The Cruel Joke Known as the Budget Deal

They must think we’re stupid. The new budget deal presented by Paul Ryan is a joke. A serious, solemn, straight-faced joke. Obama likes it—mostly. Democrats like it—mostly. Republicans like it—mostly. You know who doesn’t like this budget deal at all? I don’t. When will our civil government realize that we don’t have any money? I […]

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Right-Wing Google?

According to an article published in PR Watch, Google is giving “substantial” grants to some high-profile right-wing political groups. Corporations are not required to post details concerning their grants and subsidies, but Google decided in 2010 to start voluntarily posting a selection from their grant budget. The figures are interesting, to say the least.  Some […]

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The Gettysburg Address and Lovely Lies

Yesterday was the 150th memorial of the Gettysburg Address. Aglow with Lincoln hagiography and pride at our cultural progress, many modern Americans don’t understand the real significance of the Gettysburg Address for its time. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to open this can of worms. Opting not to give a speech […]

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Congressional Approval Rating in Single Digits

Well, it’s official. In thirty-nine years of surveying, Gallup has never seen a single-digit approval rating for Congress. Until now! Americans straight up despise Congress, with only 9% of Americans giving Congress the thumbs up. The approval rating wasn’t even this low during the shutdown. I’m guessing people aren’t even paying attention to current events […]

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Esquire-NBC Survey: American Politics is Divided, but America is Not

It has become a sort of self-evident truth that America is deeply and irremediably divided into the conservative right and the liberal left. Pretty much everyone believes this, and most people think that gap is widening. But according to an Esquire-NBC survey, America is not as divided as our political partisanship would indicate. In fact, […]

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Ender’s Game and Unpleasant Realities

A few weeks ago, in anticipation of the release of the film adaptation of Ender’s Game, I read the book for the first time. I really enjoyed the book, but I had a mixed reaction to the movie. But this wasn’t just a clear cut case of “the-book-is-always-better-than-the-movie”-itus. This movie had a real chance of being […]

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What to Do on Election Tuesday

It may be tempting for our faithful readers, most of whom label themselves conservatives, to punish the Republican party by voting Democrat this election Tuesday. Certainly, the GOP has lost touch with its ideological roots. But let me recommend something else. First, we need to realize that politics can’t change people. Especially in a representative […]

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A (Not So) New Debt Deal

Well, the Senate has finally hammered out a new debt deal to raise the debt ceiling and fund an increasingly non-essential government. So if the House passes the legislation, everything in Washington will be hunky dory. Except for one small detail overlooked by pretty much everyone in the Senate but Rand Paul: You can’t spend […]

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John Kerry and This Little Thing Called the Internet

In a recent speech at the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, John Kerry made some very telling remarks about the difficulties of governance in the digital age: I’m a student of history, and I love to go back and . . . think about the 18th, 19th centuries and the balance of power and how difficult it […]

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Hillary Clinton Really Angry that Huma is so Much Like Her

The New York Post reports that sources close to Bill and Hillary Clinton say they are angry about favorable comparisons being drawn between Hillary and Huma Abedin: “The Clintons are upset with the comparisons that the Weiners seem to be encouraging—that Huma is ‘standing by her man’ the way Hillary did with Bill, which is […]

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