Per Abigail Caplovitz Field in a Naked Capitalism post earlier today, it’s not gambling at all. That is, unless you’re so rude as to point out the fact that we taxpayers are on the hook for the losses.

Check out JFK and the Unspeakable http://amzn.to/IN2zxZ

IIRC, the Iroquois was a confederation of half a dozen or so different tribes (Seneca, Mohawk, etc.). Were they all matrilineal or just some of them?

PS: Great post, Peterr

From Science AGOGO: “Empirical evidence for homophobia’s link to repressed same-sex attraction”

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20120309012352data_trunc_sys.shtml

One of the great “might-have-beens” of the 2012 political cycle could have been a challenge by Eliot Spitzer for the Democratic nomination for president. It could have been a battle for the what little is left of the soul of the party, and could also have launched a long-needed discussion of the relationships public vs. private morality in the 21st century USA. If Spitzer were able to play it right he could have used the personal foibles that led to his fall from public grace as a platform for a critique of the rampant public immorality we see pervasive on Wall Street and inside the beltway. John Dean has pulled this sort of thing off in recent decades, and Spitzer by making a play for the nomination might have garnered a bigger spotlight. This all assumes, of course, that the mainstream media would have given him the time of day, which it almost certainly wouldn’t have. What coverage he would have gotten would have emphasized the afore-mentioned foibles to justify the disregard of the substance. It’s understandable that Spitzer didn’t go this route, considering the distress it would have caused to himself and his family.

The problem is much deeper than just the Citizens United decisions. In his powerful new book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It Larry Lessig does an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon he labels “Dependence Corruption,” and the many ways it distorts legislative action away from the interests of the people in favor of special interests. He argues persuasively that the chances of this present system being changed from within (i.e. by Congress itself) are vanishingly small, and that the most promising of the other alternatives available is a set of Constitutional Amendments originated by a Constitutional Convention which proscribes the participation of sitting elected and politically-appointed federal office holders. This book is a Must Read for anyone who cares about the future of democratic government in the USA.

Done that twice in the last three months with $$$ appeals from OFA, or whatever it’s called this week. Both times I included a note saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” It felt good.

Actually I spent a lot of time in 2008 volunteering on the Ashwin Madia campaign for the 3rd CD seat being vacated by Jim Ramstad. And looking back, that is about when my posting here began to drop off. I also enthusiastically supported Obama that year, although I didn’t formally work on OFA. Now, needless to say, I regret the latter although I’m skeptical that Hilary would have been much better. I’ve become quite cynical about the Democratic Party once you get above the state leg level, at least here in MN.

Waves Back!!

Life, I guess. Young grandchildren, remodeling a kitchen from the floor up, helping the wife in her business and through her health issues. I’ve been lurking here pretty frequently but I guess I haven’t posted much, have I? It’s good to be remembered.

Ditto on Infinite Jest, Joanie. But I made it 300 and some pages in before bogging down in the swamp of the Year of Depends.

Oh my! What a nice, big, brown and gooey turd to hit the fan.

though we often ignored the lessons that the UK and Israel, as well as other European countries, learned in their earlier counterterrorist fights

Us gringos have a long history of willfully ignoring lessons learned off shore. The bottom of the North Atlantic is littered with the rusting hulks of merchant vessels that are testimony to how long it took for Ernie King et al to begrudgingly admit that maybe the Limeys were onto something with this convoy idea.

Last Tuesday the Guardian had a story with allegedly new info about bin Laden’s evasion of capture at Tora Bora. The info supposedly came from Guantanamo. Might the leak that launched the story have been a mis-direction play?

The Fatso Judson analog occurred to me when Manning’s mistreatment first came up on the radar screen. Let us know what you find in the unexpurgated novel text.

It’s Neville Chamberlain, presumably in Munich in September, 1938. The same photo is adjacent to the discussion of that fiasco in his Wikipedia entry.