Whether it's Ted Cruz's dad, or Rand Paul's assistant, you can count on those around the candidate to be more honestly forth-coming than they are, if just as difficult to understand:

“Most conservatives are not, and never were, racists, but many have displayed a disregard for minorities for a very long time and in a plethora of ways. I certainly did.

Minorities think we don’t like them. Not enough conservatives have tried to convince them that’s not true.

The same conservatives who say they believe government treats everyone badly were not willing to see how that was true for black Americans. They either don’t see it or don’t want to see it. I used not to see it. For that, I am very sorry.”

ACCEPTED.

"In all of these dramas, the black people's stories are simple, almost banal. As the kidnapping victim in 12 Years a Slave says, 'I don't want to survive. I want to live.' He simply endures, with all the courage and dignity he can muster. His situation, the heroism of his situation, is easy to understand."

"The slave owner, played by Michael Fassbender, is a far more mysterious, more fascinating type: What kind of man wants to flog nearly to death the mother of the child he adores? What kind of man rests against people as if they were furniture? It is a testament to the power of American denial that Fassbender's portrayal of a slave owner is the finest ever put down on film."

I'm pretty sure there's a lot of folks like Camille Paglia, positive this is the truth, that NewAge ended a long time ago:

  I wrote a long piece for Arion at Boston University a couple of years ago called “Cults and Cosmic Consciousness: Religious Vision in the American 1960s” trying to give reasons—trying to sketch this combination of things with poetry, religion, spirituality that would produce the New Age movement. And then trying to diagnose why the whole thing collapsed,...

Meanwhile, my impression of the current landscape - as a "spiritual" minefield - is confirmed even as it's denied:

  The Theos survey discovered that 40% of the sample (and a small majority of women) had at some time engaged in a "New Age" activity - for example, a Tarot card reading or a Reiki healing session. These activities seem to be equally popular with those who describe themselves as religious and those who do not,…

Which is how and why atheists are doomed to end up alone - as "compassionate" NewAgers  love to point out:

We're not part of their cult,...

 

I think we have seen a remarkable thing happen. Months ago, when the effort to defund Obamacare began, official Washington scoffed. The scoffed that the American people would rise up. They scoffed that the House of Representatives would do anything, and they scoffed that the Senate would do anything. 

We saw, first of all, millions upon millions of Americans rise up all over this country. Over two million people signing a national petition to defund Obamacare. We saw the House of Representatives take a courageous stand listening to the American people, that everyone in official Washington, just weeks earlier, said would never happen. That was a remarkable victory to see the House engage in a profile of courage. 

Unfortunately, the Senate chose not to follow the House. And in particular, we saw real division among the House of Representatives. That was unfortunate. I would point out that had Senate Republicans united, and supported House Republicans, the outcome of this, I believe, would've been very, very different. I wish that had happened, but it did not.