"Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert, That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art."
Stelter churns out once-a-day stories for TV-industry coverage. He has this one about producers who lost funding because of “self-censorship” by people unwilling to offend a board member. (Fancy that.)
But to the producers: They are fresh from peeling away the layers of influence George Soros has through his widely cast money net.
NOT. They would be the ones offended, would never do such a thing.
The late Jean Bethke Elshtain cited “hardening of the categories of debate” in the U.S., where matters are discussed
. . . in a narrow language of rights and [we celebrate] an individualistic notion of “choice.”
The distinguished sociologist Robert Bellah, along with his colleagues, pointed out in the 1988 bestselling book Habits of the Heart that Americans have lost ways of talking about their commitments and what gives their lives meaning, except in and through a subjective kind of rights-talk.
Other “languages” central to the American political tradition—civic republicanism or a rich scripturally-inspired language (here all one need do is read Abraham Lincoln’s great speeches)—have faded as rights-talk has triumphed.
Commitments and what gives meaning to one’s life, yes.
Hartford Courant, city of Hartford.
What next? Passing on stories?
“Guns cause crime like flies cause garbage.”
“It used to be a teacher standing in front of the classroom knows things, tells them to students, they spit them back,” District 97 Data Administrator Harla Hutchinson said. “You can’t learn everything you need to know with that model of education anymore.”
Well when you put it that way, Harla, sure. But it also used to be — no more? — a teacher standing — or sitting or walking around, gesticulating, calling on kids, INTERACTING WITH THEM, FOR GOD’S SAKE, as when they are asleep or who knows what, providing a bit of humanity in the midst of data.
Ah, the data administrators to whom we give our children for becoming lifelong learners or whatever . . .
From Liberty Tree, which sends three a day if you subscribe:
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
— Albert Einstein
(1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Albert.Einstein.Quote.D09E
“If Congress sees fit to impose a capitation, or other direct tax, it must be laid in proportion to the census; if Congress determines to impose duties, imposts, and excises, they must be uniform throughout the United States. These are not strictly limitations of power. They are rules prescribing the mode in which it shall be exercised. … This review shows that personal property, contracts, occupations, and the like have never been regarded by Congress as proper subjects of direct tax.”
— Salmon P. Chase
(1808-1873) U.S. Senator from Ohio, 23rd Governor of Ohio, U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln, 6th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court
Source: As Chief Justice delivering the opinion of the Court in Veazie Bank v. Fenno, 76 U.S. 8 Wallace 533 (1869)
http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/75/533/case.html
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Salmon.Chase.Quote.4F3A
“The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of these elements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues, and tends to permit uprising. Therefore, the heads of provinces, official agents, and deputies are ordered to collect all the weapons mentioned above and turn them over to the government.”
— Toyotomi Hideyoshi
(1536-1598) Japanese Chancellor of the Realm, preeminent daimyo, warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Toyotomi.Hideyoshi.Quote.9DC2
A few days go, I sat down with Dan Balz and interviewed him about his new book, Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America, a searing look at presidential politics. Earlier this week, I presented the first part of our conversation, and this is the second:
Dan Balz? Good ol’ Dan?
Good for you, Rog. It must have been fun, and Dan must be a household word in houses coast to coast, or at least in Cook and the collar counties. Now tell us what you did on your vacation. Please.
(Reader, note: The copy desk supplied a hard head,
Obama campaign tracked TV viewing habits
which goes to show how literal and unimaginative those people are, sigh.)
