Recommended Summer Reading

A friend of mine, historical connoisseur, intellectual bricoleur and over all great guy, Don White has an answer for certain commentators at our local Southern rag who say the War of Northern Aggression (a.k.a., American Civil War) was somehow not about slavery. Well, Don says it was. He goes into great detail proving the point, all of it interesting, and, although I'm no expert in the field, let's just say all of it 'feels' right. I've always placed Southern-phils who spout that slavery wasn't the issue line right up there with folks who shout Iraq was all about freedom and democracy, conveniently forgetting the 360 billion barrels of potential reserves, and 12% of the world proven reserves the country sits upon. They're not exactly fools, but certainly predisposed to delusional thinking--no doubt helped along by a healthy dose of ideological rigidity. Don sets the critters straight with an enviable mixture of anecdote and charm. Check his piece out at Pathkeeper.net


Next up, Josh Marshall over at Talkingpointsmemo.com sets off a few warning bells about that old geezer trying to get his war on with the Russkies...

One of the great threats we face is the personal sense of grandiosity of the lead foreign hands who shape the course of our role in the world. Not national grandiosity, but personal grandiosity. Because if you're a foreign policy hand or political leader your own quest for greatness is constrained by whether or not you live in times of grand historical events.

There's a lot of this nonsense floating around today by pampered commentators who want to find a new world historical conflict to write bracing commentary about before we're done with the one from last week. But John McCain might be president in six months. And whether it's his own shaky judgment, temperament or just the desire to find a campaign issue, this loose cannon is a real threat to this country.

Josh Marshall does not, as a rule, go around giving off screechy misgivings about crazy politicians everyday (there are a lot of them to choose from, afterall). So take his words seriously. And I think he's spot on: McCain would be a very dangerous man in the Presidency. Worse (if that's possible) than Bush.