Tag Archives: America

What If Debt Is Not The Problem?

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Wipe our Debt

(Photo credit: Images_of_Money)

“As we return once again to our regularly scheduled program of ‘Crisis And Impasse,’ let’s take a moment to consider the following heretical idea: We have no debt problem.”

That’s the take-your-breath-away lead to a commentary by Zachary Karabell on the business section front of today’s Washington Post. Karabell gives a concise overview of the American debt debate from the time of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson through William Jennings Bryan and the long-running confrontation over the gold standard, up to the present day. Continue reading →

Democracy At A Crossroads

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Photo by John Hayden

Photo by John Hayden

“If democracy deadlocks here, we raise doubts about democracy everywhere.”

Sen. John Kerry made that sobering comment during his farewell address to the U.S. Senate this week. He’s leaving the Senate to become the new U.S. secretary of state, America’s ambassador to the world.

I don’t know about the whole wide world, but I think we have good reason to be concerned about the state of democracy here in America.   Continue reading →

Faith In The Future

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On the second inaugural of President Barack Obama
God bless America
God bless the president
Keep the faith!

America Divided, With Reader Comments

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U.S. 2012 ELECTION RESULTS, BLUE STATES FOR OBAMA, RED STATES FOR ROMNEY. FLORIDA, THE LAST STATE TO BE DECIDED, WENT BLUE. (Map via Wikipedia)

U.S. 2012 ELECTION RESULTS, BLUE STATES FOR OBAMA, RED STATES FOR ROMNEY. FLORIDA, THE LAST STATE TO BE DECIDED, WENT BLUE. (Map via Wikipedia)

“This is the America that Obama will govern in his second term: A place divided not only by ideology, race and class but also by the very perception of reality. . . . The president who spoke ambitiously at his first inauguration about uniting America instead arrives at his second with the country further divided.” — Eli Saslow, The Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2013

Note:  This post was published in 2013 following the 2012 presidential election. It seems more relevant than ever as America prepares for the 2016 presidential election.

Divided by ideology, race and class.

English: Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth Presid...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That sums up America in the decade leading up to the Civil War, as described in “Team Of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin’s history of Abraham Lincoln and the politicians, abolitionists, generals, and ordinary people of his era. The similarities between the present time and the decade before the Civil War are striking and frightening. Continue reading →

How American Civilization Collapses

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(NOTE: This post from November, 19, 2009, is getting hits at my other blog. We’re now entering the unchartered waters of 2013, so maybe it’s time to take another look. The post opens with an anecdote, and it takes a while to get to the point. I’ll add a troubling note at the end. — John)

When we talk about corruption, we think of big government and big business. But corruption pervades every aspect of American culture and society. It’s a rot and decay that threatens to destroy American civilization. We hardly notice anymore.

Here’s an example of the current American zeitgeist:  Driving from West Ocean City to Salisbury. In the rearview mirror, about a half-mile back on Route 50, is one of those big, modern ambulance vehicles.    Continue reading →

‘Back To Blood’ — Tom Wolfe On Men, Women, And Miami

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John Hayden photo

John Hayden photo

Tom Wolfe’s tour of contemporary America continues in “Back To Blood.”

The Bonfire of the Vanities (film)

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like Wolfe’s other blockbusters — The Right Stuff, Bonfire Of The Vanities, and A Man In Full —  Back To Blood focuses on Men and Manhood in the big cities of modern America. Wolfe has  vividly portrayed New York City and Atlanta. This time, the setting is Miami.

In Back To Blood, Wolfe writes about Real Men doing Real Work for the Right Reasons. The heroes are policemen, followed closely by newspapermen. Not a single female police officer or reporter in sight. Not exactly a politically correct portrayal of contemporary America!

Nestor Camacho is a young Cuban cop, intelligent and without guile, self-effacing and polite, god-fearing, muscular. Continue reading →

Back To Reality, 2013

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Thank goodness the holiday season is over. Especially the past two holiday weeks. I have no predictions for 2013, only questions. Will the U.S. default on its debt? Where will war break out? Can I find something useful to do with the rest of my life? When is the next storm coming? Is Congress mad?   Continue reading →

Republicans Self-Destruct; Speaker Boehner Is Finished; Or Maybe Not

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The Republican Party has exacted a pound of flesh from the people of New York and New Jersey.

It’s more than a slap in the face. It’s a kick in the teeth.   Continue reading →

U.S. Congress Implodes; President Escapes To Hawaii

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What a bizarre spectacle of irresponsible brinkmanship! The ultimate House and Senate votes may have narrowly averted immediate fiscal crisis and tax increases, but they do not restore one iota of confidence in the legislative branch of American government.

President Barack Obama, after failing to exert the leadership the American people hoped for, immediately boarded Air Force One to resume a Hawaiian vacation with his family. What can he be thinking?

To put the cherry on top of the whipped cream,   Continue reading →

Saint Dorothy Day

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Day 100/365 : Choices

(Photo credit: ~jjjohn~)

“It’s a terrific idea: a home-town saint for the Occupy Wall Street era.”   — The New Yorker

Liberals, progressives, radicals: Take heart!

Dorothy Day half-length portrait, seated at de...

DOROTHY DAY (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We knew it all along, but now Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan agrees. Dorothy Day is a candidate for sainthood!

NYC radical journalist Dorothy Day (1897-1980), co-founder of The Catholic Worker newspaper and a nationwide movement of “hospitality houses” serving the homeless, the hungry, and the poor, has been a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church since 2000. Now she even has the support, appropriately enough, of the archbishop of New York.

Continue reading →