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POPSThe only thing certain is nothing is certain. Michel de Montaigne, an influential writer of the French Renaissance, is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre, merging serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, including Blaise Pascal, René Descartes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Stefan Zweig, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Isaac Asimov, Eric Hoffer, and perhaps William Shakespeare. Montaigne would be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, 'Que sais-je?' ('What do I know?'). Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitly — his own judgment — makes him more accessible to modern readers than any other author of the Renaissance.
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POPSUS decision after Afghan result This "result" could take a very long time. In the mean time doesn't the need for more troops on the ground place those already there in more danger? Just asking.... In the meantime, the President has signed legislation that will send to Pakistan $7.5B over the next 5 yrs....supposedly to win over the hearts & minds of the Pakistanis. Is that really possible there?
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POPSDeath As Timeless Reality Death is ultimately just another transformation, from one configuration of matter and energy into another. But unless you can stand outside the arena of change, death represents an end point, an extinction. To escape death ultimately means escaping the worldview that gives death its terrible sense of closure and finality. Adapted from Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 1998).
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POPSPaul Krugman: The politics of spite More: How did one of our great political parties become so ruthless, so willing to embrace scorched-earth tactics even if so doing undermines the ability of any future administration to govern? The key point is that ever since the Reagan years, the Republican Party has been dominated by radicals — ideologues and/or apparatchiks who, at a fundamental level, do not accept anyone else’s right to govern. Anyone surprised by the venomous, over-the-top opposition to Mr. Obama must have forgotten the Clinton years. Remember when Rush Limbaugh suggested that Hillary Clinton was a party to murder? When Newt Gingrich shut down the federal government in an attempt to bully Bill Clinton into accepting those Medicare cuts? And let’s not even talk about the impeachment saga.… It’s an ugly picture. But it’s the truth. And it’s a truth anyone trying to find solutions to America’s real problems has to understand.
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POPSWhy should prisoners be denied the right to vote? More: One of the most important aspects of human rights is that they are unearned. Being of the human species is all that is required, and for a perfectly sound reason: it is intended to prevent governments oppressing unpopular or difficult individuals or groups. No human should be vulnerable to being misused by the mob or the government. That is the essence of human rights and has been for 50 years, and yet the debate about prisoners (and criminals in general) fails to appreciate this simple point. Just because you don't like someone or they make your life difficult, that is not a reason to leave them vulnerable to misuse. …If human rights had to be earned, if the unpopular could be legally misused, who would decide who has rights and who has none? All governments have an inherent urge to usurp power and to lean heavily on those who stand out from the crowd.… All have rights, even those we despise.
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POPSFailure Accompli loyal Democrats a distant third. And it will prove that the Democratic Party is institutionally incapable of delivering on its most significant promises. You have to assume that on some level Congress understands this " which is why you also have to assume that some kind of legislation will eventually pass. If it doesn’t, President Obama will have been defeated. But it’s the party, not the president, that will have failed. OK, I get the point. He’s damning Obama with the faint praise due a cipher while mocking the Dems’ inability to govern. As he says, health care is their signature issue. And as we’ve observed previously, they have trouble advancing anything they feel deeply about that doesn’t involve a lot of pork. But cipher or not, Obama is also the president of a one-party government, and if his party can’t govern, he doesn’t get off that easy. He still gets to be a failure and is the one who will ultimately wear it.
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POPSState Sovereignty What freedom-loving American would ever advocate the idea that a group of freeborn persons in Sovereign States should be forced to be governed by a government that was initially created by the will and assent of those people in their sovereign and independent capacities, especially where that artificial creation (i.e., the federal government) has usurped the powers originally granted to it by the sovereigns of the States? Such a thought is repugnant to free society, free government, and American ideology, and mirrors more of the hereditary-right-to-rule notion argued by monarchs of yesteryear and forced upon its not-so-loyal subjects. That's just it...I get the feeling that a portion of Americans are not "freedom-loving" at all.
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POPSTEXAS now in play? Is that a typo? Gallup shows only 5 states leaning or solidly Republican while 37 are solidly or leaning D. Eight new Red states, including Texas (which now polls 42% D, 40% R) are solidly in play. Perhaps Democrats owe a debt of gratitude to birthers, Palin and Limbaugh, and "death panel" politics. Now we'll see if they have the courage to step up and do something worthwhile.
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POPSNow tell me which sounds more like your Government. Totalitarianism Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible . Totalitarianism is generally characterized by the coincidence of authoritarianism (i.e., where ordinary citizens have no significant share in state decision-making) and ideology (i.e., a pervasive scheme of values promulgated by institutional means to direct the most significant aspects of public and private life) . Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that controls the state, personality cults, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of state terrorism.
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POPSHealthcare Market Failure? From what I can decipher from his and other claims to support “universal” medical care, a “market failure” occurs when someone is not able to access immediately all of the medical care he or she “needs” immediately. Now, if this is what he means by a “market failure,” then every market (including the distribution of government-produced goods) falls into that category. If I cannot afford a Rolls-Royce, is that due to “market failure”? The very term "market" implies the presence of voluntary exchanges being transacted by individual parties to their mutual benefit...not the mandates of government.
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POPSWriting with the Body <<<Perl wants us to recognize that it is literally in our bodies where we experience that we are trying to say more than we currently have words for or that we know something we can't yet articulate>>>(from review). Sonrda Perl, 'Writing with the Body', Heinemann, 2004
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POPSOh Roundabout How I Love Thee Having lived abroad and navigated many a roundabout in several countries, I have long had a love for the roundabout. No more left turns. No more waiting at stop lights. Come on America! It is an undervalued and misunderstood gold mine of driving bliss!
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