Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes
“A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension.” BACK
There’s something wrong with this picture . . .
In the entire history of the United States Supreme Court only one justice has been a) nominated by a president who didn’t win the popular vote b) confirmed by a majority of senators who collectively won fewer votes in their last election than did the senators who voted against that justice’s confirmation Yes, of course,…
JOLT-ing history, one vote at a time
It’s hard to tell by looking at today’s headlines in the news media, but America is changing, and as always, it’s changing the most for the next generations. How that change looks, and how it happens, is largely up to people with vision. Not always powerful people in the traditional use of the word “powerful”,…
The CRISIS of Election Security
As the midterms approach, America’s electronic voting systems are more vulnerable than ever. Why isn’t anyone trying to fix them? I suggest you read this excellent article in today’s (2018-09-30) New York Times. In light of the Russian meddling in our 2016 Presidential elections, this issue–the security of our voting process–which I’m sure most of…
APHORISM
aph·o·rism [ˈafəˌrizəm] NOUN a pithy observation that contains a general truth, a statement of some general principle, expressed memorably by condensing much wisdom into few words. Examples: “The child is father to the man.” (William Wadsworth) “Power worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue.…
Straying afield from ourselves . . . what could we learn if we would?
Years ago, in the spring of 1989, I was reading a new book I’d just bought by one of my favorite historians, Peter Brown, Rollins Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University, and scholar of Late Antiquity. I was reading, The Body and Society, Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, and I’d just begun…
What Alexis de Tocqueville knew . . . .
“If I were asked . . . to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people [the Americans] ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.” Apparently de Tocqueville was a more perceptive man in 1835, when America was still a new democracy, than many men are…
John Adams said. . .
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murder’s itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” But we must also remember: this was written in a letter from Adams to John Taylor, 17 December 1814. America had not yet established itself to the Western end of the continent,…
The Electoral College: Top 3 Pros and Cons
Nearly two years out from the 2020 Presidential elections, the questions of the most appropriate way for U.S. voters to count and tally their Presidential votes is again coming to the forefront. Below, I’ve reprinted an article published on September 1, 2017 on procon.org website on this subject. DLL The debate over the continued…