If you don’t tear up a little when listening to this, you are not human.
Incredible. It never loses its inspiration, does it?
This post is in: Excellent Links
If you don’t tear up a little when listening to this, you are not human.
Incredible. It never loses its inspiration, does it?
by John Cole| 35 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links, Media, Politics
This is the definitive description of Tim Russert:
Actually, the balls Russert favors may be hard, but the pitches he throws aren’t curveballs, which go someplace useful. They’re sillyballs, which go somewhere pointless. Russert has created a strike zone of his own where toughness meets irrelevance. John McCain entered the zone last May, when he went on the show and repeatedly asserted that the Bush tax cuts had increased the federal government’s revenue. Hearing this, a tough but conscientious journalist might have pointed out that this is demonstrably false. Russert, however, reached for a trusty hardball and sent it sailing. McCain, he pointed out, was now supporting extending the very same Bush tax cuts that he had once opposed.
Well, yes, but this was a bit like asking someone who says the world is flat why he used to say the earth was round. The contradiction Russert pointed out was real—but hardly central. In fact, if tax cuts actually had increased revenues, then McCain’s change of heart would have been perfectly logical. The real problem was that McCain’s theory of the relationship between tax rates and revenue wasn’t true. In Russertland, though, as long as you acknowledge the contradiction, the questioner is satisfied. “You say the world is flat, but just three years ago you said it was round.” “You know, Tim, yes, I used to say the world was round, but times change, and that’s why I support the Bush administration’s bill to construct a restraining wall to prevent ships from sailing over the edge of the sea.” And so on.
In a nutshell.
This post is in: Excellent Links
You would think, by listening to just about any major political candidate, that “securing the borders” is the solution to, oh, just about everything? We all know that letting brown people into the country is downright dangerous and destroys our economy, right? The developed world compensates by giving the developing world $70 billion a year in economic aid and that helps ease our conscience. We’re giving them a hand up, not a hand out, right? Wrong. We’re making it worse. Read the February issue of Reason. And if you can’t get it (it’s not online yet), you can check out this NY Times article:
[Lant Pritchett] wants a giant guest-worker program that would put millions of the world’s poorest people to work in its richest economies. Never mind the goats; if you really want to help Gure Sarki, he says, let him cut your lawn. Pritchett’s nearly religious passion is reflected in the title of his migration manifesto: “Let Their People Come.” It was published last year to little acclaim — none at all, in fact — but that is Pritchett’s point. In a world in which rock stars fight for debt relief and students shun sweatshop apparel, he is vexed to find no placards raised for the cause of labor migration. If goods and money can travel, why can’t workers follow? What’s so special about borders?
Want to know more? Read this. It’s Lant Pritchett’s book, and you can download it for free or buy it. It’s 143 pages long and, since most of you are pretty literate, you’ll find it a very compelling read. I’m about halfway through and I’m going to read the rest later this month when I’m stranded in a hotel on a business trip. I am learning that border control is not necessarily the good thing just about everyone makes it out to be. Not even close. Again, you can read an interview with Lant Pritchett in the February issue of Reason Magazine.
Reading Assignment – Globalizing Labor: Lant PritchettPost + Comments (103)
This post is in: Excellent Links
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Excellent Links
New Jersey has banned the death penalty!
In signing the bill, Gov. Jon Corzine called it a “momentous day” and made the Garden State the first state to ban capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976.
Corzine on Sunday commuted the sentences of eight men sitting on the state’s death row. They will now serve life in prison without parole, according to the governor’s office.
“It’s a day of progress for the state of New Jersey and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder,” Corzine said.
Wonderful news. Can’t wait to see the zealots on the Right (to life?) side react!
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There are thousands of readers here, so it is worth a shot. Can you help Michael?
**Update** Not that you need a holiday to do good for people, but I think this is a good time of year to get tested to see if you would be a suitable donor for someone who needs you. Michael is one case but, as you are aware, there are tens of thousands of Michaels. One of the coolest things I have ever done is to put myself on a bone marrow registry. I have a fairly rare blood type, and I figured it would be a great idea. No calls yet, but I’ll go wherever I need to go if that call comes. That would be the coolest gift I could ever give someone.
by John Cole| 12 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links
If you have a few extra bucks, go give Gary Farber a hand.