Is Everyone Off Attending the Inauguration Today?

Bush is on his way to a well-deserved dark, musty corner in History's dustbin, to be visited only by "Who was the Worst President of All Time?" surveys and the occasional criminologist. Good riddance. (Would've been a hoot if he'd fallen down those stairs on the way to "Executive One" !)

But, feh, on my own words. Time to leave "conservatives" behind and start working on rebuilding a good America.
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
originally posted by VLM:
conservatism Bush represented is pretty much completely discredited about now, wouldn't you say?

What does conservatism even mean the context of the Bush years? Or even at all? What does it mean to call yourself a "conservative"? Has never made any sense to me.

I'm all for intellectualism. Philosopher kings and all.
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Bush never represented any kind of conservatism. But that doesn't mean he was Hitler.
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Of course not, no oratorial skills.

*rimshot*
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now come on...."no oratorial skills"? at all???

"I didn't grow up in the ocean -- as a matter of fact -- near the ocean -- I grew up in the desert. Therefore, it was a pleasant contrast to see the ocean. And I particularly like it when I'm fishing." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2008
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
Bush never represented any kind of conservatism. But that doesn't mean he was Hitler.
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Let's face it, Keith: no one but Hitler was Hitler, not even Goebbels or Goering. Idiocy and political extremism know no one ideology. For every Michael Moore, you have a Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage or Ann Coulter. And as the Monkey so astutely points out, the labels Conservative and Liberal should have been retired with the 19th C political ideologies they described.

Let a thousand political labels bloom!
Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
the labels Conservative and Liberal should have been retired with the 19th C political ideologies they described.
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Liberalism is still quite a relevant philosophy, especially in the context of all these debates over government bailouts, nationalizing banks, etc. I think there are real and important debates here about how much freedom people want from government intervention, what kind of intervention is useful, etc.

Of course I don't mean 'liberal' in the current garbled American usage, but 'liberal' as in 'believer in liberty' for which Conservative as an opposing ideology makes no sense.
 
Oh, sure, there are thousands of political ideologies and we have enough words in the English language to give each one of them their own label. But on the whole I don't think the broad left/right division in American politics is silly or meaningless, no matter how many sub-factions of "left" or "right" there are. The labels of "conservative" and "liberal," as they're used today in the U.S., don't have much to do with the literal meaning of those words, but that doesn't make them any less useful.

I do have a little sympathy for the quixotic effort to restore "liberal" to its literal meaning of "believer in liberty," as Milton Friedman used it to describe himself. But then we'd have to call the libertarians liberals and the current liberals what? Socialists?
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:

I do have a little sympathy for the quixotic effort to restore "liberal" to its literal meaning of "believer in liberty," as Milton Friedman used it to describe himself. But then we'd have to call the libertarians liberals and the current liberals what? Socialists?
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Tell me who the current liberals are and I'll tell you what I'd call them. Seriously.

Mark Lipton
 
Thousands of labels tailored for every political ideology sounds about like the current state of electronic music. Which begs the question, who is unlucky enough to be drum & bass?
 
I thought Aretha was subdued, and not at her best.

No Fans of Yo Yo Ma out there? For me the Yo Yo Ma / Itzhak Perlman group nailed the vibe of the day best - I've poo-poo'd Johnny Williams as overrated but that was one great arrangement of Lord of the Dance/ "Air and Simple Gifts." I stand corrected, Mr Williams.

Go Obama !

I am drinking shitty Argentine Malbec but am working nonstop and bought the wrong bottle, fuck.
As composer Charles Strauss ("Annie") said last night "sometimes you just need the buzz."

Amen
 
originally posted by Carl Steefel:
2002 Huet Vouvray Petillant--round but slightly tart palate, very refreshing and lively flavors, with emerging complexity on the palate. Faint aromas of peach and apricot showing as the wine warmed up. Otherwise, very primary, I would be interested to see how this does as some secondary and/or tertiary notes appear with more bottle age...
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Interesting note. That it needs more age will console me for the fact that it is The Bottle Sharon Could Not Find.
 
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