Publius restages the Lincoln-Douglas debates with Stephanopoulos and Gibson as moderators. A snippet:
STEPHANOPOULOS: I’m sorry to interrupt, but do you think Mr. Douglas loves America as much you do?
LINCOLN: Sure I do.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But who loves America more?
LINCOLN: I’d prefer to get on with my opening statement George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: If your love for America were eight apples, how many apples would Senator Douglas’s love be?
"Hillary, I know what to expect from her, which is eight horrible years, but I’m not so sure she’s still a Leninist. Her husband has made so much money in so many different capitalist ways that I actually think they’ve matured and become good Americans. [laughs] No, there’s a paradoxical statement I’ve just made. In other words, I think the Clintons probably started out as far-leftist characters in their early years, but they’ve been around so long in the power structure and now, finally, they’ve been allowed to make so much money and they’ve circulated with the rich for so long that I think she’s a safe bet. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that she might be a safer bet than McCain in that regard," – far right talk show host, Michael Savage.
Slate wants to know:
Test-tube meat is getting closer to reality.
A reader makes a valid point:
To properly understand religious fundamentalism it is necessary to realize that "fundamentalism" has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with mindset. A quote on your site by George Orwell states "to see what is in front of nose needs a constant struggle", this is indeed very true, and the fundamentalist mindset is in the relinquishing of that struggle. One no longer needs to learn the basic realities of life and build from those as all of those assumptions have already been assigned to you. In allowing ones assumptions to be co-opted by a movement, religious or otherwise, it frees a person from having to understand the basis of ones decisions, and the responsibility held therein. Fundamentalism is all about logic, not religion. The same type of argument is easily made for completely irreligious things like Nazism or Communism.
The people under these movements operate the same way, allowing ones basic assumptions of the world to be told to them, not formed by them. Thus if the question is, what leads to the rise of fundamentalism, it is necessary to look at the type of person who wants to avoid the responsibility of understanding what is in front of ones nose.
For me, fundamentalism is not just a distortion of faith but a negation of it. Faith, in my view, should not be blind. It should have the widest eyes imaginable. Nothing that is true should stand in the way of faith, unless one has already conceded that one is believing in a lie. And so science is not to be feared but embraced. And historical scholarship is to be plumbed not ignored. And debate is to be welcomed, not policed. It is only through this process of doubt and questioning that real faith emerges.
The House music version from Beatport. Best yet, I’d say.
A clip worth savoring.
The Rasmussen poll shows a very close race – closer since Bittergate and the Freak Show Debate. The poll of polls also shows tightening. I’ve said this for a long time, and you can look it up, but it seems to me that Clinton needs a double-digit win to avoid immense pressure to drop out. And in some ways, the nastiness of the campaign has both exhausted voters and disturbed super-delegates – which may lead to a collective decision to get this over with. We’ll see.
Juneau, Alaska, 7.30 am.
