Paul Krugman makes a prediction that is terribly likely to come true. There are times when it’s hard to conclude that we are anything but f**ked.
If the Iraq parallel is any guide, and deficits become intolerable for everyone, years from now, when the American economy is mired in a deflationary trap — long after most people will have conceded that austerity was a mistake — only those who went along with the mistake will be considered “serious,” while those who argued strenuously against a disastrous course of action will still be considered flaky and unreliable.
A few days ago the Day ran a headline stating that Glenn Beck drew hundreds of thousands of people to his rally for suckers, a claim belied by the article itself and the only scientific attempt (Approximately 87,000 attendees) to determine the numbers. I said nothing.
But I can no longer hold my tongue. Today, on the front page-that’s right, not in “Living”, not in the comics, not even in “Religion” the Day features an extensive article on some religiously loony Ghostbusters calling themselves the East Coast Angels, who are dedicated to getting rid of ghosts in Jesus name, Amen.
Perhaps I’m thick. Perhaps I’m missing the irony. But I can’t find a syllable of skepticism in the entire article. It is straight reportage on ghosts, and the idiots who believe in them, along with their truly scientific methods for detecting and expelling them. I mean, they don’t even take the standard approach most reporters take to scientific questions these days. You know, where they balance the overwhelming scientific evidence against one crank. In the Day, we only hear from the cranks.
Why cover the news, when you can give the idiots what they want?
How long before we start burning witches, with the Day giving a respectful hearing to the witch burners?
UPDATE: A commentor refers us to this article, which discusses the fact that the push to drive internet traffic is behind the dumbing down of the American newspaper. I had actually read that article recently, possibly following the same link from Colin McEnroe, but I didn’t connect the dots when I read the Day’s article. I certainly should have, since my wife said she got a “tweet” from the Day with the teaser line “Do you believe in ghosts?”. I guess something like that is more likely to generate traffic than, “Do you think Congress should raise the payroll tax ceiling instead of cutting social security?”, which, I concede, is probably too long to tweet.
My wife and I went to Maine for a visit on Wednesday, to the Wells and Oguinquit area.
I probably wouldn’t ordinarily post these pictures, but this is actually in the nature of an experiment. I recently downloaded a new app for my Ipad, called Blogpress, which is the first blog editor that I’ve found that actually enables you to easily embed a link. One would think that would be fairly basic, but the WordPress app does not have that functionality.
This app also supposedly makes it easier to post pictures, so I thought I would give it a try. This first picture was taken at the top of Mount Adamenticus, from whose lofty peak (I would estimate 300 feet up) you can view Mount Washington in the dim and hazy distance. The picture of that vaunted peak is decidedly uninteresting, but I was sort of proud of this picture I got of a butterfly that was sipping at the local flora.
We arrived as a bout of rainy, windy weather was coming to an end. The folks who had week long rentals had been confined indoors until Thursday, when they turned out in force to enjoy the beach.
We have gone to Perkins Cove quite a few times, but this may have been the first time we went when the weather was perfect.
Not being an expert, I’m only guessing, but I think these are cormorants. If past experience is any guide some bird expert will set me right if I’m wrong. Every time I’ve ever posted something about birds someone has posted a comment giving helpful information.
Speaking of birds, a dovecote at Snug Harbor Farms, a wonderful nursery near Kennebunkport.
This post from Paul Krugman got me thinking. The post features a youtube of Al Jolson singing Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, with lyrics penned by Yip Harburg, who went on to pen the words for The Wizard of Oz.
The song tells the story of a the working men who served in World War I, worked hard throughout the twenties, and then bore the brunt of the Depression created by the bankers and stock manipulators who created that Depression, pretty much like they created the one we are in now.
Our official unemployment rate is inching toward 10%, but the government has been gaming those statistics for years by excluding huge numbers of the actual unemployed from the official unemployed. There’s a lot of real suffering going on out there, which more than bears comparison to the Depression, and, due to everyone’s refusal to face the reality and address it properly, bodes fair to last longer than the Depression and leave this country a second rate economic power.
Unless I’m grossly deceived, songs like Yarburg’s were not unusual during that period, nor was the fact that so many people were suffering totally ignored by the artistic community or what we would now call the major media. I realize that lots of what Hollywood put out then was escapist, and I can see the need for exactly that. But the fact that people were out there suffering was more front and center than today. Where are our Harburgs, or Woody Guthries? Where are the pictures of the unemployed? Who is writing the next Grapes of Wrath? We have a surplus of Father Coughlins, but the parallels seem to stop there. Our media pretends that the crisis is simply a mathematical abstraction, caused by forces that cannot be controlled, the effects of which we cannot remedy. Weirdly, our politicians, particularly the Democrats, follow suit, afraid to do anything while their electoral prospects deteriorate and we face the prospects of a Republican Congress composed of people who have promised to do worse than nothing by bringing back the policies that got us here.
We seem to be in denial mode. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this Depression coincides with the precipitous decline of the Empire we never acknowledged we had, while the last Depression occurred when we were still comparatively innocent.
Ken Mehlman, former head of the RNC, and architect, along with Karl Rove and a host of others, of various gay baiting and gay hating Republican initiatives, has come out as gay. This was an open secret at the time he was stirring up hate, but that’s another matter.
Mr. Mehlman was in Mr. Bush’s inner circle in both presidential campaigns and ran his campaign in 2004, when the party courted Christian conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage. But Mr. Mehlman, in his work as chairman of the Republican National Committee and as head of Mr. Bush’s campaign, tended to personally avoid social issues.
You might get a bit more perspective here, where his coming out was first announced, or from Michaelangelo Signorile in the video below, via Americablog. (Ignore the Republican apologist).
Signorile makes the fundamental point. You don’t need to be gay to realize that demonizing gays is deeply and profoundly wrong. Being gay and actually engaging in, or enabling, the demonizing doesn’t make it more wrong, only less understandable. The Times account elides the central issue, and grossly minimizes Mehlman’s role in the hate campaign. He may have “personally avoided” social issues, but when called upon to assist in the war on whatever group was the demon of the week, he joined in.
This one was suggested by the Krugman post I referenced in my previous post. I know that we’re all supposed to believe that Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made, and it was a great movie, but for my money, the prize should go to the Wizard of Oz. How many times have you watched Citizen Kane? How many times have you watched the Wizard of Oz. I rest my case.
The movie version is not on youtube, locked up perpetually in copyright heaven, no doubt. But here’s July Garland performing it during World War II, and it’s a great performance.
Obama should fire Alan Simpson. It is rather incredible that he would have put someone on his deficit commission (a/k/a Catfood Commission) who had such a patently reactionary agenda, but it really is part of a pattern.
The irritating thing about this “bi-partisan”, Pete Peterson dominated commission is that it is solely a creature of Obama. Recall that the Republicans, since the oppose everything, opposed creating one by legislation, so Obama created one himself, packed it with conservatives, and then got Pelosi to agree to guarantee an up or down vote on its recommendations.
Simpson is the co-chair, and his recent email to a representative of the Older Women’s League tells you all you need to know about his social security agenda. Recall, as you read it, that Simpson held government jobs for years, and presently draws a government pension that he has not suggested changing:
If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know. And yes, I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too. It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work!
Your future is in Simpson’s hands. If Obama does nothing he will be enlisting in Simpson’s cause. He will accomplish what Bush could not: the slow but certain destruction of Social Security.
My brother in law is currently residing in the South. I won’t say where, for fear of exposing his identity. He suggested I might feature some literary classics from that region, in the form of its bumper stickers, which he will be sending along on an irregular basis. Bumper sticker thinking is simplistic at best, but these bring the genre to a new low. Our initial offerings:
Too Close for Missiles, Switching to Guns
Keep on Honking, I’m still Reloading
Give War a Chance
Further proof, if any be needed, that we made a serious mistake not letting the South secede.
GIven Fox’s central role in stirring up this phony mosque issue, why does it take a comedy show to expose this:
Perhaps for the same reason that the media, including Fox, can’t quite figure out why so many people think Obama is a Muslim. It certainly couldn’t be because their compatriots are telling people that he is. After all, it’s not the media’s fault if people are uninformed.
As we helplessly watch the spectacle of a nation being consumed by racism and Islamophobia, urged on by Republicans and some Democrats, we should pause to recognize the politicians who have done what should be the easy thing: come out in support of one of the most fundamental American values, freedom of religion. Talking Points Memo has done just that.
Lots of our politicians who know this is wrong are standing silently by trying to avoid the issue. These are the guys and gals who have stuck their necks out. Yes, we have come to this, believing in religious freedom for all is now a risky position. Here’s the roll, read the article at the link for details:
Of course, two of the above are Muslims, and therefore not real Americans, but that still leaves plenty of white Christians on the side of the sane.
Why is there no one from Connecticut on this list? C’mon Chris, you’re not running for anything!
It should be noted that there aresome Republicans is at least one Republican who took a stand in favor of the Muslims: Ron Paul, who apparently thinks more clearly that his son, Rand, which is a scary thought all around.
