The Gospel According To Glenn

LET US NOW PRAY: That these religious fanatics never get in control of the U.S. government.

If you can stand it, here's Glenn:



You've gotta hand it to the guy. He may be a charlatan, but he's a showman.

Bill Maher And The Death Of "Politically Incorrect"

I was overseas and never received ABC when Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher was in production, so I never saw the show. But I was aware that the program was cancelled and Maher was attacked and reviled after 9/11 over comments that he made. Here's a link to an article entitled Politically Incorrect: A Eulogy at thebigstory.org that explains Maher's downfall.

In the weeks after September 11, critics wondered how late-night talk shows would change. Predictably, Leno and Letterman told fewer and safer jokes, mostly at the expense of easy targets like the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. The Daily Show's Jon Stewart was so shaken he cried. [Note: Stewart's Manhattan apartment, where he lived with his wife and children, was blocks from the World Trade Center.] But Politically Incorrect, true to form, crashed the somber late-night party. Appearing on Sept. 17 for the first show since the attacks, Maher made it starkly clear his show would live up to its name.

"I do not relinquish - nor should any of you - the right to criticize, even as we support, our government," Maher said. "This is still a democracy and they're still politicians, so we need to let our government know that we can't afford a lot of things that we used to be able to afford. Like a missile shield that will never work for an enemy that doesn't exist. We can't afford to be fighting wrong and silly wars. The cold war. The drug war. The culture war."

What he said later in the show was what caused all the fuss:

Panelist Dinesh D'Souza [God, I'd never heard of this guy before his ridiculous book, The Roots Of Obama's Rage, was published in 2010; turns out he's a longtime influential member of the religious right] mentioned that he didn't think the terrorists were "cowards," as George Bush had described them. Maher replied: "We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from two thousand miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building. Say what you want about it. Not cowardly. You're right."

This was in the week following 9/11, and as the linked article says, Maher's was the one and only dissenting voice in the talkshow world at the time that expressed anything negative about the U.S. government, when opinion polls swung to 96% for George W. Bush.

Debt Graph

Link to deficit graph.

Best Movie Car Chases! Ronin, To Live And Die In L.A., Bullitt

All three of these are magnificent -- car chases at their finest. They'll never do another one, because computer-enhanced stuff has taken over. They will never again risk the lives of stunt men, let alone stars, in an orchestrated car chase. When you watch these, bear in mind that these are real people driving these cars (Steve McQueen did a lot of his own driving in the Bullitt clip.) The Ronin clip jumps straight into the action, but the other two seem kind of slow-moving and unexceptional at first. Keep watching!

#1: Ronin. This is a marvellous clip -- the best car chase ever. You can't help but think of Princess Diana's death during the amazing high-speed Paris tunnel scenes. Imagine this mix including a drunken Henri Paul piloting a heavy Mercedes sedan at 130 mph! Unfortunately, it's recorded at a low volume level -- roaring motors and screaming tires are muted. Use the volume control on the screen to jack it up, but it's still not high enough. Headphones help. And let's hope that wonderful beautiful double-clutching cop-ramming wrong-way-driving blonde lady lives!

This scene from John Frankenheimer's post-Cold War action thriller "Ronin" has everything you want in a chase: wild action, precision driving, filmmaking chops and an overpowering sense of physical reality. Frankenheimer was adamant about that last part: A classic-car buff and race car driver throughout most of his life, he said he directed "Ronin" mainly to have an excuse to shoot a bunch of thrillingly ridiculous but physically believable car chases with a bit of plot sandwiched in between. (The script -- written by J.D. Zeik and rewritten by an uncredited David Mamet -- is much better than it needed to be.) Although the cuts are super-fast, you always get a clear sense of action and reaction: Just before Natascha McElhone's Deirdre makes an evasive skid, for instance, you see a quick close-up of her shifting into neutral and yanking up the parking brake. Throughout this sequence, you get the sense that Frankenheimer is consciously trying to invoke and outdo classic chase scenes from earlier movies (particularly "Bullitt," "The French Connection" and "To Live and Die in L.A."). Amazingly, he pulls it off. This might be the last classically directed analog chase scene in big-budget Hollywood movies. Frankenheimer amped up the sense of fear by towing the actors at speeds matching that of the drivers in their stunt cars. In a couple of shots, you can see the fear in the stars' eyes, and there's one closeup where you can practically hear Robert De Niro thinking, "What the f--- did I get myself into?"

#2: To Live And Die In L.A.

"There's a minor tie-up on the North Long Beach, right near Henry Ford ..."

"WHAT'RE WE GONNA DO?" (John Pankow, anguish pumped up to the max.)

"We're going to an auto parts store, get a new window." (Petersen is the coolest guy who ever lived.)

I love this one because it's one of William Petersen's early movies -- and I think William Petersen was terribly underrated until CSI -- and because of the Wang Chung soundtrack. It starts with two rogue cops who think they've gotten away with something -- well, the Petersen character thought so; the John Pankow character is unconvinced -- and then all of a sudden they're being pursued and everyone on the sidelines is shooting at them. I particularly like the semi that jack-knifes on a crowded freeway.

The cuts that seem not to make any sense are from Petersen's character bungie-jumping off an L.A. bridge at the start of the movie.

Director William Friedkin's enthusiastically scuzzy 1985 thriller builds toward the most nerve-racking car chase in movies. FBI agents Chance (William L. Petersen) and Vukovich (John Pankow) are fleeing the disastrous shakedown of a stolen-jewelry dealer who turned out to be an FBI agent and eventually shake their pursuers by deliberately driving the wrong way on the Terminal Island Freeway near Wilmington, Calif. This is one of the great analog-era chase scenes. The fact that all the cars, people and locations are real adds immeasurably to the sense of imminent harm. Friedkin supposedly got the idea for a chase sequence going the wrong way on a freeway back in 1963, when he was returning home from a wedding in Chicago, fell asleep at the wheel, and awoke to find himself driving against traffic. He put this sequence in "L.A." partly because he'd spent the previous 14 years wondering if it was possible to top the chase he directed in "The French Connection." Mission accomplished.

#3: Bullitt: One of the best sequences ever shot. It opens with a shot of a lethal-looking black Dodge Charger. I love the double-take the bad guy does when he sees McQueen's Mustang pop up in his rear-view mirror. We already know the trench-coat guy in the passenger seat to be a hitman, and when the driver fastens his seatbelt, hang on!

That's Alcatraz in the Bay in one of the scenes, but who's watching the scenery?

I have some minor quibbles about reality. McQueen's Mustang would have been more nimble in the city, but on the highway, I think the Charger would have blown him away.

The car chase that started the 1970s car-chase craze, the high point of "Bullitt" still thrills -- a long, meticulously choreographed chase that pays close attention traffic patterns and the mentality of drivers. If you've never seen it before, you may be struck by the fact that the whole thing isn't relentlessly fast; there's a lot of cat-and-mouse action, with pursuers and pursued stalking through San Francisco's hilly streets like wild animals in the jungle, figuring out their next move.

Here's a comment on howstuffworks:

For three and a half minutes, Bullitt's Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 fastback tags behind the big Dodge. While paused at a light the Charger's driver fastens his lap belt with sober deliberateness. The light flips, the driver stands on the Dodge's accelerator, and two celebrated American muscle cars show what they're made of. The chase -- seven glorious minutes' worth -- is on.

Two identical Mustangs and two matching Chargers were used in the Bullitt chase sequence. So that the four-speed Mustang could run more easily with the brawnier four-speed 440 Magnum Charger, Hollywood engineer Max Balchowsky installed a racing cam on both Fords, milled the heads, and modified the ignition and carburetion systems. Additionally, Balchowsky bulked up the suspensions of all four cars for improved strength, handling, and control. One Mustang and one Charger were fitted with a full roll cage.

The chase was shot at normal film speed; there would be no cranked-up footage to jazz audiences. The byword was reality.

Steve McQueen played San Francisco police Lt. Frank Bullitt, a man on a mission to take down the hit men who killed a government witness.

Bullitt captures legendary star McQueen at the apex of his popularity and puts him in a milieu he loved in his private life: auto racing. He owned many fast cars and had particular fondness for his barely streetable XKSS Jaguar, which he liked to pilot at breakneck speeds along Sunset and serpentine Mulholland Drive high above Los Angeles. He participated in Sports Car Club of America events, and was an enthusiastic motorcyclist, as well.

McQueen insisted on driving the Mustang during the carefully choreographed pursuit, but when he failed to make a turn after locking up his wheels he sealed the deal for pro driver Bud Ekins, who handled the Mustang during the jouncy maneuvers along San Francisco's famously hilly streets. Stunt driver/actor Bill Hickman piloted the Charger.

Veteran stunt coordinator Carey Loftin designed the chase, plotting a course along a variety of city avenues and landmarks: Clay & Taylor streets, York Street, Potrero Hill, Kansas Street, Russian Hill, and the bucolic Guadalupe Canyon Parkway. Longtime SF residents will see that the chase is not linear, i.e., the cars jump freely around town from cut to cut. Well, chalk that up to artistic license.

The sounds emitted by the Mustang suggest a lot of double-clutching -- something that would not have been needed with a '68 Ford transmission. McQueen confirmed that the sweet racket of the car's engine and transmission were overdubbed recordings of a Ford GT40 driven at full tilt.

The highest compliment one can offer to Loftin and director Peter Yates is that the chase is completely believable. No "superhero" stunts, no impossible tricks -- just adrenaline-pumping speed, heightened by razor sharp cinematography (William Fraker) and Oscar-winning editing (Frank Keller), plus multiple points of view: drivers' eye, worm's eye, bird's eye, over the shoulder, close on McQueen and Hickman, and setups that suck us along inches behind the cars' back bumpers. Pat Houstis drove the camera car, which was built atop a Corvette chassis.

Dramatically, the chase works for a multitude of reasons, not least the human silence: neither Bullitt nor the hit men speak, not one syllable -- not when Bullitt's Mustang is momentarily blocked by oncoming traffic, not when the Charger nearly annihilates itself on a guardrail, not when assassin #2 (Paul Genge) loads his Winchester pump and pokes the barrel from the Charger's rear side window -- not even when Bullitt's windshield absorbs a blast of buckshot.

Instead, the soundtrack vibrates with the Charger's thrumming baritone and the hornet-like growl of the Mustang; the squeal of abused rubber; the deep, thudding thumps as the cars repeatedly bottom out on the city's hills; and the harsh reports of the Winchester. The mute concentration of the participants seems to underscore the chilly professionalism of Bullitt and the men he hunts. Deadly pursuit and flight, like rail-splitting or high-iron work, are masculine occupations best performed in silence.

The sequence did wonders for the Mustang mythos, of course, and didn't do Charger any harm, either. Ford offered a limited edition anniversary "Bullitt" Mustang for model-year 2001.

The chase altered the tone of cop films and upped the ante for writers and directors who felt obliged to attempt to surpass it. Some gems came later, notably in The French Connection and The Seven-Ups (both by Bill Hickman). Although the Bullitt chase is no longer the most kinetic in movie history, it almost certainly is still the best.

Obama's Presidency Accurately Foretold In January 2009

Audacity Without Ideology is an article published by E.J. Dionne Jr. in January of 2009, and it provides predictions of Obama's style of governing that are amazingly accurate.

It's excerpted in a piece by Digby at Hullabaloo entitled Hoping We Get Lucky, which seems to be the administration's current economic plan.

She further referenced an article by Brad DeLong entitled Grasping Reality With Both Hands, and includes this excerpt:

Back at the end of 2008, our questions (at least my questions) were: "What if the downturn is bigger than we currently think it will be? What if worries about a jobless recovery and the absence of labor-market mean-reversion turn out to be true? What if--as has happened in the past--this financial crisis turns into sovereign crises and the world economy gets hit by additional shocks? Then your polices will not be bold enough. What is Plan B?" And the answers were all along the lines of:

You are a pessimist. We are already doing unprecedented things to stabilize the economy--and odds are that in a year we will be worrying about inflation and unwinding the stimulus rather than about unemployment.

Obama is genuinely post-partisan, and won't have anything like the trouble Clinton had negotiating with Republicans: our policies will evolve as the situation evolves.

Back in the late summer of 2009, our questions (or at least my questions) were: "You aren't getting any cooperation from Republicans--they appear to have doubled down on the Gingrich-Dole strategy that you win the next election by making the Democratic President a failure. The economy really needs more stimulus. What are you going to do? Isn't it time to use the President's powers more aggressively--to use Fed appointment powers and the Treasury's TARP authority and Reconciliation to do major stimulus?" And the answers were:

We are doing all that we can.

This is really hard.

Things will probably still work out all right.

If worst comes to worst, we will trade long-run budget balance via a spending cut-heavy package of long-run spending cuts and tax increases for short-term stimulus to get us out of the short-term unemployment mess.

Hippie punching.

By the late summer of 2010, our questions (or at least my questions) were: "You are in a total war with the Republican Party. They aren't giving you anything. It is time to seriously push the envelope of executive authority to put policies in place that will reduce unemployment." And the answers were:

The best policy is to achieve long-run fiscal discipline so that the confidence fairy will show up.

Hippie punching.

And now it is the late summer of 2011. Our big question still is: how is Obama going to use executive branch authority to reduce unemployment? There are lots of options: adjourn congress and do some recess appointments to get the Federal Reserve more engaged in actually pursuing its dual mandate, quantitative easing via the Treasury Department, shifting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from their do-nothing position by giving them a microeconomic stabilization mission, talking about how a weak dollar is in America's interest.

And this time what I am hearing back is only:

Hippie punching.

It is difficult to read this in any way but as a group of people inside a bunker who (1) have been wrong about the situation, (2) are scared to use the powers they have to try to make things better, and (3) really do not like being reminded that they were wrong about the situation.

That seems to me to mean that the Obama administration right now has one and only one macroeconomic policy idea: hope that the country gets lucky.

Warren Buffett's Op-Ed

On August 14, the New York Times published Buffett's article, Stop Coddling The Super-Rich. Here's an excerpt:

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

I fear Warren's being somewhat disingenuous here, because a lot of his income was dividends from corporations that had already paid taxes on that money. But he still has a strong argument.

The Republican response: Let the coddling continue, or even increase!

Here's a link to an article by Charles Koch in response to Buffett, called Koch Responds To Buffet: ‘My Business And Non-Profit Investments Are Much More Beneficial To Society’

"His charitable foundation, which gives largely to right-wing organizations that support his politics and Koch Industries’ business interests, still only donates about $12 million a year — 0.05 percent of Koch’s net worth."

His non-profit investments include Americans for Prosperity, an important source of Tea Party funds, and other radical right-wing causes.

A New Favorite - Chris Weigant

I love Paul Krugman.

Well, not literally. But if I were a Nobel-winning economist who could write with skill and grace, I would write exactly what Paul Krugman does in his books and in his New York Times articles. We're political soulmates, and he's No. 1, but Robert Reich, Joseph Stiglitz, and recently Jared Bernstein are up there too. I've just added another favorite to the list: Chris Weigant. (Unlike the others, he's not an economist but a psychologist who practiced for 25 years. I'm starting to think that these damned pundits we rely on for our news should have 20-plus years' experience in some field other than talking and getting their hair blow-dried.)

I've been reading, and enjoying, Chris Weigant's articles for quite some time. But I've just come to appreciate his Weekly Talking Points column. This guy is brilliant. (And I love his cat picture: sleepy coiled menace. Don't mess with this pussy.)

I've read his most recent Talking Points article and am getting into some of the back issues. He's great, and he deserves a bookmark.

Obama Staffer Bashes Krugman, "Firebagger Lefty Blogosphere"

Amanda Terkel at HuffPo has an article entitled: Obama Campaign Staffer Sends Out Email Bashing Paul Krugman And The 'Firebagger Lefty Blogosphere'.

Here's a portion:

Paul Krugman is a political rookie. At least he is when compared to President Obama. That's why he unleashed a screed as soon as word came about the debt ceiling compromise between President Obama and Congressional leaders - to, you know, avert an economic 9/11. Joining the ideologue spheres' pure, fanatic, indomitable hysteria, Krugman declares the deal a disaster - both political and economic - of course providing no evidence for the latter, which I find curious for this Nobel winning economist. He rides the coattails of the simplistic argument that spending cuts - any spending cuts - are bad for a fragile economy, ignoring wholeheartedly his own revious cheerleading for cutting, say, defense spending. But that was back in the day - all the way back in April of this year. [...]

No, the loudest screeching noise you hear coming from Krugman and the ideologue Left is, of course, Medicare. Oh, no, the President is agreeing to a Medicare trigger!!! Oh noes!!! Everybody freak out right now! But let's look at the deal again, shall we? [...]

Now let's get to the fun part: the triggers. The more than half-a-trillion in defense and security spending cut "trigger" for the Republicans will hardly earn a mention on the Firebagger Lefty blogosphere. Hell, it's a trigger supposedly for the Republicans, and of course, there's always It'sNotEnough-ism to cover it.

"Firebagger Lefty" is apparently a reference to Jane Hamshere's FireDogLake, a lefty site that frequently takes Obama to task. And yes, it's pretty far out there. But Krugman is my political soulmate, and I wish Obama had surrounded himself with economic advisers like Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich, and Jared Bernstein, instead of Wall Street lackeys and refugees from Goldman Sachs like Summers, Geithner, and Daley.

A Defense of Col. Allen West's Problems With The Military

And a pretty thorough description of the controversial events that took place between West and an Iraqui prisoner in Iraq., an article entitled Why Allen West Was Drummed Out Of The Military.

West's Wikipedia bio entry presents him in a somewhat less glamorous light. (Wiki footnotes removed for better comprehension; check the Wikipedia article itself here):

While serving in Taji, Iraq, West received information from an intelligence specialist about a reported plot to ambush him and his men. The alleged plot reportedly involved Yahya Jhodri Hamoodi, a civilian Iraqi police officer. West, who was not responsible for conducting interrogations in Iraq and had never conducted nor witnessed one, had his men detain Hamoodi. In the process of detaining Mr. Hamoodi, soldiers testified that Hamoodi appeared to reach for his weapon and needed to be subdued. Hamoodi was beaten by four soldiers from the 220th Field Artillery Battalion on the head and body. West then fired his pistol near Hamoodi's head, after which Hamoodi provided West with names and information, which Hamoodi later described as "meaningless information induced by fear and pain." At least one of these suspects was arrested as a result, but no plans for attacks or weapons were found. West said "At the time I had to base my decision on the intelligence I received. It's possible that I was wrong about Mr. Hamoodi."

West was charged with violating articles 128 (assault) and 134 (general article) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. During a hearing held as part of an Article 32 investigation in November 2003, West stated, "I know the method I used was not right, but I wanted to take care of my soldiers." The charges were ultimately referred to an Article 15 proceeding rather than court-martial, at which West was fined $5,000. LTC West accepted the judgment and retired with full benefits in the summer of 2004. Asked if he would act differently under similar circumstances again, West testified, "If it's about the lives of my soldiers at stake, I'd go through hell with a gasoline can." After Lieutenant Colonel West was relieved of his command, an interpreter employed by a private contractor said that without his presence the region he previously oversaw "became more dangerous and chaotic".

Fiscal v. Monetary Policy, Keynes Simplified

This is an article called Fiscal Policy vs Monetary Policy, author not credited. It's in pretty understandable language, for economics. Not too long, either.

Here's a companion article by Robert Reich, How Austerity Is Ushering in a Global Recession.

I. THE BUSINESS CYCLE

Market economies have regular fluctuations in the level of economic activity which we call the business cycle. It is convenient to think of the business cycle as having three phases. The first phase is expansion when the economy is growing along its long term trends in employment, output, and income. But at some point the economy will overheat, and suffer rising prices and interest rates, until it reaches a turning point -- a peak -- and turn downward into a recession (the second phase).

Recessions are usually brief (six to nine months) and are marked by falling employment, output, income, prices, and interest rates. Most significantly, recessions are marked by rising unemployment. The economy will hit a bottom point -- a trough -- and rebound into a recovery (the third phase). The recovery will enjoy rising employment, output, and income while unemployment will fall. The recovery will gradually slow down as the economy once again assumes its long term growth trends, and the recovery will transform into an expansion.

II. ECONOMIC POLICY AND THE BUSINESS CYCLE

The approach to the business cycle depends upon the type of economic system. Under a communist system, there is no business cycle since all economic activities are controlled by the central planners. Indeed, this lack of a business cycle is often cited as an advantage of a command economy. Both socialist and fascist economies have a mix of market and command sectors. Again, the command sector in these economies will not have a business cycle -- while the market sector will display a cyclical activity. In a full market economy -- like the United States -- the nation can suffer extreme swings in the level of economic activity.

The economic policies used by the government to smooth out the extreme swings of the business cycle are called contracyclical or stabilization policies, and are based on the theories of John Maynard Keynes. Writing in 1936 (the Great Depression), Keynes argued that the business cycle was due to extreme swings in the total demand for goods and services. The total demand in an economy from households, business, and government is called aggregate demand. Contracyclical policy is increasing aggregate demand in recessions and decreasing aggregate demand in overheated expansions.

In a market economy (or market sector) the government has two types of economic policies to control aggregate demand -- fiscal policy and monetary policy. When these policies are used to stimulate the economy during a recession, it is said that the government is pursuing expansionary economic policies. And when they are used to contract the economy during an overheated expansion, it is said that the government is pursuing contractionary economic policies.

III. FISCAL POLICY AND MONETARY POLICY

1) Discretionary Fiscal Policy. Fiscal policy is changes in the taxing and spending of the federal government for purposes of expanding or contracting the level of aggregate demand. In a recession, an expansionary fiscal policy involves lowering taxes and increasing government spending. In an overheated expansion, a contractionary fiscal policy requires higher taxes and reduced spending. According to Keynes, a recession requires deficit spending and an overheated expansion requires a budget surplus.

The first way this can be done is through the federal budget process. However, this process takes so long -- 12 to 18 months -- that it is difficult to match discretionary fiscal policy with the business cycle. The expansionary Kennedy tax cut of 1964 and later the contractionary Ford tax increase of 1974 hit the economy just when the opposite contracyclical policy was needed. As a result, the federal government will only use discretionary fiscal policy in a severe recession, such as 1981-82 and 2008-09. In both cases, the federal government resorted to a large fiscal stimulus – tax cuts in 1981-82 and increased spending in 2008-09. Both policies created large deficits, which is the appropriate stabilization policy during a severe downturn.

2) Automatic Stabilizers. A second type of fiscal policy is built into the structure of federal taxes and spending. This is referred to as "nondiscretionary fiscal policy" or more commonly as "automatic stabilizers". The progressive income tax (the major source of federal revenue) and the welfare system both act to increase aggregate demand in recessions, and to decrease aggregate demand in overheated expansions. These automatic changes in spending and taxes will generate a deficit in recessions and a surplus in overheated expansions.

3) Monetary Policy. Monetary policy is under the control of the Federal Reserve System (our central bank) and is completely discretionary. It is the changes in interest rates and money supply to expand or contract aggregate demand. In a recession, the Fed will lower interest rates and increase the money supply. In an overheated expansion, the Fed will raise interest rates and decrease the money supply.

These decisions are made by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) which meets every six to seven weeks. The policy changes can be done immediately, although the impact on aggregate demand can take several months. Monetary policy has become the major form of discretionary contracyclical policy used by the federal government. A source of conflict is that the Fed is independent and is not under the direct control of either the President or the Congress. This independence of monetary policy is considered to be an important advantage compared to fiscal policy.

Note that expansionary monetary policy is commonly called "easy money" while contractionary monetary policy is called "tight money". Other terms are also used.

Lee Atwater On The Evolution of Racial Politics, 1981

Lee Atwater, Reagan's political hitman:

You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."

Windows XP/7, Microsoft Security Essentials, Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspection)

Two excellent articles on Windows XP/7: (I don't know why this blog has stopped underlining links, but if you hover your mouse over the article names, they're linked.)

Preparing Windows XP For The Long Haul

and

Windows XP: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Plus, Two Great Security Tools Get Free Updates: Microsoft Security Essentials (best free antivirus program?) and Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector)

Greed Is Good.

An article entitled Wall Street's Gekko.

Almost twenty years ago I read a possibly apocryphal story -- I can't find a reference to it on the Web -- about a reporter who got an interview with the notoriously reclusive multibillionaire and corporate raider Ivan Boesky in the early '90s. They met at one of New York's most expensive restaurants. The reporter was given a menu; Boesky said, "I'll have one of everything."

"Of course, Mr. Boesky," said the waiter.

The article didn't describe the mechanics of how this worked: Did they bring him the dishes one after another? Did they line up steam trays filled with dishes beside him? But the reporter said that Boesky picked unenthusiastically at one item after another -- a truffle, a spoon of caviar, a piece of game bird, a piece of steak.

Greed is good.

How Private Industry Can Rejuvenate America's Infrastructure

An article entitled Building on the BUILD Act by brooklynbadboy at Daily Kos discusses John Kerry's proposal, the Build Act that he introduced earlier this year, with suggestions for improvements, and the dismal 2009 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers on the plight of America's crumbling infrastructure.

Alex Jones - A Voice Of Sweet Reason And Moderation

Fault Lines - The Top 1%

Al Jazeera is in the third season of its program Fault Lines. This first one is a 25-minute film (via Common Dreams) on income disparity in the U.S. Well worth watching, and a partial list of more episodes follows.




8. The Top 1%: The richest 1% of Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is ...Aired: Aug 2, 2011. Length, 24:17

7. The US and the New Middle East: The Gulf: Fault Lines' Seb Walker travels to the Gulf to look at US policy in the region, and to ...Aired: Jul 25, 2011. length, 24:54

6. The US and the new Middle East: Libya: In the first of a two-part series, Fault Lines examines how the Obama administration is...Aired: Jul 18, 2011. Length, 24:55

5. Outsourced: Clinical trials overseas: US pharmaceutical companies have moved their operations overseas over the course of the...Aired: Jul 11. Length, 24:28

4. Colombia's gold rush: Gold fever is sweeping across South America. Nowhere is it more lethal than in Colombia...Aired: Jul 4, 2011. Length, 23:29

3. Puerto Rico: The fiscal experiment: Dozens of university students are arrested for demonstrating against a tuition hike. Bu...Aired: Jun 27, 2011. Length, 25:00

2. Mexico's Hidden War: The spectacular violence of Mexico's drug war grabs international attention. Some 40,000...Aired: Jun 20, 2011. Length, 24:33

1. Mexico: Impunity and profits: Once known as a booming industrial city and a model of economic progress in Mexico, the...Aired: Jun 13, 2011.

Seasons 2009 and 2010, plus other Al Jazeera features, available: click here.

Alan Grayson On The Republican Health Care Plan

FDR's 1936 "Welcome Their Hatred" Speech

This speech was given at Madison Square Garden four days before the 1936 election, when FDR was seeking a second term while unemployment was at 17% -- down from 20% when he was first elected president in 1932.

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