Moanday

(It's good enough for Harlan Ellison, it's good enough for me.)

1. Digby calls the US by its proper name:  Empire (not that this is a secret; I think Lewis Lapham has trumpeted the term a few times, but by and large politically the word is seldom used).  Which means the comparisons and allusions to the Romans are apt.  And I need to find my Suetonius, because some of those Caesars were pips.  Meanwhile:
   

   None of this is to excuse any of it, of course. America's post-war imperialism is a complicated subject and one that is above my pay grade to sort out properly. I don't assume that the American empire is intrinsically evil. But this one was born of a Manichean struggle with the Soviets after World War II and it has always had a paranoid character. Coming about as it did in the atomic age, it's defined as an epic battle for survival and therefore must always do "whatever it takes" to ensure its security. I don't think you can "reform" that.
   
   [...]
   
   [...] If I had to guess, I'd have to say that the empire is probably going to run its course, as unpalatable an outcome as that presents.
   
   None of this is to say that President Obama hasn't been eager to advance the security state, particularly considering that his campaign in 2008 largely rested on his alleged anti-war bonafides. He is reported to particularly enjoy the secret authority of the commander in chief, so he is deserving of some special condemnation. But the truth is that he is the latest in the long line of post-war Imperial presidents who have done this to one degree or another. At some point, you have to look to the larger system, not the man or the party.
   
   Just as it's naive to put your faith in the president to "do the right thing" I'm fairly certain it's equally naive to believe that voting against one presidential candidate or the other to protest the national security state will change anything. It goes way deeper than partisan politics. Indeed, it's immune to them. Which is why people who've been around a while shift in their seats and get uncomfortable when someone says they must stick to their principles and reject partisan loyalty. When it comes to the empire, it's hard to see exactly what good that will do.
   
   Having said that, I do believe it's important to speak out regardless of who's in charge or what "emergency" is currently requiring that we all "watch what we say." I don't know how to break up the empire, but I do know that people of conscience still exist and could change the dynamic over time while others are subject to persuasion, at least around the edges. And someone's got to preserve the principles underlying the constitution aside from the 2nd and 10th amendments. We may need to use them again someday.

2. The previous Empire's established church is having conniptions over whether to ordain female bishops.
   

   The great Oxford historian Diarmaid MacCulloch—whose new book “A History of Christianity,” or, in America, “Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years,” prompted [Rowan] Williams to write, “It will have few, if any, rivals in the English language”—told me, “Rowan has enormous grace, he gives his opponents space, but he has a lack of killer instinct, which I’m afraid is a necessary quality for leadership.” MacCulloch, who is gay, trained for the Anglican priesthood, withdrew as an ordained deacon, and later explained his decision this way: “I was determined that I would make no bones about who I was; I was brought up to be truthful, and the truth has always mattered to me. The Church couldn’t cope and so we parted company. It was a miserable experience.” When I asked him about female bishops, he said, “The historical against-women argument about twelve male apostles—it comes from the early years of the Christian era and the spectacles put forth by the male leaders, who had wanted to be the ones to ‘see’ Christ first. By the end of the second century, a male leadership had emerged, and after that it became the ‘men were what the Holy Spirit intended’ argument and then the ‘tradition of the church’ argument. It was specious. Slavery was also our ‘tradition’ for seventeen hundred years. If you want a doctrine of the Holy Spirit, you change.”

3. You should be checking in at  Fukushima Diary.  Also at Mills River Progressive, where Anna van Z spotlights a report from theintelhub.com.  Not good.
4. In better news, a flash mob dumbfounds some gay-haters.  With video.

Gee, it's getting late...