The new logo, quick update, and Federalist # 10

With a 21-hour course load (12 is considered full-time) and a 10+ hour internship in a Senator's office, I haven't had much time to update the site or catch up with e-mail. 

By Monday, I hope to have caught up with e-mail, finish up the discussion with Ted Frank, and address some of the great comments that have been posted.

Let me know if you like the new logo, and more importantly, if it isn't centered in your browser.

If you don't immediately get what I mean by factions, then I suggest reading Madison's Federalist # 10.  This is without a doubt, the most powerful piece of political writing I've ever read. 

I can clearly remember the day I first read it.  I was sitting in a U.S. Government class, and the professor was droning on about something not very noteworthy.  The appendix to my book had Federalist # 10 in it, and I started reading it out of boredom.  By the time I reached the following quote, I was transfixed:

"There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.

It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency."

I didn't hear another word the professor said that day.  I was overcome with the realization that factions evolved into corporations, and I wondered what Madison would suggest to control their effects.  In trying to figure out "What Would James Madison Do?," I came up with the idea of a blog dedicated to exposing corporate misdeeds.  In short, Federalist # 10 inspired me to create this site.

You should read it and see what it inspires you to do.