(thanks Greg Mankiw)

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Remember if you can’t see the video, view the full post here.

Part I

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Part II

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Part III

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Part IV

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He claims that because America has “sinned,” we shouldn’t celebrate Independence Day.

Put the fireworks in storage.

Cancel the parade.

Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time.

This year, America doesn’t deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.

For we have sinned.

Wow… talk about overreaction as well as bad patriotism.  This is the negativity that The Centrist mentioned in this article.

Balance is what this country needs.  Not polarization.

Beinart did a good job of keeping to the issue and not leaning to one side or the other.  As he indicates, there is a place for both types of patriotism, but he needed to go one step further.  The true patriot is one who embodies both styles of patriotism, not one or the other.  For some reason, each side feels their style is exclusively correct and cannot include portions (or the whole) of the other.

As Beinart details, conservative patriotism is all about history and honoring those that have gone before.  The idea is we love America just because we were born here. Criticizing America is a huge taboo and dissent is seen as unpatriotic. Liberals believe that dissent is true patriotism as it identifies things America has done wrong so they can be fixed going forward, but they often neglect the positives.

A few months ago The Centrist posted an article about another Time article with a comment about how the Democratic Party has hurt itself with a “fixation on the (often spectacular) deficiencies of superpower governance while slighting this nation’s incredible strengths.”  The Centrist saw this as a very false statement. Regardless of the truth of the statement, it is a valid perception.  He accused the conservatives of only focusing on the strengths and opportunities and ignoring the weaknesses and threats, referencing a SWOT analysis.

Both points of view are correct although the accusatory nature is detrimental.  True Patriotism includes both points of view.  What’s wrong with a candidate appreciating our American Heritage, highlighting all the good this country does and at the same time recognizing the mistakes of the past and enacting legislation to correct those mistakes?  Oh yeah, that would be “crossing the isle,” and in Washington that’s pretty much treason (to your party) and political suicide.

Come on America!  Don’t buy into the one sided politics that are so prevalent today.  Let’s discard the labels of Democrat or Republican and look at the issues.  And for once, lets be true patriots and look at both sides of the issues.  That doesn’t mean we can’t form opinions that are in line with our beliefs.  It just means that we take the time to actually research things ourselves rather than listen to those around us, or even worse, listen to the political “pundits.”

The single parents need to show that they are trying to do something with their lives.  That they are taking care of their families properly.  Perhaps that their children are actually improving in school, etc.  I know this is a complicated issue, but it seems that the politicians won’t touch it with a ten foot poll because of the fear of seeming uncompassionate.

It’s time for this country (as a society) to accept responsibility.

Ode on Hillary in Bosnia

by Orson Scott Card

“We landed under sniper fire!
We ran for cover, terrified!
The bullets flew around my head!
I thought for sure that I was dead!”

She told the tale in hopes it meant
We’d vote for her for president.
Instead we looked for evidence
Of Hillary’s experience,
And found that not a bullet flew.
Her thrilling story wasn’t true.

Because we know she never lies,
I ask, how did this tale arise?
Was it a dream, and when she woke
She thought that it was real?
Or was the story just a joke,
And no big deal?

Did drinking too much mocha make her
Fantasize this tale?
Or was it from a line of coke,
A furtive toke of the kind of smoke
That Bill did not inhale?

Oh hush, right-wing conspirators!
Your reasons suck! Now here is hers:
She just misspoke.
She meant to say
She landed on a sunny day
And a little girl read a poem aloud
And Hillary waved to the friendly crowd.

But campaign days are oh so long,
And being a woman, she isn’t strong,
So the story simply came out wrong.

How could you think that Hillary lied,
When it was such a small mistake,
The kind that anyone could make?
No joke, no toke of smoke, no coke,
No dream from which she never woke —
She just misspoke.

You’ve heard that what goes up comes down
And where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Well, when you visit Hillary Town
The word “misspoke” means “liar.”

(Copyright © 2008 by Orson Scott Card. Please duplicate this poem as much as you like, as long as you don’t charge for it; but include this copyright notice with it.)

Ok, so he doesn’t really say that he supports Obama.  However, he very much defends Obama’s handling of the recent “scandal” with Reverand Wright.  Card made a very poignant argument for how Obama separated himself from Wright’s comments, but not the person.

Do you want as President the kind of person who would deny and abandon his closest friends in order to win that political office?

Very well said, Mr. Card.

Further down the article, he analyzes the senior theses of both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.  A very interesting read with solid insight into who these two ladies are.  One a former First Lady.  The other hoping to be the next First Lady.

I highly recommend reading the article.