"Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies. From these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, debts and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few...No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
-James Madison
It turns out that there is a long and dishonorable history of racism at the Department of Agriculture, just not the kinds that the right wing wants you to think exists. The big story looming over the right's manufactured "crises" regarding the NAACP and Shirley Sherrod is that they controlled the discourse by doing little more than endlessly and raucously repeating talking points. There's literally no substance to their claims of black racism, and yet they have progressives on the defensive over the proposition that racism is now about an embittered, ungrateful minority turning on its benefactors and somehow oppressing them...
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The quote from James Madison reminds me of one on the same subject by Ursula K. LeGuin, who has her narrator character Genly Ai ponder in The Left Hand of Darkness: "If civilization has an opposite, it is war. Of those two things, you can have either one or the other. Not both."
I'd heard something of that tale of shoving black farmers off their land, but I hadn't realized it was the USDA doing it. Thanks for pointing to that article.
Oops! Forget to mention:
Beckett Is Back!
He is back! We're going to tonight's game. I'll have a cold one for you. No "Gansett in Seattle, though!
See, Roy, you know that when you quote a character from a novel, the proper attribution is to the author, unlike some. Sure, that's one step up from simultaneously strolling and masticating, but that's sort of my point here.
The callousness and unscrupulousness of the right: Its politicians have for years been resisting justice for the victims of USDA discrimination; now, its media lackeys claim that the problem in the department is actually one woman's account of her journey of personal growth.
It's also the fault of the pusillanimity of the left and the Obama administration. They will always bow down to Fox and the wingnutters.
They did it all the way up to the Civil War. And then after the surrender at Appomatox, they started the same process all over again.
Color me disgusted with their behaviors, particularly with Sherrod.
Did the Roman Empire have what we call civilization?
I ask because the Republic and the Empire were all about constant war, for glory and rank, for conquest, for wealth. That included the many civil wars.
Love, C.
Why disgust with Sherrod? She seems to be the innocent party here.
We're in the middle of watching watching Rome. T. thinks that Ray Stevenson (Titus Pullo) is the best on-screen rescuer since Daniel Day-Lewis pulled Madeleine Stowe's fat out of the fire in The Last of the Mohicans.
Anyway, the DVDs allow you to activate pop-ups that explain the context behind each scene. You're not exaggerating: They were always at war, and were very cognizant of the implications of a standing army: Armies were banned from Rome proper, and consuls had term limits.
Foxessa: I suggest you read
http://progressiveerupts.blogspot.com/2010/07/shirley-sherrod-and-myth-of-reverse.html
And you can also find it on The Swash Zone - the comments there are as good as the post by Sheria.
http://swashzone.blogspot.com/2010/07/shirley-sherrod-and-myth-of-reverse.html
I caught Coulter's paint stripping bray on the radio last night explaining how Andrew NottooBreitbart was the one taken advantage of and duped with an edited tape, yet he refuses to give up the source who allegedly made a jackass of him, more rightie conservative fiction methinks but they spin it so hard and so long their passive drones forget where the story started or what it really is and they just start repeating the FOX mantra. I agree with you Bill, Sean, Rush, Glen etc. because you tell us the troof ! Meanwhile Limbaugh lights a Cohiba and jams a pawful of Hillbilly heroin down his piehole grumbling off mic You can't handle the troof ! ...
The right wing calls John Lewis a liar and takes Andrew Breibart's word as gospel. That's like a parent saying he wouldn't his kids with Albert Schweitzer, but that Jeff Dahmer seems like a fine young man.
I meant their behaviors toward Sherrod.
She's great. They're pusillanimous knee benders to the wingnutz.
Love, C.
You have to wonder: Where's the skepticism? It should be practically knee jerk when it comes to "people" like Breitbart. Actually, skepticism should be knee jerk when it comes to anything.
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