Exploding Aardvark

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WORD ORIGINS: TERRORIST

If the French Terror had a slogan, it was that attributed to the great orator Louis de Saint-Just: “No liberty for the enemies of liberty.” Saint-Just’s pithy phrase (like President Bush’s variant, “We must not let foreign enemies use the forums of liberty to destroy liberty itself”) could serve as the very antithesis of the […]

IMMUNITY FOR TELECOMS?

In the 1950s, during the sad period known as the McCarthy era, one’s political beliefs again served as a rationale for government monitoring. Individual corporations and entire industries were coerced by government leaders into informing on individuals and barring their ability to earn a living.
I was among those blacklisted for my political beliefs. My crime? […]

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Q And one more. You mentioned that there are health benefits to climate change. Could you describe some of those?
MS. PERINO: Sure. In some cases, there are — look, this is an issue where I’m sure lots of people would love to ridicule me when I say this, but it is true that many people […]

ON PETE STARK

All will praise Great Leader, or be silent!

SLOWMERGENCY

The response to the worst drought on record in the Southeast has unfolded in ultra-slow motion. All summer, more than a year after the drought began, fountains sprayed and football fields were watered, prisoners got two showers a day and Coca-Cola’s bottling plants chugged along at full strength. On an 81-degree day this month, an […]

EASIEST QUIZ EVER

Scariest Democrat (GOP)

RIGHT-WING FACEBOOK

The Right-Wing Facebook
(Thanks, Ignatz!)

IN YOUR FACE, GEORGE WILL

How can people above the median income be eligible for a program serving lower-income people?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“While I can see Bill O’Reilly and others might be offended, the sisters do not meet the criteria the church has for denying Communion. Over-accessorizing and poor taste in makeup is not an excommunicable offense.”
—Rev. Jim Bretzke, professor of moral theology, in “Archbishop apologizes for giving Communion to gays dressed as nuns” (San Francisco Chronicle)

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FIVE YEARS

There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq. To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will […]