Chris Hedges on the Antidote to the poison of war

"To survive as a human being is possible only through love. And when Thanatos [the death impulse] is ascendent, the instinct must be to reach out to those we love, to see in them all the divinity, pity and pathos of the human. And to recognize love in the lives of others -- even those with whom we are in conflict -- love that is like our own. It does not mean we will avoid war or death. It does not mean that we as distinct individuals will survive. But love, in its mystery, has its own power. It alone gives us meaning that endures. It alone allows us to embrace and cherish life. Love has the power both to resist in our nature what we know we must resist, and to affirm what we know we must affirm. And love, as the poets remind us, is eternal."

Today's Lyrics

The Last of Leaves fell from the trees
And clung to a new love's breast
The branches, bare, like a banjo moan
To the winds that listen the best

Bob Dylan, "Lay Down Your Weary Tune"

Kos is up to its usually excellent analysis

New Orleans demonstrated to us in vivid color what Republicanism is made of. New Orleans was, in reality, a crowning acheivement of conservatism. That is, until political pressure forced the federal government to lend a hand and those lucky duckies in the gulf coast began receiving "handouts".
While fingering the responsible is important, Democrats need to use New Orleans to draw clear distinctions between the governing philosophies of the Republicans and that of the Democrats.
Democrats would've taken care of Katrina victims from the get go. That would've been our first impulse, our first instinct. Republicans had to be shamed into helping people.

Exactly right.

The Republican philosophy is opposed to the very idea of THE people's welfare, as opposed to SOME people's welfare (the ownership class). More on this in an upcominng post.