Anti-Single Payer Trolling

The astroturfing of the blogosphere continues.  From “No Thank You” in the comments to my earlier post: Universal Health Care = Rationed Health Care Waiting lists are for dinner reservations, not doctor referrals. No, thank you. [...] I used to be a citizen of Canada. My wife died of IBC 15 months ago. She was [...]

Real Ponies Don’t Oink

Paul Krugman: America’s political scene has changed immensely since the last time a Democratic president tried to reform health care. So has the health care picture: with costs soaring and insurance dwindling, nobody can now say with a straight face that the U.S. health care system is O.K. And if surveys like  the New York [...]

“Neda” Was Buried Today, Her Memorial Cancelled by “Authorities”

Via Hot Air, it appears that “Neda,” the young woman who was shot at a rally and has become a symbol of the Iranian protests, has been identified. Her name was Neda Agha Soltan. She was not 16 years old after all, but 27. She reportedly was a philosophy student who attended the rally at [...]

Iranian Government and State-Run Media Escalate Conflict

It appears that the Iranian government is getting increasingly desperate. Earlier today several relatives of former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashimi Rafsanjani, including his daughter, were arrested and detained for a time. According to The New York Times, Mr. Rafsanjani, one of the fathers of the Iranian revolution, has been locked in a power struggle [...]

Feathers from My Father

There are many people who consider their fathers to be exceptional human beings.  I happen to be one of them.  When my father passed away almost a decade ago, it left a void that has never been filled but he found a way to let me know he would always be with me. My father [...]

It’s about who decides

This has been brought on by a comment thread at Reclusive Leftist. The post was about feminism, but the thread kept veering off into abortion. Could you be a feminist and be antiabortion? Folks, that is the wrong question. And asking the wrong question can never lead to the right answer, any more than looking [...]

Sunday: Happy Father’s Day!

Round up your dad, or a reasonable facsimile, and treat him nicely today.  If my dad were still around, I’d take him to a baseball game.  I love to go to the local minor league team games and swill beer all afternoon.  At the Somerset Patriots park in Bound Brook, NJ, you can get Sam [...]

Conflucian Classics

With almost 3000 posts and counting, The Confluence has established itself as one of the best liberal blogs around (and we have a Weblog Award nomination to prove it.) Here is a collection of some of our best from the past year and one-half we’ve been in existence: BARACK OBAMA: Obama’s New Campaign Strategy: Laughing [...]

Terry O’Neill Elected NOW President

From the National Organization for Women website: This weekend members of the National Organization for Women (NOW) cast their votes for a new team of leaders to direct the largest grassroots feminist organization in the country over the next four years. NOW delegates elected Terry O’Neill, who served as the group’s membership vice president from [...]

Witnessing the Courage of Iran, Part 2

Here is a new thread on the courageous Iranian protesters and their fight for freedom. Please use the comments to post any news you have and to discuss the ongoing situation. Roger Cohen has a new report from Iran at the New York Times. He thinks Ayatolla Khamenei may have miscalculated with yesterday’s hardline speech [...]