I've been collecting these over the last few days so here they are, with a short sentence on each.

- Why the National Debate is Still Conducted on the Right's Terms (at Huffington Post). Review of a method of national discourse where bat-crazy-fringe ideas are presented as realistic and thus used to shape the entire tenor of a national "debate" (aka shoutfest).

- The Overton Window (on 14theditch's blog). Writer Jeffrey Ford presents the above article, and there's some discussion between him and lucius_t (aka Lucius Shepard) about Overton himself). [Thanks to dr_phil_physics for finding this LJ entry for me!]

- The Swiss Menace. Paul Krugman on different models of health insurance/care that exist in different counries and how they relate to systems currently present in the US.

- Email from the White House: Health Insurance Reform. deborahlive posts a chain letter originally from the White House debunking some of the flat-out fibs being presented by the bat-crazy-fringe people about health insurance reform.

- In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition. It turns out that bat-crazy-fringe ideas are nothing new in the American popular scene; this article talks about some from the past that sound like class "conspiracy theory" groups to me. [Thanks to lilithsaintcrow for the original link.]

- The IndigNation. Slacktivist reviews the above article and gives some extra information about one of the bat-crazy-fringe groups from the 60s.

- New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit. Bill Maher about how expecting every single piece of our society to turn a profit makes some things impossible or at least cripples them mightily and this is an attitude I greatly agree with. [Thanks to jaylake for the original link.]