attention must be paid

"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never..."

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:07:32 -0400

“Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

- Abraham Lincoln, noted Marxist Socialist Fascist.

"Anyone who characterizes the debt-ceiling deal as a victory for the American people over..."

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:29:36 -0400

“Anyone who characterizes the debt-ceiling deal as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither politics nor economics.”

- Robert Reich

"Sit, be still, and listen, because you’re drunk and we’re at the edge of the roof."

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:07:44 -0400

“Sit, be still, and listen, because you’re drunk and we’re at the edge of the roof.”

- Rumi

"To start announcing your own preferences for old values when your world is collapsing and everything..."

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:24:12 -0400

“

To start announcing your own preferences for old values when your world is collapsing and everything is changing at a furious pitch: this is not the act of a serious person. It is frivolous, fatuous. If you were to knock on the door of one of these critics and say “Sir, there are flames leaping out of your roof, your house is burning,” under these conditions he would then say to you, “That’s a very interesting point of view. Personally, I couldn’t disagree with you more.”

That’s all these critics are saying. Their house is burning and they’re saying, “Don’t you have any sense of values, simply telling people about fire when you should be thinking about the serious content, the noble works of the mind?”

”

- Marshall McLuhan

"Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the..."

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:02:20 -0400

“Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this [debt ceiling increase] legislation before the Congress adjourns.”

- Ronald Reagan

"If you had to write a plausible scenario for how America defaults on its debt, or at least seriously..."

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:49:10 -0400

“If you had to write a plausible scenario for how America defaults on its debt, or at least seriously spooks the market, this is how it would start. After insisting on using the debt limit as leverage for a budget deal, the Republican leadership finds they can’t actually strike a deficit-reduction deal, but nor can they go back on their promise to vote against any increase in the debt limit that isn’t accompanied by a deficit-reduction deal. Cantor is putting personal power before country here, and in a very dangerous way. If Boehner actually does manage to cut a decent deal despite Cantor’s abandonment, he may not hold on as leader of his party, but unlike Cantor, he’ll deserve to.”

- Ezra Klein

"George Jefferson wore bell-bottoms to warn the British."

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 23:53:52 -0400

“George Jefferson wore bell-bottoms to warn the British.”

- accordingtopalin

"President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican from the early..."

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:12:56 -0400

“President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican from the early 1990s. And the Republican Party he’s facing has abandoned many of its best ideas in its effort to oppose him.”

- Ezra Klein

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings..."

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:33:47 -0400

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”

- John Rogers

"The House leadership, with the Speaker, have a very clear choice to make. And they don’t have much..."

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:15:23 -0400

“The House leadership, with the Speaker, have a very clear choice to make. And they don’t have much time to make that choice. They can keep their word and signficantly cut the federal deficit, or they can shut down America’s government over women’s access to health care. If that sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is ridiculous.”

- Harry Reid

"A plan dedicated almost entirely to slashing social spending in a country that’s already the..."

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:03:56 -0400

“A plan dedicated almost entirely to slashing social spending in a country that’s already the stingiest spender in the developed world, while simultaneously cutting taxes on the rich in a country with the lowest tax rates in the developed world — well, what could be more serious than that?”

- Kevin Drum

"[T]o point out that [it just happens] that some people are destitute while others are prosperous is..."

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:13:14 -0400

“[T]o point out that [it just happens] that some people are destitute while others are prosperous is rather like claiming that the world contains both detectives and criminals. So it does; but this obscures the truth that there are detectives because there are criminals…”

- Terry Eagleton

"Everything about [theatre] shouldn’t work. It’s ludicrous, stupid. It’s..."

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:35:15 -0400

“Everything about [theatre] shouldn’t work. It’s ludicrous, stupid. It’s pretend….It’s a complete house of cards, for God’s sake. It only works because the audience wants it to. It’s bizarre, our need to have people tell us a story. And beautiful. I’m in too deep to stop now.”

- Enda Walsh

"Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost."

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:56:42 -0500

“Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”

- St. Ronald of Reagan

"… [T]he people who should be leading the charge to identify governmental inefficiency are the..."

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:33:17 -0500

“… [T]he people who should be leading the charge to identify governmental inefficiency are the people whose main interest is making the government work better. My impression of Coburn is that his main interest is making the government smaller, which is different.”

- Ezra Klein

"A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party and a Big Corp CEO are sitting at a table. In..."

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:24:30 -0500

“A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party and a Big Corp CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the tea partier and says, ‘Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie.’”

"The situation is thoroughly depressing. Washington seems to have finally gotten itself in the mood..."

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:50:39 -0500

“

The situation is thoroughly depressing. Washington seems to have finally gotten itself in the mood to cut deficits. Unfortunately, the cuts that result are likely to be unhelpful, or possibly counterproductive, as leaders slash useful programmes to the bone because they’re too scared to talk about reining in health care spending, or cutting wasteful defence programmes, or raising taxes.

It’s hard to imagine something worse than a bruising political battle that threatens to shut down the government or throw it into default. But a bruising political battle that threatens to shut down the government or throw it into default without doing a thing about the long-run budget problem would probably do it.

”

- Ryan Avent (in The Economist)

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of..."

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 09:43:18 -0500

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Yes, the Constitution is binding. No, it’s not clear which interpretation of the Constitution the..."

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:15:05 -0500

“Yes, the Constitution is binding. No, it’s not clear which interpretation of the Constitution the Supreme Court will declare binding at any given moment. And no, reading the document on the floor of the House will not make the country more like you want it to be, unless your problem with the country is that you thought the Constitution should be read aloud on the floor of the House more frequently.”

- Ezra Klein

"Perhaps it will need to be the note of anger in Our Lord’s voice that we hear, and proclaim, in the..."

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 18:49:36 -0500

“Perhaps it will need to be the note of anger in Our Lord’s voice that we hear, and proclaim, in the coming year as we raise legitimate Christian protest on behalf of those losing their jobs, seeing their public services undermined, their hopes for higher education jeopardised, or their fears realised through the creation of what increasingly seems like a less caring, more brutalised society, and where vast bonuses form the contemptuous retort to any mention of restraint, and the black economy of the super-tax dodger is seen as a legitimate moral code.”

- The Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, Bishop of Blackburn