Hi. I’m Sam Smith, and I’d like your vote. In January I launched Dr. Slammy in 2008, my doomed campaign for president. Then a few months later, forgetting that there are only 24 hours in a day, I got myself embroiled in this Scholars & Rogues project. Something had to give, and as a result I let the DS08 initiative
Read moreI’ve been saying for months now that Hillary Clinton is the only chance the Republicans have in 2008, and some new polls raise the electability question all over again. First, a new Zogby online poll “shows Democrat Hillary Clinton of New York would lose to every one of the top five Republican presidential contenders.” Her main opponents at present, Barack
Read moreToday we introduce a new feature at S&R. In The Daily Brushback we’ll pose a question to a person famous or infamous that we wish someone in the mainstream media actually had the cojones to ask. We don’t expect answers, of course, but that’s never a reason not to ask. And since we have no “access” to risk losing, we
Read moreI’m not 100% sure whether this is an argument for Net neutrality or against it, but it has to be seen. I have to go scrub my eyeballs with Clorox now. Thanks (?) to Lara Velarde for passing this on.
Read moreIn describing the Democratic response to Bush’s sabre-rattling toward Iran, Power of Narrative’s Arthur Silber summed things up neatly: They don’t object because — they don’t object. The only thing wrong with Silber’s assessment is that it was limited to Iran. In truth, you could just as easily use those seven succinct words to characterize the Democratic Party in general.
Read moreA colleague has notified me that I’m under indictment by a previously unknown blog calling itself the St. Louis Skeptical Society, a site that “was founded on October 11, 2007 by a handful of physics graduate students in order to promote skepticism and science.” These enterprising students have taken exception to my earlier thoughts on democracy in America, concluding that
Read moreA few weeks ago I watched The US vs. John Lennon, a documentary chronicling the extraordinary lengths the American government went to in order to silence an artist who had the audacity to speak out against corruption and injustice. Of course, Lennon came from an age when artists did that sort of thing, and he wasn’t the only musician to
Read moreI recently offended some people, quite unintentionally, with my modest suggestion that perhaps it wasn’t in the best interests of the nation to hand over so much decision-making power to people who aren’t informed about the issues and their own system of government. (Responses ranged from “thoughtful disagreement” to what I believe is referred to as a “galloping hissy fit.”)
Read moreWell, here’s a fine howdy-do first thing this morning: an absolutely breathtaking bit of misdirection and pro-monopolist hackery masquerading as a good-faith critique of Bill Moyers. Moyers’ point seems to be that the opposite of more consolidation is the existence of more stations like this one in Chicago.This is absolutely false and Mr. Moyers should know it. The opposite of
Read moreIn my most recent post, one commenter repeatedly insisted that I offer a solution or an alternative for the problems I was pointing to. As I noted there, I never suggested that there was a problem, and even if there were, it’s hardly my job to be proposing a lot of solutions that aren’t going to be acted on. If
Read moreThomas Jefferson’s legacy is much admired in the US and beyond, and for good reason. Without his contributions it’s hard to imagine how the American system of “democracy” would have evolved. I’ve always admired him a great deal, too, although for somewhat different reasons than most. Yes, he was critical to the development of democracy, but what was so brilliant
Read moreThe World Series starts tomorrow night and people around here have gone Rockies crazy. I’m getting asked a lot if I’m excited, and the answer is yes – Go Red Sox! They all want to know “why aren’t you rooting for Colorado?” So I’m answering them: First off, the Red Sox are my favorite team. Second, I cannot abide the
Read moreHowdy, folks, and welcome to Saturday Video Roundup, where today our guests tackle the tricky issue of education and politics. Up first, one of our heroes offers some thoughts on education in our ownership society.
Read moreSome of you may have noticed that S&R was down for a few hours this afternoon due to what WordPress was calling a violation of our Terms of Service Agreement. We have just been informed that we were the victims of a technical glitch, and obviously all is now right with the world again. Our thanks to the folks at
Read moreI recall once hearing in a lecture that the Easter Rising rebels were influenced by the poetry of William Butler Yeats, and that they perhaps even read his work amongst themselves during the seven days they occupied Dublin’s General Post Office in April 1916. I can’t find a source to verify that they were reading Yeats while awaiting slaughter, but
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lullaby pit 