Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Instead of freaking out over public-sector failures, we should be freaking out over private-sector failures
Good Luck With That 401(k)! - Slate
Let's Cut Social Security to Pay for Banker Bailouts! - Salon
And just to hammer home the point yet again: Canada's Healthcare Saved Her; Ours Won't Cover Her - LA Times
LATE ADDITION: More Right-Wing Lies, With Beer Chaser - The New Republic
Let's Cut Social Security to Pay for Banker Bailouts! - Salon
And just to hammer home the point yet again: Canada's Healthcare Saved Her; Ours Won't Cover Her - LA Times
LATE ADDITION: More Right-Wing Lies, With Beer Chaser - The New Republic
Sunday, May 24, 2009
The Bill Maher/Elizabeth Warren interview
At least I hope it contains the exchange I referenced last week -- the sound is temporarily out on my computer and I can't double check - pleh. If it's wrong, I'll swap it out for the correct one ASAP....
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Where else does this happen?
Tonight's "Real Time With Bill Maher" featured a sharp, interesting interview with TARP overseer Elizabeth Warren, during which Bill asked (I'm paraphrasing), "Is there any other society in which people screw each other for money the way we do?"
Excellent, excellent question, and (as the never-modest Maher asserted) it's one that really cuts to the heart of so many of the problems we now face. While Americans certainly have no monopoly on greed, it's fair to ask: is there any other place on Earth in which it's practiced so baldly? In which avarice is actually celebrated, however two-facedly? In which it often seems to displace other social or religious values--indeed, in which the failure of the individual to make this displacement generally excludes him from a serious role in economic life? (Try telling the boss you can't to do X because it's immoral.) In which it has been woven so firmly into society's fundamental institutions that will not loosen its hold even as it uncontrollably, perhaps irreversibly, imperils those very institutions? In which it is has become the boldfaced subtext of the national creed?
I'll keep an eye out for the transcript or a clip....
Excellent, excellent question, and (as the never-modest Maher asserted) it's one that really cuts to the heart of so many of the problems we now face. While Americans certainly have no monopoly on greed, it's fair to ask: is there any other place on Earth in which it's practiced so baldly? In which avarice is actually celebrated, however two-facedly? In which it often seems to displace other social or religious values--indeed, in which the failure of the individual to make this displacement generally excludes him from a serious role in economic life? (Try telling the boss you can't to do X because it's immoral.) In which it has been woven so firmly into society's fundamental institutions that will not loosen its hold even as it uncontrollably, perhaps irreversibly, imperils those very institutions? In which it is has become the boldfaced subtext of the national creed?
I'll keep an eye out for the transcript or a clip....
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The tortured will tell the torturer what the torturer wants to hear
And what did our Inquisitors want to hear?
The Banality of Bush White House Evil - The New York Times
The Banality of Bush White House Evil - The New York Times
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
It ain't over 'till it's over. And it ain't over
- Falling Wage Syndrome - The New York Times
- U.S. Workers' Wages Stagnate As Firms Rush to Slash Costs - Washington Post
- For Victims of Recession, Patchwork State Aid - The New York Times (This nation's crazy-quilt system of benefits -- or lack thereof -- has long been one of my pet peeves. One's well-being should not pivot on an accident of geography, e.g., your state happens to be infested with Republicans. Indeed, this article might be retitled: "When Federalism Suffers Brain Damage," or possibly, "Think It Can't Get Any Worse, Unemployed Homeless Person? Think Again." See also: "The American System of Public-School Funding and Its Grotesque Contribution to Social Inequality.")
- Far From Over - The New York Times
Injecting reality into the curriculum
A Cautionary Video About America’s ‘Stuff’ - The New York Times
As for "The Story of Stuff"'s anti-capitalist leanings -- sorry, folks, it's not propaganda if it's true (as Stephen Colbert notes, reality has a well-known liberal bias). On this issue as on so many others, conservatives are simply on the wrong side of the truth. Their compulsion to fit the facts around the policy (or in this case, around the self-interested ideology), as well as the prattle and policies that stem from that dysfunction, together lie at the core of their current, well-earned unpopularity among voters. Fortunately, much of the American public appears to have pierced their smoke-screen of spin and finally hears their nonsense for what it is: the incoherent screeching of liars or loons.
As for "The Story of Stuff"'s anti-capitalist leanings -- sorry, folks, it's not propaganda if it's true (as Stephen Colbert notes, reality has a well-known liberal bias). On this issue as on so many others, conservatives are simply on the wrong side of the truth. Their compulsion to fit the facts around the policy (or in this case, around the self-interested ideology), as well as the prattle and policies that stem from that dysfunction, together lie at the core of their current, well-earned unpopularity among voters. Fortunately, much of the American public appears to have pierced their smoke-screen of spin and finally hears their nonsense for what it is: the incoherent screeching of liars or loons.
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