Today Rep. Barney Frank, (D. MA), released a proposal calling for $1 trillion in defense cuts over ten years, which would indeed seem sensible in our current debt situation, given that “defense,” NOT including the various and sundry wars, now gobbles 40% of the Federal Budget. Of course, such a pot and patchouli-scented pipe dream [...]
The more I hear about the BP oil spill, the more I’m struck by the fact that, to save a few bucks, the 4th largest corporation on earth just basically flushed itself down the toilet, and yet almost nobody is talking about the aberrant system of incentives that caused this to happen. Didn’t the tough [...]
I haven’t read the Wall Street Journal, except occasionally online, since the Lewinsky Scandal; so infuriating and just plain pointless was the paper’s obsession with “getting” Clinton that I could no longer plop down a buck each day for the rag, despite the fact that I’d been reading it faithfully for many years and always [...]
As a longtime high rise dweller, I long ago gave up on croquet, gardening, and lawn darts as recreation, but some substitute needed to be found, so I spent many years experimenting. Binoculars gave way to telescopes, and for a time I was quite adept at picking off annoying pigeons with a slingshot (a large [...]
Remember the good old days, when every outrage, from wars to war crimes, constitutional usurpations and police state tactics, were all breezily waved away as shabby and dangerous examples of “criminalizing politics?” Back in those days, an administration had its “accountability moment” only at election time, and in between they were off to the races. [...]
I guess one of the most depressing things about getting older is realizing that, just like Grandpa used to say, (or, in my case, my crazy grandmother, Etta…), since one’s youth, things really have indeed gone downhill. Growing up in Oregon in the 60′s and 70′s was a little bit like living in the socialist [...]