Autiello: Will True Christianity Please Stand Up?
Nick Autiello, Contributor
The notion that homosexuality is a sin and un-Christian is one that is less than a hundred years old. It is wrong, and has no basis in scriptural or historical reality.
SASSO: The Coming New Year
James Sasso, Associate Editor
As the tumultuous 2011 comes down to its final day, this column could contain an obnoxious summary of the year’s extraordinary events. Rather than once again discussing the protests around the world, the death of Osama Bin Laden, Fukushima, America’s political ineptitude, Europe’s demise or the increasingly frightful weather patterns, here I attempt to predict what 2012 holds in store.
SASSO: Kicking the Can
James Sasso, Associate Editor
For one of the first times in his tenure as Speaker, John Boehner has made a statement with which every American, Republican or Democrat, should fully agree; the two-month Senate bipartisan extension of the payroll tax cut fails to fix the nation’s problems sufficiently. Providing a short-term band-aid to a long-term dilemma contradicts what a responsible government should accomplish, but fits the pattern of contemporary American politicking.
CIOCCI: A Foolish Consistency
Mitt Romney is guilty of serial hypocrisy, Newt Gingrich is guilty of being a public intellectual constantly scrutinized by the media and others, and Ron Paul never ceases to remind me about one of my favorite quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
AKMAN: Jon Huntsman’s Meaningless Campaign
Josh Akman, Columnist
Jon Huntsman did not participate in the CNN Debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. Short of his family and small (and getting smaller) campaign staff, no one really noticed. In a bizarre and counterproductive effort to impress New Hampshire voters Huntsman skipped the debate to protest Nevada moving its caucus ahead of New Hampshire’s, which has always been the nation’s first primary. It’s bizarre because no one else skipped the debate. It’s counterproductive because right now, Jon Huntsman is polling 6% in New Hampshire.
SASSO: The 99% Rising
James Sasso
Associate Editor
For the past month a movement has grown out of Zuccoti Park in New York with the potential to grab at the very heart of America’s problems. “We are the 99%” is not simply a catchy phrase used by frustrated jobless Americans , but a commentary on the disgraceful economic inequality that has arisen in the United States since the 1970s.
NEUMANN: A Question of Liberty
At issue is the misconstruction of ‘democracy’. Indeed so vaunted is the democratic right that it is unimpeachable: constantly, vulgar observers (in Britain at least, and imaginably across the Occident) insist on the viability of self-nurtured democracy in Egypt and across the Arab world, and further demand that the Arab choice in these anticipated elections be assured recognition and respect by the erstwhile regime’s patrons. The first claim is valid, if cutely naïve. The second claim is imbecilic. And (to be generous) it touches on a fundamental misunderstanding of what we mean when we cry, ‘democracy’.
What we really intend is ‘liberty’.
NEUMANN: A Frustratingly Futile Road to 2012
The road to November 2012 is long, winding and, in fact, already beneath our feet: journalistic election columns have launched; the president’s re-election campaign is commencing; the congressional agenda will proceed with an eye on the next vote; and the media is rife with talk about the obvious and not-so-obvious Republican contenders. Some chatter even concerns the – surely remote – possibility of a Democratic challenger to President Obama
NEUMANN: The Worst Person in the World
At the risk of betraying the slightest familiarity with Keith Olbermann, his is a useful epithet to describe the founder (sorry: ‘editor-in-chief’) of Wikileaks. After all, Julian Assange is a conspiratorial loon, a deluded and dangerous criminal, an egotistical hypocrite, and, to top it off, possibly a rapist. His rise to prominence has been rapid and much longed for; languishing in a London gaol, he may find solace in the thought that his mug might, as Hitler’s and Stalin’s (those other West-haters) did before him, grace the cover of Time.
Royal Reform? We Are Not Amused
Jonathan Neumann, Columnist Ideology: Neo-Conservative | Writing from: Great Britain A wedding is just like a funeral, except that you get to smell your own flowers. With any renewal of [...]
NEUMANN: The Permanent Majority
Jonathan Neumann, Columnist — DEBUT
Last Tuesday witnessed a third consecutive ‘wave’ election, and whether this conservative comeback is a fleeting anomaly or a lasting restoration remains an open question. The appropriate response lies beyond simply re-districting and gerrymandering: governors and congressional leaders must deliver in order to ensure that this majority is not passing but permanent.
NEUMANN: Missile Defense (Technically)
Jonathan Neumann, Columnist
The latest foreign policy fiasco from the Ostrich-in-chief finds us scrutinising the recent meeting of Turkey’s National Security Council. To appreciate why, we must recount, however briefly, a story pervaded by betrayal, pusillanimity, and a cringe-inducing irony worthy of serial drama.