Clipmarks | akarra's 'politics' clips

Jefferson on self-evident truth and equality

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:37:53 GMT

clipped by: akarra

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

Jefferson’s “we” is most certainly universal, not just the rambling of a particular people, for to effect a just break in the bonds uniting Britain and her colonies, both sides must understand what is just. The basis of justice is truth here, self-evident truth: all men are created equal; all men have certain Rights. If they didn’t, there never would have been a government anywhere, at any time. The purpose of any given government is to secure equality, to secure rights.

Tags: politics, jefferson, equality

Brooklynistan?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:18:39 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: One blogger reacts to the threat of radical Islam in NYC.

Clip Source: orderdisorder.blogspot.com

I read this little article and got to wondering, has radical Islam gained a valuable toe hold in NY city? The article, A Masjid Grows in Brooklyn, in the Jerusalem Post seems to think so. It is sad to think that not only are these kinds of "no-go zones" possibly popping up here, but that one has top read it in a foreign paper. More importantly I suppose, why isn't there even a hint of this in any other media source?

Tags: politics

A Rough Year for Republicans

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:27:26 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: Karl Rove muses on just how tough this election will be for McCain.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

This will be a very difficult year for Republicans. The economy's shaky state, an unpopular war, and the natural desire for partisan change after eight years of one party in the White House have helped tilt the balance to the Democrats.

Mr. Obama is significantly weaker today than he was three months ago, but Democrats have the upper hand in November. They're beatable. But it's nonsense to think this year is going to be a replay of George H.W. Bush versus Michael Dukakis or Richard Nixon versus George McGovern.

Tags: politics, rove, republicans, democrats, campaign, mccain, obama

Redesigning Public Spaces

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:18:03 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: A blogger talks about the goals of planning, past and present.

Clip Source: orderdisorder.blogspot.com

Todays ever disconnected life style may very well be a result of a disconnected environment. As we built more and larger highways, people could live further and further apart. The very impetus of public life was no longer there, proximity of important buildings and the people that used them. Suburban life segregated use of land and split up the important buildings. Also, as cities emptied out, many of the buildings and reasons that would have attracted people there were also "emptied" out to the fringes of development as they were opened up by highways and a shifting population. If the public life so sought after today is so good, why was it so readily and willingly abandoned?

Tags: planning, development, politics, urban studies, cities

On Locke's First Treatise: Paternal and Regal Power

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:15:21 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: federalistnowandforever.wordpress.com

Having completed his introduction of Sir Robert Filmer’s work Patriarcha, Locke endeavors to explore the arguments made by Filmer. The first argument made is that of Paternal and Regal power. The argument for absolute monarchy according to Locke is far above anything man can think of, so high in fact “that Promises and Oaths, which tye the infinite Deity, cannot confine it.” This is a curious way of describing the idea behind absolute monarchy but upon further inspection one might find that even God cannot be described as an absolute Monarch in the manner in which Filmer uses the words. But if Locke is able to demonstrate that the logic used for absolute monarchy is faulty, then man can start a new with government by consent; Locke ends with “using their Reason to unite together into Society.”

Tags: locke, politics, monarchy, royalty, paternity

The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric and the Problem of Speech in a Democracy

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:17 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: Discusses the problem of speech in a democracy through following the concerns of a Lincoln scholar.

Clip Source: inrethinking.blogspot.com

The devolution of Presidential rhetoric, perhaps starting with the very notion of TR's "bully pulpit," much less the theater of the modern State of the Union, demonstrates the problem he confronts fully. The executive is not constructed to speak, but to act. If he speaks, his speech must result in effective action. It is tempting to say that in a country where popular opinion is everything, the President's power to persuade is his most effective action. Thus, the "bully pulpit," the televised State of the Union, the press conferences, the Presidential reading lists, the campaign books, etc. etc. are not a product of politics merely trying to give Oprah competition. Rather, the President could be doing his job in being a second-rate media figure.

All one has to do, though, to demolish the argument that the President's primary power lies in persuasion is focus on what an inability to persuade does to effective action.

Tags: politics, lincoln, presidency, speech

Being Conservative and John McCain

Mon, 05 May 2008 23:53:28 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: A blogger talks about his conservatism and his ambivalent but supportive relation to John McCain.

Clip Source: federalistnowandforever.wordpress.com

What does it mean to be a conservative exactly? In the proper sense to be a conservative is the conserve the status quo but in another sense (often times viewed as dangerous) to be conservative means to return to a previous time: I belong to the latter. To neglect this side of the conservative movement is to give up on hope. In today’s world we are called upon to accept how things are and just get use to it rather than wish for something better. This notion is what has caused a decay in the American political system for some time now. We have lost track of what this nation was founded to do. The issues that will be important for the election, as they have been for some time and will continue to be, are vital to America.

Tags: conservative, mccain, election, politics, republicans

Hating Keith Olbermann

Sun, 04 May 2008 01:56:16 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: A blogger, um, expresses his dislike for Mr. Olbermann.

Clipmarks is so left-wing it makes Kos look like Alexander Hamilton. This should be fun.

Clip Source: orderdisorder.blogspot.com

A Catholic priest defending his religion is a bigot to Mr. Olbermann. A returning vet that says there is progress in Iraq must be suffering post traumatic stress syndrome. You disagree with the whole "global warming is killing us" gang and you are a holocaust denier. Defend president Bush and he calls you a Nazi. That is some real hard hitting commentary, calling every body stupid, that he employs.

Tags: politics, olbermann, msnbc, media

On Locke's First Treatise of Gov't

Sun, 04 May 2008 01:53:54 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: A blogger looks carefully at the full significance of Locke beginning his treatise with the word "slavery." How, in deliberating types of gov't, can we enslave ourselves?

Clip Source: federalistnowandforever.wordpress.com

The notion that we are all slaves to a single human, a fallible person, is not present in our own human reason or in the Divine Scripture, where one would expect to find Divine Right authority promulgated first. Natural freedom and equality are the older opinions of mankind, not absolute Authority of a single man. Locke even argues that Filmer assents to this belief, that his opinion is the junior.

Tags: locke, politics, government, first treatise, slavery

Raise the Gas Tax!

Fri, 02 May 2008 22:47:14 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: A blogger argues that the gas tax needs to be higher to pay for transportation improvements that are long overdue.

Clip Source: orderdisorder.blogspot.com

I don't know how else to say it, no other way to make it clearer, other than just saying it. So, here it goes: Raise the gas tax stupid! Why this one amazingly simple and effective policy has found such resistance is honestly beyond me. I realize that Republicans, as a whole, are adverse to raising taxes, which I know makes me a bad Republican, but I cannot see any other way out of the transportation nightmare that we are just now entering. What really surprises me is the resistance of the Democrats to raising this tax.

Tags: gasoline, gas, oil, tax, transportation, politics

On Josh's "A Fallen Generation"

Thu, 01 May 2008 08:19:14 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: One take on a blogger who discusses why his generation feels and is oppressed.

Clip Source: inrethinking.blogspot.com

Josh puts the problem facing all of us rather bluntly in his post "A Fallen Generation" - the best and brightest of our generation seem to be completely excluded from honors or even meaningful work. What I like best about his analysis is the logic underlying it. That logic goes "Since this seems to be a generational problem, let us see how our generation interacts with other generations." What Josh finds is that we've been raised with a more conservative set of values that makes us submit to liberals in authority merely because they have authority.

Tags: generation, politics, liberal, conservative

Can France Be Saved?

Tue, 01 May 2007 21:10:23 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: www.commentarymagazine.com

But what really undermines France as a democracy is the constitution behind the constitution: that is, the role played by the non-elected state bureaucracy. As Chauvel puts it:

What used to be said of Prussia—other states have armies, but Prussia is an army that owns a state—applies to France today, with a slight difference. Other countries may have a state bureaucracy, but France is a state bureaucracy that owns a country.

Statism in France is hardly a new issue. Tocqueville devoted a book, The Old Regime and the Revolution, to the subject. He contended that the 1789 revolution, for all its upheavals and radicalism, had ended by reinforcing rather than destroying the monarchical nature of the French state; everything still revolved around the central power and its hierarchically organized agencies. And bureaucratic statism was to play an even more pervasive role in the late 19th and especially in the 20th century.

Tags: france, politics

Democrats and Liberalism Today

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 13:34:06 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: irate-nation.com

I mean, seriously. If I were a Leftist, I’d have to be mad at the way things are going. Then again, I’d be a Lefty with an agenda: I’d want greater youth involvement in voting and initiatives to educate and work with them; I’d want more money spent on the cities and an auditing system for local police and local elections at the federal level. I’d be aiming to turn this place into a welfare state, but I’d do it by deficit spending and lowering taxes, and hope that the long term returns could fund whatever project I had in mind.

Now I’m not a Lefty, but I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that the Democrats in Congress and running for President have no agenda besides “war is bad, if you hate war, vote for us.” And that’s the positive part of their spiel.

Tags: democrats, liberals, left, politics

On the Gettysburg Address

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:04:28 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: www.writingup.com

Lincoln & Jefferson are agreed on the universal significance of the American enterprise, but there is divergence. This nation was "conceived in Liberty" & "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." "Conceived" implies that maybe not all governments are conceived such, that maybe Jefferson's notion that all governments derive their right from the consent of the governed is false. "Dedicated to the proposition" again implies a defect in Jefferson's formulation. For Jefferson, that all men are created equal is a matter of knowledge. It is self-evident truth.

But a "proposition" is something that has to be proved true or false. It is not necessarily true. To be dedicated to a proposition is a matter of belief. To be an American is to believe all men are created equal, to work to make that a truth as best one can.

Tags: lincoln, gettysburg, jefferson, politics, america

Housing Policy and Racism

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:42:14 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: orderdisorder.blogspot.com

The move to a more suburban environment began well before the 1950’s, back in the mid-twenties, and would have continued unabated if not for WWII. The cities were considered “blighted to the very core” and so deemed unlivable. The depression brought about the creation of the FHA to help secure housing loans in the nation. To help guarantee loans, and set standards for the real-estate industry, the FHA created a coding system to determine if an area could be loaned to. This system ranged from Blue, the best, to Red, the worst. Blue neighborhoods were all upper class and white, thus the phrase “blue blood,” while red neighborhoods were all African American. Red neighborhoods could not receive FHA loans, and as a result of this policy many other lending agencies followed suite. Since most of the cities were becoming “redder” less money saw its way there. The money was being channeled to the suburbs.

Tags: racism, planning, cities, housing, politics