And now to the final part of our brief survey of The Communist Manifesto, Parts III and IV, entitled Socialist and Communist Literature and Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties, respectively. As usual, Marx and Engels prove absurdly accurate in their diagnosis, and even in their prognostication (note how chilling the section on German Socialism is) and as usual, can’t seem to come to a decent plan of action as to how to make any of it actually work out in anything other than a hash, rejecting one scheme which actually seems somewhat viable–...

Experts from China, according to this week’s visit to our friends at Beijing’s People’s Daily, assert that even if China takes strong steps to adjust its currency (the yuan… or the RMB… or the renminbi… which I believe are all the same thing…) against the yankee dollar, the structure of the American economy (household debt off the chart, national savings non-existent, the federal government borrowing because actually taxing those with ability to pay taxes would be taxing the people’s money) will still cause us to run massive trade and current account deficits with China… so instead, we’ll just borrow the...

And so, we’ll continue my deconstructive/reconstructive view of the surprisingly accurate diagnostically and (not surprisingly) absurdly inaccurate prognostically Communist Manifesto, by our long dead buddies Fred and Karl. We’ll move onto the Second part entitled “Proletarians and Communists”. Here, we get into more specific discussions of Marx’s/Engels’ grand plans with some specificity: not the abolition of all property, but the abolition of bourgeois property. The problem, of course, is what (the f***) in practice this actually meant. History only proved that one of the Marx/Engels’ prognosis proved deadly accurate: Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by...

I had promised not long ago to analyze the Communist Manifesto against my proposition that Karl and Fred were, in fact, brilliant diagnosticians using tools like magnetic resonance imagers and microbiology, and then, after diagnosing the iillnesses of capitalism with brilliant precision, proceed to prescribe leeches and cupping, thereby accomplishing… well, you know the rest. Section I is entitled “Bourgeois and Proletarians.” One of the suppositions of Marxian theory is that capitalism always sows the seeds of its own destruction, as the necessity for the bourgeoisie to grab ever more power and fruits of production at the expense of a...

Legislators in Florida are hell-bent on passing legislation that would radically reduce possible criminal liability for those who decide to invoke violent deadly force merely because they feel threatened. The prior rule would allow a presumption of deadly force in the home (damned Jehovah’s Witnesses!… oh wait… IN the home…) This will expand that to everywhere. If you cause some gun totin’ maniac to “feel threatened”, he (it will always be a he) may blow your ass away, without fear of prosecution. Home is evidently where your Glock is. As if there weren’t enough reasons never to set foot in...

Vice-President Dick Cheney told the editorial board of The New York Post (you didn’t think he’d be talking to the Nation did you?) that he disagreed with Congressional Great Leader Tom DeLay’s suggestions of “retribution” against the federal judges who refused to order reimposition of a feeding tube or other life-extending or saving measures for Terri Schiavo. (Perhaps, in my best “Hillary Clinton”, there are bridges to be built: even those of us who may have disagreed with the underlying decision to end Ms. Schiavo’s life by a fortnight’s dehydration and starvation still appreciate the agonizing work of the federal...

Our comrades from Beijing’s People’s Daily give us this account of the “Millenium Assessment” report from the UN contending that around 60% of the world’s eco-system is in grave danger of permanent degradation as a result of human activity; China evidently pledges to build a more sustainable society. On cue, Chinese President Hu Jin-tao, on the occasion of the equivalent of Chinese Arbor Day, told the Chinese people that it was their duty to live in harmony with nature as he participated in a tree planting in Beijing. I have heard it suggested that it is most unlikely there would...

His Holiness the Pope John Paul II has passed away at 84. I’m sure many more eloquent than I will comment appropriately. Let’s just say that John Paul II, longest serving pope of the 20th century and third longest of all time, was a towering figure, a man whose moral and rhetorical stature was just about as large as the post he held.

Naturally, the best take I have read on the Michael Jackson Judicial Jamboree comes to us via our comrades at Pravda, specifically this comment by Steve Darnell. The gist of the story amounts to “A Tale of Two Jacksons”– noting the (interesting?) involvement of the Rev. Jesse Jackson (“the evangelical corporate ambulance chaser”) as Michael Jackson’s daily spiritual advisor during his trials and tribulations… well, one trial actually, that for his latest round of accused child molestation. (Darnell believes Jesse Jackson is as disgusted as everyone else at Michael’s behavior, but while always willing to see red on matters of...

After having successfully evaded his own responsibilities associated with the failure of intelligence vis a vis Iraq and its non-possession of weapons of mass-destruction (for which the President was rewarded with reelection, Incompetetentalleezza Rice was elevated to the post of Secretary of State, her deputy Stephen “Yellowcakes” Hadley elevated to National Security Advisor, former CIA Director George “Slamdunk” Tenet was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz was universally praised and now made head of the World Bank), the President continued to heap lavish praise on the commission he anointed to make findings as...