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Theunquestioned master of this faux liberal show is Rahm Emanuel. For Rahm and his protegés practicing what the media consistently, if wholly fallaciously, portrays as the school of “sharp-elbowed partisan politics,” winning elections is the only thing that matters. Actually doing something substantial about the balance of social and economic powers that so heavily determine the rhythms and stark realities of day-to-day life for millions of Americans once in office is absolutely beside the point. Indeed, he and his gang know quite well that actually doing so will threaten the pipeline of campaign donations they see, rightly or wrongly, as being the key to winning more elections.

This is why they give us legislative “Junk by Design.” Why we accept it as readily as we do, I do not understand.

13 November 2009

Georges Duhamel on the Writing of Literature (and Life?)

Below is a passage from The Mission of Literature by the French literary scholar Georges Duhamel, a defense of the idea of humanism propounded by Erasmus and Cervantes.