It was clear that Broun didn't catch onto what Grayson was doing even on the last go-round. The Right is fat, stupid, and lazy; it has been governing through fear for so long that it hasn't had to defend, or even formulate, its core principles (if principles they be) in decades.

but this new look is very ugly. Red on red--not a good look.

jp

His Bob Dole schtick *never* gets old!

I'm trying to imagine walking around with the combination of moral certitude and paranoia that seems to motivate many of the posters here. The burden must be heavy. How do you even leave your house in the morning, zorkna?

The topics Juan Cole writes about may be a convenient fetish object for some of you, but they really matter and have consequences to the rest of us, in the real world. I don't know if he's always right about everything--I doubt it--but greeting his (or any writer's) every utterance with withering scorn, conceding nothing and sneering at his every semicolon, does nothing to promote any agenda but utter nihilism. And I think that in his calm, well-reasoned way Dr. Cole is trying to combat such nihilism, whether it is espoused by extremists in Iran, in Israel, or in the US.

that a large, complex society largely sustained by the countervailing forces and safety nets provided by government can adopt a stance of government-as-(barely)-necessary-evil, and the marketplace as always right, always smart. Because this didn't work in the actual America of the 1980s, deficits became a virtually intentional product of the game.

I find it difficult to forgive Clinton for not having at least attempted to challenge the basic assumptions of the Reagan lie, and propose an updated post-New Deal, post-Great Society consensus. A complex capitalist society needs a vigorous government to advocate for the citizen against corporate interests, and to protect the citizen from the vagaries of the "free" market.

but as an arts and humanities type I can affirm that the contribution of Guiness to humanities scholarship has been vast. This contribution should not be overlooked simply because it is unquantifiable. Many a keen insight has emerged at many an academic conference over a pint of this commendable product of fermentation. (How many such insights have been retained till the morrow is another issue entirely.) I'm happy to read of yet another example of humanism and science marching hand in hand--to the corner local.

is that there isn't a whole heck of a lot of Marxism being taught on U.S. college campuses, or so I would gather. In the '70s and '80s every economics department seemed to have at least its one token Marxist. OK, a few, er, things have happened since, but I would've thought that a school of thought that appeared as robust as U.S. academic Marxism did at one point would've had enough resilience to reinvent itself at some point since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Is the Marxian critique of capitalism going on under other names, or has the fall of state socialism in Europe permanently demonized anything deriving from Marx? Or will the current situation lead to a neo-Marxist revival in North American college and university economic departments? Just curious.

The artist was Jose Maria Sert. His mural replaced Rivera's.

And, Glennie lad? Neither of them was Italian.

and could no doubt have brought just as much relevance to the event. Those black pre-professionals? When they're accepted by law schools at Yale, Harvard, U. of Virginia, etc. it won't be because of anything the GOP did, unless you go waaaay back to 1865 or so.

I'll leave you four here to get acquainted. I have to see if the guacamole is running low.

How does one truly distribute the centers of information and power, if (with all the constitutional and technological tools at our disposal) we get such a concentration of power and influence as would make the British of the pre-Reform Bill era blush? And in many, or all, of the state capitals throughout this allegedly decentralized democracy, the same story is replicated in miniature? How many of our states and congressional districts are, in effect, rotten boroughs, with vast tracts of disenfranchised voters? In my own state, white Republicans are able to control the mechanism of government although they remain in the minority, since white and black Democrats seldom unite. Racial paranoia, resentment, and fear are used to keep the minority in power. The sons of the entrenched minority alternate between business and politics, while our severely sub-par public education system keeps new leaders from arising. Thank goodness we've moved beyond that Affirmative Action nonsense, as you point out, Glenn.

In Japanese, with French subtitles, and got about 40% of the dialogue. What that left me with was the amazing visuals. I have had recurring dreams about the scene where the Double steps Godzilla-like over a miniaturized Japanese landscape for years. I've subsequently seen the film twice, with English subtitles, but this is a film where the characters' body language, blocking, and faces collaborate with amazing visuals to tell virtually the entire story. Who in the West has ever attempted something like this? Into my Netflix queue this goes.