While History Never Repeats Itself, Political Patterns

If Bloggers Are To Improve Our Public Discourse - Helping Busy And Usually Uninformed People Make Sense Of The World - It Is Necessary To Use Some Sort Of Standard With Which To Judge Their Reliability. Perhaps The Answer (strictly Advisory) Is A Body Of Their Peers. Perhaps Not.

Americans Have Always Evinced Some Distrust Of Government, But The Current Situation Has Exacerbated This To A Degree That May Be Unprecedented.

Warren Buffett Pays Taxes On A Smaller Percentage Of His Billions In Income Than His Cleaning Lady.

Philosophers And Theologians Have Argued For Centuries Over The Morality Of Targeted Assassinations - A Technique That The Israelis Use With Some Frequency - Without Ever Reaching Anything Approaching Consensus.

Ever Since Richard Nixon Walloped George Mcgovern In The Presidential Election Of 1972, Political Pundits Have Treated As A Truism The Proposition That Liberals Are Out Of Step With The Rest Of The Nation, And Therefore All But Unelectable Outside The Precincts Of The Northeast -- Give Or Take A College Town Here Or A Ski Resort There. During The Course Of Every Presidential Election For The Past Forty Years Now, Republicans Have Sought To Wield The Word Liberal As If It Were A Six-gauge Shotgun.