Freedom of Speech

"A freedom of raillery, a liberty in decent language to question everything, and an allowance of unravelling or refuting any argument, without offense to the arguer, are the only terms which can render such speculative conversations in any way agreeable(p 49)."

A.A. Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury)
Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times

An Observation

The difference between a statesman and a politician is the difference between Susan Boyle and Britney Spears. The statesman looks unimpressive and performs well, and the politician is slick and, well, does not perform well. See also Plato's Gorgias, where the philosopher is compared to the physician and the rhetor is compared to the chef.

The Confused and Scuffling Bustle of Local Agency, Part Two

The trillion dollar stimulus was sold to us as a necessary job-saving measure. Now the government website Recovery.gov is claiming jobs were saved in congressional districts that do not even exist. This is not a mistake on the part of the government, it is a deliberate effort to decieve the American people into believing that this series of pork programs have done something they have not and will not do--save or create jobs.

Why Systematizers Are Wrong, Part Three

"In short, my lord, all these systems are so many enchanted castles, they appear to be something, they are nothing but appearances: like them too, dissolve the charm, and they vanish from the sight(p9). The philosopher begins with reason and ends with imagination. The historian inverts this order: he begins without memorials and he sometimes ends with them (p70)."
Henry St. John (Viscount Bolingbroke)
Study and Use of History

Remember Joe?

Last week, Frank Rich railed that by rejecting a liberal Republican in New York state, conservatives were "eating their own." Mr. Rich never showed much concern when his own party did exactly the same thing to liberal hawk Joseph Lieberman. (Remember my August 2007 blog "Hypocritical Kos," which was about a tasteless photo promulgated by Daily Kos showing the Senator's head at the level of President Bush's waist.) What is good politics for Democrats is barbarism for Republicans.