Midcan5's Blog

Currently reading Fernand Braudel's 'The History of Civilizations.' Check it out, helps us understand the current world. Read recently: 'Stoner' John Williams 'My Struggle: Book 1' Karl Ove Knausgaard 'The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark' Carl Sagan Sites I like, 'thebrowser' covers some of the best writing on the web, well worth the small subscription cost. http://thebrowser.com/ http://rustbeltphilosophy.blogspot.com/ http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/ http://contemporarycondition.blogspot.com/ http://www.edge.org/ http://www.ted.com/ http://politicsandletters.wordpress.com/ http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/ http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/ "If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." Haruki Murakami

Republicans blamed President Obama for a loss of an hour this past weekend. Sarah Palin said while she was busy reading everything, a hour came up missing? Ann Coulter thought that maybe we reverted to Kenya time and Darrell Issa will hold a hearing in which he investigates whether the IRS is behind this change. Speaker Boehner asked Paul Ryan if he noticed the loss and Ryan replied the loss was caused by poor people in the inner city. Reince Priebus noted that while he was puzzled over the loss of the Malaysian airline, the loss of an hour puzzled him even more. On a more serious note, Sarah Palin thinks a bad guy with a nuke can be stopped by a good guy with a nuke, she's not sure whether everyone should be licensed to carry a nuke but she feels this is a real deterrent guaranteed by the Constitution. Representative Issa will hold a hearing this week on that loss of an hour, and he claims Father Time cannot take the fifth or Rep Issa will give another long detailed indictment ba...

Interesting that the bigotry and stupidity of the Arizona republicans is matched by similar comments across the web? Freedom now means in the minds of the bigots that your freedom stops at our door because you are different. I am more than beginning to think it must be the water or maybe global warming as Americans just seem to be getting stupider by the day. Is there some sort of nutritional need that would help? Anyone know? We need to do that constitution thing all over. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (this includes women) are not equal, that some should not be served especially if they were endowed by their Creator with gayness or brownness or some other differentness in our eyes, that among these qualities are lots of potential reasons to deny them service that will be determined in a pursuit of our Happiness and our ideological framework of justice.

Several years ago, our niece, a girl who grew up in the lap of luxury took a trip to Appalachia as a student helper and returned dumbfounded. In my liberal head I was trying to make sense of how people come to live this way. She marveled over how the students worked while the locals sat and smoked. I think she missed the part that after she left life would be the same. Not everyone can be Honey Boo Boo with a TV show and a family that seems somewhat glued together as a social unit. As a back-road traveler and cyclist I often find the poor people of America the most friendly, but the lives they lead are odd to those of us who operate in the so called rat race even when we pretend it's not a race. When people look at the inner city ghettos they forget, or is that neglect, the more remote, scenic ghettos. See book noted below. 'In Appalachia the country is beautiful and the society is broken.' By Kevin D. Williamson "Thinking about the future here and its bleak ...

Fascinating stuff plagiarism. Could it just be that libertarians are so enamored of freedom that copying others work is covered by their ideological moral framework? Think about it, freedom is a kinda vague concept, so why not claim freedom to copy? It's not like he was asked to do something original, there's nothing original about anything else he says so why is this different? He should make a stand for freedom and say, 'yes, I copied lots of stuff but I never claimed originality, I only claimed my libertarian freedom to copy.' See how easy that is when freedom is the key. Think about all the nonsensical stuff he copied from dad. Libertarians are fun to watch. If Rand Paul were a woman.

As I watch MSM's gnashing of teeth and whining over the ACA, as I watch republicans whine about the ACA, I wonder.... Why is there so little information about the positives of the ACA? Why is there little news on the people in America who need healthcare? Why is there no news on the states that are doing a good job implementing the ACA? Why is there no investigation into why insurers and others are opposed to the ACA? Why is affordable healthcare for all Americans not a priority instead of an impossibility? When did America become the 'can't do' nation? When did any news agency or republican take note before October 2013 of insurers dropping Americans from healthcare or raising rates constantly? When was the last time a news source reported on Americans whose coverage was dropped or failed to cover their health condition prior to October 2013? OK, I repeat myself. How is it our healthcare ranks 37th in world and we aren't embarrassed as a nation? Why is ...

Republican Ideology the Past One Hundred Years (Work in Progress, updated 08/14/2013) "...Ideology makes men fight for their servitude as stubbornly as though it were their salvation." Deleuze/Guattari Roaring Twenties, America turns inward after WWI, laissez faire economics prevail Harding reduces taxes on the wealthy to spur growth Three consecutive republican administrations, supply side economy, little regulation Republicans align themselves with big business Coolidge administration incompetent while speculation takes hold of nation Hoover elected in landslide Coolidge/Hoover presidencies, bubble mentality assures wall street speculation growth Wall Street grows out of control, everyone wants in Wall street market exchange cannot control speculative mood Bubble bursts, banks collapse, investment trusts collapse, economy starts long downward spiral Unable to control speculation wall street equally ineffective in controlling crash Banking industry attempts co...