Submitted to a Candid World

Without prejudice to the other gatherings of articles I participate in, I have to say that Dana Hunter’s “Carnival of the Elitist Bastards” is far and away the most consistently well-written, with the most consistently interesting articles. This latest edition is no exception. For those of you new to the site (and there are a lot of you, I’m happy to say!), CotEB analyzes America’s worrying flirtation with anti-intellectualism, from science denialism (creationism, anti-global warming, vaccine demagogues, etc.) to the embrace of the mediocre in our politics. As John Stewart – and many previous CotEB officers – have said, shouldn’t we want our leaders to be the best and the brightest, instead of condescendingly reminding us of our inadequacies? I for one am pretty jazzed about having a former constitutional law professor as a President (God willing, it’s starting to look that way): call me a sneering lib’rul, but I prefer that to a fellow who views the Constitution as a hurdle to be surmounted.

In addition, please take a look at the latest Carnival of the Liberals: billed by some as a partially somber affair, what with McCain’s traumatic race to the bottom and the dire straits in which we now find our economy, this assembly of posts is in fact a bright point, owing to interesting coverage of off-the-beaten-path topics, and the highlighting of some excellent writing (hey, I’m on there too!).