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Society & Politics

Interviews, thoughts and ideas about society and politics, especially in the Old Pueblo

America's grand strategy

wrote this in response to a NYT op-ed calling for a grand strategy in American foreign policy: Our grand strategy should be driven by our core principles: liberty and justice for all - not only for those who happen to live in America. If we can achieve that, the world

"Here's how I know I've Made it in America"

"I've made it not because I assimilated, or because I have a little bit of money, or because my voice be heard. I've made it because I can disagree with and question what America is really all about. I've made it because I

good intentions

...not combined with good patterns/best practices not only pave the way to hell, the road is a bit bumpy. in a hospital, the nurses not only desire not to kill patients, they check 3 times that the actions they take are correct similarly best practices are important, esp when

when is an argument logical? and why that requires an intimacy

Not in the sense of correct or incorrect conclusions, but in the sense of when is an argument or discussion between two people actually a logical argument? Only if it takes place in a single axiomatic space. (which is rarely the case!) In order to actually have a logical argument,

its not so much that the perfect is the enemy of the good, its that the ideal is the enemy of the real

Ayn Rand and Communist Propaganda

Had a really interesting conversation with some long time Russian friends of mine. My friend Inna told me that because of all the discussions about it she decided to read Ayn Rand's book; she said it was practically unreadable, and really reminded her of communist propaganda pieces. The

What I like best about the Federalist Papers

In the intro, Hamilton wrote "It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and

The lighter side of activism...

So I signed a petition today at dailyKos, asking congress to prevent Trump from having the authority to start a nuclear war. And I thought, well, petitions aren't very effective and I don't know if this will do any good. But at least, if there is

"I actually sweat the specifics because they matter. "

I love this quote - this is one of my core values and love hearing Hilary say it. She may be personally ambitious - so shoot her - but I believe that she works hard and cares about stuff, including women and kids. She meets with a lot of people

Lincoln on pragmatic idealism

I really like these quotes from his debate with Douglass: "This they said and this they meant (the equality of those certain unalienable rights). They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet, that they were about to confer