Clipmarks | enbar's 'politics' clips

"Obama Waffles" - this racially-loaded, political accessory can be yours for only $9.99!

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:42:36 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Stay classy, guys...

Whether you’re clinging to God and your guns in Pennsylvania or just hungry for a change in one of the other 57 states, Obama Waffles are what the world is craving. Don’t delay. Order today! Only $9.99 each! Or take advantage of our Sarah Palin special: Buy 2 get 1 free.

Tags: politics, presidential_campaign_2008, obama, conservatives, satire, race, humor, not_really_all_that_funny

Looking for anti-Palin bile? Here's your roundup

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:08:07 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I don't have a great deal of faith in this source, but if you're in the market for anti-Sarah Palin ammunition, it's all conveniently collected here in one place.

Clip Source: www.laprogressive.com

Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”

September 5, 2008

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

“Juneau is a small town; everybody knows everyone else,” he adds. “These stories about what she calls blacks and Eskimos, well, anyone not white and good looking actually, were around long before she became a glint in John McCain’s rheumy eyes. Why do I know they’re true? Because everyone who isn’t aboriginal or Indian in Alaska talks that way.”

Tags: politics, mccain, presidential_campaign_2008, via:friendfeed, palin, commentary, conservatives, republicans

"Ceremonial deism," U.S. civil religion, and the law

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:33:45 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A Pew Forum backgrounder on the status of (supposedly) religiously-neutral invocations of a deity by government agents.

Clip Source: pewforum.org

On Ceremonial Occasions, May the Government Invoke a Deity?

Through these and many similar practices, the government invokes the concept of a deity. Opponents of these religious invocations say such proclamations promote religion and thus violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits all laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” Defenders of governmental religious invocations, by contrast, claim that such expressions do not explicitly promote religion; rather, defenders say, religious proclamations merely acknowledge the historical and cultural connections between the United States and belief in God.

In an influential 1962 lecture, Dean Eugene Rostow of Yale Law School argued that the government’s “conventional and uncontroversial” expressions of faith, which he called acts of “ceremonial deism,” do not violate the Establishment Clause.

A Supreme Court justice first used the phrase “ceremonial deism” in an opinion in Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)

Tags: religion, pluralism, america, church_and_state, civil_religion, god, politics, law

Obama to media: leave Palin's daughter alone

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:19:38 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Interesting.

Clip Source: voices.washingtonpost.com

Obama Tells Press to "Back Off" on Palin

"I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits," Obama declared after attending a Labor Day picnic here. "People's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories."

The Democratic nominee grew heated when a reporter asked him about an unattributed quote from a John McCain aide that linked his campaign to Palin pregnancy rumors that have swirled on gossip and liberal blogs in recent days. The McCain campaign offered no evidence for the charge

Tags: presidential_campaign_2008, politics, obama, news, u.s.-news

Since when is it elitist to be well-informed?

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:52:43 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: This is Susan Jacoby's column from May 2008, already widely discussed. I hadn't seen it until now.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Best Is the New Worst

PITY the poor word “elite,” which simply means “the best” as an adjective and “the best of a group” as a noun. What was once an accolade has turned poisonous in American public life over the past 40 years, as both the left and the right have twisted it into a code word meaning “not one of us.” But the newest and most ominous wrinkle in the denigration of all things elite is that the slur is being applied to knowledge itself.

Senator Hillary Clinton’s use of the phrase “elite opinion” to dismiss the near unanimous opposition of economists to her proposal for a gas tax holiday was a landmark in the use of elite to attack expertise supposedly beyond the comprehension of average Americans. One might as well say that there is no point in consulting musicians about music or ichthyologists about fish.

Tags: language, politics, class, popular_culture, opinion, presidential_campaign_2008

California State Legislature instructs health-care licensing boards to condemn torture

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:39:34 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: California licensing boards are instructed to inform doctors and other health-care workers holding state licensures that any involvement or complicity in torture or coercive interrogations may result in prosecution.

Clip Source: www.afsc.org

News Release

CALIFORNIA BECOMES FIRST STATE
TO CONDEMN USE OF TORTURE IN ‘WAR ON TERROR’

Senate Joint Resolution 19 instructs the state’s licensing boards to inform California doctors, psychologists and other health professionals of their obligations under national and international law relating to torture. The boards will warn the licensees that they may one day be subject to prosecution if they participate in interrogations that do not conform to international standards of treatment of prisoners.

“As professional licensure and codes of ethics are regulated by states, California has the obligation to notify members of laws concerning torture that may result in their prosecution,” said Ridley-Thomas.

“No government has the authority to legalize torture,” Miles added

“Torture is much more than a political issue,” Ridley-Thomas said. “It is an ethical, moral and spiritual issue that has not only become a shame, but it is an evil in our midst.”

Tags: torture, california, states_rights, politics, gwot, law, health, quakerism, christianity, religion

Nicholas Kristof calls for a U.S. Truth and Reconciliation commission

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:12:46 GMT

clipped by: enbar

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Truth Commission

When a distinguished American military commander accuses the United States of committing war crimes in its handling of detainees, you know that we need a new way forward.

“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes,” Antonio Taguba, the retired major general who investigated abuses in Iraq, declares in a powerful new report on American torture from Physicians for Human Rights. “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

The first step of accountability isn’t prosecutions. Rather, we need a national Truth Commission to lead a process of soul searching and national cleansing.

That was what South Africa did after apartheid, with its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and it is what the United States did with the Kerner Commission on race and the 1980s commission that examined the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Tags: gwot, politics, law, opinion, commentary

"Lord, Save Us from Your Followers," a movie about American "bumper-sticker culture"

Mon, 12 May 2008 05:42:57 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A documentary about how our national debate about serious issues has degenerated into sloganeering -- mainly carried out via bumper sticker.

Clip Source: lordsaveusthemovie.com

Daniel Lazare reviews two new books on religious toleration

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:25:37 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I basically am clipping this because I read it and want to remember it, but I think Lazare gets it completely wrong. Not only is his attitude towards religion in general misguided, he doesn't understand history.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Will the Clash of Faiths Go On Forever?

By Daniel Lazare, The Nation. Posted March 4, 2008.

Religious conflict rages on, despite claims we live in a "secular age" -- two authors explore the clash of beliefs.

Reviewed:

Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe

God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis

Daniel Lazare is the author of, most recently, The Velvet Coup: The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the Decline of American Democracy (Verso).He is currently at work on a book about the politics of Christianity, Judaism and Islam for Pantheon.

Tags: history, religion, christianity, islam, pluralism, violence, war, books, review

Seen "Election"? Following the Democratic primaries? Watch this

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:32:40 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Hilarious video mashup by the people at Slate. Hilary Clinton as Reese Witherspoon's character in "Election" (1999), Tracy Flick.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick

[Video]

From: slatester

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Joined: 1 year ago
Videos: 3

Don't you just hate when some upstart comes along and threatens your best-laid plans? We were struck by how well one of Reese Witherspoon's monologues from the film Election fits the narrative of Campaign 2008.

Tags: politics, video, presidential_campaign_2008, democrats, funny, clinton

Barack Obama added you as a friend!

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 03:51:04 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Randomly generates some text about all the great things Barack Obama did for you: wrote on your FunWall, gave you a puppy, loves your laugh, made you a mixtape, told me to tell you hello.

Clip Source: barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com

Barack Obama held your hand when you were frightened

Barack Obama has a balloon for you

Barack Obama paid your speeding ticket

Tags: weird, random_sh!t, art, politics

Debating Mark Lilla on secularism: America magazine

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:56:15 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Two contemporary Catholic thinkers take on Mark Lilla's indictment of secularism in the pages of the Catholic periodical America.

Clip Source: www.americamagazine.org

Debating 'The Stillborn God'

Is Mark Lilla right about religion?

By Drew Christiansen and Jose V. Casanova | NOVEMBER 26, 2007

Lilla argues that the Enlightenment made a radical break between religion and politics that haunts us till this day. For millennia, there had been a generally accepted pattern of meaning across cultures linking the cosmic order, the political system and the individual soul, in which political order was dictated by revelation. The one exception to that linkage is the modern secular West. There, following the wars of religion, Thomas Hobbes achieved a “Great Separation” by making religion the projection of a fear-filled individual psychology and government the instrument of human desire.

Clip Source: www.americamagazine.org

Dear Drew,

You are absolutely right that Lilla's construction of a "great separation" is based on a misleading contrast between theocratic political theology and secular political philosophy. This is purely an analytical device, which Lilla superimposes upon real history.

Tags: religion, christianity, history, politics, roman_catholicism, church_and_state, !toread

Marsilius of Padua (c.1275-1342): a few links

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:19:38 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I've been meaning for some time to read up on this guy, sort of the intellectual godfather of medieval constitutionalism.

Clip Source: www.jeteye.com

Marsilius of Padua

~ by nbr

created 2008-01-02

last modified 2008-01-02

A Jetpak created on Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:10:49 GMT

Marsilius of Padua (Answers.com)

Link: http://www.answers.com/marsilius+of+padua

Defensor pacis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensor_pacis

Medieval Sourcebook: Marsiligio of Padua: Conclusions from Defensor Pacis, 1324

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio1.html

Medieval Sourcebook: Marsiligio of Padua: Condemnation by John XII, 1327

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio2.html

Medieval Sourcebook: Marsilius of Padua: Defensor Pacis, 1324

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio4.html

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Marsilius of Padua

Link: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09719c.htm

Medieval Sourcebook: Marsilius of Padua: Defensor Pacis, 1324

Link: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio4.html

Tags: religion, christianity, politics, history, primary_source, links, jetpak

Lee Camp's "detailed analyses in cartoon form"

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:30:39 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Political satire in, let's say, an unusual format.

Clip Source: www.236.com

Tags: politics, vast_left_wing_conspiracy, cartoon, satire, funny, humor, conservatives

Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" speech (12-6-2007)

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:45:15 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Mitt Romney, speaking at the Bush library in Texas, presents his vision of the relationship between religion and government. An interesting read.

Clip Source: www.mittromney.com

Governor Mitt Romney's "Faith In America" Address

"Faith In America"
Remarks As Prepared For Delivery
The George Bush Presidential Library
College Station, Texas
December 6, 2007

"It is important to recognize that while differences in theology exist between the churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions. And where the affairs of our nation are concerned, it's usually a sound rule to focus on the latter – on the great moral principles that urge us all on a common course. Whether it was the cause of abolition, or civil rights, or the right to life itself, no movement of conscience can succeed in America that cannot speak to the convictions of religious people.

"In such a world, we can be deeply thankful that we live in a land where reason and religion are friends and allies in the cause of liberty, joined against the evils and dangers of the day.

Tags: religion, politics, romney, presidential_campaign_2008, speech