tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37138472011-04-21T21:18:21.049-07:00Unfit 2 Print"What's more personal than your politics?" --Little Steven
tomnoreply@blogger.comBlogger691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1126721294623155722005-09-14T11:03:00.000-07:002006-10-12T13:24:33.696-07:00Quarter rat remembers New Orleans, the city care forgotOnce I lived in the French Quarter. I had rooms by Chartres and Ursuline. Throughout the day, like lazy clockwork, the horse drawn carriage drivers came by, each time intoning to the tourists, how "Over thea' is the Ursuline Convent. The first one burnt down, 'cause the nuns were sworn to silence and wouldn't speak when fire first broke out."tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1096443577251763582004-09-29T01:38:00.000-07:002004-09-30T09:10:49.210-07:00The Great Debates
Five weeks from E-day and the first debate is about to air. On to the debate as “event!” Even as theater.
Flop sweat. Stage fright. Preparation and acting skills will be the crucial ingredients. Ironic that reason should give way to the dramatic arts at this awful crossroads in History. Just as WMDs, most specifically, nuclear bombs, warheads and artillery shells are “tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1095530588052784982004-09-18T11:01:00.000-07:002004-09-18T11:11:32.743-07:00What Would Jesus Do?
More to the point: What would Pontius Pilate do, if the Romans were in Iraq, as they pretty much were. Short answer: Much grief. Washed his hands of the decision. Left it to proxy forces to settle things.
Gee, that’s what we are trying to do: palm it off on the locals, take a tax and hold it to a minimum. Before you say this didn’t work remember how long it took for Rome totomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1093698942323552052004-08-28T06:15:00.000-07:002004-08-29T10:03:25.573-07:00Sect’y of Def. Jammed
One step, two steps, a misspeaking blogged all over the internet and you’re there. It’s almost time for the Secretary of Defense to scram.
The Abu Ghraib jam is a sword that must claim an Administration victim, and like the good captain, it could well be Rumsfeld. It might just be the big October Surprise and Kerry would be well advised to get ready to get what he wished, tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1093281307057516832004-08-23T10:13:00.000-07:002004-08-23T10:51:43.016-07:00Neo in the Matrix
neo con, neo lib. I want pragmatism. I am a neo-pragmatic, a neo-prag.
I am tired of ideology. Not mine, mind you. Yours. In my face...and in the law.
I want pragmatic non-ideological solutions from government. Ones that recognize the single great truth of our country and of freedom itself. Namely, that each of us lives surrounded by horses’ asses whose ideas are tragically tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1092276854019591012004-08-11T19:06:00.000-07:002004-08-12T10:17:56.830-07:00The Gums of August
Today we must be on alert at all times. Color-coded, headline-grabbing, the fear crawl along the bottom of the TV screen. But all the time? That’s a teeth-grinding isometric recipe for a nervous breakdown. And to what end? Should we all carry guns, like they do in Baghdad?
Panic may lead us to stash water and food and gasmasks...these are largely sensible, but also tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1091290363679182072004-07-31T09:11:00.000-07:002004-07-31T09:12:43.680-07:00Hail and Farewell
Like any self-respecting gray-hair battling a case of WMD (widening midlife diameter), I joined a gym. It’s my New Year’s resolution, aptly exercised in July.
Not just any gym, mind you, but a boxing gym. My knuckles are now red and puffy (from hitting a heavy bag). But that’s the least of it.
The other day, I had some “schooling” as they like to say in the square circle. My tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1089411152078938882004-07-09T15:12:00.000-07:002004-07-10T06:54:41.970-07:00Musings on an Independent Muse
Brando is dead, although he still made some news the other day, as questions over who first broke the story of his death swirled about the Net. Our fascination with him will eventually fade into a background leitmotif…because in so many ways, and roles, he was the quintessential all-American rebel, itself a primal leitmotif of our culture. “What are you rebelling tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1087842168017808352004-06-21T11:21:00.000-07:002004-06-21T11:27:55.666-07:00Losing one for the Gipper
The dirty work of losing one for the Gipper, and the Empire, is now upon us. As I once learned from the minions in the newsroom of Investor’s Business Daily, owned by Archconservative stock picker, Bill O’Neill, “you can’t fight Mr. Market.”
Mr. War is just like Mr. Market, only he robs you with a sword, not a pen…and not just of your money.
Mr. War says we gotto go. tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1086652374867828672004-06-07T16:52:00.000-07:002004-06-08T13:57:11.006-07:00Memories of Reagan
Now that it's mourning in America and everyone has weighed, or is weighing, in on the passing of our former president, I suppose it is time to reflect on what he accomplished.
Not to diminish his incredible ability to enthuse, it would be unrealistic to see his efforts to tear down the Soviet Union as anything more than a pat on the back to someone already on his knees: The tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1085586129969141782004-05-26T08:41:00.000-07:002004-05-27T01:39:51.863-07:00Lost in Transition
The American Socialist Norman Thomas once famously advised 60s protestors at the crossroads that they should wash the flag, not burn it. As we approach the “transition” in Iraq, his words come again to mind.
Why do people hate us? Why would they seek to join a religious movement, or any movement dedicated to death, suicide and futile Ludditism?
People hate America because tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1083923556184850402004-05-07T02:52:00.000-07:002004-05-07T07:57:23.653-07:00Faces of Innocents
What is left to say? The smiling girl holding the leash, the naked man on the concrete floor with the collar around his neck. This is the face of War. You thought it was just clean videos of vehicles blowing up and no one visibly hurt, like on the A-Team?
You think torture is an aberration in War? I have spoken to those who know about this in my travels: The plain truth istomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1082218937318483862004-04-17T09:22:00.000-07:002004-04-17T09:33:08.700-07:00What’s in a Name?
It’s all about the right name. Pulling out is not the way to put it. It’s either the eerie “stay the course,” or what?
Best to call it something most likely to win unilateral Executive Branch approval.
So let’s call “or what?” the Sharon Iraqi Peace Plan, or SIPP. Give the Iraqi “street,” the criminals and deadenders, or whatever, its most fervent desire: freedom from the tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1081876165217592272004-04-13T10:09:00.000-07:002004-04-13T10:20:47.043-07:00Following the Money
Testimony by Janet Reno and Louis Freeh reminded me of what so occupied them, and all of us, during the latter years of the second Clinton Administration. It was like an 800 pound invisible elephant in the Commission room while they testified, namely, the yeoman efforts of Ken Starr.
According to the GAO, and they say it’s pretty hard to figure, in their “Combating tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1081607759948384802004-04-10T07:35:00.000-07:002004-04-12T03:54:20.153-07:00The War at Home
Watching Dr. Condoleezza Rice give her testimony reminded this former long-suffering "employee" of everything he hates about the modern MBA-polluted swamp that is today’s corporate life. She’s a bureaucrat’s bureaucrat. And that’s no compliment. Rather than get into whether her dissembling, "managing the bottom line" (in this case spin control and running out the clock) was righttomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1081118731715310082004-04-04T15:45:00.000-07:002004-04-08T09:53:26.263-07:00Shaving the Economic Truth
There go those vaunted productivity gains. People who don’t punch a clock are working at home and on weekends to keep up, and none of that time is recorded as worked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now the other shoe has dropped.
According to a straight news report in the New York Times (Altering of Worker Time Cards Spurs Growing Number of Suits), a rising tide oftomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1080945410806840302004-04-02T14:36:00.000-08:002004-04-02T15:00:47.030-08:00Timing
Fallujah shows clearly how absurd our present approach in Iraq has become. Toughness is no excuse for strategic stupidity.
The “Vulcans” as the neo-cons who seized control of our country (and the conservative movement) call themselves. They had their shot, made their case. And they have blown it.
As the bodies of well-intentioned U.S. soldiers and contractors stack up in the processtomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1080497175043335202004-03-28T10:06:00.000-08:002004-03-28T10:41:31.280-08:00Losing one for the Gipper
The truth and nothing but the truth. What earthly reason is there for the White House to block Condi Rice’s sworn testimony before the 9/11 Commission?
First a confession. I watch Washington types at hearings in awe. They have memories that are extraordinary. I can barely remember what I wrote last week, let alone what I talked about over dinner and with whom a month tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1079723985160929392004-03-19T11:19:00.000-08:002004-03-19T12:34:59.403-08:00B-Roll Reality: Let the Buyer Beware
“I’m Karen Ryan reporting.” Thus spake the ubiquitous “reporter” in the HHS video news release about the Medicare bill that so many “news outlets” used as if it was a real “news report” by a real “journalist.” She is, in fact, a PR pro, not a journalist.
Yep, it’s that thin line between journalism and PR. The Columbia Journalism Review “spin busters” even tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1079200551045848322004-03-13T09:55:00.000-08:002004-03-13T22:00:52.390-08:00A Passion for Passions
I’m grateful to Mel. He made a movie that is not historically nuanced, probably on balance untrue in its depiction of a rebellious anti-Roman Jewish “street” that gave endless trouble to its overlords. The Jews were a real pain for those trying to manage an empire. But that’s the business. Sort of like being a landlord in a land with a maximized notion of “no rent tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1078511124649051892004-03-05T10:25:00.000-08:002004-03-05T10:36:27.436-08:00Ad Hominem
Well, here’s the headline you don’t want to see if you are Karl Rove: “Bush Campaign Defends Use of 9/11 in TV Ads.” That translates into: There’s $5 million to $10 million of the President’s dubious “primary” campaign war chest wasted.
Why do I say that? Because, already, the series of advertisements splattered across the airwaves, and due to be running for that amount of media timetomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1077564919666439062004-02-23T11:35:00.000-08:002004-02-27T05:00:03.496-08:00Making a Market in Morality
One of the glories of being a modern—dare I coin it? —metropreneur, is that between trying to figure out how to net my next ten grand, I have a few minutes to ponder the whole free-trade issue, right along with Safire (I’m an optimist and welcome to my happy world) and Herbert (US jobs? Buy now, bye later, so slam the door, bub).
As we appear now on the brink of “tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1077482735271563702004-02-22T12:45:00.000-08:002004-02-22T13:03:54.246-08:00Just Business
With all the goings on about loose nukes, time again to think about the unthinkable. In my case this leads to a question: Why don’t we just buy the damnable things C.O.D. from people (countries) who have them? How much? Maybe $10 million; maybe $100 million. Are we talking wholesale or retail? We’ve established who we are; now it’s just business.
Doing what we do best. Like they tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1076576972900519162004-02-12T01:09:00.000-08:002004-02-12T01:25:45.843-08:00Duck and Cover
The tents were up in Bryant Park. I thought, how brave to stand up for fashion in this age of relevance and seriousness. Very impish.
How divine the law of unintended consequences! While we are doing our thing warring against Sheiks (among others) over vague abstractions like Democracy and Human Rights and Freedom, etc., ad nauseum, the French have brought us back to reality, tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1076173756598309482004-02-07T09:09:00.000-08:002004-02-07T09:12:05.153-08:00Sale to the Chief
Visiting New York I’m surrounded by brands. On clothes and bags and the windows of stores. Plastered on poles and walls and boards at construction sites. Branding is a new thing; but under a different name, the story, it’s old news. It explains how crowds, tribes, countries respond.
New York also put me in mind, unavoidably, of The Donald. Trump defines the art of the clear tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1075405763839418622004-01-29T11:49:00.000-08:002004-01-29T17:43:41.403-08:00Fault the Stars
Seems like just yesterday that Paul O’Neill was castigated for describing President Bush as a blind man in a room full of the deaf. Apologies are owed to the deaf and blind. They are better than that.
Yet, after screeching vitriolic denials at the time of the “famous quote,” here are the very same Republican apologists claiming just that, if you stop to think about it. To wit, tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1074977822776133402004-01-24T12:57:00.000-08:002004-01-24T13:04:28.950-08:00School Daze
Nice that we are building public schools in Iraq, now that we are pushing to privatize our own with the euphemisms called school vouchers. It’s especially amusing to read the latest position on these slights-of-hand coming from eminent economist Terry M. Moe in an Op-Ed in the New York Times . Mr. Moe is an expert on the subject of privatizing schools, having carefully analyzed the tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1074022821048627732004-01-13T11:40:00.000-08:002004-01-13T11:52:41.340-08:00Let’s Do Lunch
In-House Audit Says Wal-Mart Violated Labor Laws blares the New York Times. Gimme a break, who doesn’t work more hours than they’re supposed to these days? Typical of the Times to get the news and miss the real story.
The story is not about Wal-Mart. Of course, they are selling products almost entirely made offshore and driving U.S. companies out of business…or into offshoring…tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1073583654135539652004-01-08T09:40:00.000-08:002004-01-08T13:23:22.200-08:00Immigration: A Modest Proposal
If it walks like a Democrat, duck
I was thrilled to hear that illegal immigrants will now be welcomed into the U.S. by our newly converted Democratic President, George W. Bush. After all, what party has tirelessly championed the rights of the underclasses and underprivileged all these years? And this on top of his massive Medicare give-away. Why it’s a grab bag of tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1073138293764833282004-01-03T05:58:00.000-08:002004-01-03T06:05:51.750-08:00My New Year’s Resolution
If I do it, then it’s my own damned fault.
Now there’s a ban on ephedra. I assume that we can look forward to contraband ephedra being smuggled into the country by herbotraffickers intent on keeping unwitting Americans up all night on their New Year’s resolved crash diets.
I confess: I have taken ephedra. It was many years ago, and I found it a slightly tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1072229296465860142003-12-23T17:28:00.000-08:002003-12-23T17:58:58.840-08:00Germany, France Surrender!
Unprovoked Response from Bitter War Opponents Based on Hope of Mercy, Reconstruction Package
AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION IN FRANCE—Cries of surrender wafted through the clear winter air in this tiny French village, where Europe’s two despotic pro-diplomacy leaders had held out until the bitter end. But finally, faced with the near-total absence of American tourists and tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1071682369987642382003-12-17T09:32:00.000-08:002003-12-18T05:35:44.640-08:00Death Before Dishonor, or Vice-Versa
Oops. President Bush committed another faux-pas and uttered the "D" word yesterday. It ruffled the refined and evolved feathers of our European friends and not-so-friendlies alike. It discomfited the UN. Human rights groups were disturbed at the thought of a speedy trial in Iraq, followed by a death penalty. Yes, the death penalty is too uncivilized to tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1071082569425913992003-12-10T10:56:00.000-08:002003-12-11T15:59:51.076-08:00Who Be American?
I am a citizen in a new country. I was born Indian, Bolivian, Syrian, Russian and French. I am even American. I invest capital. Some of it is mine; some isn’t. I find this capital by talking to people I meet at clubs, restaurants, concerts, parks, conventions, resorts. Everywhere you might imagine. Everywhere you might be yourself. Especially if you’re one of the folks getting tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1070489616169275042003-12-03T14:13:00.000-08:002003-12-03T14:30:12.170-08:00Season's Greetings and A Happy Nuke Year
I am talking with my bud on the Left Coast today for no reason. I’ve got unlimited long distance; see, so I chat endlessly. Surf the Net high speed at the same time. Cable in the background spews the talking heads, who will actually completely contradict themselves if you take the time to listen to them all day.
Naturally my thoughts turn to our friends tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1070053256148556432003-11-28T13:00:00.000-08:002003-11-28T13:11:10.606-08:00Home for the Holiday
I was on a plane for Thanksgiving and about to give my own special thanks because it was almost totally empty. I settled into my row of three empty seats and prepared to enjoy what has become a rarity: comfort in air travel.
But my approaching tranquility crashed to earth on takeoff; when a baby began screaming. I sighed and slowly turned around, only to confront a sight tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1069465252362554692003-11-21T17:40:00.000-08:002003-11-21T17:41:30.640-08:00After the Fall
Forty years ago President John Kennedy was assassinated. In the decades since most Americans have come to believe that a conspiracy, not a lone gunman, was the culprit. According to a recent ABC poll only 32 percent of Americans think that Oswald alone and unaided was the killer. From shortly after the tragedy until now, Americans have steadily believed that one madman could not tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1068501546092788202003-11-10T13:59:00.000-08:002003-11-10T14:30:17.936-08:00Steel Axe Heads for Peace
Sunday, Tom Friedman recounted in the New York Times how Iraqis feel humiliated now. He quotes from another journalist, Iraq Today’s Mustafa Alrawi.
Alrawi said in Beirut's Daily Star, as reprinted by Friedman, “…Thousands of men, many of whom took pride in their rank and status, were left bewildered and confused.”
According to my old anthropology classes, when tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1067187764469424662003-10-26T09:02:00.000-08:002003-10-26T09:12:29.653-08:00That Fresh Taste of Freedom
Now that it’s Ramadan, US troops in Iraq can’t smoke in public during the day. It’s a good start, but it’s just a beginning.
Since smoking is now forbidden in much of the US indoors and 24-hours-a-day, I think such permissiveness in Iraq is positively un-American. Why should American troops, or anyone else, be permitted to smoke anywhere, ever? Why should these tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1066663519568873512003-10-20T08:25:00.000-07:002003-10-20T13:31:11.836-07:00Short-Circuiting the Primaries
Arnold did it first. By a total accident of the recall process in California, he managed to skip the Republican primary process. He would never have gotten the nod from the dead-right enders who control the party there anyway. He didn’t plan it that way, but he has shown the way.
The hard right controls the Republican Party and thus the primaries. So if you wanttomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1065829056917072912003-10-10T16:37:00.000-07:002003-10-10T16:59:21.586-07:00The Pay of Bigs Operation
We’re fresh from our triumphant whatever in the Middle East (Victory? Occupation? Nation Building?). Now that effort has been taken away from the DOD and put in the hands of piano playing chickenhen, Condelezza Rice. So DOD has some time on its hands, I guess. Hola, before you can say “Libre!” the Administration has now decided to take our eyes off the prize and launch tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1065539277205012002003-10-07T08:07:00.000-07:002003-10-07T08:36:48.936-07:00The Deafening Silence of Political Correctness
There are those who may have thought my position on Spy-gate one-sided.
So in the spirit of equal opportunity, let’s point out that a partisan and unsavory hush now hangs like a pall over the Left concerning the startling spy-ring revelations at Gitmo.
Where are calls for a serious investigation of a Muslim-based ring of spies not only there, tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1064943605092777572003-09-30T10:40:00.000-07:002003-09-30T10:59:44.936-07:00A Starr is Reborn
Some brief time ago, a certain conservative introduced the concept of “treason,” into our partisanized political debate.
I’m second to no one on my hawkish belief that treason is the greatest of all offenses to our country. Let me be clear: Anyone who betrays the safety of America, especially during a time of war, should be held accountable.
But today, I find myself in an tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1064011702333322652003-09-19T15:48:00.000-07:002003-09-19T16:03:16.940-07:00Egressing the Fortress
The President has an historic opportunity, a chance to redo history and do it right. The French, always obstreperous, always with a sense of their own importance, have provided him with the perfect opportunity.
France insists on playing a leading role in the rebuilding of Iraq. Perhaps that is exactly what Bush should make sure happens. Rather than beating around the tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1063982765756621822003-09-19T07:46:00.000-07:002003-09-19T09:04:34.653-07:00The Real Enemies of Art
As someone who has googled himself and found his work being sold by a variety of “media” companies through the years without permission or recompense (and in violation of original contracts), let me put the abusive RIAA lawsuit business in some modest real and legal perspective.
Here’s a quick and typical writer’s tale. In other words, how things really work for most “tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1063741898569252962003-09-16T12:51:00.000-07:002003-09-17T16:05:05.166-07:00Cancun Attitude
The collapse of the Cancun WTO talks represents a pivotal moment for trade between the rich and poor. The poor have, wisely or not, pushed back.
At issue, basically: Farmers in the developed nations get $300 billion a year in subsidies, breaking the backs of poor farmers in much of the “third world.” That said, it doesn’t help those farmers all that much, either. So it’s not tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1063031349928311332003-09-08T07:29:00.000-07:002003-09-08T10:15:00.013-07:00Bush: “I racked up my credit card”
Bush says $87 billion? Is he kidding? Let’s just round it up to $100 billion and do a little math. There are 25 million anti-American, Anti-Semitic, anti-western Iraqis (I’m rounding up. There are probably a baker’s dozen who aren’t). Fine, I don’t care about what’s in their hearts. In the real world, of real politics, I suggest that actions speak louder than tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1062708521836667092003-09-04T13:48:00.000-07:002003-09-05T05:48:41.170-07:00Armed and the Man
Charlton Heston was a man ahead of his time when he alerted us to the risks arising from the threat to the second amendment (that’s the right to bear arms). Brandishing his flintlock, the fabled actor proclaimed, "I'll give up my guns when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers." The graphic image and strong words point out a gaping problem, quite literally, that challenges tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1062515788575937832003-09-02T08:16:00.000-07:002003-09-02T12:38:05.470-07:00Volunteered Slavery
Free trade, what does it really mean? Not to be a protectionist, but NAFTA and the equally dubious Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) pact with China and the like really are about reincorporating slavery back into the American economy.
These deals are now being felt as the economy "recovers" but jobs in the U.S. don't increase. That's what happens when you have a tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1062282246316047832003-08-30T15:24:00.000-07:002003-08-30T15:36:22.866-07:00Bush League Lies, Labor Day and the World’s Best Chocolate
The President again praised the increase in worker productivity. This means that you do more work for the same money, if not less. Work more hours for the same money, if not less. That is what it means.
Why is this a point of pride? Some indication that the economy is better? Better for whom? For investors, surely. For management, whosetomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1061942174646068972003-08-26T16:56:00.000-07:002003-08-26T17:11:46.950-07:00The Neo-Cashervatives
Those are the politicians that call themselves conservatives while they take cash to strip citizens and small investors to their shorts…all to fatten their coffers and make the fat cats fatter. They feed at the troughs…and are the lackeys…of the new robber barons.
Now they’re laughing at those fruits and nuts out in California! They’ve got no sense of the value of a dollartomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1061832521647475522003-08-25T10:28:00.000-07:002003-08-25T10:28:41.726-07:00Don’t Cry For Me, Art Cooper (Truth in Media)
The new GQ is hardly recognizable, according to Chicago Sun-Times’ Lewis Lazare. Too bad. Had to give way to market forces.
GQ for grownups getting punk'd, however, is beside the point. It did good journalism, but is only a tangential symptom of the decay into chaos that traditional media is now sliding heels-in-the-air into.
As I told “Lewie” justtomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1061478445038651912003-08-21T08:07:00.000-07:002003-08-21T08:29:23.306-07:00Mr. Bush, Rebuild this Wall!
The Israel-Palestinian truce is dead. Which is to say, the jive about it, the spin, the buzz, the obvious-to-everyone-from-the-beginning deception is over. Sharon, as usual, was right to stay tough. To continue doing the only thing that will have any practical effect. Namely, to build walls. Even Hamas and Co. were right. They are fighting for a piece of the pie theytomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1061316181815861732003-08-19T11:03:00.000-07:002003-08-19T22:15:08.790-07:00The Quagmire in Iraq…and in New York, Too
No doubt we are in the deep weeds now. The tragic death of Sergio Vieira de Mello in Iraq marks a new level of all-out guerilla war. And we must now call it that, for that is what it is.
This bombing also marks the end of the neutrality dance the U.N. and its member nations have so far managed to negotiate. The world community has now officially failedtomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1060954953574563312003-08-15T06:42:00.000-07:002003-08-15T12:39:46.713-07:00Blackout Sheds Light on Democracy
Considering the way the news has been lately, the reaction of Canadians and Americans to the loss of electricity in their neighborhood was stunning and disheartening. Democracy depends on an actively involved citizenry. Yet, instead of participating, most of us merely weathered the discomfort with good humor, kindness and a help-thy-neighbor attitude.
How tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1060799825432675652003-08-13T11:37:00.000-07:002003-08-13T18:23:52.950-07:00On Media
(Odd bits about the business)
SOME FEEL BRITS BETRAYED BY BBC MORNING SHOW - THE TELEGRAPH, UK
"Lately that definition has narrowed. Now Today is simply the platform from which, on May 29, Andrew Gilligan broadcast grave allegations about the truthfulness of the Government's case for war with Iraq. Gilligan's claims have put Today's journalistic standards under unprecedented scrutiny.tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1060731717967379342003-08-12T16:41:00.000-07:002003-08-12T21:27:06.100-07:00The Secret is Timing
Buddy Hackett had a joke where he would get you to ask him, “What is the secret of comedy?” and then right when you said “secret” he would shout out “timing!” Old joke.
But still a good one. Some things, like “timing!” don’t change that much over time. That said, some things do—and have, like timing, itself. We live at a dizzying clip. Many who long for the “good old tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1060625259158867982003-08-11T11:07:00.000-07:002003-08-11T11:33:14.463-07:00Liars All
The gums of August are flapping like mad. Hot air from slips to outright lies (with evasions holding the middle) is everywhere. Starting from the top is the Russian cosmonaut marriage flap. Yuri Malenchenko, 41, commander of the current International Space Station mission tied the knot with naturalized American Ekaterina Dmitriev, 27. He was up there, she down at NASA in Houston. The tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1060293512624781552003-08-07T14:58:00.000-07:002003-08-07T14:59:31.380-07:00We are All Terminated
Politics is all about networking. Who, then, isn’t related to Arnold? You’ll find it hard to believe, but from Sinatra to Johnny Depp, celebs are all just a movie away from Arnold.
But what does Arnold stand for? Physical fitness for sure, but what else, if anything? With his accent, he might be confusing that with Fiscal fitness.
On day one of the race, he’s tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1060194440541952982003-08-06T11:27:00.000-07:002003-08-06T15:02:53.486-07:00What “All-Volunteer” Really Means
Our move in Liberia starts with seven U.S. military personnel, and now we’re all worried that yet another front is going to open up that requires hundreds, or more likely, thousands of U.S. troops to go into harm’s way.
Not to panic. The all-volunteer army has a solution that won’t require that your sons and daughters don the gear and venture into bad tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1060025057913502622003-08-04T12:24:00.000-07:002003-08-05T07:48:03.303-07:00Loving the Bomb for Fun and Mushrooming Profit
As America continues to fulfill its manifest destiny, today brings another typically gloomy New York Times piece, courtesy William J. Broad.
He begins by alerting us to the DOD’s interest in developing small, low-yield nukes to bust bunkers—suggesting that somehow, this months-old interest was quietly snuck past an indifferent U.S. public. The nuttomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-105984850859509162003-08-02T11:21:00.000-07:002003-08-02T14:27:08.390-07:00Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?
Moronic Secretary of Labor, Elaine L. Chao, veteran non-profiteer and Republican insider, enthuses this week over the insignificant unemployment rate drop as a sign of economic recovery. As the still-jobless drop off the unemployment roles and just give up looking (about 500,000 this last measurement period) they are not counted as "the unemployed" anymore. tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1059681875328935662003-07-31T13:04:00.000-07:002003-08-04T13:05:39.790-07:00Who is Paul Bremer?
Top Five Quotes from his definitive assessment of the New World Order, entitled, “New Risks in International Business. (2001)”
1. “Today there are clear signs that anti-globalization forces are retargeting actions from multilateral financial institutions toward multinational companies. Moreover, there are indications that, like the anti-war movement in the late 1960s, the tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1059576452722286662003-07-30T07:47:00.000-07:002003-07-30T09:42:03.576-07:00Waffling on Belgium
“Dr. Livingstone, I presume,” Henry Stanley so famously said. Less famously, he helped depraved atrocity-monger, King Leopold of Belgium, take over the Congo. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Conan Doyle and the Belgian Congo The horrors committed by this now beatifically presumptuous and geopolitically irrelevant country stand out in the highlight reel of history's evils.
That tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1059486827006398532003-07-29T06:53:00.000-07:002003-07-30T14:51:21.900-07:00 Hey Jayson, Can You I Use You as a Reference?
I'm looking to break into big-time journalism so I thought I'd reach out to my oldest friend. He's hot now, getting all the big assignments from the mainstream publications. So I figure my hookup with him will let all you editors out there know I'm a real pro.
Yeah, that's right. What I'm saying I've got his back. Homies. Tight. Word: Me and Ja tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1059427321091736302003-07-28T14:22:00.000-07:002003-07-29T05:04:30.146-07:00Unholy Matrimony
Gay marriages now encroach on the matrimonial legitimacy once bestowed only on unions between members of the opposite sex. Canada is the latest to follow this Europhillic tendency to permissiveness. Many brave religious leaders have spoken up against this trend.
Now, thankfully, an important stalwart of conservative values has risen up to defend the sanctity of heterosexual tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1059323373725940252003-07-27T09:29:00.000-07:002003-07-28T14:55:33.630-07:00Talking About the New Traitors
Religious zealots bent on the destruction of U.S. national security and our freedom-loving way of life have once again attacked the very heartland of our country.
[Courtesy AP]
“Saturday, July 26, 2003; 9:32 AM
DENVER - In October, three nuns vandalized a nuclear missile silo to protest the use of weapons of war. For that act, all three will spend the next tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1058992251049629912003-07-23T13:30:00.000-07:002003-07-27T10:28:01.483-07:00No Price Too High
The myopic “America-Firsters” are once again falling into the “useful idiot” role, this time by embracing the ideology of the anti-free-trade unions.
The latest assault on the proven triumph of free-market economics comes to you courtesy of Congress. But to the consternation of Defense Department leaders and the White House, this blow to rebuilding our military at bargain tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1058976746910515362003-07-23T09:12:00.000-07:002003-08-01T07:03:00.300-07:00Friendly Fire
When the Eiffel Tower had a fire the other day, the President’s men in the White House quickly gathered together to figure out a response. Everyone knows that the French are not the favorites of the President’s advisors, but global plans to fight terrorism overcame their natural reluctance to help their adversarial “old Europe” NATO ally.
“This will set back our plans to tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3713847.post-1058754711305240792003-07-20T19:31:00.000-07:002003-08-01T06:59:21.423-07:00Domino Theory
“Welcome to Middle Eastern Domino’s how can we help you today?”
“This is Paul Bremer. You got burgers, freedom fries?”
“Sorry Mr. Paul, we only have pizza here.”
“No fries?”
“If we offered fries, then one thing would lead to another and we couldn’t manage the business. At least that’s the theory here at Domino’s. Hold on please. I’ve got another call. Domino’s how can we tomnoreply@blogger.com