June 2010
20 posts
“The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce that comes from this order [capitalists], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.”
—Adam Smith, y’all. So stop interpreting The Wealth of Nations as a diatribe on unfettered free market capitalism, y’all. That is just dumb, and ignores this final message.
“Republicans are so fundamentally unserious about solving public policy challenges, that they’ll shamelessly move the goalposts at a moment’s notice. The party supports cap-and-trade, EITC, industry bailouts, housing vouchers, and mandatory health insurance — right up until there’s a Democratic president. Then, Republicans are no longer willing to even consider Republican ideas. When the David Broders of the world lecture the dysfunctional Congress on the importance of policymakers working together in good faith, this dynamic tends to be overlooked entirely. Credible people who are serious about solving problems can formulate consensus solutions. But they’ll invariably fail because Republicans have no qualms about fighting against their own proposals.”
—
Steve Benen, “Negotiating With Those Who Oppose Their Own Principles”
for the next time someone wants to tell you the DNC-controlled Congress isn’t moving fast enough on X, Y, or Z
(via tart-tart)
(via southpol)
“Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? …. Nobody.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1755
Hot Fun In The Summertime (Single Version)
Sly & The Family Stone
Sly & The Family Stone Hot Fun In The Summertime
propers to mikekarnell
Ron Ron has a single coming out.
To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce.
Freire
“The case for digitally-driven stupidity assumes we’ll fail to integrate digital freedoms into society as well as we integrated literacy. This assumption in turn rests on three beliefs: that the recent past was a glorious and irreplaceable high-water mark of intellectual attainment; that the present is only characterized by the silly stuff and not by the noble experiments; and that this generation of young people will fail to invent cultural norms that do for the Internet’s abundance what the intellectuals of the 17th century did for print culture. There are likewise three reasons to think that the Internet will fuel the intellectual achievements of 21st-century society.”
—Clay Shirky (via wearethedigitalkids) (via fred-wilson)
CIA Drone Operators Oppose Strikes as Helping al-Qaeda →
dissidentvoice.org
Some CIA officers involved in the agency’s drone strikes programme in Pakistan and elsewhere are privately expressing their opposition to the programme within the agency, because it is helping al-Qaeda and its allies recruit, according to a retired military officer in contact with them.
“Some of the CIA operators are concerned that, because of its blowback effect, it is doing more harm than good,” said Jeffrey Addicott, former legal adviser to U.S. Special Forces and director of the Centre for Terrorism Law at St Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, in an interview with IPS.
Addicott said the CIA operatives he knows have told him the drone strikes are being used effectively by al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders to recruit more militants.
CIA officers “are very upset” with the drone strike policy, Addicott said. “They’ll do what the boss says, but they view it as a harmful exercise.”
(via azspot)
