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Is Bob Barr a "Looney Tune"? I don't think so. He may be a nasty attack dog for the manner in which he went after the Clintons, but that's personal ugliness, which is matched by other ugly aspects of his personal life. (You could look it up.) However, in terms of policies, I perceive some good stuff in his very brief issues statements. Some of it sounds more progressive than what Obama has proposed.

My main problem with the Libertarians is that I think they completely misunderstand the nature of our corporate-based economic and political system. Therefore they buy into the notion that we have a "free market". They assume that this hypothetical free market will always work its magic. Always for the good. Just get Big Government out of the way.

Nevertheless, despite seeming to be oblivious to the problem of corporatism, Barr and the Libertarians aren't conscious corporatists. They hate taxes so much that they want to end "corporate welfare". However, they're corporate-enablers in that they want government to get out of the way and let the high rollers play.

The part of the "Cut Big Spending" section of Barr's platform that refers to the military reads like this:

* The federal government must take the lead in making significant cuts in spending.
Focusing on earmarks risks distracting attention from the broader problem of a

Once in a while I review my files, re-reading articles I've gleaned from the mass media. By divine coincidence I came upon an article entitled "Greed: The Mother of Sin", authored by Phyllis Pickle, then, in 2002, a Contributing Editor at Publishers Weekly. It relates directly to my recent posting re: Paul's contention that money is the root of all evil.

Subtitled "Many world religions say greed is the stuff other deadly sins are made of.", she references (the 2002) testimony by Alan Greenspan, then the head of the Federal Reserve Bank, as saying he believed "infectious greed" was the culprit in the (then) recent rash of corporate scandals. Some thought that the fact that Greenspan was "spanking businessmen for exhibiting greed" felt like some sort of betrayal. Afterall we'd been told that greed, properly regulated was good, for business and society as a whole, that we'd come to think of greed as being an ambigious quality; sometimes good and other times bad.

Ms. Tickle said that "the major religions had no such illusions about greed. Greed, say many of them, is not only unambiguous, it is the Mother of All Sins".

Given the racism that Obama is confronted with, and that presumably will become more prevalent and vicious later on in the campaign, it's a lot easier for Nader to make a (nuanced) commitment to Affirmative Action than it is for Obama. So don't take my posting of this part of Nader's platform as a criticism of Obama for not stating a position on Affirmative Action. Rather, it's a defense of Nader from the charge of "racism".

Obama has suggested in one of his debates with Hillary Clinton that affirmative action in higher education might switch from a focus on race to one on class. See http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/17/qt and http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/05/12/kahlenberg. That's probably a viable way to go for all forms of affirmative action. Class has been under-emphasized for too long, so that's a plus for those of us who think that "class consciousness" is a good and necessary component of progressive strategies for change. A broad and expanded program of affirmative action based on class would be of practical value to African-Americans, although many are wary that they might be short-changed in its politically sensitive implementation. And there's some loss of historical consciousness and sense of social responsibility if the idea of "reparations" is embedded so deeply in a class-based program that reparations disappears as a distinct factor.

Sightings 6/30/08

More Pew Findings

-- Martin E. Marty

In this business and with pleasure one cannot not comment on the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life surveys. They are the most ambitious and expansive polls and draw the most public attention. Chancy as all opinion polls are, these Pew products provide at least some broad-brush understandings of the subject. In the nature of things, press releases lift out and slightly exaggerate evidences of trends in the face of so much continuity in American religion. For example, last winter we were told that there is much "switching" from one church community to another, which is true—but when historians checked in we also learned that there has long, perhaps always, been much of such.

Here's a radical idea; that we take seriously the whole concept of Christian forgiveness and apply it to our foreign policy with Iran.

In the Lord's Prayer we ask that our trangressions towards other be forgiven as we ask others to forgive ours. We all know how much of a challenge it is to forgive. We all know it is more blessed to give than recieve. That's why the Lord's prayer asks 1st for forgiveness of our transgressions, it frees us to then forgive others. That's the psychological basis of The Golden Rule.

Now let us summon up the courage to face, quite honestly, our history with Iran over the past half century or so. In the late 1890's a British oil company found significant oil reserves in Iran, set up shop and after concessions were granted in 1901, began to exploit those resources, mostly for their own profit. In 1933 improved terms were granted to Iran. During WW2 Reza Shah Pahlevi, seeking to gain greater control over his nations oil reserves from the British sided with the Axis powers which resulted in a British-Soviet Union occupation of the oil fields in 1941. Reza Shah Palevi abdicated. His son, Muhammad Reza Shah Palevi succeeded to the throne and adopted pro-Western policies. (This is the Shah we are most familiar with.)

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

The Catholic Right, Part Sixty-one

A little more than a year ago Fidelis, an umbrella advocacy group consisting of various not-for-profit entities, sought to derail the presidential prospects of pro-choice Republican (and Catholic) Rudy Giuliani. It is now going after presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (the junior senator from Illinois is also pro-choice, pro-embryonic stem cell research, and perhaps what truly horrifies these folks, he favors contemporary liberal economics).

However, my question of May 2007 still stands: Is Fidelis violating the Internal Revenue Code's provisions regarding not-for-profits?

If you visit the Fidelis web site, you will be confronted with a cornucopia of Catholic Right causes. Under "Issues" the only subsections we find are Abortion, Education (focusing exclusively on school vouchers) and Traditional Marriage ("Marriage is the union of one man and one woman"). A November 14, 2007 press release congratulates the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops "...for asserting the primacy of opposing abortion."

from our friends across the pond:

FRI 27 JUNE 2008
Anglicans challenged on power, sex and 'traditionalism'. ............

PRESS RELEASE .....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
London, UK - June 27, 2008 According to the standard script, the current war in Anglicanism over sexuality, scripture and authority is one between 'traditionalists' and 'revisionists', 'liberals' versus 'evangelicals'.

But new research from the religion and society think- tank Ekklesia suggests that those who want to keep the church defined by very narrow parameters are straying from well established Christian tradition.

It points out that 'Anglican wars' are about power as much as sex, and that evangelicals and others are to be found on all sides of the debate rather than just one.

In a research essay entitled 'Tradition, Change and the new Anglicanism', author Savitri Hensman, who was born in Sri Lanka but lives and works in Britain as an equalities adviser in the community sector, looks carefully at past Anglican formulations and biblical traditions.

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama on Saturday sought the love of Hispanics, beginning a four-month courtship with a pivotal swing-voting constituency.

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"I come from a border state, my dear friends. I know these issues," McCain told Hispanic elected officials. The Republican senator from Arizona said overhauling the country's broken immigration system, not just securing its borders, "will be my top priority."

Appearing later before the same audience, Obama accused McCain of walking away from comprehensive immigration reform. The Democratic senator from Illinois said: "We must assert our values and reconcile our principles as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. That is a priority I will pursue from my very first day."

The two spoke separately to some 700 Hispanics attending the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference. It's the first of three such appearances each is scheduled to make to Hispanic organizations in less than a month, underscoring the importance of the nation's fastest-growing minority group.