or, Why Paul Krugman misses Newt Gingrich
[USA.Is.DoomedTM Alert]
America Is Not Yet Lost | Paul Krugman - NYTimes.com
We've always known that America's reign as the world's greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic. What we're getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. <...> In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting "I do not allow!" This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison. <...> After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually -- after the country's post-World War I resurrection -- became the country's national anthem. It begins, "Poland is not yet lost." Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.
We've always known that America's reign as the world's greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.
What we're getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce.
<...>
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting "I do not allow!" This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.
Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.
After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually -- after the country's post-World War I resurrection -- became the country's national anthem. It begins, "Poland is not yet lost."
Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.
Because the Democrats are more principled or because they are too wimpy to use the same tactics of political sabotage? The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.
Ще не вмерла Українa The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.
