For the past decade Newt Gingrich has been called a "Thought Leader"—a glib PR term coined in the '90's and one which in my opinion should be stood up against a fence and shot along with gag-response phrases like "nuanced argument", "heavy hitter" and "core competency". Since his Speakership, Gingrich has amassed a fortune speaking and writing his thoughts on issues as diverse as home ownership, health care, abortion, cap and trade, and education—to name a few. It seems that Gingrich's thoughts matter. Stanley Elkin in his essay, "Some Overrated Masterpieces", stated that, "... the odd thing about words is the cockeyed weight they're permitted to bear." In Gingrich's case—even more so. He's quotable and printable.

What Gingrich's thoughts are worth in a Presidential run we are about to find out. His speaking style is facile. He is the invented character—used car salesman with a PHD. His followers regard him as very, very smart. His numerous segues from arcane references, to the appearance of moderation and then to hell-fire-demonizing of the Left occur at lightning speed. A reference to the Transcontinental Railroad will send his followers rummaging around the labyrinths of their minds to find an association and finding none they conclude that the man must be brilliant.

"The prize....there it is!"

There has been a comparison of the current Occupy movement and the Civil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's.  In some ways, there is a truth to that.  Whereas the latter looked to achieve racial equality, the former is seeking to achieve economic equality.  The problem is that racial equality is easier to grasp than economic equality (although the arena of the means to remedy the equalities is another matter - see affirmative action).

As a young lad in the 5th grade, I became fascinated with the Underground Railroad.  I still remember the delight of the school librarian when I asked her to help me find something on the topic just because I wanted to learn more about it and not because it was part of some assignment (although at the time I didn't understand the subtext of her glee).  This interest led me to the Civil Rights movement and the numerous stories about living in the segregated South.

We live in troubled and ironic times. The times are certainly troubled. The IMF’s Managing Director has recently spoken with some justification of a looming “lost decade” for the global economy – warning of “dark clouds” blocking the capacity of the world’s leading economies to deliver a renewed bout of economic growth and generalized prosperity.[1] The times are also deeply ironic: since the governing solution to those dark clouds – in countries as substantial as Italy and Greece, and in institutions as powerful as the IMF – would currently appear to be the replacement of elected leaders by appointed technocrats. The solution favored by the powerful is the transfer of state authority from democratically chosen leaders to governors drawn predominantly from the ranks of the very bankers whose inadequate supervision of their own industry darkened the skies in the first place. In this manner, a global financial crisis that initially discredited bankers has incrementally morphed into one to be settled on terms directly specified by bankers themselves.[2] A crisis of economics has been turned into a crisis of democracy. It is an outrage.

The only thing challenging that morphing is the explosion of popular protest which has accompanied it. In key cities in Europe now, the battle lines are being drawn between the technocrats in the ministries and the protesters on the streets. In key cities in the United States, similar lines exist between those who control Wall Street and those who occupy it. If the next decade is not to be lost, it is absolutely vital that, in the clash between money and the people, the people win.

But will they? Only if, inspired by the occupation of Wall Street, a wider political constituency in the United States comes to recognize the force of four truths that the conservative media work endlessly to deny.

Cook ’em a free pizza and they will come.

No, it’s not a Herman Cain campaign motto. It’s the Republican Party’s new strategy for molding the next generation of conservative voters. And it begins in elementary school.

Fighting back against the Obama Administration’s increased restrictions on unhealthy, high sodium and fatty foods in school cafeterias, Republicans this week proposed a bill to re-designate pizza sauce, ketchup and fries as “vegetables” and overturn the administration’s push for more whole grain and (actual) vegetable options in schools.

There a number of factors as to why the scandal at Penn St has captured the public psyche.  One of the key factors centers around those who seek to vilify Joe Paterno and those who seek to defend his good name.  As one of those who believe JoePa enabled a pedophile predator to run amuck for years and years, I do not understand those who enthusiastically defend the man.

What seems to be at play is those who cannot come to terms with the fall from grace of someone who was held in the upmost esteem. The world as they knew it doesn’t make sense anymore.