Liberal Rants from The Nation

I've been quite busy at work and home, so blog postings have been few and far between. There's probably 3 or 4 new items in the pending status that aren't yet worthy of posting because I haven't had the time to add the finishing touches. But as I've learned over the past couple of years in blogosphere, if you ever want some great neoliberal seed material wrapped up in a veneer of half-witted logic, head on over to The Nation. Here's what I found this evening.

• Says Katrina vanden Heuvel: "The nation is in the control of extremists who want to merge church and state. A line is crossed when religion demonizes politicians of certain religion--or no religion--and when the church-state separation is breached by people believing that their God is better than another God." Newsflash Katrina: Nobody on the right wants to merge church and state, we just want to protect our Judeo-Christian values from the likes of you. PS - your "extremist" adversaries recognize but one God. Few Christians have ever said "my God is better than your God", as that statement in itself is blasphemy. But then again, you've probably spent the better part of your adult life writing about the evils of the Ten Commandments in America's courtrooms, so I shouldn't expect you to understand.

• Says David Corn, "As House Republicans gleefully passed legislation to repeal the estate tax permanently, 42 Democrats--about one-fifth of the party's caucus in the House--went along for the limo ride. It's true that 160 Democrats did vote against this unjustifiable tax break for the wealthiest of Americans." David, are you aware that Americans are taxed annually on their incomes? And they're taxed daily on their purchases? Did you know dividends are already taxed twice (once at the corporate level and again at the dividend recipient level)? So why should the estate of American's be sliced up and handed out to other Americans? Where is the incentive to build wealth? When an American with a multi-million dollar estate has already paid millions of taxes over the years, why do you feel it's justified to tax his heirs yet again?

• Max Blumenthal, is outraged by "Justice Sunday", a gathering of Christian and political leaders bringing attention to Democratic antics related to keeping right wing Christians out of the judiciary. William Donahoe, head of the Catholic league, spoke about discrimination against Catholics among Democrat senators, saying "There is de facto discrimination. They've set the bar so high with the abortion issue, we can't get any real Catholics over it." Realizing he cannot counter Donahoe's claims, Blumenthal tries to undermine the coalition of Christian speakers by pointing out theological differences among Christian speakers. Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, shared the stage with Donahoe. Said Mohler in 2000 "As an evangelical, I believe that the Roman Catholic Church is a false church. It teaches a false gospel. And the Pope himself holds a false and unbiblical office." Blumenthal is mystified that Donahoe and Mohler now find common ground on the pro-life front. Wake up, Max. Despite differences in beliefs, Baptists and Catholics alike recognize abortion as intrinsically evil, and no theological difference will ever change that fact.