When America Made Things, This Place Was Important

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Our Biggest Failure - Our Constitution.

Yes, our constitution is a failure.  And no , I don't want to move to Russia. Following the Connecticut shooting, we heard suggestions that the second amendment was no longer relevant – and then came the outrage from those who cannot accept any thought that our constitution may not be perfect.  Well guess what, it isn’t!  The central principal of our founding document is the separation of powers.  While this may make certain forms of tyranny impossible, it also impedes problem solving. In the 20 th century, when it came time for new republics to draft a constitution, they copied the parliamentary model, not our peculiar form of government.  Our founders may have guessed right with the bill of rights and an independent judiciary – but their guesses about the rest were just that, guesses.         Starting with the administration of George Washington, the process of securing  senatorial approval for ap...
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Angry White Working Class - See Them Write

I enjoy reading letters to the editor and even more so reader comments. The writers may think that they are showing off their individualism, but I see them as fitting into categories. There are the local lights (local politicians, college professors, member of the clergy), then there are the gasbag/know-it-alls (these are the folks who write all the time, and get published too - I fit into this goup); there are the ingénues – new at the game and excited to be published. Then we a fairly new category, these are members of the right wing echo chamber. Today’s post will focus on the echo chamber. They are very interested in keeping taxes low, and reducing government spending. They see global warming as a conspiracy and environmentalists as tree huggers and sissies. They believe that the free market will solve all our problems. Oh, they also love guns and hunting. Their letters reflect a modest education and limited intellectual tools. If they have more than a high schoo...
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On Christmas Eve in 1968, the crew of the Apollo 8 were asked to deliver a message to the Earth during a TV broadcast on Christmas Eve. Originally their mission was to be a test of the command module as they travelled in an elliptical orbit around Earth.  But because of the concern that the USSR would be the first to fly around the moon, the flight plan was changed so that Apollo 8 would leave Earth’s gravity and attain orbit around the moon.   Asked to say something, they had no formal guidance.  With help from a  reporter, and even more, the reporter’s wife, family and they chose a simple text from the Bible.  With this simple test, it was clear that all of mankind was included in what was an American achievement.  One can only imagine what might have come form different men - we might have heard gloating and boasting (sound like our president?) but the there, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders were dedicated to selfless servic...
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