Month: December 2009

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

THANK YOU for the Pogues! That song never fails to give me goosebumps, but while it is certainly melancholy I never find it depressing. Perhaps it speaks to the Irish blood I don't have, but there is something about it that always uplifts me: perseverance in the face of difficulties, especially difficulties of our own making. At a time when suicides shoot up and many people feel alone and depressed, I think underlying theme of this song is really a blessing, not a burden. Reality can suck, but in the end it's all we really have: "I coulda been someone." "Well, so could anyone…"

That said, maybe I'm just an optimist. It's not like the Pogues can't stick a shiv in your heart and show the dark side with not a shred of uplift; check out "The Old Main Drag." But while we're on the topic of Christmas songs, what about the Kinks? Perhaps not depressing but a cunning comment with a dark side, and a rocking song to boot!

by Patrick Appel

Damon Linker uses Niebuhr to prove this thesis:

I’m delighted that some on the American right have come around to supporting the president, but they should do so knowing that on one crucially important matter Obama will never satisfy them. That is the issue of American exceptionalism.

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

Great…another slam at San Francisco.  This one is a bit different because in addition to the usual bitchy insults at those of us who live here, your writer did include justified praise for our city's beauty.  I suppose that's progress of a sort.

I've lived in San Francisco for half of my life now, and while I've met a few boorish, hard-core lefties they are no more abundant than the boorish, hard-core righties I grew up around in suburban Cleveland.  In fact, San Francisco has more of a sense of neighborhood and community than anywhere else I've lived or even visited.  The people are just as nice and you can usually count on your neighbor to feed your cat and make sure your kid isn't running into the street.  Golly, just like anywhere else.

And as for lighting a cigarette at a party – nobody will give you a second look if you do so outside, but that's the rule just about anyplace else these days.  And I laughed out loud at the idea that it's "heresy" to oppose the federal government in favor of the free market.  Reaching for such a hackneyed and shopworn cliche should have caused your bullshit monitor to jump around with sparks flying, but because it's perfectly acceptable to throw cheap, ridiculous insults at San Franciscans perhaps it didn't even make a peep.

What's I find so strange is that if a San Franciscan ever suggested that someplace else wasn't as nice a place to live, they would be subjected to all sorts taunts about elitism.  But when everyone else is constantly slamming our beautiful city, it's perfectly OK.

For what it's worth, I visited San Francisco for the first time last month and totally fell in love.  Hotel des Arts is a great place to stay.  Foreign Cinema for dinner.  Working Girls' Cafe for egg sandwiches.  And if you're a native in need a custom bike, go here.

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

Your post fairly admonished Hannity for exploiting grief to create propaganda, but fails to recognize why his piece is propaganda. It is so not because Hannity fails "provide counterbalance from grieving victims with alternate views," but because his argument is intellectually dishonest: rationally, he is wrong (in saying that justice is "providing aid and comfort to an enemy"), but he avoids rationality by exploiting his viewer's empathy & guilt. Doing such is the creation of propaganda; his piece would still be malicious dishonesty even if he rustled up an opposing viewpoint. Indeed, strategy often employed by him and others of his mold (and increasingly by real journalists) is the use of differing opinions to legitimize drivel. Fox seems to be built on that 'Fair & Balanced' idea.

Another writes:

Has the public already forgotten how Sean Hannity marched at the head of the parade to destroy the career of the Dixie Chicks for daring to criticize a president during a time of war? What Natalie Maines said about Bush was mild compared to Hannity's disgraceful exploitation of 9/11 victims to foment hatred against Obama.

Today on the Dish we featured commentary on healthcare reform from Ezra Klein, Julian Sanchez, Glenn Greenwald, and Matt Welch. Sprung explored the terrorist tension between India and Pakistan, explained how the latest surge in Afghanistan was not anticipated at first, analyzed the diplomatic scene behind the Israeli settlements, glanced at the UK's precarious economy, and observed the potential brutality in all of us. Friedersdorf addressed the liberal complaint over the slow ship of state, highlighted another absurd case of sexual prosecution, shared emails from the South here and here, and aired reaction to the infamous sheriff in Arizona. Patrick pondered the way Washington works.

— C.B.

by Andrew Sprung

Martin Wolf notes that while the U.K.'s GDP shrinkage in the crash was relatively modest (4.7% up to the third quarter of 2009), the hit to government revenue was disproportionately huge, mainly because corporate tax receipts fell 26% from Oct. '08–Oct. '09. VAT receipts dropped 17% in the same period.

The reason? The U.K. has become a "monocrop" economy, overly dependent on its financial sector, which accounted for a quarter of corporate tax revenue. That made the country akin to those that rely disproportionately on revenues from natural resources:

Strange to think that overreliance on producing financial gas — e.g., derivatives of derivatives of derivatives — can unbalance an economy as surely as overreliance on natural gas.

Wolf, by the way, is a winner of the Wolf Munch Rock award — so named because the truth is hard to swallow.

by Patrick Appel

It looks like they will get to vote on it in 2010.

by Patrick Appel

Reason editor-in-chief Matt Welch gets 90 percent of his health care in France:

In France, you are covered, period. It doesn’t depend on your job, it doesn’t depend on a health maintenance organization, and it doesn’t depend on whether you filled out the paperwork right. Those who (like me) oppose ObamaCare, need to understand (also like me, unfortunately) what it’s like to be serially rejected by insurance companies even though you’re perfectly healthy. It’s an enraging, anxiety-inducing, indelible experience, one that both softens the intellectual ground for increased government intervention and produces active resentment toward anyone who argues that the U.S. has “the best health care in the world.”

Clive Crook has further thoughts on why it is hard to apply the French system to America.