Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Bits and Pieces - August 30, 2011

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has been looking at Rick Perry. She's a Catholic and is including his religious claims in her evaluation.

The moral basis for an extensive state. Daniel Little's response to the Libertarian/Tea Party selfishness.

This is the value of nonviolent action: the enforcers don't like to kill their fellow citizens.

Vacations and breaks make you more productive. So go ahead and read this blog.

A blog that frequently seems alarmist to me concludes that terrorists are unlikely to make or acquire WMD of various sorts. Good job, guys!

Three charts to send to your right-wing brother-in-law. Actually, it's my brother, and we've got a moratorium on this sort of e-mail, but these are tempting.

As I tweeted the other day, why should we believe anything Dick Cheney has to say? Conor Friedersdorf gives a long list of reasons why so few are willing to endorse Cheney's time in office.

1 comment:

troutsky said...

Both Perry and Little (and I suspect, yourself) cling to the notion of a revived social democracy. It is important to understand why the "Nordic state" and other European models (with Germany the possible exception) have failed or are currently failing.The economic now dominates the political, juridical and cultural spheres like never before and that cannot be legislated or regulated or voted back.Many blame "neoliberalism" as though it is some spectre that suddenly arose. It is simply capitalism in it's historical trajectory.

It is interesting that Robert Kennedy Jr. also brought up Teddy Roosevelt as an exemplar in an interview recently with Tavis Smiley. Teddy needs a critical appraisal.