I will admit I am puzzled too coming off of Glenn's post. Are you saying that the left has no power or that it is wrongly applying its power through misdirected methods? And if it is through misdirected methods, what then would be the right methods? the non-incrmentalist ones? But what is that?

Or do you think we are in the grips of socio-historical forces and have no power? But you can't mean that because you spoke to Glenn of the need to apply power to the top, try that, etc. Or were you just being ironic in that comment?

Do you mean, as WT suggests, that the only effective application of power at this point in our history would be a sudden violent seizure of the means of production, etc? I guess you do have Che Guevara on your website :) Am I to take that as what you are getting at?

I was thinking that also, that it seems an overdrawn dichotomy: surely the process leading up to a breakthrough point seems incremental in comparison with moment of breakthrough, but is it not part of a continuous process? Like the old Zen metaphor, you keep at your meditation like someone grinding away on a piece of wood with an awl so that it seems like you have been grinding away forever and then pow! it breaks through. The breakthrough seems sudden but was not possible without the process leading up to it, etc.

I implore some geek genius somewhere to invent the ad hominem argument filter, so that I could run the comments on the internet through it. Think of all the lovely blank spaces I could look at.

Not aiming this at anyone in particular. Just really wishing for that ad hominem filter.

who make you despair, and then there are those like Matthew Diaz:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/04/04/diaz_gitmo/

How different from our AG, hey? Diaz for Attorney General.

Thanks for reminding me about that Twilight Zone episode. It is perfect for our times too (alas).

I second your call: that term "homeland" really creeps me out. That someone can use it without irony is really terrifying.

that info you brought up-- "everything PNAC said it wanted in Rebuilding America's Defenses has come to pass, and this report was written in 2000. (as a side note, it's the Project for a New American Century"--that is really fascinating.

And before someone is amazed at me because I did not know this already, I have already put on my clown nose.

Thank you, sir, thank you. You have said well something I have been trying to formulate for some time. I was initially attracted to Glenn's work from coming across his book A Tragic Legacy, which show how disastrous a manichean framework can be form understanding the world. To

for all! We are all bozos on this bus!

I got so excited by RMP's post my English got all mangled.

"Thank you, sir, thank you. You have said well something I have been trying to formulate for some time. I was initially attracted to Glenn's work by coming across his book "A Tragic Legacy," which shows how disastrous a Manichean framework can be for understanding the world."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unhzflofDK0

"Great accomplishment seems unfinished

But its use is continuous.

Great fullness seems empty

But its use is inexhaustible.

Great straightness seems bent,

Great skill seems clumsy,

Great eloquence seems mute.

* * *

Understanding the ordinary:

Enlightenment.

Not understanding the ordinary:

Blindness creates evil.

Understanding the ordinary:

Mind opens.

Mind opening leads to compassion,

Compassion to nobility,

Nobility to heavenliness,

Heavenliness to Tao."

--From Tao Te Ching

following your link, I find that twice as many have died from an accidental firing of a gun (by a non-terrorist) that from a terrorist attack in the last five years.

Looks like NRA members are more dangerous: lets monitor their calls pronto.

My Dad was one of the PATCO air controllers fired by Reagan. It was interesting being on the inside of all that and also seeing how the newspapers reported it. That was when it became clear to me that the press was controlled by the power elite. It was a real education to know what was going on with the air controllers and what motivated them and then to watch the evening news and read the newspapers and see the propaganda and the lies. I know for a fact that controllers struck because that were consumed with the need to reform the air traffic control system for the sake of safety. Many times I saw the stress put on my Dad and his friends because of the unsafe situations they would have to deal with: problems that could be addressed but just weren't being dealt with. Few realize even today how Reagan hurt our air system, and how it has never really recovered.

began to reach Mark Twain territory there today, Glenn. Well said.

"You also think that "news" people who report the White House propaganda should remain clothed?"

Those poor bastards think they are wearing the finest clothes and cutting such cool figures, and really they are showing themselves as such pathetic slobs, their lack of integrity naked before the world. What an ugly spectacle they make of themselves. How can you not pity them? Naked, out of shape personalities, fumbling at a job they are not capable of or worse, they do poorly on purpose for pay. I cannot understand the lack of shame. I have never understood people who have no sense of shame, no sense of honor. How horrible for them. I would rather be dead then be like that, and they go on so happy with themselves. Worst fate of all: to lack self-knowledge. They are already in hell.

I go from reading about all this to grading my freshman logic exams. Some of them are doing so poorly on it I fear they are fated to become reporters.