Category Archives: Writing

Aphorism: On American Militarized Police Forces Killing OWS Protesters

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By Madison S. Hughes (05.05.2012)

It will happen!

The military and police forces attract a great number of Hawks. Many are actually Chickenhawks, but more on that presently. They come stock with an aggressive and militant mindset. They are predominately white-wing reactionaries who are very traditional and theistic. They see the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters as left-wing radicals who are very unconventional and secular. They believe the unemployed are so because they are lazy, and the have no work ethic. The OWS protesters see the downtrodden as victims of the system that, ironically, the Militarized Police Force are supporting against their own economic best interest. The contrast could not be greater.

Thus far the Militarized Police Force has demonstrated that they are, in fact, Chickenhawks. Their continual use of disproportional force against nonviolent, unarmed, passive protesters shows that they are just itching like a yeast infection to put a notch in their lipstick case.

It’s only a matter of time.

NPR Book Authors Interview: “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism” / Thomas E. Mann (The Brookings Institution) and Norman J. Ornstein (American Enterprise Institute) / (AUDIO)

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Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein are no strangers to D.C. politics. The two of them have been in Washington for more than 40 years — and they’re renowned for their carefully nonpartisan positions.

But now, they say, Congress is more dysfunctional than it has been since the Civil War, and they aren’t hesitating to point a finger at who they think is to blame.

“One of the two major parties, the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier — ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition,” they write in their new book, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.

Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, join Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep to talk about the book, which [came out 05.01.2012].

Read more and listen to the interview here . . .

Aphorism: On Christian Charity

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By Madison S. Hughes (05.01.2012)

Churches in general and the Catholic Church in particular, are nothing more than organized tribal cults. They give to their respective tribes, as would any primal tribe; however, these modern-day mendicants mooch off of their secular brethren through tax-exemptions and other Christian privileges purposefully to give back to their primal tribes. They give not out of a sense of compassion to their fellow human beings, but out of a sense of community to their fellow limited and literal-minded tribe members.

Noam Chomsky: May Day

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Zuccotti Park Press, a project of Adelante Alliance, a Brooklyn-based immigrant advocacy group, is releasing Occupy, a new book by Noam Chomsky, on May Day.

People seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in the United States of America. That’s because those in power have done everything they can to erase its real meaning. For example, Ronald Reagan designated what he called “Law Day” — a day of jingoist fanaticism, like an extra twist of the knife in the labor movement. Today, there is a renewed awareness, energized by the Occupy movement’s organizing, around May Day, and its relevance for reform and perhaps eventual revolution.

Read more . . .

Christopher Hitchens: Memorial Service for Vanity Fair Videos

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In Part One of the April 20th memorial service for Vanity Fair contributing editor Christopher Hitchens, Graydon Carter welcomed attendees and speakers James Fenton, Lawrence Krauss, Edwin Blue, Patrick Cockburn, Max McGuinness, Aimée Bell, Michael Zilkha, Victor Navasky, and Tom Stoppard.

In Part Two of the April 20th memorial service for Vanity Fair contributing editor Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Buckley read from Hitch-22, followed by speeches from Peter Schneider, Thomas Mallon, James Wood, Leslie Cockburn, and Patrick Cockburn.

In Part Three of the April 20th memorial service for Vanity Fair contributing editor Christopher Hitchens, Sean Penn, Salman Rushdie, Olivia Wilde, Douglas Brinkley, Cary Goldstein spoke.

In Part Four of the April 20th memorial service for Vanity Fair contributing editor Christopher Hitchens, John Auchard, Steve Wasserman, Stephen Fry, Ian McEwen, and Francis Collins spoke.

In Part Five of the April 20th memorial service for Vanity Fair contributing editor Christopher Hitchens, members of his family spoke including Edwin Blue, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Peter Hitchens, and Carol Blue.

Christopher Hitchens: Remembered by Vanity Fair (VIDEO)

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In a short film presented to attendees of the April 20, 2012, memorial for Christopher Hitchens, documentarian Alex Gibney showcased the wit and spectacular accomplishments of the late Vanity Fair contributing editor.

Watch video here  . . . 

Arianna Huffington: Quoting Shakespeare

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To celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday, we’re featuring some of our favorite archival pieces about his life and work. This one was first published in July 2005. Happy Birthday, Bill!

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ‘It’s Greek to me’,
you are quoting Shakespeare;
if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning,
you are quoting Shakespeare;
if you recall your salad days,
you are quoting Shakespeare;
if you act more in sorrow than in anger,
if your wish is father to the thought,
if your lost property has vanished into thin air,
you are quoting Shakespeare;
if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy,
if you have played fast and loose,
if you have been tongue-tied,
a tower of strength,
hoodwinked or in a pickle,
if you have knitted your brows,
made a virtue of necessity,
insisted on fair play,
slept not one wink,
stood on ceremony,
danced attendance (on your lord and master),
laughed yourself into stitches,
had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing,
if you have seen better days or lived in a fool’s paradise —
why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare;
if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage,
if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it,
if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood,
if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play,
if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason,
then — to give the devil his due — if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare;
even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing,
if you wish I was dead as a doornail,
if you think I am an eyesore,
a laughing stock,
the devil incarnate,
a stony-hearted villain,
bloody-minded or a blinking idiot,
then — by Jove!
O Lord!
Tut, tut!
For goodness’ sake!
What the dickens!
But me no buts —
it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

Read more . . .