Only sadness can convince all participants that moderation is necessary...

From Razib Khan

http://www.unz.com/gnxp/living-in-a-world-that-is-but-isnt-ought/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=living-in-a-world-that-is-but-isnt-ought 

You are not beautiful, exactly.
You are beautiful, inexactly.

You let a weed grow by the tomato
and the tomato grow by the house.

So close, in the personal quiet
of a windy night,

It brushes the wall.
And sweeps away the day until we sleep.

A child said it, and it seemed true:
“Things that are lost are all equal.”
But it isn’t true. 

If I lost you, the air wouldn’t move,

Nor the tree grow.

Someone would pull the weed, my flower.
The quiet would not be yours. 

If I lost you,
I would have to ask the grass to let me sleep.

Admit It, Political Scientists: Politics Really Is More Broken Than Ever

Scholars restrain themselves out of fear of being seen as partisans, but what's happening now is different, and false equivalence is no virtue.

THOMAS E. MANN

MAY 26 2014, 8:00 AM ET

The widespread public belief that our political system is dangerously broken is often met with skepticism among longtime students of American politics. “We’ve seen it all before,” “this too will pass,” “nothing can do done about it anyway” say the scholars. I understand and sympathize with that defensive posture. I’ve spent decades in Washington explaining and defending the American constitutional system in the face of what I considered to be uninformed and ill-considered attacks on Congress and our way of governing. I’ve also worked scrupulously to avoid any hint of partisan favoritism. 

There are, in theory, good reasons to be skeptical of doom saying. Other democracies struggle trying to deal with similar problems; the United States has overcome similar periods of subpar performance and political dysfunction throughout our history; and our political system has adapted to new circumstances and self-corrected. There’s something else going on here, too: How would political scientists justify ourselves if we didn’t contest the conventional wisdom of mere pundits and journalists? We have a positive political science to conduct and are properly critical of half-baked diagnoses and ungrounded normative speculations on how to cure our governing maladies.

Re

But I believe these times are strikingly different from the past, and the health and well-being of our democracy is properly a matter of great concern. We owe it to ourselves and our country to reconsider our priors and at least entertain the possibility that these concerns are justified—even if it’s uncomfortable to admit it.

More:  http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/dysfunction/371544/ 

You are my eyes, my wind, that voice telling me 
     Never to give in.

You are my shadow, my light, that special someone
     That clears my sights.

You are my woman, my friend, the person I share secrets with
     Again and again.

You are my soul, my mate, the person sent to me 
     According to fate.

I love you, you love me, this love will remain true
     As it was prophesied to be.

Give me back my father walking the stables,
     with sawdust and hay clinging to his boots.

Give me back his hand-hewed tools,
     his saddle and his lariats.
Give me his daydreams on lined paper.

I don’t understand this uncontainable grief.
Whatever you had that never fit,
     whatever else you needed, believe me.

My father, who provided for many,
     always had the time to squat down at your side
     and listen to your dreams.

We walked on the bridge over the Indiana creek
     for what turned out to be the last time.
It was just a moment, really, nothing more.

However, I remember marveling at the sturdy cables
     of the bridge that held us up.
And threading my fingers through the long
     and slender fingers of my grandfather.
An old man from the Old World
     who long ago disappeared into the nether regions.

And I remember that six-year-old boy
     who had tasted the sweetness of air.
Which still clings to my mouth
     and disappears when I breathe.