jvjv at posthaven

In fact, though Madison was a slave-holding man, his writings on the subject hardly reflect one comfortable with the institution. Some quotes from Madison on slavery:

"[The Convention] thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men."

-- James Madison, Records of the Convention, August 25, 1787

"We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man."

-- James Madison, speech at the Constitutional Convention, June 6, 1787

"Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves."

-- James Madison, Letter to R. H. Lee, July 17, 1785

"[I]f slavery, as a national evil, is to be abolished, and it be just that it be done at the national expense, the amount of the expense is not a paramount consideration."

-- James Madison, Letter to Robert J. Evans

Someone sent me this email. I do not support the drop out or even the hint of armed insurrection, but the crimes described are sickening and call for metaphorical tar an feather all day long. Can the system right itself? Or is the problem described in "Extortion" inherent in any political system?  I've heard an argument for a hereditary aristocracy as a way to reduce this sort of thing. But as fallen creatures, we will never see the end of it.

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-12-04/peter-schweizer-extortion

Hit "Listen" on this page. It's both shocking and entertaining. We all know that Congress is corrupt. Voting in Congressional/Senate elections makes us parties to the crime.

This interview with the author of "Extortion" reveals the details and the mechanisms our representatives and senators use to extract cash from all

sides: business, labor unions and organized citizen groups.

I've always wondered why the tax credit for R&D spending is never long-term, but must be renewed every year at the last minute by congress.  As revealed by the author, fear that the credit will lapes creates a financial annuity for politicians and lobbyists alike. Every year tech companies make political contributions and hire lobbyists to assure continuation of the credit--which is always approved.  But there's always "next year."

The "double milking" ploy is also explained--an ingenious legistlative strategy to get private parties on both sides of a big issue to pony up. One side contributes money to support the bill; the other side pays money to block it.  And everyone inside the Beltway wins.

Its time for the pitchforks and torches.

Here is the section on Emily Dickinson from the chapter 7, "Tortured Heroism in a Man's World: Jane Welsh Carlyle and Emily Dickinson"  in Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to  Churchill and De Gaulle.  Published by Harper in 2007. No place given on title page.

I went to Charity Navigator to check out Prison Fellowship, since I am interested in the fate of the kids whose parents we must send to prison. It got high marks for transparency and doing the project (as best as I can understand their site) and very low for "financial" so the ended up with just two stars.

So I decided to look for a higher ranked outfit that does similar work. I searched simply for "prison" and this is what I got:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?keyword_list=prison&Submit2=GO&bay=search.results

Now a scroll through the results reveals an interesting pattern. The highest grades go for outfits that have a particular political slant, no?

Those merely working locally get lower grades. Those pushing the "intelligent" agenda seem to get the top marks.

Worth considering, I think.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/michelle-obamas-princeton-classmate-is-executive-at-company-that-built-obamacare-website/