JackSilverman economics blog has found closure. But: how cruel of me --- to leave the political blog hanging!
-Jack S.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
CNN Reporting ...
Giant companies buy other companies but that does not help a young man with Crohn’s disease. He lacks insurance. He is not so happy ...needs $640 worth of medicine, but his need is bigger than his weekly paycheck. Everyone in our society is completely happy, of course, except, of course, for those who aren't.
So, he’s been going without medicine, and he's in and out of hospital. 29 miners just died the other day, in the coal industry, which is one of the most exploitative and irresponsible industries that exist, and has been exposed as such.
Our country cheerfully presents us with this stuff. It is the news.
-
regarding the coal industry:
[In] " ...Jeff Biggers’ new book, Reckoning At Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal In The Heartland..." "he quotes a friend: “The abuse of the land is always connected to the abuse of the people.” ..."
-
So, he’s been going without medicine, and he's in and out of hospital. 29 miners just died the other day, in the coal industry, which is one of the most exploitative and irresponsible industries that exist, and has been exposed as such.
Our country cheerfully presents us with this stuff. It is the news.
-
regarding the coal industry:
[In] " ...Jeff Biggers’ new book, Reckoning At Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal In The Heartland..." "he quotes a friend: “The abuse of the land is always connected to the abuse of the people.” ..."
-
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Arizona does not want the baddies, or their darned drugs!
This is from a blog and it is the text of some comments by Arizona governor re. controversial immigrationa bill:
"
There is no higher priority than protecting the citizens of Arizona. We cannot sacrifice our safety to
the murderous greed of drug cartels. We cannot stand idly by as drop houses, kidnappings and
violence compromise our quality of life.
"
So, of course ---- all that nasty stuff will just move to another state.
"
There is no higher priority than protecting the citizens of Arizona. We cannot sacrifice our safety to
the murderous greed of drug cartels. We cannot stand idly by as drop houses, kidnappings and
violence compromise our quality of life.
"
So, of course ---- all that nasty stuff will just move to another state.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Obama
Analysed dispassionately this man impresses us, first of all, with his competence.
One weakness of his was that he could be called a scion of the establishment. (Maybe not scion exactly, but, Well---you get the idea, right?) It is reasonable. We can come to the conclusion that Obama was pretty much a creature of the intellectual elite class in America.
Obama is more of a certified member of the U.S. elite than other recent presidents --if, by elite, we mean a quality of education and not that of the business sector, like the two Bushes; nor the entertainment sector like Reagan; nor old wealth, like, again, the Bushes. One salient difference is that Obama, unlike others, never had a career in business, nor business law in any event.
Nor entertainment. He is instead a lawyer and a community activist or organizer. That is a good stepping off place for a democratic society to select its president from. Being a community activist is fairly close to being a president.
They're a bit different also --- and one test of Obama's first term is how well he makes the transition.
One weakness of his was that he could be called a scion of the establishment. (Maybe not scion exactly, but, Well---you get the idea, right?) It is reasonable. We can come to the conclusion that Obama was pretty much a creature of the intellectual elite class in America.
Obama is more of a certified member of the U.S. elite than other recent presidents --if, by elite, we mean a quality of education and not that of the business sector, like the two Bushes; nor the entertainment sector like Reagan; nor old wealth, like, again, the Bushes. One salient difference is that Obama, unlike others, never had a career in business, nor business law in any event.
Nor entertainment. He is instead a lawyer and a community activist or organizer. That is a good stepping off place for a democratic society to select its president from. Being a community activist is fairly close to being a president.
They're a bit different also --- and one test of Obama's first term is how well he makes the transition.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Palin
Americans are mean. They love to villify others.
Ever notice that?
Or do you not have any idea about it? You're the innocent one, I suppose.
Let me get my camera and get a snapshot of this.
Palin holding to chest Down's syndrome child, her daughter. Poses she for photo-op ---- she pointing finger, she villifying enemy, this the necessary enemy. You horrible horrible man. You called my child "retard."
She a witch. She a Killer Witch. She a total, diseased fraud, a big liar, making her diseased accusations. (I called her a "she") Let's hear what she has to say now, let's tune in to the actions, exactly as they happened ("literally"):
Who are you, you "other"? Who let you into my America? Where do you come from, buster? You aren't one of us. What babies do you abuse? Why are you in my free market? How dare you stand before me. With black skin. Calling baby a retard. You have foreign accent. You not like us. Where is your washing machine? Where are your hair clippers? Where are your qualifications?
Segue back to 1971:
Innocent handsome Warren Beatty, looks at world with wide eyes. He is the opposite of Palin. Sensitive. He is open minded, he looks at world around him with open eyes, and handsome, too. And he innocently opens his handsome eyes and looks 'round. And out and around and out at world, and what does handsome man in wide belt see? ---- he sees right-wing bitch, and one who is being treated by the mainstream press as legitimate, a celebrity, a person in the news. She the would-be political leader is ranting about feelings hurt. Someone -- one of those "libs" -- Limbaugh won't do -- used the word "retard" either on national T.V. or in some private meeting. Or something.
Would the wide-eyed handsome young man confronting the world in his innocence, who opens his eyes and asks of world, "What do I see?," now an older Beatty, observe that, after all, Americans love to villify one another? He would then retreat into a hotel room. With a bottle of Scotch (today made from the new "witch malt")
if he could find one in Palin's moralizing universe.
Ever notice that?
Or do you not have any idea about it? You're the innocent one, I suppose.
Let me get my camera and get a snapshot of this.
Palin holding to chest Down's syndrome child, her daughter. Poses she for photo-op ---- she pointing finger, she villifying enemy, this the necessary enemy. You horrible horrible man. You called my child "retard."
She a witch. She a Killer Witch. She a total, diseased fraud, a big liar, making her diseased accusations. (I called her a "she") Let's hear what she has to say now, let's tune in to the actions, exactly as they happened ("literally"):
Who are you, you "other"? Who let you into my America? Where do you come from, buster? You aren't one of us. What babies do you abuse? Why are you in my free market? How dare you stand before me. With black skin. Calling baby a retard. You have foreign accent. You not like us. Where is your washing machine? Where are your hair clippers? Where are your qualifications?
Segue back to 1971:
Innocent handsome Warren Beatty, looks at world with wide eyes. He is the opposite of Palin. Sensitive. He is open minded, he looks at world around him with open eyes, and handsome, too. And he innocently opens his handsome eyes and looks 'round. And out and around and out at world, and what does handsome man in wide belt see? ---- he sees right-wing bitch, and one who is being treated by the mainstream press as legitimate, a celebrity, a person in the news. She the would-be political leader is ranting about feelings hurt. Someone -- one of those "libs" -- Limbaugh won't do -- used the word "retard" either on national T.V. or in some private meeting. Or something.
Would the wide-eyed handsome young man confronting the world in his innocence, who opens his eyes and asks of world, "What do I see?," now an older Beatty, observe that, after all, Americans love to villify one another? He would then retreat into a hotel room. With a bottle of Scotch (today made from the new "witch malt")
if he could find one in Palin's moralizing universe.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Best Days of Europe
The best days of Europe were in Greece, from 460 to 420 B.C. This happened in one little corner of the ancient world.
What Hitler did was unspeakably awful. The Romans were usually doing wrong things. They may have had some redeeming qualities from 400 B.C. to 200 B.C., when they were a republic. Yet we fail to condemn Rome for raping the Sabines and many other acts. This made it easier for Hitler, who openly admired what the Romans did. We bring these things on ourselves by failing to condemn evil.
What Hitler did was unspeakably awful. The Romans were usually doing wrong things. They may have had some redeeming qualities from 400 B.C. to 200 B.C., when they were a republic. Yet we fail to condemn Rome for raping the Sabines and many other acts. This made it easier for Hitler, who openly admired what the Romans did. We bring these things on ourselves by failing to condemn evil.
NO characteristics
"Culture" is known to be a difficult word. It is a deep and expressive linguistic "sign" (as the semioticians would say) that can be looked at from many angles. But at any rate, one of its meanings is that of a group of persons that has its own characteristic way of being, or of doing stuff.
Liberal modernity is a cultural system that persons live in. The culture they live in has been called the "developed world." But liberal modernity is a bit different in that it is not a culture wherein a group of persons look at things in some particular characteristic way that is held in common by all members and that comes as naturally to them as breathing. This is the sense of "culture" we briefly visit just above. And it works fairly well, right up until we get to this new thing, the "modern" thing. Here is a "culture" where things are looked at from many if not all angles. Any and all angles. Yet this is exactly what we need to understand in a more comprehensive fashion.
In the other cultures the entire group sees things in one particular way. Not so in the system most high-income persons live in today. Which is "the" characteristic way of their looking at things? Even the functional division into "left" and "right" is deceptive because the truth is that there are many ways of looking at things in modern urban developed culture, not two.
There is no reason to believe that human beings can live without culture. Culture, the anthropologist tells us, is universal. Everyone needs culture, and you cannot live without it. Everyone needs to have an ordered life. We see that "culture," is a particularly difficult word to define. But it is always there and this because it is an ordering system. At least up until these days, because now I am not so sure there is an ordering system. If there is, who is in charge of it? The hedge fund managers? Goldman Sachs? Or is culture itself in charge? There is something ominous about the way things are going, when everything comes down to economics --- yet this “economics” is about stock market and hedge fund and derivative. That seems ominous. What all human groups need has something to do with [sorry, anarchist communities] order. It is hard to see order coming from capitalism as it now operates --- consisting of a kind of a poker game, one wherein you need the main players to follow the rules.
But what kind of "cultural" rules are the rules of the stock market? Humans require some kind of order. Humans, like most animals, always live in some kind of society (sorry, "rugged individualists;" sorry, those who don’t like government).
This point brings us to the crux of what seems to be a looming problem with what has up until now been, for some folks, a successful system. As our modern, liberal, open, tolerant society has existed and as it continues forward, it shows a disturbing tendency towards being a system with no characteristics.
Liberal modernity is a cultural system that persons live in. The culture they live in has been called the "developed world." But liberal modernity is a bit different in that it is not a culture wherein a group of persons look at things in some particular characteristic way that is held in common by all members and that comes as naturally to them as breathing. This is the sense of "culture" we briefly visit just above. And it works fairly well, right up until we get to this new thing, the "modern" thing. Here is a "culture" where things are looked at from many if not all angles. Any and all angles. Yet this is exactly what we need to understand in a more comprehensive fashion.
In the other cultures the entire group sees things in one particular way. Not so in the system most high-income persons live in today. Which is "the" characteristic way of their looking at things? Even the functional division into "left" and "right" is deceptive because the truth is that there are many ways of looking at things in modern urban developed culture, not two.
There is no reason to believe that human beings can live without culture. Culture, the anthropologist tells us, is universal. Everyone needs culture, and you cannot live without it. Everyone needs to have an ordered life. We see that "culture," is a particularly difficult word to define. But it is always there and this because it is an ordering system. At least up until these days, because now I am not so sure there is an ordering system. If there is, who is in charge of it? The hedge fund managers? Goldman Sachs? Or is culture itself in charge? There is something ominous about the way things are going, when everything comes down to economics --- yet this “economics” is about stock market and hedge fund and derivative. That seems ominous. What all human groups need has something to do with [sorry, anarchist communities] order. It is hard to see order coming from capitalism as it now operates --- consisting of a kind of a poker game, one wherein you need the main players to follow the rules.
But what kind of "cultural" rules are the rules of the stock market? Humans require some kind of order. Humans, like most animals, always live in some kind of society (sorry, "rugged individualists;" sorry, those who don’t like government).
This point brings us to the crux of what seems to be a looming problem with what has up until now been, for some folks, a successful system. As our modern, liberal, open, tolerant society has existed and as it continues forward, it shows a disturbing tendency towards being a system with no characteristics.
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