michael
- : I'm a stranger here myself.
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I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought the long bomb — and the control of cornerbacks.
Posted at August 4, 2005 6:01 AM in response to serious stuff
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It's a lopsided defense of Duke Cunningham: the poor man simply couldn't afford to pay rent on the Duke Stir. And that $700K from Mitchell Wade (in the house "flip") was just a loaner until Duke can get back on his feet. Sales of Top Gun Enterprises merchandise must be flagging.
Posted at June 30, 2005 6:21 AM in response to DeLay's Fatal Admission
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I'd like to see the talking-head post mortem -- on any network -- feature this Chyron slug: "Has the Emperor Lost His Clothes?"
Posted at June 28, 2005 8:41 AM in response to What to Call it ...
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This is an excerpt from a report by the Economic Opportunity Institute, offered as a counterpoint to Tierney's homey anecdotes:
Advocates of Social Security privatization continually crow about Chile’s high returns under individual accounts. In concentrating on returns, however, they miss crucial parts of the story. They ignore the fact that Chile has cut social spending, raised taxes, and cut benefits in order to pay transition costs—transition costs that the government will continue to pay until 2050. They ignore exorbitant management fees that have, over a number of periods, cut these much-vaunted returns to nearly zero. Advocates also fail to mention that these individual accounts have increased economic inequality and left workers vulnerable to market downturns. Moreover, privatized systems must either require retirees to convert a substantial portion of their account into an annuity – which means that the account can't be passed on to heirs other than the spouse – or accept a high percentage of the very elderly outliving their account and falling into dire poverty.
A part of me wants to be glad about this, because I work in the annuity division of $large_insurance_co. More money under the company's management means that my own job security is (presumably) increased; but I also believe that the wealth such companies are interested in preserving is not necessarily the client's, and that essentially compulsory private accounts is another layer of corporate welfare.
In any case. When I have more time after work, I'd like to examine the EOI's report alongside the working paper cited by Tierney.Posted at June 14, 2005 8:08 AM in response to Timesman John Tierney
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At least the Heritage Foundation has the wherewithal to perform its cult indoctrination rituals in full view -- more or less -- of the public. (Link to NYT article; registration required.)
Posted at June 14, 2005 7:34 AM in response to The Secret Plot To Steal Your Children
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Among other common lies, we have the silent lie -- the deception which one conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth. Many obstinate truth-mongers indulge in this dissipation, imagining that if they speak no lie, they lie not at all.
Mark Twain, "On the Decay of the Art of Lying"
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A lie of omission is still a lie; and if the President will not provide the full depth of facts -- that is, if he will not provide complete context for his pronouncements and assertions -- it falls to the press to do so. This is necessary, at the very least, to maintain the illusion of an informed electorate; but if the press merely reports the words spoken by an official figure, without filling out the story with associated and verifiable facts, they do the public a grave disservice. Maybe the staff writer thought you were insisting that journalists should also editorialize; however, that is an overstatement. It would be enough to say, "here is the President's statement; and here are the relevant statistics." Anything less amounts to tacit complicity because people, who are perfectly capable of forming their own judgments, are not able to because the information presented to them is not more complete. In taking such pains not to be seen as "thinking for" the public, many media outlets have simply stopped giving people anything to think about.Posted at June 14, 2005 7:28 AM in response to Calling Lies Lies
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Tom Toles pegs this in a recent cartoon.
Posted at June 2, 2005 7:20 AM in response to Agnew Was Framed!
