Pilgrims walk the earth.
Crippled they are, hump-backed;
Hungry, half-dressed;
In their eyes, a waning;
In their hearts—a dawning.
-Joseph Brodsky
Can a nation look for grace? Can it assign a category of persons to bear the burden of its moral tribulations, to be its collective conscience and collective sacrifice, to be its source of spiritual transcendence? In the story that Russia tells about itself, the category of people known as the intelligentsia has borne much of that burden. From Pushkin to Dostoyevsky to Brodsky, the scolds and prophets of the Russian intelligentsia have always seemed almost at their last gasp Bearing Russia's Burdens
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Trust is built on realities
The Palestinians, for their part, are expected to acknowledge that Israel will remain predominantly Jewish and that the major blocs of settlements will not be removed.
Four and a half years have passed since the Camp David talks failed to produce an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The period that followed was catastrophic for both peoples - thousands were killed, hatred spread and trust collapsed. We all paid a high price, just to return a few years later to essentially the same principles of peace.
• At Camp David [Sy Hersh Says It’s Okay to Lie (Just Not in Print) The runaway mouth of America’s premier investigative journalist. Since the Abu Ghraib story broke eleven months ago, The New Yorker’s national-security correspondent, Seymour Hersh, has followed it up with a Series of spectacular scoops; America's poor are worse off than in most other developed countries. Repealing the estate tax will make it worse. Poorest Of The Poor
David R. Francis ]
• · Many people in the Czech Republic, not just members of the opposition party, have surely found it cathartic to have pushed Stanislav Gross to the point of offering his resignation. Through a combination of media and political pressure, the prime minister has finally offered up his political career over the apartment scandal that's become almost universally regarded as "the murk." The changing (and rearranging) of the guard; Daily Demarche is talking about refugees and refugee policy ; Lawyers and Settlements has a database of Class Action and Personal Injury Cases
• · · Richard Cohen, NY Daily News He is America's Uncivil Servant - John Bolton; A rivalry to end the world: Teller and Oppenheimer: two men, both of them insecure, cruel, hungry for power, and holding the world’s future in their hands Creator and Destroyer
• · · · The end of perestroika precipitated Russia into a space void of any real policy. Humanity is in the debt of Mikhail Gorbachev, says Eric Hobsbawm. “All the same, if I were a Russian I would also think of him as the man who brought ruin to his country” An Assembly of Ghosts; Perestroika plunged Russia into social ruin - and the world into an unprecedented superpower bid for global domination The last of the utopian projects
• · · · · America likes to talk about family values. Europe doesn’t just talk: it uses tax monies to pay for family values. Continental Drift; Richard Rahn, Washington Times The Injustice of 'Tax Justice' ; Rep. Steny Hoyer, Houston Chronicle: Tax frustrations show that the time for reform is right. Complexity's inexcusable: simplify, simplify, simplify! Simplify the Tax Code ;
• · · · · · Conservatives don't like it, nor do liberals. No one loves the value-added tax, but the VAT is looking better all the time. Expect to hear more nice things said about it in the months to come. Like It or Not, VAT's in Your Future ; How can we possibly reduce the federal deficit and find enough money for high-quality public services without raising everyone's taxes? Actually, there's a remarkably easy solution. The government just needs to get serious about collecting money from tax cheats. And this doesn't mean audits of ordinary taxpayers or mom-and-pop businesses -- that's not where the big cheating is. The biggest tax cheats ; Will Congress finally get serious about tax reform? Cracking the Code