In a small attempt to connect political theory to actual power, last week I sent messages to some GOP members of the U.S. Senate telling them about my new book, Politics on a Human Scale … All of the senators use email forms on their websites so we can communicate with their staffs. The first step for the user is to identify the broad topic of our question or comment.
What struck me is that my message did not fit into any of the categories listed on any of the websites. I did not expect to find “human scale politics” or “decentralization” listed, but I thought I might find “big government,” “federal power,” “federalism,” “states’ rights,” or “Constitution.”
(Jeff Taylor at Front Porch Republic) Taylor’s understated conclusion is “Those of us who believe in widely dispersed power—political and economic—have some work to do to move the topic from the political fringe to the public agenda.”
Godspeed.
The Supreme Court (of the United States – SCOTUS for short) has decided to hear two challenges, by two incorporated but family-owned businesses, to the employer contraceptive mandate.
Over in the enlightened world of AlterNet, (H/T Slacktivist) the case is open and shut: the idea that “a mandate to provide health coverage—including family planning—[could] violates religious freedom” is absurd – but a nefarious cabal of 6 mackerel-snappers at SCOTUS (“almost half of the Catholics who have ever served in the Court’s 224 year history”! – Bring the smelling salts!) threatens exactly such an absurd holding (Meet the Right-Wing Christian Companies Trying to Impose Their Values on Their Workers is the sober and scholarly title).
But at Fundamentalist Catholic stronghold UCLA Law School (What!? You didn’t know UCLA was fundy?!), there’s a law professor with a foreign-sounding name who is methodically laying out the issues in a way that – so help me – make the absurd theory seem almost plausible: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 so far. And he plans to keep it up all week!
Don’t let him drown out the voice of reason! Shriek louder!
Gene Fant at the First Things blog was “dumbfounded by the … final twenty or so minutes” of Disney’s new movie, Frozen, finding it ” an astoundingly clear parable of the Christian Gospel, perhaps even superior to that of the Stone Table scene in the first Narnia film in terms of simplicity and clarity.” Movie criticism is not my forté, so I’ll direct you to him if you want to see why and gauge things for yourself.
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“The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 