Perhaps a look at what’s already out there is best. The following are three perspectives on current politics and the upcoming election:
http://theferrett.livejournal.com/804454.html
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=128588
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1019-25.htm
And a quote, courtesy of A.Word.A.Day
(http://wordsmith.org/awad/):
“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third US president, architect and author.
So remember, VOTE WITH YOUR VOTE.
(I know, this is yet another sound bite even though, dear readers, both of you were too polite to call me on my anti-sound-bite sound bite. In the words of the immortal Pogo, “I am covered with rue.”)
Speaking of other web pages: In a week when the stock market is reaching new heights, it might be well to look back at a commentary on other changes in the U.S. economic scene:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/29/
poverty.health/index.html
And another: To the exhortation for a World Day to End Extreme Poverty, Chuck Levenstein offers: “Perhaps we should ask for a World Day to End Extreme Wealth? Since inequality is linked to health, we should work away at both ends of the problem.”
Now there’s a thought.
And a final few thoughts, mostly my very own, brought to you by the Trailing Edge Dictionary of Modern American, which proudly announces two additions – the Politically Correct Section, 21st Century Bush Era, and the Neo-Conservative Section. (NB: While seeming redundant, these sections are, in fact, wholly and completely similar-but-different.)
The Politically Correct Section, 21st Century Bush Era, offers the following new definitions:
preventive war (idiom, adjective+noun) – war of aggression against a nation that holds an opposing socio-political view
NB: Not to be confused with imperial hegemony, please.
Sample Sentence: Upon reflection, President Bush declared a preventive war against the heinous dictator sitting on top of the most oil available in a non-Christian country.
homeland (noun) – geopolitical territory, constituted as a republic, in which no one may object to any word, activity, or legislation undertaken or contemplated by the Executive Branch on pain of being labeled “pro-terrorist” and/or having all available evidence of one’s free enterprise activity crushed under the wheels of large, low-mileage vehicles.
NB: Not, we trust, to be confused with the Politically Correct Section, Stalin Era, definition of dictatorship of the proletariat in which an entire political party was exempt from objection and more harmful means were used to quiet the citizenry.
Sample Sentence: Having made the homeland safe from an increasingly large number of terrorists and other dissidents abroad, the President, Cabinet, and key advisers moved on to the homeland’s internal issues, giving the same skilled attention to natural disasters, immigration, interpersonal relations, and so on.
The Neo-Conservative Section has the following new definition:
moral high-ground (phrase, adjective+compound noun) – the territory occupied by right thinkers (and far right thinkers), from which vantage point all unlike thinking is seen to be a sign of evil.
Sample Sentence: Having reached the moral high-ground, the pro-Creationists and procreationists determined that “evidence” and “faith” are indeed synonyms.
These additions put us in mind of the much older Missing Positives Section, which brought us the following definition:
munity (noun) – lack of protection, resistance, or exemption; political or legal vulnerability
Sample Sentence: Upon reflection, President Nixon granted munity to his entire staff.
And a final bit of free advice: If your logic isn’t circular, who can follow it?
And worth every penny, too.
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