Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 21:09:26 -0500
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Weeping in a Rolls-Royce]


Steve, Don and all -

I thought it was interesting to discover both Steve and Don work in the
corporate world, as I also do. My background is in accounting and human
resources (Steve, is your company hiring? I need a vacation bad and I'd
love to have the free time to write.) I find it interesting that this
group, small as the current active paticipants are, is so skewed away
from the groves of academia.

(Hugh, I don't want to pry, but I'm curious. What kind of circle in
Dante's hell do you find yourself in these days? Corporate or Academic?)

As far as Jeffords is concerned, my astonishment comes down to this.  As
much as I rail against neo-liberalism here, I also acknowledge that
there are well-meaning conservatives who truly believe in the virtues of
individual liberty, a minimal state, fiscal responsibility and a neutral
free market as the best way to maintain a good society.  They operate
from a principled and rational world view that I can respect even while
I disagree with the content.  

Jeffords and McCain seem to fall into this camp as well as many others I
know.

The current crop of Republicans are what I would call "fruit loop"
conservatives.  They believe there is no sense in preserving the
environment because Jesus is coming back soon anyway, that the main
Gospel message is that every fetus shall live and every gay shall die,
that there should be a gun in every pocket, capital punishment for the
mentally retarded and that America went too far when it freed the
slaves. 

To the extent that America tends to dominate the world scene, it is as
if the global economy were now in the hands of the intellectual
equivalent of the flat earth society.  Caligula and Nero have nothing
over George W.

As someone else described him, George W. lies like Clinton, has the soul
of Nixon and the intelligence of Dan Quayle.