I think I’ve noted several times over the last handful of months that I was spent on the landfill that our public political discourse has become. The partisanship has gotten to a point where it sounds like grade school kids calling each other names on the playground, which we all know accomplishes absolutely nothing.
This article probably sums up what I’ve been thinking and feeling, but haven’t been articulate enough to express in a way that would make sense. Usually, when I link to opinion pieces I try to give a little bit of a disclaimer on the author and their partisan leanings. I did a quick look, but couldn’t figure out what John Avalon’s leanings are or what the deal with the Daily Beast is. Read the article and see if it hits home.
I pulled two paragraphs from the article, which are actually direct quotes from Obama’s speech that I think say it all very concisely.
“We can’t expect to solve our problems if all we do is tear each other down. You can disagree with a certain policy without demonizing the person who espouses it. You can question somebody’s views and their judgment without questioning their motives or their patriotism. Throwing around phrases like ‘socialists’ and ‘Soviet-style takeover’ and ‘fascist’ and ‘right-wing nut’ — that may grab headlines, but it also has the effect of comparing our government, our political opponents, to authoritarian, even murderous regimes.
“Now, we’ve seen this kind of politics in the past. It’s been practiced by both fringes of the ideological spectrum, by the left and the right, since our nation’s birth. But it’s starting to creep into the center of our discourse. … The problem is that this kind of vilification and over-the-top rhetoric closes the door to the possibility of compromise. It undermines democratic deliberation. … It makes it nearly impossible for people who have legitimate but bridgeable differences to sit down at the same table and hash things out. It robs us of a rational and serious debate, the one we need to have about the very real and very big challenges facing this nation. It coarsens our culture, and at its worst, it can send signals to the most extreme elements of our society that perhaps violence is a justifiable response.”
I know this is sort of random timing, but I finally got around to uploading the pictures that we took down at the Tidal Basin during the Cherry Blossom Festival this year. This really does represent one of my favorite places to be at this time of year. If you’ve never made the trip, you really should make the effort to do so. Hope you like the pics.
Yesterday when I was talking about charging people to use the toilet on airplanes, I was kidding. Ryan Air’s new motto is going to be, “Boldly charging for what has never been charged for before.”
I came across a handful of things in the news that caught my attention today that I wanted to share and comment on. In the spirit of saving time and a li’l bit of space I threw them all together in one post.
While I was in Delhi for work, they needed me to go to Dhaka, Bangladesh for a couple of days to deal with some stuff there. There’s really not a lot to say about Dhaka, because its not the most exciting place in the world to go. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. Its also one of the most densely populated. Wikipedia says there are 13 million people in the city, but I also got estimates of closer to 16 million from people there. Continue reading →
I know I’ve already noted how high and low Delhi can be, but this little bit of crazy deserved its own post. What the hell is someone driving a Lamborghini in the middle of Delhi for?
The Lodi Garden was easily the best thing in Delhi that I visited. In a city of millions and millions of people and a lot of noisy, chaotic traffic the Lodi Gardens turned out to be a nice little oasis. I think it really helped that the air was actually kind of clear that day.
Humayan’s Tomb is probably my favorite architectural thing that I saw in New Delhi. I feel a little strange saying that because even though it was much more impressive than the Red Fort, it had some deficiencies. The actual structure and the exterior are truly amazing. Its really is one of the most impressive structures I’ve seen.
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