Isocrates ~ 436-338 BC: “Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality, and anarchy as progress.” WikiCommons ~ Public Domain I am almost finished Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World […]
Déjà vu: Back & So-Forth Read More »
(va: To dupers and dupees everywhere) The Thinker by Auguste Rodinat the California Palace of the Legion of HonorImage from Wikimedia CommonsPublic Domain: Author, Karora On odd occasions, one can encounter contrition in the red-white-&-blue, balloon-strewn ballroom of 6-AM, post-convention chaos. That’s where I encountered PR. He was alone, seated in Thinker repose, a damp hanky drying
Confession of a Dupe Dealer Read More »
After nearly four centuries of Republican government, Rome began its century-long descent toward tyranny1 beginning about 133 BC with the murder of the Gracchus brothers.2 Perhaps the chief facilitator of that descent was the conservative/traditionalist group of elites in the Roman Senate—a group that came to be dubbed the optimates (“the best”).3 They claimed to
Beware the Optimates! Read More »
(or When are we going to open our eyes and ears that we might SEE and HEAR?!!)“Almost thou persuadest me [NOT] to be a Christian!”1 That was my first reaction upon reading an email forward sent by a good Christian lady. So here is my latest “whoa, woe, whoa!!!” This church sister introduced her “forward”
The Looming Great Divorce Read More »
[Source: Tartuffe by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière (1622-1673); Project Gutenberg EBook #2027; first written and performed in 1664. Oh,déjà vu!] CLEANTE [brother-in-law of Orgon]That is the usual strain of all your kind;They must have every one as blind as they.They call you atheist [or anti-American] if you have [differing views];And if you don’t adore their vain
ORGONITES & TARTUFFEITES: Oh, what a tangled, political web we have woven!!! Read More »
(*Addressed specifically to every soul upset by Déjà Vu criticisms & more generally to Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, Socialists, Communists, rebels, terrorists, groupies, nationalists, globalists, sectarians, and loyal dependents of every stripe—including those dependent on an employer’s pay cheque[1] or those intimidated by dependency into the façade of loyalty; etc., etc.)Every desired value has its
To Loyalists* Everywhere Read More »
Please, let us be honest. Yes, we can love America. We can cherish her foundational principles and democratic ideals, but to say that one has always been proud of America is to demonstrate: 1) a woeful ignorance of the documented facts and patterns of U.S. policy and action over the past 200 plus years,* OR2)
A Memo to Cindy McCain, et al. Read More »