Voter Ignorance and the Budget
Some comments from Dispatches.
In 2002 Florida voters approved an amendment ordering the state to reduce class size. As with so many such amendments, the state was left to look for a way to provide the teachers and pay them. The story in my home county, Escambia, and in neighboring Santa Rosa county is in today’s Pensacola News-Journal. In…
I’m interested in how one can take a rather ordinary set of proposals and make them incendiary just by providing a label. And sorry, my conservative friends, I don’t buy into the “but he really is a socialist” line. The basis of the socialism charge is specific–Obama’s tax plans–and a response to that particular point…
Lt. Col. Stacy L Maxey has written a letter to Stars and Stripes indicating that he has plans to violate military regulations following the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Or something like that. Actually it’s hard to tell precisely what he plans to do. One paragraph of the letter reads: Here’s the truth: I…
There’s an excellent post on gay marriage by Jon Rowe over on Positive LibertyA Theoretical Solution to Maggie Gallagher’s Problem (thanks to Ed Brayton on Dispatches from the Culture Wars for pointing this post out.) I’m particularly pleased with the argument here that allows religious toleration for those who believe homosexuality is a sin, and…
The more I read Robert Rech’s comments on the current economic crisis, the better I like what I read. He’s been calling for stimulus that involves rebuilding the infrastructure. He’s calling for the same, but also suggesting that the lame duck congress will not be the ones to create a well-crafted stimulus package. He says:…
I value tolerance. Even more, I value and celebrate diversity. But frequently I see definitions of tolerance that must be considered self-destructive. I usually encounter these in the form of straw-man arguments. Someone may ask me if I believe in tolerance. When I acknowledge that I do, they will ask me then whether I will…