The Scourge of War

 

Writing a post like this forces one to confront the question; have I really not used this heading before? If so, where? And if not now, when? WHile I was both superficially anguished and quite pleased with a recent post of a friend proclaiming his new-found and still-kindled fealty to the organisation previously known by its acronym IMT, or International Marxist Tendency (perhaps better summed up, as so many of these organisations, by its longterm figurehead, Alan Woods) 

Rebel of what cause?

 

The too-prevalent excuse, or attempt at an argument, for the behaviour of others by highlighting their ostensible connections, or even wires, to other, "higher" beings capable of independent ideological statements is boorish, in addition to  

Ecclesia Sueciae, De Quo Ecclesia?

The proposition that the Church of Sweden would have been "left-wing" would have struck most of its historical critics as a cathedral flying in the face of reason. 

In the land of Fox, Milton and the Barons of 1215

 

The issue of free speech in the land that spelled, if not the very first mention of democracy, the advent of modern, representative democracy (and its oft-claimed corollary parliamentary system) but also crucial - and perhaps crucially precognizant to the developed notion of free speech, 

Last to scrap first past

 

It would seem the most sublime, if not the strongest, argument for maintaining so-called "first past the post" is the power of tradition, and that the blood shed by de Montfort and his forces at Evesham and Lewes must not be insulted by pulling the connective tissue between voters (now far removed, and in the millions) and representatives up. But would reform, in effect accomplished, to the elections of the Commons in effect be a more sordid affair than of French, Prussian or New Zealand political institutions and would it diminish democracy, as so many - unspokenly - seem to think? 

The strange death of Swedish Liberalism

 The election, with hours to go before this year's presumed premier political event on the Liberals' part (and perhaps their penultimate) the questionable milestone, as well as decision, to select a leader younger than yours truly to succeed the miracle of mediocrity, the man behind the grill, and hopefully to reenact his historic (well) achievement of not being the second (or third) party leader to lose its Riksdag seats, with the (also questionable) ominous sign they may well not recover. In the case of Swedish Liberalism, once hegemonic (as so many heroes have been) in fighting for their goal, of universal suffrage,    

This constitution of ours

 

It can hardly be doubted that Donald Trump, and his compatriots, have done great harm to the constitution. How much, and which of his enemies may well be considered asides the question of his ilk, remains to be . But in light of the recent affaire of not quite-president Biden and his (not "just" mentally) challenged health, which might have reached apocalyptic levels in the event of his (reasonable, some did say) re-election, do we grasp the fully apocalyptic extents of the present climate. Two unreasonable choices, or so many of the American public would believe,