I always get a kick out of this kind of thing

Ego and Self-Righteousness

How wonderful it is to be more "moral" than others. Glenn and others fill themselves with self-rightousness... "we're better, more moral... we seek truth and justice and we're... we're wonderful!"

NO, you're full of horse dung because you don't face the harsh realities of the political world.

No matter how many times anyone makes the rather self-evident point that political engagement, dissent, is a good thing, that a democracy is supposed to function in this way if it's to remain healthy, along comes someone armed with a ruler, ready to rap some knuckles.

Obama, the widely-cited "Constitutional Law Professor," has the DOJ support Bush's States' Secret argument (and the judges, upon hearing that say, "Huh? What was that?"), groups like the ACLU and people like GG stand up and challenge that continuation and--voila!--witness the "Ego and Self- Righteousness".

Anyway, pr2, I'm pleased that you cited that oft-quoted line used so much around here (and in my own household)

"we're better, more moral... we seek truth and justice and we're... we're wonderful!"

But then I remember the "harsh realities of the political world" which, in turn, reminds me to go out and clean the stables. So there's that.

if not impossible to choose but, nevertheless, I go with No Country for Old Men. Javier Bardem was superb, completely dominated every scene he was in, and the convenience store/gas station scene is one of the single best pieces of writing and performing I've ever seen.

But, man, they're all excellent movies, aren't they?

Erickson paraphrases C.S. Lewis

Having been banished to our world after Aslan chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too

tells us all we need to know about his, and RedState's, intellectual chops.

I'm sure the next time food quality and the role of the FDA, he'll argue that Green Eggs & Ham are in the offing.

here and there today's discussion and noted something from wgsalter, that

Is it a crime when you CAN stop evil (see American invasion of Iraq) and DON'T?

One can cite decade after decade, continent upon continent, nation against nation, nation within nation, peoples against peoples--in sum, humanity, and one will find constant conflict, mass murder, horrific acts and butchery, as we all know.

But I so rarely read a comment from salter or silenced or others of similar views address the human obligations the belligerents have in behaving humanely.

Why the assumption that, say, the United States has a moral duty to intervene but Rwandans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Iraqis, etc., (children that they are, apparently) merely possess the ability to kill but lack the wherewithal to not do so, or having done so, to stop?

If the GOP doesn't support healthcare reform, and they do not, that's their choice. The Democrats--and for the sake of argument, I'll assume there's more than a dime's bit of difference between them at the leadership level--simply ought to write appropriate reform legislation that has, at base, either a single-payer or public option.

That'd pass the House and would pass the Senate using reconciliation. As Ezra Klein noted

Under George W. Bush, Republicans managed to ram tax cuts, oil drilling, trade authority, and much else through reconciliation.

I deliberately walked away from teaching because I couldn't tolerate, day in and day out, the vicissitudes of adolescence. But I get to witness it daily out of D.C.

to have Goldfarb say of ThinkProgress

They’re a shameless bunch of lying, distorting, propagandists, which I respect, and I don’t know what MSNBC would do without them.

Then again, perhaps it's not revealing after all, since Goldfarb was probably looking in the mirror as he made the comment.

I frequently ponder what it must be like to be someone who's sole purpose in life is to rack up dollars by the bucketful, while scribbling nonsense that passes for analysis, ensuring that said nonsense will result in the vicious deaths of tens of thousands, millions, in order to keep those buckets of cash coming.

Disappointingly, the weakest section of the book ... deals with what may be the most important subject: the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping and its targeting of American communications. There is no discussion, for example, of the agency's huge data-mining centers, mentioned above, currently being built in Utah and Texas, or to what extent the agency, which has long been confined to foreign and international communications, is now engaged in domestic eavesdropping.

So the upshot is that despite Aid having documented decades of NSA shortcomings with it's primary mission--spying on other nations--Bamford informs us that the NSA and the geniuses in D.C. have put all their chips, and our money, on gathering intelligence on us.

Brilliant.

I await the day when, while one country is invading another or dropping "the bomb" somewhere, an NSA official will interrogate me about writing vaguely insulting things on GG's blog about an elected person.

Mr. timothy3--if that is your real name--can you explain why GG lives in Brazil? Don't you think that's suspicious? And your references to cats; our crack(pot) psychological staff has done numerous studies evaluating the type of personality--or should I say personalities timothy3--who exhibit this fondness. We have our cyber eyes on all three of you, my friend(s) so keep your nose(s) clean!