Still Here...
Readers:
I've been rather preoccupied with academic stuff for the last month or so, hence the lack of posts. I guess I could continue to chastise David Brooks since he provides us with incoherent pieces twice a week, but why pick on him when there are so many others that deserve dissection? If I were a journalist or a "professional blogger" I would likely spend much time trying to figure out why so many conservative columnists enjoy currency in the US news media. But I'm not. I do this when I'm sufficiently flabbergasted or outraged or feeling particularly lucid about a subject. I do not feel that way at present. Right now I have little choice but to keep on top of the voluminous reading I've brought upon myself, try to conduct meaningful research, and make sure I meet various deadlines without experiencing financial ruin. Yes, I enjoy being the lowest form of life, also known as the graduate student.
While the content of this blog and my training are identical, I'm not always "in the mood" to do the former. Besides, There are few people that would be interested in or would want to discuss the theories I have the pleasure of synthesizing on a daily basis. Increasingly, in fact, its all I have anything to talk about at all. No matter. I made the decision that this is the only real ability I have, that being analysis and theory, and I intend to stick with it. Perhaps further entries here will accompany my hopeful return to humanity in a year or so. Until then, keep your eyes open. There will never be a shortage of problems on this planet, and there will always be misery and domination of varying degrees in every society you visit.
Regarding current events, allow me to summarize.
The Papacy: While a political process, it is not one that wields political power. That was in the Middle Ages. This is not to say that the RCC is irrevevant, just that the transition from John Paul II to Benedict XVI is of significance to Catholics, primarily.
John Bolton: His appointment, now delayed and likely to die in committee, reinforces the growing perception that four more years of George Bush and Co. is going to be a lame duck presidency. Witness how conservatives, complaining about imaginary persecution over very real abuses of power, are getting more desparate, playing the victim card with greater frequency, and losing almost every battle they have initiated in 2005. Which brings us to...
Tom DeLay: The question is not whether Tom DeLay is going down. Its a question of when, with how much kicking and screaming, and who will go down--whether voluntarily or not--with him. For the Democrats, it's a win-win situation: the longer DeLay stays, the more he poisons other Republicans in Congress. And when he leaves, likely under indictment and investigation, his entire network of fundraising, redistricting and corruption will be exposed. But the Republicans still have a slim majority in the Senate...
Bill Frist: A slim majority is not a 2/3 majority, which is what the Republicans really need if they wish to abolish the fillibuster. And what is the reason for bringing up the spectre of the so-called nuclear option? Because Senate Democrats will not confirm seven judges that were already rejected during the first Bush term. Apparently conservatives have this paranoid fear that "legislation from the bench" is tearing the constitution apart. So the response is to appoint judges who interpret the constitution as if it's 1789, or worse, 1896. I'm not going to get into the fanatical libertarian fears of the federal government encroaching on individual rights, but a good question to ask is, why would one wish to interpret the Constitution, which was given flexibility through the amendment process, as if we still lived in an economy and social atmosphere of the late-18th century? Do these economists and legal scholars at right-wing think tanks and the University of Chicago realize that the American people actually like "welfare state" programs (which is separate from asking whether they think they are being taxed unfairly for them)? Isn't popular sovereignty a fundamental assumption of the Constitution they feel is in exile?
I guess I can't stay away from political blogging after all...