Parents are idiots, like anyone else. Not without cost.

The Dangerous Consequences Of Anti-Vaccine Propaganda In One Map

Worth a look.

Go ahead. Campaign on that.

Study: Thousands Of People Will Die In States That Don't Expand Medicaid

Not a surprise, though, is it?

No enemies on the Left

Obama the socialist?

Read it.

She finds no differences worth mentioning between the flat out communism of Paul Robeson and the modest social democracy of Bernie Sanders, apparently.

Now, actual democratic socialists, back in the day, were perfectly clear of the critically important differences between them and all versions of Marxism in descent from Leninism.

Generally, even today, you will have no trouble getting an honest taxonomy of the left from them, one that does not hide but makes vividly clear these same differences.

It has always been the reds whose United Front propaganda hid and even denied them.

Of course, nothing has ever prevented communists, American or not, from joining with others in working for political goals well short of their "maximum agenda," such as happened during the era of the American civil rights struggle and as has happened very often, before then and since.

Pete Seeger's career was at least partly, though not entirely, made up of devoted participation in just such efforts, for which everyone equally devoted to those goals had to be grateful.

But that is no excuse for hiding crucial differences when they are relevant.

And going to the lengths of defending reds when they pursue today or yesterday pursued goals perfectly congruent with their outlook but blatantly opposed to those of the entire democratic left is and was a profound betrayal.

Such betrayals as saying Ho Chi Minh's war was fought for anything remotely like the principles of the American Revolution.

Or that Nelson Mandela, in his years as a communist terrorist, was a freedom fighter struggling for racial justice and equality.

Or that Pete Seeger was not, in his communist decades, a deadly enemy of the most profound and critical political values of the democratic left, from democratic socialists to the merest safety-net liberals.

Oh, by the way.

If those who mean to defend the democratic left can't see any important differences between Bernie Sanders and Pol Pot, why should those who attack it?

Why Americans think they're all crazy and just tune them out

They taxed me and it felt like a Holocaust

Liberals and conservatives are now furiously and volubly shouting at each other over the accusation that not plowing rich people's snow fast enough and taxing them at the top end above 30% are comparable to Nazi persecution of the Jews.

And whether it is or is not correct to equate blaming the American 1% for the economic ills of America, both over the last few decades and to this day, with Nazis blaming the Jews for the economic woes of Germany and Europe.

What is wrong not only with people who make these claims but people who think it necessary to get into a public shouting match about such fantastic whoppers?

And if you insist the liberals are innocent victims, this time, you are ignoring the many, many times when the fantastic whoppers are theirs, not the conservatives'.

Almost everything they have ever said about race, for example.

And most of what they have said about sex, communism, and general leftist radicalism.

OK, it's a dirty job, and yet somebody has to do it.

But nobody has to listen.

Benjamin Constant

Consider this in light of this.

Or, indeed, vice-versa.

The liberty of the ancients?

Essentially direct, participatory democracy - but not for slaves, foreigners, or women -, it is gone forever, and good riddance, say I.

But that of the moderns, as BC understands it, besides leaving freedom from exploitation wholly out of account, as well as the last two of FDR's four freedoms, includes no measure of self-rule, even through representative government, referred to as "popular government" by other liberals, republicans, and democracy theorists.

And yet without self-rule exploitation is certain, the four freedoms are a pipe-dream, and the liberties of the moderns he speaks of are partly, though not entirely, empty formalities.

The president, now a "compassionate conservative," advances the cause of "privatizing" Social Security

Roth IRA the model for Obama's contractor retirement plan

It was GW's idea and it was already a lie to even use the word, "privatization."

Those who supported his plan to partially defund, weaken, and replace the totally safe and mildly re-distributive Social Security program by letting people redirect part of their Social Security taxes toward personal IRAs, personal savings, rather than into the Social Security fund, called it "partial privatization."

Now, the devil is in the details, but what the president has done is direct the Treasury Department to create a plan allowing workers whose employers provide nothing for retirement to automatically save some of their own after-tax dollars.

The money would be guaranteed by the government, and so as safe as a savings account.

Not in the least clear how this is better than the private savings plans available right now through banks all over the country.

If that's really the long and short of it, what the president has done has been to advance the conservative cause of destroying Social Security by attempting to deal with the problem of retirement for the least well off among us by telling the poor, save up.

Expect Republicans to urge that the money to be saved should be exempt from Social Security taxes, thus ensuring the program also partially defunds Social Security, though it appears not to do that under the president's own plan.

All the same, FDR created Social Security to safely and effectively provide a small but secure pension for the poorest of Americans, with the worst retirement prospects, as well as aid for younger Americans in exceptionally desperate circumstances.

Want to do more along those lines for workers today who can expect nothing from their employers?

Beef up Social Security.

Strengthen its funding and increase its benefits.

Social Security is the right tool. It just needs to be made a better tool.

Of course, the president might reply that such changes are up to the congress and the congress will certainly not make them.

That is true.

Perhaps he has it in mind he can get approval for this idea from the congress.

But in that case he has refused to urge a properly Democratic plan (fixing Social Security) because a Republican congress won't pass it, and instead urged a plan for Republican acceptance whose only point, in their hands, will be to undermine, defund, and help ultimately wreck Social Security.

Not having been allowed to function as a Democratic president, he is now willingly accepting the role of Republican successor to GW, carrying on his destructive work as a "compassionate conservative."

The mind of Obama is certainly a tough nut to crack.

Capitalism and inequality

Capitalism vs. democracy

Somebody discovering fire.

Too easy, then

Ortega allowed to seek re-election

The US Constitution is too difficult to change, particularly as regards the inexcusable excessive power of small state voters in the Senate and Electoral College.

But some constitutions are too easy to change, enabling too strong executive power.

As far as that goes, Ortega has not changed his stripes.

Soft on communism

Goodbye, Pete Seegar

Why am I the only comment writer to be unwilling to gush with unqualified approval and enthusiasm for the man and his career?

So total flab about communism is that common on the left, these days?

All over the media and the web, it's loving memories and admiration, only.

So it wasn't only Nelson Mandela getting a pass.

Obama says Uncle Ho was a Jeffersonian Democrat, at heart.

So what the heck.

Update, 1/29/14.

Obama tribute to folk singer Seeger

This from the BBC is both untrue and a whitewash.

Renowned for his protest songs, Seeger was blacklisted by the US Government in the 1950s for his leftist stance.

The government didn't blacklist, and Seeger was in hot water because he was a communist.

He remained a radical leftist all his life, and I believe he never apologized for his membership in the CPUSA.

Obama has joined the whole left in the whitewash, having already done as much for Nelson Mandela and Ho Chi Minh.

Not to mention Bill Ayers.

Apparently, every liberal is now required to be OK with communism.

All over the web, liberals who helped get Pat Buchanan kicked off MSNBC and regularly seek punishment by job loss for people who say things they don't like are denouncing the anti-communist blacklists of the 1950s, not to mention HUAC and its efforts to out communists, leaving them open to the danger of losing their jobs.

Just pointing out the double standard, here.

Whiskey economy

If the first double is Jameson those afterward can be anything.

Experience confirms this.

Who but a fool would save the best liquor for last?