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Bear Left!

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Volume III, Number 15: 6 May 2003

This Week's Articles:

Guns Don't Equal Butter

Paul Corrigan

Americans are slowly coming to the realization that it was nonsense to believe that the United States invaded Iraq to destroy Weapons of Mass Destruction. Despite being lied to by a president who promised never to lie to the American people, Americans have been mollified by the euphoria of having our team win. The "Bush Administration Buccaneers" beat Iraq in a media event that put every Super Bowl to shame.

But, just like football fans do after Super Bowl Sunday, Americans will return to the reality of their daily lives. Unless the Bush administration's guns can deliver the butter, the fans will turn on George W. just like they turned on his father.

Bush Action Figures

Paul Corrigan

While sitting at my desk today, contemplating how one best complies with Loyalty Day, I had an epiphany. America needs George W. Bush Action Figures. I am publicly staking my claim to this idea, which should be rolled out in time for the anniversary of September 11 and for Christmas shopping.

Acta Santorum

Tim Francis-Wright

For a fleeting moment late last month, Rick Santorum, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, was Penn's political bad boy, whose intemperate remarks on homosexuality might have made him a Republican pariah. In an interview with the Associated Press, he denounced "homosexual acts" and condemned sodomy, along with polygamy and adultery, as "antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family."

Unlike Trent Lott, whose praise for the racist 1948 campaign of Strom Thurmond led to his political downfall, Santorum has retained his standing in the Senate and has not even apologized for the enormity of his remarks. Santorum has survived because he disparaged homosexuals, the last acceptable target for mainstream bigotry in America. But his religious rationale for his animus towards homosexuality reveals deeper conflicts.

[Click on a title to read a particular article.]

Last Week's Articles:

Obedient Servants

Paul Corrigan

When President Bush justified pre-emptive war on Saddam Hussein and his regime, he spoke of Saddam's refusal to respond to Bush's personal ultimatum —get out of Baghdad in 48 hours or the United States military would come in after him. Dominance and submission are not often played out so frankly. Knowing one's place is usually an unspoken ritual. The weak usually submit to the strong. The lesson for all of us is that the nature of servitude requires obedience.

A Neo-Conservative Abecedary

Tim Francis-Wright

George Bush and his administration have proclaimed for the world to hear that the United States is fully committed to a free and democratic Iraq. Forgive me if I harbor just an iota of doubt. The track record of the United States in fostering democracy is, sadly, a lousy one. When the enemy of the day was some bogeyman, usually a Communist one but sometimes an Islamic one, democracy was often low of the list of American desiderata.

In compiling this abecedary for the edification of those still under the illusion that the United States is always on the side of sunshine and apple pie, the biggest problem is picking from among the panoply of candidates for some letters.

[Click on a title to read a particular article.]

Older Articles:

Almost two hundred articles from previous weeks are in our archives. If you're not careful, you might learn something.

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Links of the Week

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Fact of the Week

If Warren Buffett is an accurate prognosticator, then time time is ripe for American stock market investors to join the ararchists at the barricades. At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathway, Buffett decried the "misdirected compensation" of many chief exectives of American companies and lambasted the "injustice" of recent attempts by the Bush administration to cut taxes on the most affluent taxpayers. (Perhaps there is time to start a Buffett for President committee.)

Source:
The Guardian, 5 May 2003.

 

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