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Monthly Archives: November 2012

William Penn

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After the election, it’s time to remind us all what it means to be an American.  This story, first run in 2010, is very important to me personally – and to our nation.  I hope you enjoy it as we all look ahead to a great American holiday.

It naturally comes up in my family just before Thanksgiving every year.  The Puritans’ deliverance to America is billed as a search for religious freedom, something which is a core value of our nation. It’s good that we celebrate such a thing, but do the Puritans really deserve credit for it?  The short answer is no, they do not, because they were seeking to establish their own theocracy – and across the ocean where no one would bother them seemed like the perfect place.

Religious tolerance as a founding principle of America came from a different source – William Penn, the “absolute proprietor” of Pennsylvania.  The reason that he doesn’t get the credit he deserves is murky at best, but may have its origins in a prejudice that most of us wouldn’t even understand today.  I think it’s time to correct that.
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Hot Buttons

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What more is there to say before the election?  This has the potential to be a big day for Democrats, and things are certainly breaking the right way here in Minnesota.  We’ve seen the momentum building all summer as there were signs that the economy, though still weak, is gaining strength.  Ohio and the rest of the industrial heartland seems to believe that it’s good enough, and they are polling strong for Obama.

What more is there to say?  It’s a good time to admit I was very wrong about something.  Something big, too.

Like most people concerned with the precarious state of our economy, I hate the emotional “hot button” issues.  I’ve called the relentless bleating on Fox a “War on Reality” and blasted the distractions created.  The bizarre and constant assault on women (and basic decency) hit my radar, but that was about it.  It simply seemed that we had better things to talk about as a people whose futures are tied together.  What I was wrong about was simple – that these issues, and our reaction to them on the left, is what strong coalitions are made from and once we kick some butt there will be no turning back.

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Ice This Thing

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In any close basketball game, the last few minutes take just about forever.  There are strategic time-outs to regroup and plan, and there are numerous fouls given by the team behind just to get the ball back.  An election is no different, and Hurricane Sandy is the timeout needed by Team Obama to ice the win.

But they had the lead going into it.  The economic reports coming out this week show the score very clearly, and it’s definitely Obama’s game to lose.  As the press starts to bubble how big the lead is and Romney starts to foul out, we can see how this developed very clearly over the long summer – as was noted in Barataria all along.

The real difference between an election and a hoop game is that not many people know how to keep score.

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