Letters to the Editor
Jeffrey P. Harrison
Published Letters: 464 Editor's Choice: 44
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Definitions
[Read the article: George Bush's scary story]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Reading your post put me in mind of something that was explained to me decades ago in Dayton, Ohio. Don't ask me how this came about, I don't remember. You commonly hear the phrase "Assault and Battery". I had always assumed that assault meant what the word actually means - an attack. Not so, I was informed. You commit assault by placing someone in fear. If you actually attack and batter someone, that's called battery.
Thus we see that the Republicans have been committing assault on the entire American populace for at least the last 8 years and we saw another fine example last night. If the reward the criminals and punish the victims plan passes as originally proposed or anything like it, they will have also committed battery.
I can't get out of my head a vision from the old Venetian Republic prior to its demise in 1698. After the new Doge was selected by the various committees and Zontas (Venice ceased to be a Republic and became an Oligarchy several hundred years earlier), they would run to his home and hoist him in the air on a seat mounted on a pole. Whence he would be paraded around the city tossing golden ducats to the populace. In my vision, the guy with the Italian name is replaced by Hank Paulson and instead of gold, he's tossing out treasury notes.
At least the Venetians got gold.
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Omnes Gaulia in tres pars divisa est
[Read the article: Why Ben and Hank are right, mostly]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yeah, well I think the acquisition of Gaul as a Roman province was probably a good deal for Rome. The civil wars subsequent to Caesar's crossing the Rubicon, not so much. And that's the real problem, isn't it? Will Cincinnatus put away his sword and chariot?
I personally think that the scenario you describe is exacerbated by the dramatic loss of manufacturing in this country. It's like the sign I saw up over the Attack Class Desk at NAVAIR (Naval Air Systems Command): If you ain't attack, you're support. The service industry is support but who are they supporting? A shrinking manufacturing base and an agricultural base.
We have two laws: ITAR and the Export Control Act which give the government the ability to control any and all exports under the rubric of denying "the enemy" (whoever the hell that is today) so-called "dual use" technology even though the government had nothing to do with the development of this technology and doesn't own it. So it's unlikely that we're going to be creating any new 8 million jobs because it's the service industry that's being downsized. Will manufacturing jobs be created to sop up these 8 million souls? Not likely. Outside of commodities, no one in their right mind who isn't already an exporter will want to risk the financial disaster of violating these laws and they won't be able to afford the extra staff to keep track of the legal arcania involved.
You're being overly optimistic about what Messrs Paulson and Bernanke are going to be able to accomplish.
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What???
[Read the article: The debate is on]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is he really going to get away with that kind of barefaced lie?
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Fixed Price Contracting for Development work
[Read the article: Live blogging: Oh snap -- pork barrel, that!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Doesn't work. It was tried in the '80s. The military wants what they want; not what they put on contract. Ultimately, you pay for what you want, or you don't get anything, or you put them out of business. Pick your choose.
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Am I the only one
[Read the article: Say "Nevada!"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]who noticed McCain's line about if you have a lousy economy you've got a bad government?