democratic government: an heirloom of human reason

A must-read on The New Republic. Not only a defense, but an elegant argument for liberalism. Wieseltier also scolds the new administration for "its reluctance to attach the grandeur of its initiatives to the grandeur of liberalism."

I want the president to tell the American people that, contrary to what they have been taught for many years, government is a jewel of human association and an heirloom of human reason; that government, though it may do ill, does good; that a lot of the good that government does only it can do; that the size of government must be fitted to the size of its tasks, and so, for a polity such as ours, big government is the only government; that strong government comports well with strong freedom, unless Madison was wrong; that a government based on rights cannot exclude from its concern the adversities of the people who confer upon it its legitimacy, or consign their remediation to the charitable moods of a preferred and decadent few; that Ronald Reagan, when he proclaimed categorically, without exception or complication, that "government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem," was a fool; and that nobody was ever rescued, or enlarged, by being left alone.

phillip larkin: this be the verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

like i said, they already kicked us out

The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed by the Bush Administration on Thanksgiving Day is a contractual agreement that the US will withdraw ALL its troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

So why does everyone keep discussing how long American troops will remain in Iraq? I asked this at the end of November too.

Helena says we're in big trouble.