I love Jon Stewart, but he's guilty of being both six months late to realizing the contradictions of our foreign policy, and for dramatically oversimplifying it.

This article was forwarded to me by joedemocrat over at Daily Kos. It's an excellent article, though it was published at The American Conservative and therefore cannot be posted at Daily Kos without having to listen to a deafening chorus of whining.

Despite its source, I recommend reading the whole thing. Here's a taste:

Sunday has always been special.

We religiously follow our Sunday ritual and go out for a diner breakfast. We are diner people. The upscale crowd can have their bistros, I am more comfortable at the diner. At the diner, you can put your elbows on the table/counter and talk to your companions, talk to neighboring diners, sip coffee with a newspaper and enjoy some comfort food.

During early adulthood, I would head out for Saturday night.

I took a day off yesterday to hang out with a visiting relative at Longwood Gardens. Here are a few photos:

Recently there was a news article explaining how "buying a home is now twice as affordable as renting".
Which sounds great until you dig into the data.
You see, home prices are increasing at 13 times the rate of wages.

Groupthink is a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis in 1972 to describe a process by which a group can make bad or irrational decisions. In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. In a general sense this seems to be a rational way to approach the situation.

This evening's music features jazz and blues trumpeter Hot Lips Page.

This evening's music features blues and r&b singer Bobby "Blue" Bland.

Our "free market" society is suffering from a lack of values.

If you look up "values" the dictionary is full of monetary definitions, who cares? Empirical valuation is arbitrary.

The values I am talking about are core beliefs that guide and motivate attitudes and actions.