Letters to the Editor
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I can see it now, a M$M interview with Walt
Interviewer: Hello Dr. Walt, welcome.
Walt: Thanks for having me.
Interviewer: So, you were against the Iraq war in 2003?
Walt: Yes
Interviewer: That's cool. Let's talk a little about your book. When do you first start hating Jews?
Walt: What?
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"further discussion of the reasons behind the invasion is pointless."
Very true! Because examining what went wrong and what happened less than 10 years ago with Iraq has NO RELEVANCE to what is currently happening in and around Iran!
It's pointless to listen those who were right about Iraq when Iran is just around the corner! Just forget about it already!
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Charlie Rose
only needed to invite Obama to get a panelist that agreed to both sides...
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A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq
http://www.responsibleplan.com/o/2757/images/responsible_plan.pdf
(Apologies if this duplicates another posting.)
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Bucky 1
If God doesn't have a dick, then how do you explain Jesus.
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@ ondelette
As I used it, wisdom is a relative term. That point I readily concede. The Japanese war was imposed on China, and I think that the brutality of Mao's industrial policy, and of the Cultural Revolution -- the pathologies of Mao himself aside -- were rational, if not humane responses to the difficulties of modernizing such huge populations, just as Stalin's forced collectivizations and gulags were.
One could certainly argue -- I would -- that modernization, in the sense of creating a functioning industrial economy, has usually brought with it staggering costs, which in our own case -- that of nineteenth century Europe and its offshoots -- seem reasonable only at a distance of at least three or four generations from their very real horrors. (Remember colonialism, slavery, and the genocide committed against indigenous populations in the Americas? Remember the Pinkertons, remember two world wars? Well, yes, but only dimly, at this point, so we don't complain much.)
Where I would argue that China has been wiser than us in recent years lies in their avoidance of war with the dominant military power -- proxy wars don't count -- and their approach to overseas development, which, it seems to me, is on the whole less burdensome to their clients than ours was. This may be an illusion, of course. Although I read widely, I'm no expert, and unlike you, I don't read Chinese.
The morality of industrialization and urbanization, and its viability, let alone morality, have been debated for several centuries, and the debate has no foreseeable end, unless nuclear war or global warming end it prematurely. I was trying to set my observations outside that debate, but perhaps that was a fatuous hope.
I look forward to hearing what you will make of this response.
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Anonymust
I heard a report yesterday, either on the radio or online, that even Lapplanders are being affected by our mortgage crisis. Just for buying some securities that they thought were top-rated.
I am not a finance whiz, but it seems to me that they really don't care how many "little people" get hurt by this situation, nor where they are located. The Fed bailout ensures that the ones who should pay for this mismanagement won't.
The other day on NPR some poobah was opining that the CEO of Bear Sterns had already been "punished enough by the huge losses in the value of his stock", but even that was only relative in that he got away with only 1.4 million instead of ten times that amount (I'm guessing at the figures, can't remember the actual quote).
It made me gag, literally, to listen to him.
It is no different than the exclusion of the war opponents, in that people who have (un)serious knowledge of the financial crisis seem to be excluded from the airwaves in a similar fashion. All we hear is how everything will be ok, if we just let the Fed work its magic.
How did I manage to miss the line where they were passing out the "special goggles and headphones"?
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Hey, Chris or Aych
Remember a couple days ago we were talking about bikes? Did I mention the name of the shop where they really screwed up my bike, brought it back and they just made it worse and worse?
Cause I've forgotten the name and BOY, DO I WANT TO BRING IT BACK THERE! After all, they've almost completely destroyed the vehicle, why shouldn't I let them finish the job?
Maybe it'll come to me, never mind.
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Scott Horton interviews Greg Mitchell re: So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits – and the President – Failed on Iraq,
GG mentioned Greg Mitchell's book So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits – and the President – Failed on Iraq, in his Various Items post a few days ago.
http://www.amazon.com/So-Wrong-Long-Pundits-President-Failed/dp/1402756577/antiwarbookstore
Scott Horton uploaded an interview he conducted with Mitchell:
http://antiwar.com/radio/2008/03/25/greg-mitchell-3/
Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher and author of So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits – and the President – Failed on Iraq, discusses some of the many shameful failures of the American media since 2002, the lies they’ve sold and major stories they’ve refused to cover.
Greg Mitchell is the author of six nonfiction books. His articles – including many on baseball – have appeared in New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, TV Guide, Mother Jones, Sport magazine, Quest, and other publications. Mitchell was a senior editor at Crawdaddy for many years. He lives in Nyack, New York.
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Frontline
I don't know if anyone else caught Frontline last night. A handy timeline of Iraq, beginning with the day of september 11. Good to see it all in context. But one thing I thought was odd, was that the pro-Bush line was toted soleley by former Bush-Innards, while the counter-point was all paper of record journalists. I found this to be an odd dichotomy. Were there no political appointees or leglislators available to argue the anti-war point?
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@Pedinska
It is no different than the exclusion of the war opponents, in that people who have (un)serious knowledge of the financial crisis seem to be excluded from the airwaves in a similar fashion. All we hear is how everything will be ok, if we just let the Fed work its magic.
Man, what a bunch of garbage the financial news is anymore. Bernanke's gonna rescue us by lowering the interest rate? Great, now folks are going to scramble to take on MORE debt before the rates go up again, as they are destined to.
That sure solved the problem!