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Debunked:
♦
No, it's probably not true that noted socialist Norman Thomas claimed that America would unknowingly adopt socialism "under the name of 'liberalism.'" Makes a great conservative scare-point, but you won't find that quote or sentiment in the numerous books Thomas wrote or the more numerous biographies written about him.
Perhaps more to the point, let's briefly address the recurring right-wing scuttlebutt that President Obama is a socialist or a communist or a Marxist or some such. When we hear such claims, we wonder whether conservatives even know what those words mean.
This blog is published by a couple of real-live leftists, and our eyes roll at the suggestion that President Obama is a socialist or even a liberal in any meaningful way. The right-wing's perpetual hysteria and hatred for Obama must be based on something other than his political policies, because what the President's actual doing day by day — continuing the war in Afghanistan, bailing out criminal Wall Street operatives with billions in taxpayer handouts, protecting the insurance industry, increasing the military budget, extending the Bush-Cheney administration's disregard for civil liberties, on and on — makes the Obama administration a daily disappointment to genuine progressives like us. #
♦ For more debunked lies, see our debunkery page.
Why are we doing this?
Democracy depends on an informed public discourse. As lies and misinformation are multiplied by mass media, by bloggers, by panicked or intentionally lying emailers, democracy is more and more imperiled, and eventually becomes unworkable.
Please — our nation and our world face very serious, very real problems. You can help, by not believing everything anyone says, and instead being skeptical about all the phony, non-existent problems that are only distractions. Check the facts, or if that's too much trouble, check with the people who do check the facts. We particularly recommend
Columbia Journalism Review,
ConWebBlog,
FactCheck,
Media Matters,
RightWing Watch,
Snopes.com,
ThinkProgress, and
Washington Monthly.
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© Helen & Harry Highwater and the individual authors.
Big howdy
No nuts, please
Our privacy policies
Bill of Rights
Declaration of Independence
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Like the URL says, this website is about unknown news.
Our news comes only from mainstream, professional journalists or (rarely) other sources we trust entirely, with no nuttiness and no interest in the same news you see everywhere else.
What we believe
We believe in liberty and justice for all, so of course, we oppose many US government policies. This doesn't mean we're anti-American, redneck scum, pinko commies, militia members, or terrorist-sympathizers. It means we believe in freedom, as more than merely a cliché.
We believe you have the right to live your own life as you choose, and others have the equal right to live their lives as they choose. It's not complicated.
We believe freedom leads to peace, progress, and prosperity, while its opposite -- oppression -- leads to war, terrorism, poverty, and misery.
We believe it's preposterously stupid to hate people because of their appearance, their race or nationality, their religion or lack of religion, how they have sex with other consenting adults, etc. There are far more apropos reasons to hate most people.
We believe in questioning ourselves, our assumptions, each other -- and we especially believe in questioning authority (the more authority, the more questions). We believe obedience is a fine quality in dogs and young children, but not in adults.
Like America's right-wingers, we believe in
individual responsibility,
hard work to get ahead,
and stern punishment for serious crimes.
We believe big government should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most right-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like America's left-wingers, we believe in
equal treatment under law,
war as a last (not first) resort,
and sensible stewardship of natural resources.
We believe big business should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most left-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like libertarians, we believe it's wrong and reprehensible to arrest people for what they think, believe, look like, wear, eat, smoke, drink, inhale, inject, or otherwise do to themselves.
But unlike many libertarians, we're not obsessed with the gold standard, we don't believe incorporation is humanity's highest achievement, and we don't believe everything in life comes down to dollars and cents. We've read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's novels, but we understand that they're works of fiction.
We're skeptical, and we're sick of so-called 'journalists' who aren't skeptical at all.
A reader asks, what are our solutions?
We propose no solutions except common sense, which is never common. We like the principles of democracy, and the ideals broadly described as 'American'. The US Constitution is a fine and workable framework for solutions, when it's actually read and thoughtfully understood by intelligent statesmen and women. So, no manifestos from us. We don't dream that big, and if there's one thing the world doesn't need it's yet another manifesto.
Our suggestion is: think.
A fact-based instead of faith-based approach leads to solutions for most of the recurring issues of our time, from abortion to global climate change, pollution to universal health care, careful but real regulation of industry and economy, hunger, war, terror, human rights for humans not for corporations, science not religious doctrine in public schools, equal protection and prosecution under law, etc. Approach problems without glorifying stupidity, without demonizing intelligence, and answers usually come into focus.
These pages are published by Harry and Helen Highwater, happily married low-income nom de plumes and rabble-rousers from Madison, Wisconsin (with a few friends scattered around the world helping out).
We try to spotlight news that hasn't gotten enough (or appropriate) attention in American media, along with our opinions and yours.
We bang our keyboards against the wall, because it doesn't hurt as much as banging our heads.
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