The news I'm interested in is entering its usual pre-holiday lull so I'm going to tie up some loose threads from the past week.
Speaking of 39 1/2 foot poles, 'tis the season. Some interesting culture war items of note:
My feelings on these two items are profoundly mixed. My first reaction, to my shock, is to support the tenacity and directness of the tactics. It's not that much different from my refulsal to vote for a local jail as long as there's one PAULA or pot arrest, or more constructively the Buy Blue project of steering money toward Democrat-friendly businesses and boycotting corporations that give exclusively to Republicans. Progressives could do a better job of voting with their dollars.
(I draw the line at Pagliai's Pizza, however. Armand Pagliai may be one of the biggest Republican donors in Iowa City, but he also makes the best damn pizza in town.)
My own shopping is FINALLY finished as of today... Yet the Happy Holidays boycott and Buy Blue are just a couple more aspects of the increasing polarization of America into two countries with less and less in common. I'm even more disturbed by the kulturkampf aspects - one blogger asked if yellow stars in business windows were next.
On that sort of disturbing level, Cornell University released a study indicating that nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim-Americans. Reminds me of the study from the 1960s that took around the Bill of Rights, not labeled as such, and found hgeavy opposition. If we trade freedom for security we have neither.
If we were serious about stopping an attack, we'd take a good long look at our foreign policy. And both parties can take blame for six decades of blind support of Israel...
Why was it that when the world was focused on South Africa, the white proposal of a separate state was rejected and we insisted on a unitary, multicultual state, yet that option isn't even considered for Israel-Palestine?
Enough rambling. The Lions just blew a snap on an extra point to tie the game with :02 left, so they lost to the Vikings. Makes the Packers game with Jacksonville a little more important, and it's kickoff time...
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