Optimistically Pessimistic Thoughts on TPA

When it comes to the Trans Pacific Partnership, the maneuverings in its regard are more representative of the nature of American politics than the will of the American people. The procedural moves in Congress are disorienting enough that who will be accountable for the screwing of the American people is obscured – the political dealings […]

Michael Sandel on Communitarianism and Liberalism

Michael Sandel argues forcefully against ‘procedural’ liberalism on the grounds that it requires a notion of community that it in theory rejects in favor of individualism (“The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self” [henceforth PRUS], 91). That is not to say that procedural liberalism is not in practice individualistic, as Sandel posits that procedural liberalism’s […]

Stephen Colbert and Soren Kierkegaard, Freedom Through Irony

Big news in the world of political satire this week, folks: the ridiculously funny Stephen Colbert will be leaving the Colbert Report and it’s character, a facsimile of conservative nut-job Bill O’Reilly, to host the Late Show after David Letterman steps down from the throne. I won’t mince words, I don’t care much for the […]

MLK (and moral progress, knowledge, biases and cultural diversity)

The Washington Post has recently been indulging its readership in a series of articles proclaiming that a new progressive movement is taking form, and that changing demographics in battleground states suggest that Democratic presidents will become a norm. As a bleeding heart liberal – I was fairly progressive before living in Denmark, but seeing socialist […]