A BRIEF PAUSE

I have just read through what I have written thus far on Kant, and I cannot believe how much I have said so quickly. I very much fear I am writing it faster than my faithful coterie of readers can absorb it. So I think I will take a break for one day to let the dust settle, before pressing forward with the completion of the central argument of the Critique.

Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann has edged out perennial State Fair and Straw Poll favorite Ron Paul, thereby causing Tim Pawlenty to drop out of the race. I should imagine Gingrich, Santorum, Cain and other minor candidates will either officially or unofficially throw in the towel pretty quickly. The big news, if you follow that sort of thing, is the entry of Rick Perry of Texas into the race. Perry appears to be a dumb, charmless, inflexible, Christian fanatic version of George W. Bush, if you can imagine such an animal. The coming street fight between him and Bachmann should be great fun to watch. My money is on Bachmann, because she is, if anything, crazier than Perry, and this is the season for crazy in the Republican world.

Perry has just wrapped up his much touted but lightly attended prayer meeting in Texas. The cast of preachers invited to take part in the festivities includes some truly mesmerizing characters. It is hard to pick a favorite -- the chap who identified Oprah as the Harlot, The Whore of Babylon? or maybe the one who warned that the Statue of Liberty is a demon foisted on us by French Masons? My choice for winner is the earnest preacher who informed his congregation one day that the Japanese emperor had sexual intercourse with the Sun Goddess, whereupon the Japanese stock market went down and has never recovered. [No, I am not making any of this up.]

I think we must face the fact that we live in a country perhaps thirty percent or so of whose citizens are, by any reasonable criterion, certifiably insane. I have a secret dream, which I shall reveal here [thereby making it no longer secret, of course.] I would like Bachmann to beat back the challenge of Perry and emerge as the sole alternative to Romney in the Republican primaries. I would like to see the two of them approach the Convention with large blocs of delegates, Romney in the lead, but with neither able to put together a majority. At the Convention, I would like to see the powers behind the throne pull some strings to make sure Bachmann does not win, driving her and her rabid supporters to bolt the party and form a new American Christian Freedom Party, thereupon ensuring Democratic victories in November 2012.

Meanwhile, the rest of us can work our butts off trying to elect as many progressives to local, state, and national office as possible.

Well, so much for idle speculation. Tomorrow, on to the Analogies of Experience.