As dicentra knows, her interlocutor’s “dialogue” is but a typical grad-level regurgitation of anti-foundationalism applied to politics in an effort to lazily and cleverly pull a PhD from the leftists who wish to see capitalism replaced by liberal fascism, which they will always claim is a stepping stone to egalitarian communism, but which never arrives there, given the necessity of the more clever pigs to manage the rest of the

I jumped in on an interesting an ultimately distressing little conversation on Twitter yesterday. Most of the exchange is here, including what came before I jumped in. (I haven’t read it all and don’t need the headache.) I’ve also inserted things that Twitter didn’t thread. My interlocutor, @SettlerColonial, is writing a PhD thesis, and we got into the nature of property rights. @SettlerColonial has stopped responding to my tweets, so

Establishment Republicans: we’re kinda like the Democrats, only our enemies actually register under our own party affiliation, if you can believe that. Ironic, eh? Here, let me diagram this on my Very Official Looking GOP white board: TEA Party Hobbits / Purists / True Believers / Ideological Visigoths = losing seats that might otherwise be held by more moderate Republicans. Plus, like, teabaggers. Gross, amiright? So it follows: More seats

… because single-payer has always been the goal In just about seven weeks, people will be able to start buying Obamacare-approved insurance plans through the new health care exchanges. But already, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is predicting those plans, and the whole system of distributing them, will eventually be moot. Reid said he thinks the country has to “work our way past” insurance-based health care during a Friday night

This brings to mind a spirited exchange from one of the 80s most endearingly optimistic anti-war movies: McKittrick: General, the machine has locked us out. It’s sending random numbers to the silos. Pat Healy: Codes. To launch the missiles. General Beringer: Just unplug the goddamn thing! Jesus Christ! McKittrick: That won’t work, General. It would interpret a shutdown as the destruction of NORAD. The computers in the silos would carry

More phony rightwing attempts at playing the victim card. I mean, honestly: a war on Christians? Are we supposed to believe that kind of pathetic neediness from the very religious, patriarchal strata that continues to dominate our culture and reify — not to mention lionize — its values through dogmatic infiltration of God into the social and political discourse? Pshaw, I say. Crass, opportunistic identity politicking — the kind of

In an apparent attempt to fire back, the Redskins organization, upon learning of the news, released to me the following brief statement: What in the fuck is “Slate,” and why are you bothering us by forwarding along this moronic porridge of PC rabble rousing?  “Slate” can call us the Washington Klan Hoods, for all we care. Because you know what? It turns out normal people don’t much give a shit

How is this even possible, what with the vigorous and unblinkered attempts by the GOP (well, short of engaging a special prosecutor skilled in the legal maneuverings necessary to ferret out information from the morass of lies, deceit, and agency / Administration cover up, I mean; because that’s just tacky) to get to the bottom of all this? Vision to America: In a remarkable admission that is likely to rock

Keep in mind, this is in addition to his having told progressive followers before running for President that his end game was in fact single payer government health care, but that to achieve that end certain intermediate plans would must first be institutionalized — kind of as a Trojan horse to eventually compel a single-payer, government-centric system. But, you know, Harvard. Academia. And that pant crease! Plus, he’s a good