I am really torn about this debt ceiling debate. On one hand, I see a noisy Republican majority in the House who doesn't care if the government shuts down, a reckless attitude that ignores the impact that this will have of millions of people's lives. On the other hand, the Fed's desire to continue raising the debt ceiling has been somewhat callous and ignorant. The sub-text here is that there are two separate debates: one political, one economic. The political debate has been a theater of incompetence; the Daily Show on Monday, July 25th, characterized it with a YouTube video of a skunk with its head stuck in a peanut butter jar. The economic debate has not been very visible at all -- carried on in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
This fits into a long historical narrative in the United States. Economic decisions are not up for discussion in the public sphere, they are to be made by the men who understand business and commerce. Political decisions -- or more accurately, political theater -- is for the masses. Let the masses be swept up by the political posturing... Republican vs. Democrat... Tea Party vs. the Liberal Scurge of Washington. Which side are you on, brother? Which side are you on?
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
CNN is pathetic
Daily Show commentary on CNN, the news channel that has abandoned the news.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Biggest Newser | ||||
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"Public Works" on display
On a recent trip to Chicago, I caught the final day of the Public Works exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. This was right up my alley, I love looking at the landscape and what humans do to it. In most cases, “progress” on the landscape involves a typical set of development behaviors; cut down the trees, grade the land, put in drainage, etc. These behaviors are so deeply ingrained into the default construction code that trying to do something different requires too much thought. When we see the cranes and bulldozers, we typically think “progress,” and so we don’t tend to ask too many questions.
Frank Breuer, Untitled, 2004 (1523 Plum Island, MA)
Anyway, the exhibit… among my favorite pictures were two photographs by Daniel Shea that illustrated mountaintop removal mining. Mountaintop removal is exactly what it sounds like: take huge machines and cut the top right off of a mountain to get at coal seams. This has been going on in Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky for decades, and it is controversial for the large amount of landscape destruction that it causes, as well as the water pollution and toxic run-off. In some cases, dams that hold back sludge ponds have broken and sent millions of gallons of sludge cascading down through narrow mountain valleys. The process is enormously controversial and the EPA has tried to avoid the issue, seeing it as a political third rail it does not want to touch. The first two photographs appeared in the exhibit (the third was not part of the exhibit). These appear on Daniel Shea’s website.
Frank Breuer, Untitled, 2004 (1523 Plum Island, MA)
Anyway, the exhibit… among my favorite pictures were two photographs by Daniel Shea that illustrated mountaintop removal mining. Mountaintop removal is exactly what it sounds like: take huge machines and cut the top right off of a mountain to get at coal seams. This has been going on in Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky for decades, and it is controversial for the large amount of landscape destruction that it causes, as well as the water pollution and toxic run-off. In some cases, dams that hold back sludge ponds have broken and sent millions of gallons of sludge cascading down through narrow mountain valleys. The process is enormously controversial and the EPA has tried to avoid the issue, seeing it as a political third rail it does not want to touch. The first two photographs appeared in the exhibit (the third was not part of the exhibit). These appear on Daniel Shea’s website.
Friday, July 15, 2011
NewsCorp: The actions of a few... or the Business Model?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Horrible Bosses | ||||
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This clip from the Daily Show gives a little more background on the case (humorously).
Rupert Murdoch has his ass in hot water, Jim, and let me tell you, there isn’t one piece of me that’s rooting for him to come out the other end unscathed. Should the bureaucrats for whom he has shown so much contempt decide to grind him into hamburger, so be it. Bureaucrats are old, angry dogs that sleep in the sun all day, generally too tired to fight until they are poked with a sharp stick one too many times. And when they devour you with the full force of government power that they wield, no diatribes about freedom of the press or strong-handed government interfering with the workings of business will rally enough sensible people to stop the carnage. Didn’t your mother warn you about poking old dogs with sharp sticks?
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