July 4, 2004. On Independence Day, 2004, how fares American liberty? Brilliantly, if you compare the United States with the tyrannies that still control the lives of countless people. Not badly, if liberty means the right to seek economic gain in a capitalist system -- especially if you're starting with the right connections and a privileged background. Not as well, when you look at growing pressures on longstanding freedoms. Governments have exploited fears of terrorism to curb many precious liberties, and technology has continued to help snoops of all kinds invade our privacy. More... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

A thoughtful essay by one of the most thoughtful men I know.....

10:29:17 AM    

Wormy heartland, F-word amorality. In heartland, Cheney touts "conservative values" and therapeutic use of "F-word" After his controversial, widely and inconsistently reported use of the "F-word" - recently declared to be "abhorrent" by FCC head Michael Powell (as uttered by Bono) - Dick Cheney's "no regrets", "felt better after I had done it" justification suggests that the "if it feels good, do it" ethic of the 60's counterculture has now spread to the conservative mainstream. Some see a role reversal, as a confused type of postmodernist, relativistic thinking gnaws into the conservative zeitgeist. Seventy year old Florence Orris, at a Parma, Ohio Cheney/Republican rally, sympathized with Cheney's "F-word" catharsis, and with relativist values : "I'm almost getting to that point with my Democratic friends..." (from main link) "Conservatism, as I understand it, has always had as its end the cultivation of virtue in the individual and the community," writes one conservative who asks - is it reasonable to look towards the state, and to potty mouthed politicians, for the promotion of public values? Laments one observer of the "Culture Wars", "Who is behind the effort to undermine our moral standards and enslave our people?" [MetaFilter]
10:21:50 AM    

What is America's global role?. American power and influence is admired but also reviled. Is the world's only superpower the champion of liberty or is it also an imperial power? [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]

A collection of opinions from around the worls

10:18:41 AM