Comments by north carolina runner

Yes, but now he has one term experience as President whereas any alternative will have a rookie stripe on his bumper.

Jim

But hotel taxes could be raised without building a stadium and the money used for schools or lower property taxes or whatever. The point is that money is fungible - a concept most people don't seem to understand and that allows politicians to make unpopular expenditures seem free. So in my state we have an "Education lottery" although education is funded by the budget process with or without a lottery and locally we had a convention center which benefits a few downtown merchants justified by a new hotel occupancy tax (ie, other peoples money). Anyhow, this is America and money is always available for weapons and football.

Jim

"The mostly profoundly religious president ... was Lincoln."

In fact, Lincoln's religion (if any) was controversial then and now. He never joined a church and his best friend described Lincoln has a non-believer to the end but ,as a politician, he was very circumspect in public. For more detail on a very nuanced subject see Wiki entry :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_and_religion

Jim

By "American history since 1607" you mean the Jamestown colony which was settled May 14th of that year. Having a "founding father" at Jamestown from 1621, I have studied this settlement which provided much of the American sense of commerce and government. Jamestown was established by the London Company - a joint stock company chartered by James I. The settlers were religious in the general English way but the settlement was about gold, silver, trade and any other way to make a return to the investors. This was global capitalism NOT religious freedom.

As an aside, the Founding Fathers of the late 18th century were much less religious than today's Republican party despite a major current effort to rewrite history (Constitution and Declaration of Independence based on the Ten Commandments is an example of revisionist history).

The business of America has always been business.

Jim

There is a precedent. During the mid-50's, movies such as "High Noon" and "Shane" were described as "adult westerns" to differentiate them from the long popular Tom Mix, Roy Rodgers type cowboy movies produced for young boy's Saturday entertainment (along with cartoons and a serial - Flash Gordon was popular). I also recall the TV series "Gunsmoke" and "Have gun - Will travel" were also described as adult western.

But I am showing my age.

Jim

I wonder if there is a correlation between age of wisdom and the amount of misinformation (in the form of deceptive advertising and political spin) presented to a society. In this view, reasoned thought would be blunted and thus delayed in high BS countries. Not being familiar with Japan I can't tell if this makes any sense; anyone out there with knowledge of how much BS Japanese youth receives?

Jim

IMHO the Robert's court is not Conservative it is Republican and there is a big difference between the two - the former is based on the application of principles whereas the latter is based on the acquisition of power.

Jim

BP: I will translate your list to Southern terms:

Science ==> Faith
Belief in human progress ==> The Rapture
Public education ==> Religious or home schooling
Representative government ==> Oligarchy
Secular governance ==> Rick Santorum , Jim DeMint, et al
Modern capitalism ==> Crony finance capitalism
Industrial revolution ==> Agrarian society

Like I said - never happened.
I speak as a 69 year old Tar Heel.

Jim

The Enlightenment (Age of Reason) never happened in the American South. It was crammed down our throats in the 1860's but never took hold. Think about that for awhile and much of American politics will make sense: the South as pre-Enlightenment and the modern GOP as post-Enlightenment so the match is natural (I recall the Economist referring (Obit?) to Ronald Reagan as the first post-Enlightenment President).

Jim

What has been more widely read and discussed ?
1- Mr Murray's book
2- Critical blogs and comment sections

I suggest that this book was never intended to be factual but is one more small propaganda assault in the culture war. In that regard, the book is a success (as are most similar right-wing activities). This is an election year after all - coincidence?

Jim

In my humble opinion the role of the Puritans in defining English America has been greatly exaggerated. They have a holiday and a founding myth of religious freedom but I would suggest that the Jamestown settlement was far more influential in America's history (and older by 13 years). Chartered by King James (who was entitled to 20% of the gold and silver expected to be discovered) but operated as a private joint stock company, Jamestown ,after a brutal beginning, created a culture of trade and commerce and a democratic system of government (House of Burgess) that spread with the settlement of Virginia and became the training ground for many important Founders (Washington,Jefferson,Madison to name a few). Religious freedom has a better ring to it than corporate greed but ,looking at America today, one sees the evolution of Jamestown - not Plymouth rock.

(Hint to TE: This would make for an interesting article or debate)

Jim

Can we all agree: the Supreme Court majority is a Republican court - not a Conservative court, a politicized Republican court.

Jim

I can't speak for every location but in my corner of North Carolina, the state highway dept. builds and maintains roads (including in my residential neighborhood), the state owns and operates a major port, and the county owns the international airport. We have I-40 which was built by the Feds (the state built the rest stops). Interstate maintenance is a joint federal,state, and(sometimes)local responsibility. The Feds did not "usurp" state power - they added an interstate system for military mobility.

Jim

Ryan is not making a "salient point"; he is lying to promote a low tax agenda for the 1% and I'll bet he knows the facts presented in this post but is following the strategy that a repeated lie becomes truth.

Jim

Mitt Romney makes crap up.

Constantly !!

Regards,
Jim

America wrote a constitution first ("We the People of the United States" in Gouverneur Morris's memorial preamble) THEN formed a central government with Washington as President and ONLY THEN did Hamilton address the young countries finances. He also had political opponents (Jefferson,Madison) willing to negotiate (the location of the Capital on the Potomac River is the result of a horse trade between these statesmen) and Washington's friendship from the war years. The EU seems to be going in reverse - trying to use monetary union as an incentive for incremental fiscal union and the strategy doesn't seem to be working. The 13 states were basically tricked into discarding the Articles of Confederation and starting over in Philadelphia Who are the European statesmen capable of sizing this moment? Europe doesn't need Hamilton right now - it needs Madison with a Virginia-like delegation in support.

Jim

Just finished Little Dorrit and the writing was magical;sentences were enjoyable for their own sake. Reading on an e-reader with a dictionary helped with 19th century words and some knowledge of London would have been helpful. The story was told in conversational form and needs to be read as if spoken. Dickens skillfully used punctuation to indicate verbal pauses, digressions, etc so that ,if you read Dickens, obey the marks - they are your friend.

After three books about the trials and tribulations of Lizbeth Salander, Oliver Twist is up next. This could lead to a poor(er) view of human nature and institutions if not careful.

Regards,
Jim

"his unbridled ego (Id!) is a hallmark of Southern men "

As a Southern man (and boy) for 69 years I am going to call BS on this statement. We have our share of all personality types but "Southern Gentleman" (and woman) applies. Polite - yes. Restrained - yes. Self-depreciating - yes. "Unbridled ego" - not!

BTW - I don't consider (most of) Florida (or Texas) as Southern in the cultural sense. Draw parallels at your risk.

Regards,
Jim

"First of all, Juan?" I know the dude is just a moderator, but calling him by his first name in such a manner is just downright disrespectful."

I was a teenager during the 50's in North Carolina and referring to a black man by his first name as if he were a child was standard practice. Perhaps ,as RR suggests, all debaters use first names when addressing moderators but the way Gingrich stressed the name (italicized in the post to show this emphasis) really jumped off the screen for this old Southerner who knows the code first hand.

Jim

In 1606, James I chartered the Virginia Company of London which established the Jamestown settlement in 1607 to exploit commodities (particularly gold and silver) in America. Although no precious metals were found, Jamestown established America as a nation founded on trade and commerce (NOT religious freedom) and introduced a style of democracy through the House of Burgess that would be the training ground for many of the Founding Fathers. Although dissolved in 1624 following a massacre of colonists in March 1622 and a mass poisoning of natives in retaliation the following year, I would argue that the Virginia Company was the model for modern America. If the Virginia Company was another example of State Capitalism, how does this square with the myths of America's founding and the current Conservative ideology ?

Jim

Disclosure: I had an ancestor at Jamestown from 1621.