Most of us have heard that Mitt Romney makes lots of money being a ‘private equity’ investor. While that sounds impressive many of us don’t really understand what that term means. In this video Prof. Reich offers a clear explanation which may disturb you…
Paul Krugman today addresses a key feature of the political debate in this country. Most people, if you ask them, profess to be ‘centrist’ or ‘moderate’ in their political views. ‘Don’t rock the boat too much,’ they say. Or ‘extremism is only for extremists.’ Yet the republican party, from Moderate Mitt down to your local precinct captain has no problem endorsing and supporting the most radical right-wing budget and social planning since Hitler. President Obama offered the opinion that if Ronald Reagan were running for office today he could never win the nomination. He was way too moderate…
The Gullible Center
Paul Krugman | NYTImes | 9 Apr 12
So, can we talk about the Paul Ryan phenomenon?
And yes, I mean the phenomenon, not the man. Mr. Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee and the principal author of the last two Congressional Republican budget proposals, isn’t especially interesting. He’s a garden-variety modern G.O.P. extremist, an Ayn Rand devotee who believes that the answer to all problems is to cut taxes on the rich and slash benefits for the poor and middle class.
An interesting article about the philosophic underpinnings of the republican view of society. What I find cynical about that view is the insistence that it is all about deficits and budget balancing. This canard has been fed to us since Eisenhower yet the record shows that it is the republicans who are historically the most profligate spenders. Plain and simple, the goal of republicans in this country is to line their pockets with money by eliminating all impediment to profits. The rest of the conversation is so much socialist claptrap that just gets in the way…
The Taint of ‘Social Darwinism’
Philip Kitcher | NYTimes | 9 Apr 12
Given the well-known Republican antipathy to evolution, President Obama’s recent description of the Republican budget as an example of “social Darwinism” may be a canny piece of political labeling. In the interests of historical accuracy, however, it should be clearly recognized that “social Darwinism” has very little to do with the ideas developed by Charles Darwin in “On the Origin of Species.” Social Darwinism emerged as a movement in the late 19th-century, and has had waves of popularity ever since, but its central ideas owe more to the thought of a luminary of that time, Herbert Spencer, whose writings are (to understate) no longer widely read.
Now students, this video shows the manufacturing of a book. That’s “book”, defined as a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers. A book is something you read in order to gain knowledge, learn about history or ideas, to experience another’s dreams or share personal experience. Books are not a a digital gadget. They do not glow in the dark. They come in millions of colors and forms and they are often full of marvelous illustrations, drawings, photos or diagrams. If you ever have an opportunity to hold a book in your hands you should take the opportunity to see what a joyful invention they are. Unfortunately the opportunities for doing that are coming to a close…
The author Ayn Rand was popular reading when I was in High School back in the early 60s. Her books were a series of polemical arguments supporting the view that all social aid amounted to government giveaways designed to weaken the moral fiber of the population so big government (socialism) would triumph over the individual. Her heroes were all rugged characters who bucked the system and won, of course. At the time (I was fifteen) I considered it a ‘comic book’ philosophy that ignored the real world. I still do, in spite of the fact that the republican party, 50 years later, is still trying to enact Ayn Rand’s sophomoric and discredited plot. Barack Obama makes it abundantly clear how destructive this idea and the future it prescribes would be to a nation where the deal is stacked against most of us. He calls it a ‘Trojan Horse’ and we all remember how that worked out…
What Obama meant by ‘Social Darwinism’
Rachel Weiner | WashingtonPost | 4 Apr 12
In his speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors Tuesday, President Obama called the budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) “thinly veiled social Darwinism.”
What does that mean?
(Note… The video posted below is the entire, unedited speech to the AP where President Obama spoke about the republican budget. By careful use of the time slider you can skip portions that do not interest you.)
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