"The Height to Be Superb Humanity": A Poet's Christmas Greeting to a New Democracy

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) thought a lot about what it meant to live in a democratic society. He was born at a time when self-government was a new thing—an exciting experiment whose success was by no means guaranteed. And he lived through the cataclysm of the American Civil War—the one of the most severe tests that any democracy has ever faced.

Almost everything that Whitman wrote was an attempt to understand and explain the deepest principles of democracy. These principles went well beyond social organization.

Sen. Rand Paul Wages Twitter War Against Sen. Marco Rubio

In response to a blow from Sen. Marco Rubio on Cuba, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul used Twitter and Facebook to call on the Florida Senator to engage in a debate on the issue. "Let's be clear that Senator Rubio does not speak for the majority of Cuban-Americans," Paul stated in a Facebook post.

How To Implement Mutual Respect as the Ethic of Justice

Liberty and equality, echoing around the world from the Declaration of Independence of what would become the U.S., became the basis of a social architecture that has included personal liberty, political equality, and a market-based economy. Since that Declaration was published, even the most cynical of political thinkers and actors have had to account for those two ideals. We’ll see below how recognizing mutual respect as the ethic of justice would take justice even further in the same direction that basing it on liberty and equality has taken it.

 

 

Net Neutrality, Immigration, and Cuba: Obama Playing GOP Like a Fiddle

"[T]he agreement the Obama Administration has entered into with the Castro regime has done nothing to resolve the underlying problem. Indeed, it has made it worse." - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), December 17, 2014 "The power of free expression, free movement, and free markets is much more likely to advance Cuba toward freedom than the failed policy of isolation." - U.S. Rep.

Our Enemies’ Agenda of Anarchy

“Anarchy—shall I say, is the worst of all governments? No: Anarchy is the absence of all government; it is the antipodes of order; it is the acme of confusion; it is the result of unbridled license, the antipodes of true liberty. The Apostle Paul says truly: ‘For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.’ At first this is a startling statement.

Was It Worth It: Failing to Quickly Eliminate bin Laden

On a top secret mission on May 1, 2011 (UTC), Navy SEALs crossed deep into Pakistani territory to attack a compound suspected to be occupied by Osama bin Laden in Abottabad, Pakistan.

Since 2004, American forces had attacked targets in Pakistan, but almost exclusively operated in rural northwest Pakistan just inside the border from Afghanistan. The justification being that this semi-autonomous, rural area lacked proper control by the Pakistani authorities -- cross border raids were too big of a threat to American security.

What Does Putin Have to Say?

Thursday, December 18 marks probably the most important press conference of Vladimir Putin's political career as president of the Russian Federation. One thing is certain, he has amazing publicists and isn't afraid of touting his successes and blaming others for the failures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xai7ttzbx5M

But with a currency at almost free fall levels and oil prices far below state-projected revenue levels--just what is he going to do about it?

Only Obama Can Go to Cuba

According to the political legend, only Nixon could go to China. As a communist country, China was one of our Cold War enemies. Any president who attempted to normalize relations with China would be accused of being “soft on Communism,” which was about the worst thing that one could be called in 1972.

But there were a lot of good reasons for the United States to establish relations with China. For one thing, China had a lot of people and was beginning to industrialize. Lots of people in an industrial country mean lots of customers for American goods.