There are many interesting ideas in this world. This blog is dedicated to pursuing them wherever they go. Politics, philosophy, religion, environment, and anything else that captures imaginations and leads to healthy discussions. Never take the world for what it is, there's always a better way to do something.
It should come as no surprise to the regular followers of this blog when I say that I believe President Obama is making a great mistake by sending more troops to Afghanistan. I don’t know what he has been told at the war meetings, but I hope I can never agree with his decision.
However, as it appears that war will continue to drag on (some Senator mentioned that 5 more years is as long as American will tolerate), perhaps we need to start to think how we will remember this conflict. What kind of Memorial is going to be built in Washington to grieve for the loss of life sustained over these years?
As our current President decides to send more troops into Afghanistan, we should look back to a man who few know, but someone who played a vital role in the growth of our country.
Most of this is right of Wikipedia:
He is best remembered as a proponent of progressivism and a vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, World War I, and the League of Nations. In 1957, a Senate committee selected La Follette as one of their five greatest Senate predecessors. A 1982 survey of historians that asked them to rank the “ten greatest Senators in the nation’s history” based on “accomplishments in office” and “long range impact on American history,” placed him first, tied with Henry Clay.
Although I don’t think much of her political views, I definitively believe Sarah Palin doesn’t get enough credit for her brains. Anyone who thinks she’s a stupid or naive woman, is very mistaken about her. Her rise from obscurity has been meteoric, and while I highly doubt (though future can often be very surprising) that she has any real chance to winning the presidency, she will be an important player in American politics for a long, long time to come. Anyone who doubts that should take a look at how she has handled her publicity since that fateful Election of 2008.
I think she was the sole winner out of the four people on the election ballot. While Obama has won the presidency, he has also earned all the criticism, pressure, and just general bad karma that comes with the job. While the American President might be the most powerful man in the world, he definitively is also the most stressed out. As for Biden and McCain, it seems that the public is largely apathetic towards them. As for Sarah? I think she’s very quickly making herself one of the more relevant leaders of the conservative right.
A few weeks ago, Noam Chomsky’s article was posted In These Times. This isn’t the first time, or the last time time for matter, that I mention Chomsky. I think United States, and the world, need more people like him. He presents his ideas and viewpoints clearly and always bases them in facts and history. He does not resort to cleverly spun statements or rhetoric, and doesn’t try to scare or frighten people to his viewpoints, or at least thats how I feel listening to him.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with me on Chomsky, the fact remains that he presents our political world and American foreign policy in ways that are very, very different from others. While his speeches are always jammed packed, he unfortunately receives very little attention from the mainstream media. As a result, we are all unfortunately all missing out. And anyone who believes that media is liberal.. well then read Chomsky’s article, a transcript of which is below, and see for yourself just how liberal our media is, if they fail to report on the things that don’t escape Chomsky’s attention. I’ll leave it up to you to make your final decision on Noam Chomsky, however, I do recommend everyone at least exposes themselves to his work.
According to an AP article yesterday, almost 50 million Americans are going hungry. I guess that’s one way to deal with the obesity problem within the United States. Although the article didn’t mention the amount of lbs lost among the participants, I’m assuming the executives behind The Biggest Loser are watching. This is definitively a startling number, almost 15% of American households.
Although the 3.5% increase from 2007, labeled ‘unsettling’ by President Obama, is mostly blamed on the recent economic hiccup, I am wondering a little bit on why the number is so high. I don’t think it surprises anyone when the news of another famine, I’m sure there are a few, in Africa. Stories like that don’t gather enough attention (that means high enough ratings) for our big news channels to devote too much time to them. I’d be unsettled if I heard that’s the number of hungry families in an Easter European or South American country. But United States? That number is much, much too high to be in the United States. Obama misspoke, that news isn’t ‘unsettling’ it’s downright ’shocking’.
