Carnival of the Liberals — February 2010
DID the American Dream ever exist? We are subjects to a bloodthirsty and heedless security state that seems to become more and more paranoid each day. The craven power seekers who control the reigns of government most faithfully represent interests at odds with even the most basic needs of the people. And while most people seem to recognize and abhor this situation, for the most part they divide into fanatical mobs and turn their ire on each other.
Did the American Dream ever exist, or was it always just a nostalgic figment of our shared experience in The Spectacle? The divisions, the rationalizations, the willful compromises of the power seekers at the expense of the people they ostensibly represent seem to have always been thus. The same false rationalizations that endure today, our very founding principles.
Ahhh, well. Perhaps there is hope yet in Hillary. Or Sarah.
This is the February edition of Carnival of the Liberals.
Here again are the links and credits:
- Red Queen presents About those boot straps posted at Elizabitchez
- Charles Davis presents ‘If only I’d authorized torture instead of jaywalking’ posted at false dichotomy by charles davis
- BDR presents To a Place Beneath the Chin I Wish I Could Sing Of posted at BLCKDGRD
- LarryE presents Turn your head and cough posted at Lotus – Surviving a Dark Time
- Chuck Dupree presents Bad Attitudes: State Farm Is There Until You Need Them posted at Bad Attitudes
- Mel presents Collaborating Across the Divide posted at BroadSnark
- J.R. Boyd presents Introducing the spectacular Sarah Palin posted at ladypoverty
- David Waldstreicher presents The Return of Staughton Lynd posted at History News Network, (nominated for the carnival by Leo Lincourt.)
- Luke Geraghty presents Why Hillary Would Make An Excellent President posted at Luke Geraghty.com
- Madeleine Begun Kane presents Sarah Palin’s Runny, Run-On Sentences Finally Explained posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness
Visit the Carnival of the Liberals site to sign up to host, and use the form to submit a post for the next carnival.
Continue reading for a list of the remaining submissions.
Heather Sanders presents 10 Tips to Help You Manage Like FDR Did posted at Masters in Management.
Jasmine Smith presents 10 Myths (& Facts) About the Massachusetts Healthcare Model posted at Masters in Healthcare .org.
Madeleine Begun Kane presents Senator Bayh, Buh Bye! posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.
Andrew Bernardin presents Sexual Identity in a Social Context posted at The Evolving Mind, saying, “Thanks for hosting!”
Elisha Knackwood presents 25 Essential Free iPhone Apps for Journalists and Bloggers posted at Journalism Degree, saying, “While some of the most useful iPhone apps already come installed — including the Safari Web browser, camera, maps and voice memos — journalists and bloggers often need more apps to be on the cutting edge of any news story.”
~JP~ presents Literacy in Every Language posted at NGOmeter.
Banquet Manager presents Restaurant Promotes Sex in it’s Bathrooms posted at So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager….
DCTrader presents Financial Bloggers Traders Insights posted at DCTrader.
Anne Simone presents 100 Great Twitter Streams for Serious Politicos posted at Online Degree Programs.org: Top Online Degrees.
Doctor Biobrain presents Obama’s Radical Do-Nothing Congress posted at And Doctor Biobrain’s Response Is…, saying, “I just wanted to say that you’re one of the best bloggers doing the carnival this month. It’s an honor to have you read my material, I’m sure. Keep up the good work.”
Richard Shelmerdine presents Lessons From a Month of Meditation posted at Richard Shelmerdine.
Jasmine Hall presents Top 10 Cheating Scandals in College History posted at Online Degree Programs.org: Top Online Degrees.
Richard Shelmerdine presents 7 Tips To Deal With Someones Ego posted at Richard Shelmerdine.
Innocent Smith presents Bogus Numbers, but a Legitimate Point posted at The Innocent Smith Journal, saying, “This post discusses a poster claiming that 58 deaths are caused by lack of health care in the US per year for every death caused by terrorism globally. I debunk this claim, but argue that the poster’s underlying message — that the US should allocate fewer dollars to military spending and more to health care — is correct.”
Katie Freeman presents 10 Excellent Infographics to Learn About the U.S. Healthcare System posted at Master Of Health Administration, saying, “It is rather easy to conclude that in order to have any useful contribution to the raging health care debate, you must have a firm understanding of the U.S. Healthcare System. With this in mind, we’ve found 10 excellent infographics that can help illuminate some of the problems with the current system, as well as how the current system is set up, and what some proposed changes might mean.”
Divinelysmile presents The Gender Gap: 10 Surprising Stats on Women in the Workplace posted at JobProfiles.org – Job Descriptions and Online Schools to Start Your Career.
Angela Martin presents 50 Famously Successful People Who Failed At First posted at Online Colleges.org.
Roxanne Mcann presents You can soon expect full body scanners when traveling by commercial air. posted at XRAY Technician Training.
Romeo Vitelli presents Infamous Crimes posted at Providentia, saying, “The colorful history of gays in the military and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell””
Ron Britton presents Imagine How Much They’d Spend if They Weren’t “Conservative” posted at Bay of Fundie.
Thanks for including my post in this carnival.
From the Banquet Manager
Thank you so much for including my blog posts. Much appreciated :)
It existed. You need to go back to the frontier thesis – like so many good ideas, rebutted only in caricature. Hierarchies always preserve themselves, the escape hatch was to strike out for where there was no recognized hierarchy and install yourself at the top. It’s a repeated trope in America, and the only way you really could bootstrap yourself to anywhere.
And that was always an option, to one extent or another. Even during the last time we approached the limits, in the Gilded Age, your ambitious go-getter could expatriate himself to the formal or informal colonies in the Pacific and South America, or settle California, or carpetbag down in ruined and occupied Dixie.
And then internal combustion and radio and aviation and the World Wars and we found ourself installed at the head of the better half of the world, and that was good for half a century of golden age.
And now what? At least the neoimperialists have an answer – reaping OPEC might buy us another half century. If the weather changes enough to open up the tundra and the taiga and the Great American Desert and the Australian outback and we can get in first there’s that.
That’s the thing about democracy and empire – democracies don’t tend towards empire (and they *do* tend towards empire) because they need to dominate the entire world; they advance towards world domination as a side effect of the necessity that some portion of the world always be undergoing the conversion experience.
well yeah. but i’m looking for a universal here. the percentage of people with the wherewithal to engage in modern-day pioneering is likely far less than even the numbers mentioned in Red Queen’s carnival post. =)
Thanks so much for including me!
Of course the American Dream existed. It still exists. Every night, most of those populating my dreams are American.
Lots o’ links to read here, but that’s alright, not like I was planning on “earning” my paycheck anyway. Take that, taxpayers.
Thanks so much for the link! Great carnival!
Thanks for the mention. Lots of great articles here, as well.
Thanks for doing this.
Do you think I should offer to host one month?
go for it, LarryE!
“Montag highest paid BoA executive in 2009”
Aha!
how else would i pay for all of that plastic surgery?
thanks to everybody for the submissions.
re: Why Hillary Would Make An Excellent President
I’m sorry, but was that some kind of joke? A parody, perhaps? Repairing America’s image worldwide? How — by threatening every goddamn’ country that looks at us sideways, like she’s done with Iran, Venezuela, Colombia? Oh, and how about the way she handled the situation in Honduras? A diplomatic masterpiece, especially with that walking scum pal of hers, Lanny Davis, working the situation:
http://www.borev.net/2009/08/thats_why_they_pay_lanny_davis.html
Born to lead? Oh, God, if you exist, please kill me now. That wasn’t a political analysis, that was a goddamn’ love letter.
lol.
THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE LINKED ARTICLES ARE OF THE RESPECTIVE AUTHORS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE CARNIVAL OF THE LIBERALS, THE CARNIVAL HOST “MONTAG”, OR THIS WEBSITE “STUMP LANE”.
:)
Oh, I’m well aware of that. I was just expressing my gob-smacking amazement at that post.
A carnival to end all carnivals!