The Non-Smoking Gun by Jorge G. Castañeda – Project Syndicate

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Literary Review – Saul David on ‘A World on Fire’ by Amanda Foreman

Saul David
LYONS’ SHARE
A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided
By Amanda Foreman (Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 814pp £30)

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A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided by Amanda Foreman – Telegraph

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AFP: Venezuela grants Chavez power to rule by decree

Venezuela grants Chavez power to rule by decree

(AFP) – 22 hours ago

CARACAS — Venezuela’s national assembly on Friday granted President Hugo Chavez extraordinary legislative powers to govern the country by decree for the next 18 months. Continue reading

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Springtime for Hypocrites

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Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind: John Donne

Let us boldly re-imagine, in the spirit of Richard Rorty, this maxim of the great Donne as, any persons death diminishes me, for I am human and cannot ignore my stake in the world of my fellow creatures. How would this apply to the death of Mr. Richard Holbrooke the American diplomat? His death will be old news by next week, hardly a startling observation. So, the question is when do we have an honest forthright discussion of his record as public man and American advocate? Do we engage in the un-reflective hagiography dictated by our homage to custom? For an antidote to this politically respectable chatter, this trivializing chatter, I have provided a link to Professor Stephen Zunes’ enlightening article at the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zunes/richard-holbrooke-represe_b_796447.html  

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Stare decisis et non quieta movere

Definition: Stare decisis et non quieta movere =  to stand by decisions and not disturb the undisturbed. (Thank you, Wikipedia!) One recalls with a certain bitter nostalgia the bravura performance of Mr. John Roberts before the Senate Committee defending the sanctity of stare decisis. He was, in fact, a more respectable version of Mr. Robert Bork, the maladroit ‘Originalist’ who failed to charm the very same committee, even though he used all his Neo-Confederate whiles. But, unsurprisingly, Mr. Roberts shares with Mr. Rehnquist a stated belief in ‘Federalism’, while both really held to and practiced a reversal of the liberal political agenda through judicial fiat. Should the decision in Citizens United surprise? Should one have expected more criticism from the respectable but utterly docile American Press? Or is this really ‘The United States of Amnesia’ ?  (Mort Sahl -Gore Vidal)

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‘I Work Against Ego’: The Art of Hedda Sterne by Sarah Boxer | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books

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Charles Krauthammer

Definition: Charles Krauthammer = A Neo-Conservative writer and theorist,  who worships at his inner shrine to these three deities: Nihilism, Chaos and Strife. These are the gods of masculine privilege and power, without mitigation. Mr. Krauthammer is a physician who, in practice, finds the Hippocratic injunction against doing harm unnecessary baggage, in the quest to annul the liberal ascendancy and to enforce the American will to power, as part of our historical destiny.   

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Amazon.com: Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea (9781594518317): C. Bradley Thompson, Yaron Brook: Books

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