Comments Posted By theblackcommenter
Displaying 1 To 9 Of 9 Comments
'THE COST OF DYING:' FALSE CHOICES OR THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN HEALTHCARE?
Well one thing I haven't yet heard mentioned (though I may have missed it) is that these choices are made difficult by the fact that the ones making the decision aren't the ones paying the bill. Would a 90 year old opt for a $500,000 surgery that might give her a few more months of life while crippling her family financially for the next 10 years? Probably not. But of course in most cases neither the grandma, nor the family is paying the bill so everyone gets to complain about heartless insurance company bureaucrats saying no when they're really doing it so we won't have to.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 24.11.2009 @ 10:07
YES TO HOFFMAN, BUT NO LITMUS TEST PLEASE
I don't know that there should be "litmus tests" for candidates broadly speaking within the Republican "Big Tent," but it is certainly true that individuals have their own non-negotiable issues that make moderates even within the party uncomfortable with, especially abortion issues and gay rights. Much of the opposition to these issues are rooted in fundamental moral convictions that supersede other considerations, much in the same way that folks just would not support a party or candidate that advocated reinstating slavery -- no matter how fiscally conservative they are.
The problem with the Republican Party in the eyes of many conservatives has been that every faction - social, fiscal, and foreign policy - of conservatives have held their noses and supported the party only to see policies of social liberalism, fiscal irresponsibility, and foreign policy adventure seeking enacted. No one has a problem with a big tent, but folks on the ground are no longer content with voting against the wicked evil free spending Democrat only to get a wicked evil free spending Republican on the ballot.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 27.10.2009 @ 21:59
SHOULD THE PRESIDENT DECLINE THE PEACE PRIZE?
Mr Nainan doesn't make sense. Obama hasn't even been actively promoting peace in the way Tutu was working towards the end of apartheid; certainly not in any way different than Bush in the first months of his term (before 9/11) and certainly not while overseeing two wars. His logic is more than flawed.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 9.10.2009 @ 13:04
INTELLECTUAL CONSERVATISM ISN'T DEAD: IT'S RESTING
Something that seems to be missing to me from this conversation between the so-called conservative intellectuals, moderates, etc., and the populists is the fact that the so-called populists actually perform an intellectual function. I did not transition from a Democrat to a Republican because or erudite arguments voiced in the dulcet tones of academia, but because I happened one day to listen to Limbaugh whose program I stumbled across on while driving and decided on a lark to listen to what this "right wing loon" had to say. I had been more accustomed to NPR and some Limbaugh's bombastic style was off putting, but... and this is critical... he was saying things that were true. He pointed out again and again obvious hypocrisies of the Democratic primary (this was during the election). His arguments, clothed in hyperbole, sarcasm and satire, were cogent and articulate. More than that, they made sense.
Now I'm not really a fan of Limbaugh. My listening to his program was a fluke. But what I was exposed to: conservative thought, was infectious. At the time, I was hearing NOTHING from Republicans. And even now I hear nothing from them. It often seems that moderates have no ideas of their own other than critiquing the "extremist populists" and showing up on Sunday tv shows echoing the Democratic proposals, albeit at a slower pace. Certainly the last 2 Republican presidents have governed as moderates, though from the media one would think that G W Bush was a far extreme right conservative. No (or few) genuinely conservative measures passed during his tenure and here we are with Republicans in the minority having done nothing to solve Social Security or health care when we had the majority (and a moderate majority at that), but people are upset at Glenn Beck.
The problem I have with soft voice moderates like Frum is that they advocate a moderate intellectual tone, but fail to engage conservative ideas except to attack them or the messengers. Case in point, folks got riled up about Palin's death panel comments, and yet did nothing to address the substance of her critique or proposals. Her tone wasn't hysterical and her ideas weren't extreme, but one wouldn't know that from reading moderates like Frum.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 6.10.2009 @ 10:41
TRENDS FOR 2010 BEGINNING TO WORRY DEMOCRATS
Deficits won't bother people if the economy is propped up by infusions of cheap cash, which is what I predict will happen. I suspect that the delay in releasing stimulus monies will end in time for there to be some economic progress near election time and then Dems can run on economic "success" of their policies, even though they are just paper profits due to an inflated currency.
There will of course be a lag between the boom and the bust but one just long enough to get BO back in office in 2012. Combine that with a lackluster candidate (a la Bob Dole) and 2016 is the next realistic shot.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 31.08.2009 @ 08:56
KOPECHNE AS MARTYR TO KENNEDY'S FAILED AMBITION
The difference between martyrs and Kopechne is that martyrs go willingly to their deaths in advancement of a cause.
She on the other hand was sacrificed to the cause of nothing greater than Ted Kennedy's ambitions.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 28.08.2009 @ 10:39
THE ROLE OF RACE IN OPPOSITION TO THE PRESIDENT
I mean I am Black... hahaha. I will add though that none of us can deny history. Can we let midwesterners off the hook for the race riots of the sixties, or Californians for the more recent riots (1990's)? The whole point of your post is in some ways trying to isolate race as a variable, which you then muddle by touting the southerner = racist meme.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 21.08.2009 @ 09:52
(To my southern friends, I would say that you cannot deny history - ancient or recent - and say it is a statistical fluke of some kind that so many of your fellow southerners disbelieve the president’s citizenship, while refusing to ascribe such thinking to racial reasons.)
I am a southerner, though not Black (as can be seen by my screen moniker). I would suggest that southerners are not necessarily more racist than others as a whole, and the perpetuation of that idea is destructive to our national life, but that more southerners might be found to be racist, if you can see the difference.
The suspicion about the president's citizenship being higher in the south is much less attributable to his race. After all there are many more Blacks in the south than in any other part of the country and why would southerners suspect that a Black man wouldn't be born in the US? I suspect that it is due rather to a higher level of suspicion generally towards the federal government, liberals, and elites that stems from a quite understandable history of experiencing the heavy hand of federal intervention over and over again.
Southern Whites, unlike other Whites in this country, have the only history of being under military occupation by the federal government and then subsequently historically demonized for something that was legal at the time. Even now, southern Whites, unlike other Whites, are readily assumed to be ignorant and racist for no other reason than their place of birth. So it makes sense that they would develop a high degree of defensiveness and suspicion... a level of defensiveness and suspicion that is found among Black Americans as well and for the same reasons of experiencing prejudicial treatment - if not personally, then certainly in media and entertainment.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 21.08.2009 @ 09:16
DOES THE GOVERNMENT CARE IF YOU GET INTO TROUBLE OVERSEAS ANYMORE?
I agree with you, but I disagree that the world is more complex. The world has always been complex and in fact the world is in some ways much simpler than in the 19th century.
Comment Posted By theblackcommenter On 5.08.2009 @ 13:30
