American Exceptionalism is getting more and more removed from reality. We've gone from "We can do it!" to "It's off the table."
'Worse, whenever you’d visit China or Singapore, it was always the people there who used to be on the defensive when discussing democracy. Now, as an American, you’re the one who wants to steer away from that subject. After all, how much should we be bragging about a system where it takes $20 million to be elected to the Senate; or where a majority of our members of Congress choose their voters through gerrymandering rather than voters choosing them; or where voting rights laws are being weakened; or where lawmakers spend most of their free time raising money, not studying issues; or where our Congress has become a forum for legalized bribery; or where we just had a minority of a minority threaten to undermine America’s credit rating if we didn’t overturn an enacted law on health care; or where we can’t pass even the most common sense gun law banning assault weapons after the mass murder of schoolchildren?'
Per Digby (http://goo.gl/W33oci): _I honestly don't think that Americans, most of whom don't travel outside the country, understand just how unusual it is to be petrified that you are going to go bankrupt or be denied care due to money. The rest of the developed world has found a way to provide universal health care to their people. In this case we are exceptional. Exceptionally heartless._
I understand that petrification. From both sides of the geopolitical coin.
Many years ago, when touring the UK, I managed to injure myself. It was a stupid occurrence, it was my fault, and there I was in a foreign country, convinced I was in deep trouble. A significant laceration, possible infection, maybe even tetanus.
My wife (at the time) convinced me we should seek medical help. Mind you, this was in an era when you took traveler's checks to fund your time overseas. I was sure that we'd be in big trouble if we just showed up at a clinic and wanted care. How much would it cost? Could we afford it? How would it impact the rest of our vacation? Should I just grim and bear it and hope it would all turn out okay?
After some semi-comical tracking down of a medical facility in that pre-Google Maps era, we found ourselves at a clinic on a Saturday evening.
And they took me in, and they did the proper stitching and dressing and treatment. And when I asked how much it cost, it was, hey presto, nothing.
Health care was obviously important in the UK. For anyone. Even for a furriner like me.
I do not discount or discard the issues that the British NHS has, for a variety of reasons. But from that date I found myself with a profound appreciation for the idea that people who are hurt, injured, ill, deserve to get some sort of treatment for same, and that somehow we, as civilized individuals, should figure out how to make that happen.
In later years, I encountered just what sort of health care system we in the states had, and how the whims or margin targets of a for-profit insurance company could dictate exactly what treatment one could receive, regardless of what one actually needed. And beyond the lie it put to the whole "death panels" question (they already exist behind corporate doors, my friend), it made clear to me the very distinct difference between having "the best medical system in the world" and having the financial resources to actually partake of it.
"That you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me."
Reporting on the US as if it were a foreign nation. Delightful (and, of course, depressing).
I did enjoy the reference to "Sen. Ted Cruz, a young fundamentalist lawmaker from the restive Texas region, known in the past as a hotbed of separatist activity."
❝ The typical signs of state failure aren’t evident on the streets of this sleepy capital city. Beret-wearing colonels have not yet taken to the airwaves to declare martial law. Money-changers are not yet buying stacks of useless greenbacks on the street.
But the pleasant autumn weather disguises a government teetering on the brink. Because, at midnight Monday night, the government of this intensely proud and nationalistic people will shut down, a drastic sign of political dysfunction in this moribund republic.
The capital’s rival clans find themselves at an impasse, unable to agree on a measure that will allow the American state to carry out its most basic functions. While the factions have come close to such a shutdown before, opponents of President Barack Obama’s embattled regime now appear prepared to allow the government to be shuttered over opposition to a controversial plan intended to bring the nation’s health care system in line with international standards. ❞
How Would We Report on the Government Shutdown if It Were Happening in Another Country?
This is the first installment of “If It Happened There,” a regular feature in which American events are described using the tropes and tone normally employed by the American media to describe events in other countries. WASHINGTON, United States—The typical signs of state failure aren’t evident on the streets of…
Actually kind of an interesting set of demographic numbers from the Census Bureau:
1. Non-immigrant, non-Hispanic whites in the US decreased in net population by a small amount (deaths outrunning births). 2. The majority of births in the US were to non-white demographics.
Whites (non-Hispanic) are expected to drop in the US from majority to plurality in the next three decades or so.
(Insert hand-waving over discussion of what constitutes "race," etc.)
Oh look. The Birthers are already playing with the new toy President Obama gave them. – I think it was probably a reasonable timing to convince Hawaii to make an exception to provide the long form birth certificate. But the point was not so much to shut up the birthers (who are so deranged that they’ll come up with new conspiracy theories) as to finally put paid to the “why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” crap. Which, one would hope, would further discredit (to the rest of the nation) the whole right-wing zaniness that is birtherism.
Ayn Rand and the Conservative Contradiction – “Any politician or media figure who claims to be an admirer of both Rand and Jesus is either hopelessly confused or an out-and-out liar.”
The Ancient Japanese Tsunami Stones Kept Villagers Alive [Japan] – It’s fashionable to poke fun at tradition and ancient community wisdom. And there’s sometimes reason for that. But it’s worth at least considering they might know what the heck they were talking about …
The REAL Death Of The Music Industry – Yeah, I thought the original chart looked odd. As for me, I never bought singles before music went digital. Now it’s all I ever buy.
After writing a post for the AFA … er, excuse me, on the AFA website, but disavowed by the AFA, ahem … about how the Native Americans deserved to have their land taken by the Europeans because they were brutal, savage, pagan perverts (just like the Canaanites), you found, Bryan, that people just couldn’t handle the truth and the AFA had to yank the post down. Even though you argued that you’d been correct, but the nation just isn’t mature enough to hear the truth, you seemed willing to let sleeping rabid dogs lie.
Yeah, I know, that drew a chuckle from me, too, Bryan. Because, as we’ve seen with Gays and Muslims, once you sink your teeth into a target, you’re never willing to let go until said target is stoned on the outskirts of town.
Pocahontas was the daughter of a powerful native American chief, Powhatan, at the time of the settlement of Jamestown. According to John Smith, Pocahontas intervened to save him from certain death at the hands of her own father.
She doesn't quite look 10 here. But that's okay, because he doesn't look 42, either.
Yes, Bryan, we’ve all read the elementary school history, as well as seen the Disney movie. That Smith didn’t record this tale until long after it supposedly happened, and told a similar story about being similarly rescued from the Turks in Hungary, casts a bit of doubt on the whole foundational tale, Bryan.
She also did much to help the early colony of Jamestown avoid both starvation and attack from the surrounding tribes, by bringing both food and information during what became known as “the Starving Time.” In fact, John Smith subsequently said that, “next, under God, [she] was still the instrument to preserve this Colonie from death, famine and utter confusion.”
She subsequently was captured by English settlers, who intended to exchange her for English prisoners who had been taken into captivity by the Algonquins, or Powhatans, who also helped themselves to various weapons and tools. The Powhatans, along with many of the indigenous peoples, seemed to have little respect for private property, including boundaries, and little regard for obedience to the eighth commandment and its prohibition against stealing. (On the Oregon Trail, the primary problems travelers suffered from the indigenous peoples were not massacres but thievery.)
Yes, well, theft and stealing and taking of various things (coughLANDcough) seems to be pandemic among, oh, humans.
Chief Powhatan released the prisoners, but did not return the weapons and tools which his people had stolen, so the English held on to Pocahontas. During a chance encounter with the Algonquins, Pocahontas rebuked her own father, accusing him of valuing her “less than old swords, pieces, or axes,” and informed him that she preferred from that time forward to live with the English.
During that year-long wait, she was treated with “extraordinary courteous usage,” according to colonist Ralph Hamor. A local minister by the name of Alexander Whitaker taught her about Christianity and helped her to learn English. She became a follower of Christ, was baptized, and took the Christian name “Rebecca.”
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
Hey, Bryan, how would you feel about an American Christian woman held captive (even well-treated while in captivity) by Muslims who, over time, rebuked her father for not giving into the demands of her captors, and converted to Islam, taking on a new name and marrying one of her captors.
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
The rotunda of the United States Capitol since 1840 (before political correctness began radically distorting American history) has featured a huge mural by John Gadsby Chapman which pictures the Christian baptism of Pocahontas.
The explanatory note that accompanies the reproduction of this painting on the website of the architect of the U.S. Capitol indicates that Pocahontas, or Rebecca, “is thought to be the earliest native convert to Christianity in the English colonies.”
Yes, remarkable that Christians in the mid-19th Century, in the midst of ongoing conflict with the Native Americans, would seized on to a mythologized Indian woman who converted to Christianity as an exemplar of what they wished all the Indians would do.
Her marriage to John Rolfe shortly after her baptism into the Christian faith established peaceful relations between the Tidewater tribes and the early colonists until her death in 1617.
Yes, intermarriage often calms diplomatic problems.
But Chapman included, in the shadows of the painting, intimations of trouble to come. Pocahontas’s regally dressed brother turns his head away from the ceremony, while an uncle of Pocahontas sits sullenly on the floor, refusing even to watch. Upon Powhatan’s death in 1618, this uncle replaced him as chief and led the Pamunkey River massacre of 1622 in which 347 colonists, about a third of the population, were cut down in cold blood.
Which massacre was driven by colonists encroaching on their lands and the murder of said uncle’s chief advisor. Y’know, kind of like that whole “illegal aliens” thing the Right keeps getting so stirred up about.
After her baptism and wedding, Rebecca traveled to England with her new husband, where she was honored and feted as a princess, the daughter of a king in the New World. She met King James, the King James of Bible fame, while there.
She was feted as a princess, though she actually wasn’t. She was also great publicity for the Virginia Company as an example of an Indian who was not hostile, increasing the chances that folks would sign up to sail to the colony.
John Smith, who by then was living in England, wrote to Queen Anne in anticipation of Rebecca’s visit, remarked on her “present love to us and Christianity,” and urged the Queen to treat her well during her time in England. And treated well she was.
Interestingly, Pocahontas had been told that Smith was dead, before discovering he was alive after she arrived in England. Smith’s letter to Queen Anne was less generous than a warning that mistreatment of Rebecca might lead to renewed hostility back in the Americas.
Rebecca reunited with Smith during her stay in England, although she apparently was miffed he hadn’t stayed in touch. But she told him forthrightly, “I tell you then,…you shall call me child, and so I will be for ever and ever your countryman.”
Actually, there’s a very weird interchange between the two of them where she calls him “father” and he dislikes the title because he believes she outranks him in royalty. Plus, it kind of highlighted how he was 30-odd years older than her.
It’s arresting to think of how different the history of the American settlement and expansion could have been if the other indigenous peoples had followed Pocahontas’s example. She not only recognized the superiority of the God whom the colonists worshipped over the gods of her native people, she recognized the superiority (not the perfection) of their culture and adopted its patterns and language as her own.
Yes, if only the Europeans had kidnapped and held hostage among them all of the Native Americans, then they might have come, Stockholm Syndrome-wise, sympathetic to their captors and converted to their religion.
Instead, those silly Europeans decided it was easier to simply exploit any hospitality they received, and then take the lands they wanted, killing any Native Americans who got in the way. Those who survived, converted or not, could always be shuffled off to another tract of land, further away. Certainly, Christian or not, they weren’t fit for European company.
Yeah, those silly Indians.
In other words, she both converted and assimilated. She became both a Christian and an American (technically, of course, an Englishman). She melded into European and Christian civilization and made her identity as a Christian and an Englishman her primary identity. She was the first manifestation of what became our national slogan, “E Pluribus Unum,” “Out of many, one.”
Out of Many, One
Except that “Out of Many, One” implies that the “One” carries aspects of all the “Many,” not just aspects of the “One” that’s in charge. That would be like a Rhode Islander arguing that “E Pluribus Unum” meant that folks from Massachusetts and Virgina both should be more like Rhode Island.
By the way, didn’t Obama come under fire from the Right, Bryan, for mentioning that “national slogan” as our “national motto,” rather than the official motto adopted in the 1950s, “In God We Trust”? Sounds like he got his slogans and mottos mixed up, right, Bryan?
Had the other indigenous people followed her example, their assimilation into what became America could have been seamless and bloodless. Sadly, it was not to be.
So had all the Native Americans converted to Christianity, and learned to speak English … the Colonists would have left them alone and not taken their land? Really, Bryan? That’s … a remarkable speculation.
Pocahontas was the Rahab of the American continent.
Oh, here we go with the “Native Americans as Canaanites” schtick again.
Um, Brian, in case you hadn’t notice, even if one grants the idea that the Canaanites were the on the wrong side of God’s scorecard because he promised the Holy Land to the Israelites, there’s nothing in the Bible that talks about bloody conquest and might-makes-right as part of a Manifest Destiny for the United States. There’s nothing in Jesus’ words (or any other New Testament author) that indicates that military force should be used to exterminate those who don’t turn to Christ, or that treaties made with same can and should be broken.
The United States is not Palestine. Though I’m sure you’d prefer all the Muslims in this country have to flee to refugee camps.
Rahab, you will remember, was a Canaanite woman who lived in Jericho at the time of the Israelite conquest. She placed her faith in the God of Moses, rather than the gods of Canaan, provided material assistance to the coming settlers, and assimilated into the nation of Israel. She played a highly honored role in Israel’s history as a result, occupying a place in the bloodline that led both to King David and to Christ.
She had access to the same truth her follow Canaanites did, but she chose to embrace it while they rejected it. The results for her native countrymen were both avoidable and tragic.
Burial of Indians in a mass grave, Wounded Knee, 1891
Hey, Brian, maybe they didn’t agree that it was the truth. The only proof that you seem to offer that it, in fact, was the truth was (a) the holy Scripture recorded by the winning side, and (b) that the Israelites won. Hardly convincing, dude.
Alas, not enough of her fellow indigenous peoples were willing to follow in Rebecca’s footsteps, and a long and sordid trail of bloodshed and violence followed, which lasted until the turn of the 20th century.
Yes, the bloodshed and violence that followed until the turn of the 20th century was all the fault of those zany indigenous peoples and their unwillingness to assimilate. Who’d have thunk it?
But Rebecca, the former Pocahontas, showed us what could have been.
Perhaps if they’d known there would be a Disney movie in the offing for them, Bryan, they might have behaved differently.
* * *
Sometimes it seems curious as to why I spend so much time and effort fisking a dolt like Bryan Fischer. I mean, the dude is clearly a fringe Right nut-job, right?
The problem is, Fischer is a prominent voice in various prominent conservative organizations, including his parent American Family Association. Aside from the question of when he is/isn’t talking for the AFA, he is the voice (written and broadcast) of that group. He appears on stage regularly with a variety of conservative movers and shakers.
In other words, he’s not a fringe nutjob. He’s (God help us) a prominent part of the activist GOP base.
So the more I can heap scorn and ridicule upon his head, the greater the chance that someone, somewhere, might feel some doubt when Fischer is spewing his venom toward the gays, the Muslims, the Native Americans. And to the extent that his beliefs and arguments are picked up and echoed by others, someone has to speak out against this lunatic.
It’s been far too long since I did an overly-long post elucidating how you are a dolt. Not that you haven’t done doltish things in the interim, but mostly they’ve been that dull, boring “Oh, the Gays are Anti-Christian Faggots” and “Oh, the Muslims are Anti-Christian Terrorists” varieties, and after a while mocking that doltiness does, in fact, get old.
(By the way, Bryan, what’s with that “Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio” disclaimer at the end of all your articls? Has the AFA ever kept you from posting your doltishness on their website, or broadcasting your doltitude on their radio show, or listing you as their Number One Blogger, or identifying you as Director of Issue Analysis? Come on, AFA, man up!)
In all the discussions about the European settlement of the New World, one feature has been conspicuously absent: the role that the superstition, savagery and sexual immorality of native Americans played in making them morally disqualified from sovereign control of American soil.
Maybe that’s been absent from the discussion (since the actual conquest of the New World by European immigrants and their descendants, at which time it was bandied about as a convenient excuse) largely because it’s nonsensical, racist, and goofy.
There is no such thing as “moral disqualification” (or qualification) for sovereignty. You even mention a different set of qualifications for sovereignty in your next paragraph, Bryan, and morality has nothing to do with any of them.
International legal scholars have always recognized that sovereign control of land is legitimately transferred in at least three ways: settlement, purchase, and conquest.
Hmmm … does that mean the huge number of undocumented workers in this country have a claim to sovereignty over it? I suspect you’d disagree.
The Siege of Vienna was just the Ottoman Turks trying to establish their legitimate sovereignty, right, Bryan?
Does that mean that foreign investors (Chinese, Saudis, whomever) in debt or property have a legitimate claim to “sovereignty” over the US?
Is conquest a “legitimate transfer” of sovereignty? Effective transfer, sure, but generally considered unlawful. Or did the Ottomans advancing into Central Europe have a legitimate sovereignty over the lands they conquered? (I suspect you’d disagree, since they were Muslims = Anti-Christian Terrorists.) If we invaded, say, England and, at gunpoint, took over Cornwall and populated it with Americans, would we have legitimate sovereignty through conquest and settlement?
Europeans have to this day a legitimate claim on American soil for all three of those reasons.
Geez, Bryan … racist much?
Because, you know, we’re not Europeans (often used as perjoritive term by the Right when it deals with “socialism” and the like, but still proudly hailed by the Right as a synonym for, y’know, “Whites” … especially when it’s Northern Europeans being referenced — Slavs and Latins need not apply).
They established permanent settlements on the land, moving gradually from east to west, while Indian tribes remained relentlessly nomadic.
No permanent settlements to be seen here! Move along!
Silliness. Many American Indians (I’ll go ahead and use that term rather than constantly correct you with “Native American” or “First People” or the like) had permanent settlements. This was more true, in the 16th Century, in Central and South America, but even in North America there were permanent settlements, as well as what were considered tribal lands.
Yes, there were nomadic tribes as well, esp. in North America. The population there was, technologically, some thousands of years behind Europe, meaning hunting-gathering and nomadic lifestyles. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t exercise “sovereignty” — just that it was militarily easier for the “conquest” method of the Europeans and Americans to succeed.
Does Might Make Right, Bryan?
Ah, but to jump to the end, that’s the point. You think it does, because cultural and “sovereignty” success is, to your mind, a matter of God’s blessing. God blesses a country, thus it succeeds. Indeed, even if it succeeds by conquest and an endless array of broken treaties and death, that’s okay, because its success demonstrates God’s blessing. Right Makes Might. Might Demonstrates Right.
So Israel is justified in its conquest of Canaan because God said it was the thing to do, and they succeeded, so they were Right. Killling and enslaving is all made Right because God gave His blessing, you would argue. Similarly, the Exceptional Nation known as the United States must, because it has God’s blessing, succeed, justifying anything done against the American Indians (search for moral justification here), and we know this because success can only come with God’s blessing.
Which makes it odd, Bryan, that you worry about the Islamic conquest of the United States. After all, if they succeed, then it’s God’s … er, Allah’s will, right?
Much of the early territory in North American that came into possession of the Europeans came into their possession when the land was purchased from local tribes, Peter Minuit’s purchase of Manhattan being merely the first.
Yes, sometimes European settlers purchased territory. If they’d done that with all their territory, then we’d today consider it fair, and just. Mutual decision-making, negotiating, treating one another fairly.
And the Europeans proved superior in battle, taking possession of contested lands through right of conquest. So in all respects, Europeans gained rightful and legal sovereign control of American soil.
Sure the Romans sacked Jerusalem in AD 70 ... but that was just reestablishing their rightful and legal sovereign control, right, Bryan?
Again with the Might Makes Right. The Mongols “rightful and legal sovereign control” of most of Asia. Germany’s quest for Lebensraum gave it “rightful and legal sovereign control” of Central Europe. The Aztec hegemony over Meso-America gave it “rightful and legal sovereign control” over the tribes it conquered. The Roman had “rightful and legal sovereign control” over Palestine. Yay!
But another factor has rarely been discussed, and that is the moral factor.
Like the “moral factor” of the Mongol, German, Aztec, and Roman conquests.
In the ancient tradition of the Hebrews, God made it clear to Abraham that the land of Canaan was promised to his descendants. But he told Abraham the transfer of land to his heirs could not happen for 400 years, for one simple reason: “[T]he iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Gen. 15:16).
The Amorites, or Canaanite peoples, practiced one moral abomination after another, whether it was incest, adultery, sexual immorality, homosexuality, bestiality or child sacrifice, and God finally said “Enough!”
We know this, because the people who conquered them (the Israelites) said so. Whatever a conquering people say about the people the conquer must be true, because conquerers have “rightful and legal sovereign control” of the conquered territory and, obviously, have God’s blessing. QED.
By the time he brought the nascent nation of Israel to the borders of the land flowing with milk and honey, he had already been patient with the native tribes for 400 years, waiting for them to come to the place of repentance for their socially and spiritually degrading practices.
Isn’t God omniscient? Why would God be “patient … for 400 years”? Didn’t He already know the outcome?
His patience was not rewarded, and finally the day came when the sin had reached its full measure. The slop bucket was full, and it was time to empty it out. Israel under Joshua was God’s custodian to empty the bucket and start over.
Yes, the Canaanites were slop buckets. Classy!
(Waiting for Bryan to draw a connection between slop buckett Canaanites and Muslim Palestinians. Maybe later.)
The native American tribes at the time of the European settlement and founding of the United States were, virtually without exception, steeped in the basest forms of superstition, had been guilty of savagery in warfare for hundreds of years, and practiced the most debased forms of sexuality.
Hmmm.
“Basest forms of superstition” means, I assume, they weren’t Christian.
“Guilty of savagery in warfare for hundreds of years” surely stands on contrast to the Europeans who were … guilty of savagery in warfare for hundreds of years (but with gunpowder!).
“Practiced the most debase forms of sexuality.” Um … I’m sure Bryan will tell us all about it later.
One of the complaints listed by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence was that King George “has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
No European religious-based "savagery" or "constatt warfare" to see here ... move along ...
Unlike the Israelites who slew (according to the Old Testament) “all ages, sexes and conditions.”
The Lewis and Clark journals record the constant warfare between the nomadic Indian tribes on the frontier, and the implacable hostility of the Sioux Indians in particular.
As opposed to the Germans and the French, or the French and the English, or the Catholics and the Protestants, or …
The journals record the morally abhorrent practice of many native American chiefs, who offered their own wives to the Corps of Discovery for their twisted sexual pleasure. (Regrettably, many members of the Corps, Lewis and Clark excepted, took advantage of these offers and contracted numerous and debilitating sexually transmitted diseases as a result.)
Ah. Hospitality. Sort of like Lot offering up his daughters to the men of Sodom, rather than violating hospitality he had promised to the visiting angels. How morally abhorrent!
The native American tribes ultimately resisted the appeal of Christian Europeans to leave behind their superstition and occult practices for the light of Christianity and civilization.
“Hi. We’re here to take your land. And we’re violating all the treaties we sign with you. Hey, want to change your religion to ours? Really, He’s a cool, kind, beneficent deity whose teachings we adhere to vigilantly.”
Manifest Destiny ... hey, that kinda looks pagan, don't you think?
Yeah, that’d go over well.
They in the end resisted every attempt to “Christianize the Savages of the Wilderness,” to use George Washington’s phrase.
They rejected Washington’s direct counsel to the Delaware chiefs in 1779, “You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ.”
Thomas Jefferson three times signed legislation appropriating federal tax dollars for the evangelizing of the Native American tribes. It all came to nought, as one tribe after another rejected the offer of spiritual light and advanced civilization.
Jefferson (any opinions about his editing of the Bible, Bryan) and Washington (any opinions about his rather distant, non-participating church attendance, Bryan) were leading nations whose expansion depended upon assimilation or removal of the Indian population. You don’t think, Bryan, they might not be the most unbiased judges of the matter, do you?
Missionaries were murdered in cold blood, including Marcus Whitman, who was tomahawked to death in his own house in 1848 by the Cayuse and Umatilla Indians in what became the Oregon Territory.
I’ll be the first one to note that the idea of the Indians as Pocahontas-like peaceful nature-dwellers is silly. The American Indian tribes were as prone to warfare and violence as any other group of humans.
The Inquisition hunts down Cathars. Thank goodness Indian savages weren't involved!
Of course, the treatment of heretics and folks of “different” religions within, oh, say, Europe is pretty exciting and violent, too. Whether it’s the slaughter of heretical groups like the Cathars or the Waldensians, or the warfare between Catholics and Protestants (consider the civil wars and near-pogroms of opposing faiths in England itself).
Were the American Indians any more violent and savage and cold-blooded than the anti-Protestant crusades of “Bloody Mary”? Or the persecutions of the Huguenots?
God explained to the nation of Israel that because of the “abomination(s)” of the indigenous Canaanite tribes, the land had become unclean and “vomited out its inhabitants (Lev. 18:25).”
Yes, the Israelites certainly wrote that God said that to the Israelites.
Is this to say the same holds true for native American tribes today? In many respects, the answer is of course no. But in some senses, the answer is yes. Many of the tribal reservations today remain mired in poverty and alcoholism because many native Americans continue to cling to the darkness of indigenous superstition instead of coming into the light of Christianity and assimilating into Christian culture.
We all know Real Christian Americans aren't poor.
If only they were good European Christians, the wouldn’t have to suffer the poverty and alcoholism of the Rez. Because the only problem facing them is that they are not Christians. Because, of course, poverty and alcoholism are unknown among Christians.
Oh, wait, Good Christians aren’t poor. Or alcoholic. Because Good Christians are blessed, so anyone who is poor or alcoholic must not be a Good Christian. QED.
(And, of course, American Indians who are actually Christian are rewarded with a total lack of alcoholism or poverty, right, Bryan?)
The continued presence of native American superstition was on full display at the memorial service for the victims of the Tucson shooter, when the “invocation” (such as it was) was offered by a native American who sought inspiration from the “Seven Directions,” including “Father Sky” and “Mother Earth,” rather than the God of the Bible.
Yes, people who aren’t Christian insist on not invoking the Christian deity. The nerve of them!
Sadly, this column will likely generate a firestorm of nuclear proportions among wingers on the left rather than the thoughtful reflection the thesis deserves.
No, Bryan, I think I’ve given it all the reflection it deserves.
Your “thesis” is that “Christianity is the One True Religion. Anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that is Cursed at best, Evil at worst. We know this because the Christian Bible says so, and Christianity says the Christian Bible is real, so it must be true.”
Even worse, the reaction will likely obscure the sobering lesson for today. America in 2011 is as guilty of “abominations” as the native American tribes we replaced. We have the blood of 53 million babies on our hands through abortion. We have normalized sexual immorality, adultery, and homosexuality, all horrors in the eyes of God, and are witnessing a surge in incest, pedophilia and even bestiality in our midst.
God warned the ancient nation of Israel not to lapse into the abominable practices of the native peoples “lest the land vomit you out…as it vomited out the nation that was before you” (Lev. 18:28).
Time eventually ran out for the Canaanites, because they filled up the full measure of their iniquity. Time ran out for the native American tribes for the same reason.
The only question that matters today is this one: how much time does America have left to repent of its superstition, its savagery and its sexual immorality before it is too late, before we will have filled up our own slop bucket and will have morally disqualified ourselves from sovereign control of our own land?
Based on our indebtedness to the Chinese, not long. After all, “purchase” is a legitimate basis for “sovereignty,” right?
But what’s your point, Bryan? If America is evil, it should be destroyed, and certainly cannot be blessed by God. So whoever takes advantage of our “moral disqualification” will surely be God’s chosen nation / race / corporation. You should rejoice in that, Bryan! That’s their foretold destiny!
Because you know it's for their own good!
Thomas Jefferson wrote at the time of the Founding, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” It is long past time for us once again to tremble for our country.
Jefferson, of course, was speaking of slavery, a practice condoned for the Israelites against the “vomitous” Canaanites. He wasn’t speaking of the immorality, sexual license, etc. of the American people, except in that particular sinful act … except, of course, it couldn’t be sinful for the Israelites because, after all, they were ordered by God to take slaves from the people the conquered (except when they were ordered by God to kill them instead).
But that does raise an interesting question, Bryan: now that you’ve condemned the American Indians to poverty and alcoholism for their wickedness, sexual immorality, and lack of Christianity … who are you picking on next? If you ask me, I’d suggest you claim that African-Americans deserved to be slaves in America because they, y’know, wandering around topless, just like in National Geographics, and they believed in superstition, and it was the White (Christian) Man’s (Profitable) Burden to free them from their sin by shipping them to this country for some good, honest labor and baptizing. Just like the Israelites treated the Canaanites, right, Bryan? Except with more cotton picking.
Cella Energy claims breakthrough that would result in $1.50 per gallon gasoline alternative. – “If this is real you can expect the Oil Industry to have an absolute shit fit over it. I’d like to be optimistic about it, but the cynic in me can’t help but think that even if it does work as well as claimed that there’ll be some wicked trade-off like it causes cancer in everything that comes in contact with it or something else equally horrible.” Or at least that’s what some with a vested interest in the status quo will CLAIM … [/conspiracymode]
A note to the Teapartiers… – But … but … if they had guns, they’d automatically have freedom! Plus, they’re Muslims! You can’t trust them with guns!
Again with ‘exceptionalism’? – I’d like to think that “exceptional” is meant as “unique” or “unanticipated” or somehow particularly wonderful. But “exceptional” also seems a lazy way of excusing our behavior: nobody should be allowed to torture prisoners “except” the US (because we’re “exceptional”); nobody should overthrow governments “except” the US (because we’re “exceptional”), etc. That this word has become a ginned-up synonym for “patriotic” is all the more lousy.
The serious flaws in the GOP’s anti-abortion bill – Not only does it block Medicaid funding for abortions when rapes aren’t “forcible” enough, it effectively does the same for private insurance under the Affordable Care Act. But remember, the GOP is steadfastly against imposing the government’s tyrannical health insurance rules on private individuals!
Frank Rich: The Tea Party wags the dog – The GOP establishment is potentially in a lot of trouble. Unfortunately, that has consequences for the nation as a whole, too.
GOP Priorities: Redefining Rape – While abortion is an option I’ll never be happy about, this, right here, is precisely why I will never make that decision for someone else, for the person, individual, citizen, woman, who is ultimately having to make that choice. That there are those who are so enamored of the abstract that they would deign to decide who “qualifies,” whose rape was “forcible” enough to “merit” coverage of abortion services, is itself sickening enough.
I Me Mine: The Unholy Trinity Of Ayn Rand « Tomfoolery – Rand appeals to the high school / college period of self-discovery by saying, “You are the only person in the world who matters. Pursue your own self-interest because that is the highest good.” Most people grow out of that, fortunately. Randians never seem to. And way too many of them are now in the halls of our government.
Building a Better Word Cloud – An interesting analysis (esp. if you compare the most frequent words and compare them to the person usually considered more “aloof” and “analyitical” and out of touch, vs. the person who it’s often claimed is “one of us”).
HOWTO make health-care cheaper by spending more on patients who need it – ” In other words, providing excellent, personalized care to the small number of patients who don’t fit the system’s model saves far more money than making the system more stringent, with more paperwork, higher co-pays and other punitive measures. It’s a win-win.” The problem with systems is that they are rarely dynamic enough to deal with those outside the system. And they usually do everything they can to defend themselves from change.
Neil Barofsky: Credit ratings for banks now include assurance of government bailouts – Imagine the brouhaha if social activists were stating that any individual should feel free to take whatever risk they want because the government would always bail them out with a security net. But, then, the banks are “too big to fail,” and too many individuals are “too small to matter.”
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
Their Own Private Europe – NYTimes.com – The GOP hereby formally requests that “facts” not be allowed to interfere with their “talking points.” Thank you.
Tussling Over Jesus – NYTimes.com – “To me, this battle illuminates two rival religious approaches, within the Catholic church and any spiritual tradition. One approach focuses upon dogma, sanctity, rules and the punishment of sinners. The other exalts compassion for the needy and mercy for sinners — and, perhaps, above all, inclusiveness.” I know which one resembles most the Jesus I read about in the Bible.
What Is The LEAST Dangerous, Cutest Thing We Can Outlaw Next? – “How about those scary animals that have clipboards and dream up worst case scenarios for every aspect of childhood? Let’s ban THOSE! But no, first we must worry more about The Children.” Crikey.
Google Starts Censoring BitTorrent, RapidShare and More | TorrentFreak – It’s hardly censorship, but … well, it’s an odd thing for them to do — completely ineffective, even trivial, yet an intentional step. Is it a (poorly considered, but intentionally harmless) sop to Big Media, or the start of something less savory from Google in this area?
It’s been a while since I pointed out how Bryan Fischer is a dolt. I think I need to correct that.
(Fischer is Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, host of the talk radio program Focal Point on American Family Radio, and posting on the AFA-run blog Rightly Concerned — but the AFA for some reason has a disclaimer at the bottom of all his posts that he doesn’t really speak for them.)
The American judicial system is something of an anomaly for many on the Right. On the one hand, you have The Horrible Example of Liberal Judges Passing Their Own Laws and Letting Evil People Go. On the other hand, It’s Part of the American Government and What Makes Us Exceptional (Except When the Liberals Get Involved) So Yay Team!
Federal officials are planning to move the murder trial of Jared Loughner from Tucson to California. This is a terrible, terrible idea, and contrary to biblical concepts of justice.
Innocent blood was shed in Tucson, and the public servants of Tucson should be entrusted with the responsibility and authority to execute justice on behalf of the victims and their families.
With an emphasis on “execute.”
The point of change of venue is that it’s difficult for people in a given community to render a fair and impartial judgment of the evidence presented at trial when all they’ve read in the papers and heard on the TV and perhaps even had friends or acquaintances tell them is “THAT GUY THEY ACCUSED IS GUILTY OF A HORRIBLE CRIME! HE DID IT! CRUCIFY! CRUCIFY!”
It is a perversion of justice to deprive this community of the ability to deal with the monstrous act of evil.
Remarkably enough, the justice system is not meant primarily to give a community a sense of closure and satisfaction that The Bad Guy Got His in the End.
In fact, it is designed to try to establish facts, and render judgment based on same, in order to (a) punish the guilty and (b) protect the community from further harm. Pursuing vengeance is not on the docket (and it’s amusing that the Right so often ignores that desire while criticizing the Left for pursuing “Feel Good” philosophies).
The murders of six innocent people by the Marxist-loving, Hitler-loving, Bible-hating, atheistic pothead radical leftwinger Loughner …
Okay, we’ll assume Bryan, you mean “Marx-loving.”
The whole “who Loughner ‘loved’ as an author” meme was based on, of all things, the dude’s Facebook page. The problem is, citing Marx and Hitler tells only part of the story. Loughner’s full reading list included not just Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto, but …
Animal Farm
Brave New World
The Wizard Of OZ
Aesop Fables
The Odyssey
Alice Adventures Into Wonderland
Fahrenheit 451
Peter Pan
To Kill A Mockingbird
We The Living (by Ayn Rand)
The Phantom Toll Booth
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Pulp
Through The Looking Glass
Siddhartha
The Old Man And The Sea
Gulliver’s Travels
The Republic
Meno
If there’s a coherent literary or philosophical theory there, to label him right-wing or left-wing, I’d love to hear it. (And that assumes that he was actually being honest in his FB profile.)
That Loughner was an intermittent pot-head seems established. Declaring a pattern to his beliefs from his reading list implies a more coherent pattern of psyche than he seemed to possess.
… is traumatic enough on a city. Now to be deprived of the authority to see for themselves that justice is done is a second injustice.
This is, of course, silly. This particular case is for the federal crimes committed, in terms of the attack on a US Congressman, her aide, and US Federal Judge. The state of Arizona and the city of Tucson are free to pursue their own criminal charges.
In the ancient civil code of Israel, the community in which the murder had been committed had the responsibility to carry out justice.
That was generally true of most Iron Age civilizations, Bryan. They didn’t have TV and airplanes and cars and federal laws and Constitutions to make changes of venue both practical and procedurally possible.
The standards of evidence were very high – no one could be sentenced to death without the testimony of two or three eyewitnesses – but when the standard had been met, execution followed.
It’s worth nothing, by the way, that if biblical standards of evidence were still followed in America’s judicial system, as they once were, you would have only an infinitesimal chance of sending an innocent man to death row. Too many are sentenced to die or to long prison terms today based on the testimony of a single witness. That’s exactly how you get innocent people sent away for life. Once again, the Bible is the solution, not the problem.
The whole 2-3 people prove a case thing in the Bible is open to some interpretation, and arguably just means that two or three people were necessary to even bring a case. And, of course, that excludes the whole concept of forensic evidence as to crimes.
I actually agree, Bryan, that a single witness is too often the lynchpin for a major conviction. That said, I’m sure, Bryan, you’re aware that two witnesses were what allowed the Sanhedrin to convict Jesus of blasphemy.
The only exception was that when a man killed another man unintentionally – the death was accidental – he could flee for safety to a city of refuge until his trial was held. (It’s worthy of note that there was no system of incarceration in ancient Israel. A crime against property was taken care of through restitution plus a substantial penalty. A crime against life was taken care of through execution. Think of the money we could save if we returned to something approximating this simple but elegant system of justice.)
Yes, of course. And if the person couldn’t pay the fines, well, slavery was an adequate proxy. And if we executed everyone who killed, quickly, without appeals or a chance to argue that the justice system had been in some way flawed, we’d sure save a lot of money. Just what Jesus would do!
But if the “congregation” (read “jury of his peers”) found him guilty, then the “elders of his city shall send and take him from there (the city of refuge) and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die (Deuteronomy 19:12).”
Actually, that passage doesn’t argue any sort of jury or jurisprudence. “But if out of hate someone lies in wait, assaults and kills a neighbor, and then flees to one of these cities, the killer shall be sent for by the town elders, be brought back from the city, and be handed over to the avenger of blood to die.”
Supporters of changing venue argue that pretrial publicity may make an impartial jury impossible. This is ridiculous, and an insult to ordinary Americans, who take their solemn oath to base their verdict exclusively on evidence presented in court with extreme seriousness. The people of Tucson are capable of following the evidence wherever it leads and rendering a just verdict, and it’s an affront to them to think otherwise.
Oh, puhlease.
I consider myself a fairly moral and rational (and even Christian) person. If someone was accused of killing my wife, and the papers had been trumpeting that it was so (and, of course, if the papers, or the Internet, says it’s so, it must be true), I would recuse myself for fear that my emotions and desire for vengeance would have me leaping at the opportunity to have someone who “everyone knows” is guilty pay bloodily for their crime.
When a local jury in a local court renders a just verdict, …
When, or if?
… the community has the opportunity of experiencing the satisfaction of knowing that the community itself, which has the most intense level of motivation to see that justice is done, has dealt with a terrible crime committed in its midst.
Actually, the community itself has the most intense level of wanting to see someone punished, and is too often more than happy to go with whomever is pointed at first.
Tucson now will be robbed of that opportunity, …
Unless they file city charges against Loughner, which they can do.
… and a verdict will be handed down in another state by people who do not have the same intense desire this community has to see that the innocent blood of their loved ones, friends, and family members is avenged.
Wow, Bryan — you’re quick to point out the affront to the fair people of Tucson that they might not render a fair verdict, but somehow don’t see the insult to the fair people of San Diego that they would not have an intense desire to see justice done.
Oh, but wait — what’s important here is “the intense desire to see that the innocent blood is avenged.” Which vengeance may not have anything to do with justice or truth.
(“Vengeance,” by the way, is just a synonym for justice. You could look it up. See the dictionary: “vengeance: punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong.”)
Bryan, that you see vengeance and retribution as synonyms for justice speaks volumes.
Federal officials are prosecuting only the murders of Rep. Giffords’ congressional aide and the murder of Judge John Roll. This means no formal charges have yet been filed in the deaths of the four “civilians” (as the Associated Press inartfully put it) whose lives were also tragically taken.
Which is not the fault of the federal prosecutors (who don’t have a legal federal crime to prosecute for the other), nor does it have anything to do with the change of venue for their charges. The state and city certainly can file whatever charges they choose.
(I do agree, by the way, that it seems odd in such cases to base murder charges on some deaths and not on others. The argument would be, though, that a murderous attack on a government official is not so much different because one human life is more important than another, but because it represents an attack on society and democracy, in the person of its government. It’s certainly something that’s worth some discussion.)
Let’s hope the trials for these murders takes place in Tucson, that the perpetrator is swiftly sentenced to death, …
That the right perpetrator is determined, and that the judgment is both just and merciful.
… and that the sentence is carried out without delay.
Which supposes that the somehow flawed American justice system that would commit such an injustice as changing venue to San Diego is otherwise beyond reproach and perfect and incapable of procedural error or prosecutorial misconduct, such that an innocent person (or a person responsible for their actions) is not judged unjustly.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. would say, borrowing the words of the ancient prophet Amos, “Let justice roll down (in Tucson) like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).
With all due respect to Dr King and the prophet Amos, I suspect that Jesus Himself would have something to say about mercy, about care for prisoners, and about what happens when popular opinion takes the place of impartial justice.
Human vengeance is not, in fact, justice. Allowing the passions of the crowd to influence judgment of truth (especially when death is on the line) is not justice. That’s not something that supports the American Family. And Bryan Fischer is a dolt for arguing that.
What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010 – Well worth reading, especially Greenwald’s commentary on the story of the reaction to WikiLeaks being as important as the information revealed. The only caveat (as we saw with the Cuba/Moore tale): diplomatic cables are not objective truth, and at least some fraction of what was “revealed” was what folks were reporting on to their bosses, or rumors that were being passed on, not necessarily smoking guns (cf. your own company’s email system).
Badass Quote of the Day [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] – The problem is, it’s not a binary thing. There is a lot of good the US has done. There’s a lot of good ideas we’ve shared, too. I hold no truck with the “America is TEH EVILLL!” croud. But by the same token, the idea that God has mysteriously favored this country to be the moral (if not economic and political) arbiter for the world, or that this somehow gilds all of our actions into some sort of exceptionalism (i.e., that we are an exception to … what, the forces of history and the nature of humanity?) is equally ludicrous, and just as dangerous.
Congress Should End Ethanol Subsidies : Dispatches from the Culture Wars – Imagine spending $6 billion / year, not on subsidizing net-fossil-neutral ethanol subsidies for major agribusinesses (don’t fool yourself it’s all for Mom-n-Pop farmers), but on some actual renewable energy sources — heck, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to recycle all those Amazon boxes from gift-giving into fuel?
South Carolina Holds Secession Ball [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] – “But we do celebrate the courage and the integrity of 170 men who signed their signatures to the Article of Secession – the courage of men to do what they think is right.” But doesn’t WHAT they thought was right play into the question of whether it deserves celebration?
Porn site: publicizing takedown notices is copyright infringement – Yes, by slapping a copyrighted image in your takedown notice (so you can notify someone in the notice of what you say they are violating), you are now making it a copyrighted document in and of itself, which means it has to be kept hidden. Brilliantly evil!
Guns for Christmas – All I can think of here is that Zombies for the Holidays video …
Tomes 2010: Harry Potter Mania Edition – Nicely written. And, yes, setting the movies aside (though they do have something to recommend them, esp. later on), these are books that a lot of adults would get a lot of entertainment (and thrills) from. I’ll probably be ready to reread the series again after the next (last) movie comes out.
Reading as inclination leads – I think it’s good to push oneself (or to be pushed a bit), but I’m also very much (obviously) a believer in Reading What You Like, and then encouraging yourself to like more.
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
Al Qaeda threat involving hotels buffets ‘credible,’ report says – USATODAY.com – See, there’s an effective idea. There’s lots of nefarious things that could be done in this way, restricting services, eroding public trust … and, even better, even if nothing is actually done, it just ramps up the fear, esp. if a real food poisoning outbreak occurs. That’s why it’s called terrorism.
Ignorance comes with consequences – And those are the people most loudly proclaiming American divine exceptionalism, because they’re too tied to their comforting ignorance to actually make this country exceptional.
“They Can’t Kill Human Creativity” – Am I awful because I don’t think of John Lennon as all that fabulous an artist? I mean, sure, talented, but not ALL that. Matter of taste, certainly, but the utter devotion and near-sainthood with which he is treated just raises my hackles a bit.
We’re Number … Uh, Nowhere Close to 1 – Have no fear — those who tout American exceptionalism will always handwave such results away as being caused by poor ghetto children, crack babies, teachers unions, lack of prayer in the school, lack of public funding for church schools, immigrants (illegal and otherwise), liberals, high taxes, homosexuality, and whatever other pet anti-cause they can think of.
House GOP Ends Climate-Change Committee Because It’s Not Real – Because why would we need to have a congressional focus not just on climate change, but on energy independence? Just drill, baby, drill! And with enough warming, soon everywhere will be a deep-water drilling site!
Strange bedfellows and ethanol subsidies – Amusing. But the whole ethanol thing has been a bi-partisan vs bi-partisan issue for a long time. It will be interesting to see how the “federal spending doesn’t create jobs” thang goes alongside the “cutting this federal spending will cost jobs” thang.
Wasn’t My Job to Do My Job – So from Simpson’s standpoint, it was to put out what HE thought were the solutions to the problem, not to come up with something that that the commission could all agree on. Um … then why do you think you weren’t the only one asked, knucklehead?
Kyl: Dems Cave By Monday Or No START Treaty | TPMDC – So, Sen. Kyl, the issue is not all your ostensible concerns over nuclear security and upgrading our remaining weaponry, but it’s about playing political games. Got it. Thanks for revealing yourself as a hack.
Bedroom Decorating Is a Hot Trend for Tweens and Teens – WSJ.com – We’ve (esp. the [ahem] maternal grandparents) certainly indulged Kay with some redecorating efforts in her room, though much has been DIY, not via Pottery Barn and the like. And that’s how you can do it without spending several thousand dollars every couple of years (sorry, Kitten).
Foreign aid and public confusion – “This may be the single most important fact about public opinion regarding the budget: most Americans think that much if not most of the money the federal government spends goes to things they don’t like and people they don’t like, whether it’s wasteful pork or foreigners or lazy welfare recipients. So when you tell them we have to start slashing government, they think, ‘Sounds great — it certainly won’t affect me!'”
What the right’s “American exceptionalism” attack on Obama is really about – “Let’s stipulate at the outset that there’s really no point in getting into a debate with right-wingers over the question of whether Obama believes in ‘American exceptionalism.’ That’s because the right intends this attack line as a proxy for their real argument: That Obama is not one of us.”
Pence’s priorities – “I think the minimum that we have to do right now for Americans that are struggling in unemployment in this economy is make sure that no American sees a tax increase.” Welcome to today’s compassionately conservative GOP.
All 42 Senate Republicans announce hostage plan – “Also note the unstated truth behind the threat — Republicans will block literally everything until they’re satisfied, at which point, they’ll try to block literally everything anyway.”
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
Chef Doesn’t Quite Appreciate Reviews From Inbred, Jobless, Bored Yelp Users – While I have no doubt that there are some “amateur” restaurant reviewers who look for reasons to bitch, many others (like myself) look for good food, good service, reasonable prices, and are willing to note the outliers (in both directions) when we come across them. If it require explanation, it’s not consumer-oriented.
America: We’re Not Number One! – If politicians (mostly on the Right) spent more time doing what would make us Number One in so many areas, rather than simply screeching American Exceptionalism and Primacy to anyone who points out problems, we’d be in much better shape. Heck, maybe we would be Number One.
Picture Books Languish as Parents Push ‘Big-Kid Books’ – NYTimes.com – While I’m sure there’s an element of academic paranoia on the part of parents (ignoring the difference between reading a “chapter book” to a kid and buying one for them to read), I’d say that at least as large a factor is that picture books are freaking expensive, almost prohibitively so.
Gropec*** Lane – “Warning: This post contains repeated uses of words that many people will find offensive.” Though it’s interesting from the perspective of how acceptable language changes over time.
They Hate Us For Our Freedom? : Dispatches from the Culture Wars – “I know that many Americans believe in ‘American exceptionalism’ but we are not granted exceptions from the most basic laws of behavior, and one of those iron laws is that when you oppress a people and commit massive violence against them, you radicalize them. And this counts for both sides. Just look at how much more radicalized we are in response to 9/11 than we were before, how we reacted with such a massive and violent retaliation — even against a country that had nothing to do with that event. But we somehow cannot bring ourselves to acknowledge that the same thing is true of other people.”
Recipes from Valabar’s in Colorado – De notes the recipes from our Big Fancy Dragaeran Dinner the other weekend. It was great food, and good company. Even the trout (not something I’d normally leap at) was fabulous. Thanks, De!
Mozilla’s Raindrop Looks To Make Your Inbox Personal Again – I think aggregation of messaging streams in this fashion is going to become a real battle in coming years — as individual messaging systems add features and aggregators try to demonstrate their (very real) value in pulling together this sort of data.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Universal phone charger approved – Unfortunately, it’s not likely to be a primary reason for phone selection, but hopefully it will be a factor. Esp. if governments put a surcharge on those phones that don’t use it (to cover waste/energy costs).
Badass Quote of the Day [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] – There are some very cool things about our country, things worth protecting and even worth promoting. But, yeah, American Exceptionalism is not only bad diplomacy, it’s a great way to deny the many things about our country that are not “the greatest* (and to deny the difference between the best and the best that could be). If no human can be perfect, how can any society of humans be perfect?
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
A Swift view of Andromeda – Whenever I see lovely pics of galaxies, the end titles music for the (original) Outer Limits always plays in my head.
HAPPY Days or, Should Pets Be Tax Deductible? – Everyone has sacred cows — and when you’re a Congresscritter, of whatever party, you get to vote in tax advantages to them. I have pets, but I’d just as soon not get a tax deduction for them.
Why American Credit Cards Suck [Travel Tips] – Yeah, we’re going to be the greatest country in the world right until we turn around one day and realize everyone else has left us behind.
Product Ideas for Google Reader – Google Product Ideas – A great way to solicit (and vote on) feature ideas. Of the 2,000 ideas received, they’ve come up with responses (“Answered Ideas”) on a dozen … none of mine, alas.
Busted burglar – I guess if you’re going to be burgled, it’s good to have a burglar with a sense of humor.
