down across the region, Agarwal said. Such sales accounted for 37 percent of all sales across Hampton Roads last month.
If I had sold (in)securities that were made up out of thin air liberally mixed with whole cloth, or if I had had unnamed third parties sign my name to applications for mortgages, loans, and other legal papers, then failed to have them legally filed, I would be in the pokey.
We’ve gone from “Too big to fail” to “Too big to jail.”
QOTD 0
Otto von Bismarck, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
From the website:
In 2008, Arturo de los Santos, a former Marine who lives with his wife and four children in Riverside, CA, fell victim to the economic crash caused by the greed of those on Wall Street. Like millions of Americans, he faced the prospect of mortgage default. Arturo was then encouraged by JPMorgan Chase & Co. to deliberately fall behind on his payments in order to modify his loan.
Then, natch, the bank foreclosed.
It’s the best catch there is.
Whistlin’ Dixie 0
Jeffrey (not Jonah) Goldberg analyzes the music from the chorus of Republican racist dog whistles. A nugget:
Mr. Kennedy offers the theory that this campaign’s dog-whistling may be prompted by a realization by right-leaning provocateurs that voters have become inured to charges of racism. I suspect another phenomenon has hastened this realization: A handful of black Republicans have abetted dog-whistling by making their own bombastic statements about the degraded moral health of the black community, the putative foreignness of the Obamas and the Democratic Party’s plantation-like qualities.