[Please note: a reader correctly pointed out yesterday that a website I had linked to supported a pro-violence organization: the PFLP. While I support the nonviolent struggle of Palestinians to stop the ever-encroaching religious fundamentalist settlements, I do not support violence. My fault for not being familiar with the PFLP or looking it up. I had assumed it was nonviolent when I read that the website mentioned gave money to "radio stations and graphics workshops." While I strongly oppose violence, I rigorously support radio stations and graphics workshops and all enablers of free speech and discussion. Apologies for not doing my homework.]
. . . anyone have any recommendations for new Progressive Blog of the week?
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."