Category Archives: rhetoric

They Can’t Lose?

My big period of Anglophilia coincided with Betty Boothroyd’s tenure as Speaker of the House of Commons. For we Americans, whose actual legislative activities tend to be kind of sedate (despite how absurd our campaigns can get), the more spirited discussions that happen in other countries’ legislatures can be interesting. The fistfights that break out between legislators get the most attention, but Betty Boothroyd had a way of asserting order in the House of Commons that really captivated me and made C-SPAN’s airing of Prime…

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Speaking as One of the 47 Percent

Dear Governor Romney: My name is Sean Shannon. I’m an aspiring author, part-time English teacher, freelance writer and artist from Toledo, Ohio, just south of where you were born. Like many Americans, I watched the hidden camera footage of you speaking to some of your wealthy donors this spring and making sweeping generalizations about those of us who do not pay income tax with a mixture of bewilderment and disgust. I will admit to being offended by a lot of what you said. However, as…

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Time for the Republican Turn?

Mitt Romney has mess to clean up after falsely accusing Obama on Libya (Washington Post) After their massive gains in the 1994 midterm elections, Republicans didn’t have a good two years. They got a good deal of legislation passed, but shutting down the government to try to force President Clinton to bend to their drastic cuts in social spending didn’t pay off, and I don’t think Newt Gingrich’s national reputation has ever really recovered. America’s economy was starting to take off — thanks in part…

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Don’t Mess With Texas Kids

Texas School ID Tracking Chips Protested By Parents And Students (Huffington Post) These past few years Texas has seemed to be at the forefront of really bad educational ideas. A couple of years ago the Republican-dominated Texas Board of Education reformed its textbook requirements to include an incredibly conservative-skewed version of American history, and in states that lack the clout or resources to make textbook manufacturers create textbooks that follow their state’s guidelines, students across the country are now learning about how good of a…

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Another Conservative War on Erotica?

GOP Platform Promises to Prosecute Porn, But the Most Porn is Viewed in Red States (opposingviews.com) It’s hardly surprising, but I’m still not comfortable with the fact that traffic to the .org automatically triples whenever I have a blog relating to sex or kink on the front page. Even though I’ve said I’ll be blogging more about those topics now to help promote The Prostitutes of Lake Wobegon, I still hesitate to do so because I still feel weird bringing up these things, at least…

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