11/4/2004
…when the Republicans were the party of fiscal conservatism?
I get the theory that if you starve the coffers, eventually spending will have to be cut, but we’re in the middle of fighting two ground wars, and the war on "terra" isn’t going to end anyime soon. Plus,
We collected about the same amount of taxes in fiscal 2004 as we did in fiscal 1999. But we spent 34 percent more. The total national debt has risen 30 percent in the past four years.
Someone’s going to have to pay for today‘s debt at some point in the future. Any company that I represent would have been given junk bond status ages ago with this type of debt-load (and I’m not talking about absolute numbers, but proportions), and possibly forced into bankruptcy. The national debt is not some mythical number that "doesn’t matter" (in the words of dick cheney) – it’s real money that we borrow from our future, and from our children.
I think that the numbers the government deals with are so enormous that people just cannot comprehend them, so instead of trying, they just treat them as imaginary. We’re the "greatest country in the world" so it’s just a physical impossibility that we might lose our shirts at a national level.
At some point the bill is going to come due. And it’s not going to be pretty. And then it won’t just be the people who earn the most who are going to get hit. It’ll be everyone.
10/29/2004
The New York Times continues its series of relatively inconsequential stories to appear on the front page, this time about the "sale" of St. Bernards from, well, St. Bernard, Switzerland. But there are cute pictures. Apparently, the dogs aren’t going anywhere, but the owners are hoping to essentially find sponsors to take over the cost of keeping them.
I actually linked to this story because as I was reading it, I kept thinking that the location sounded awfully familiar. And then I realized that I actually spent a night in Martigny a few years back, when I went bicycling through France and Switzerland after I took the bar. It was an extraordinarily pretty, and small, town. We stayed in the one hotel, where we caused such a ruckus (by playing cards all night) that we were asked to never come back.
10/11/2004
Definitely a Superman. I was doing my last bits of packing before my car picks me up at 4:30a.m., and I came across the news that Christopher Reeve has passed away. I have an overwhelming urge to call my best friend from high school, who works with disabled kids, and who dragged me to Mr. Reeve’s book signing a few years ago in Bedford, but it’s 2 in the morning and I shouldn’t wake her up for this. My biggest memory from that day was just how incredibly genial and kind both Mr. and Mrs. Reeve were (she was obviously the one signing the books) to everyone who came through. Since that time, whenever I’ve heard some snippet about him, that’s what I’ve thought about, rather than any of his movie roles, and this just made me very sad…
I hadn’t planned on doing another entry before I left town, but, well, there aren’t a whole lot of people to talk to at this time of night…
09/16/2004
Happy New Year everyone. Welcome to 5765.
09/13/2004
Sars is one of my favorite web authors, in no small part because of her work at Television Without Pity, but also because of stories like this one that made me cry, and made me think about the fact that I still get the chills/deja vu when I walk down 20th street towards 5th Avenue, like I was doing that morning, and I have to force myself to turn left to look downtown, imagining the outline of the buildings and still sometimes seeing them on fire like I did that day.
And won’t you please help her find Don? You’d think after three years she’d have some leads.
09/13/2004
In light of the fact that I couldn’t obsessively read the news and opinions online this weekend, I took a little break from politics. I spent a good portion of Saturday listening to WNYC‘s coverage of the 9/11 commemorations. By the end of this weekend, I had heard/watched two absolutely outstanding pieces (one on radio, one on TV) about the 9/11 Commission Report. Each one is an hour (without breaks), and I wanted to recommend them both. They cover a lot of the same ground, both being on the same subject, but there are certainly distinct interviews and perspectives, and I think they’re pretty fair-minded. The first is American Radio Works special production, "Witnesses to Terror: The 9/11 Hearings," and the second was this week’s episode of NOW with Bill Moyers, "9/11: For the Record."
I highly recommend tracking down a copy of both.
08/25/2004
He does always go for the visual.
(Brief disclaimer: although we’ve never met, Mr. Glaser is actually a distant relative of mine – It’s my understanding, from things said at family events over many years, that he and my grandfather were cousins).
08/13/2004
So I’m watching NBC’s coverage of the Olympics opening ceremonies, and I’m already embarassed by the words coming out of Katie Couric’s mouth. The idea that someone either so stupid or so willing to underestimate the intelligence of the viewing public is considered one of the "most beloved" television personalities just bugs me to no end.
My favorite statement so far (and I’m paraphrasing) comes from when their introducing the Swiss team – that it’s a surprise to learn that Switzerland, a land-locked country, has a beach volleyball team.
Dude, I’ve been to the beach in Geneva. More than once. Just because they’re in the middle of Europe doesn’t mean that they don’t sit on one of the largest bodies of water in western Europe. They don’t call it the "Alpine Lake Region" because it just sounds pretty. Heck, I’ve even been sunbathing on the French side of the big lake, in Evian (you know, the town the water comes from?)
And Bob Costas isn’t much better – Did you know that the Central African Republic was located in…central Africa?!
Morons.
08/10/2004
Louis Menand in the New Yorker has a really good piece addressing the "accusations" that Michael Moore abuses the "documentary tradition" with the way that he shoots his films (inserting himself and his opinions into the middle of them). Essentially, people who make this accusation don’t actually understand what the "documentary tradition" is. In going through the actual history of the documentary film, in all of its fakery, reinactment and staging, Menard posits that "one thing that cannot be said about ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ is that it is an outlaw from the documentary tradition."
08/3/2004
Yesterday, I quoted the Wall Street Journal where it pointed out that the information leading to the latest round of terror alerts was actually several years old. Now, several other news organizations have jumped on the bandwagon:
New York Times: Reports That Led to Terror Alert Were Years Old, Officials Say;
Washington Post: Pre-9/11 Acts Led to Alerts.
I actually refrained yesterday from hypothesizing that it was actually just another distraction ploy by the administration, but now? I’m not the only one who is starting to think this either. You can find more opinion on the matter here, here, and here.
The thing that really irks me, however, is the complete disregard for the fact that several million people live here, and Ridge has got us all freaked out. If I’m on one more conference call where someone cracks a joke about the fact that we haven’t been blown up yet? I’m going to scream. or cry.
Like I said yesterday – even if the information was actually good, wouldn’t it be more productive to not show our hand to the terrorists by putting on a press conference pointing out exactly where we’ve increased security, but rather quietly beef up security, surveillance, and whatever else is necessary to actually try to catch some of these guys in the act?
Unrelated side note: apparently when Drudge isn’t just making shit up, he’s stealing it.