Category Archives: Current Events

The New York Times has a good editorial up on the national disgrace (that may be too soft a word) in the sheer number of Americans who lack health insurance. I wonder how many of the folks who felt Terri Schiavo had to be kept "alive" at all costs are interested in helping out sick people who actually stand a chance of getting better and leading real lives.

To me, sheer humanitarian concerns make a pretty airtight case for enabling every American — and yes, even in some cases, illegal aliens, especially their children — to have some sort of "safety net" in this area. But since that won't move some folks to support it, someone oughta itemize the ways in which we personally benefit from everyone having access to health care: Better control of diseases, less crowded emergency rooms, fewer of our friends having to declare bankruptcy, etc.

I even think that my own health care, which comes through one of the major commercial providers, will improve if we have meaningful Health Care Reform in this country. Right now, they know that if I'm not happy with their service, it's very difficult for me to take my business elsewhere…and even if I could, it would only be to another firm trying to make a 35% profit by denying as much coverage as possible.

From Roger Ebert, a follow-up to his earlier article about Health Care Reform.

Joel Stein on how the recession has nuked Las Vegas. Of special interest is the section on supermogul Sheldon Adelson and his economic woes and projections. If you're envious of guys in his bracket, you may be comforted to know that a billion dollars doesn't buy what it used to.

One of the many, albeit lesser tragedies of the O.J. Simpson case (the first one) was watching lawyer Alan Dershowitz — a man who had done much good, especially with regard to combatting racial and religious persecution — disgrace himself. I haven't always agreed with the Professor but until he joined Simpson's "Dream Team" of ambulance and spotlight chasers, I generally thought well of him. In that case though, he neatly discarded more credibility than most who pass the bar will ever have, and I'm not surprised that no one listens to him anymore.

Which is a shame because he wrote a fine essay here about how Justice Antonin Scalia deserves even less respect than either of them has these days.

Roger Ebert, who has been a stone's throw from death for some time, is still alive and able to write a column about the ridiculous "death panel" opposition to Health Care Reform. I agree with Mr. Ebert that the current yelling is not really about anything the Obama administration is proposing. It's just about the fact that there is an Obama administration and these folks are hysterical at having lost power.

Here's a follow-up to yesterday's blog post by Steve Benen about the crazies in our political discourse. And in there are more opinions from Bruce Bartlett about the situation.

As we watch the crazies out there turning town hall meetings into The Jerry Springer Show, we might note that nutcases are not a new species. Rick Perlstein reminds us that we've always had them around. My favorite paranoid delusion, I think, is that the President (whoever he is at the moment) has a secret plan to declare Martial Law in the country, seize absolute power, suspend elections and stay in office forever.

Take a gander at this blog post by Steve Benen — an exchange he had with Bruce Bartlett, who was one of the main economic advisers to Presidents Reagan and Bush (the first Bush).

Among the many things that bothered me about the Bush-Cheney regime was its almost childish insistence in its own infallibility. I was and still am baffled by Conservative friends who found it an admirable character trait to refuse to admit error, even while abandoning Plan A for Plan B. I understand as a political strategy why Dick Cheney might think it wise to sell that image, even though obviously very little that administration did went the way they wanted it to. I just don't get why some people think that's commendable.

A lot of folks in "mainstream" entertainment have taken note of this L.A. Times piece by Ben Fritz about how the porn industry is hurting. The reason is simple: The vast amounts of porn available for free on the Internet. Folks don't pay for that which they can get for nothing.

Why this matters to non-porn filmmakers and musicians is that the "X-rated" industry been at the forefront of most frontiers in home video and "new media." The major studios have often followed the smut peddlers into a new way of monetizing their wares…and of course, everyone who makes their living selling content is well aware that at every moment of the day, somewhere on the Internet, someone is downloading their product without paying. So they look at this piece about how it's decimating the adult film industry and they wonder if that's their future…

Why talk radio is getting loonier. Bottom line: The business has lost 30%-40% of its ad revenues in the last two years and the base is especially deserting the shows that don't feature anger, screaming and outrageous rhetoric. As one person in the article notes, the survival of news talk radio "depends on ratings and revenue, not on getting people elected, or even on being right." That's why it's bad for the Republicans that Limbaugh and Hannity have emerged even as arguable leaders of the party. Neither one is in the business of getting people elected…or even being right.

Bob Elisberg — who, I'm proud to say, I no longer owe a lunch or anything else — thinks that a Kennedy Center nod should go to the songcrafting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Absolutely.

The comparisons of Barack Obama to Hitler strike me as a weapon of agonized desperation, hurled by folks who don't have anything meaningful to throw at him. That's pretty much the same as any comparisons of anyone to Hitler unless, of course, the person in question has actually waged genocide. I think if someone kills a lot of Jews, it's okay to liken them to ol' Adolf. But short of that, it's just a matter of some cluck thinking, "Hmm…what's the worst thing I can say about this guy? I know! I'll say he's like Hitler!"

This blog post by someone named "citisven" has an interesting take on the old Call 'em Hitler trick. You might want to give it a peek.

Nate Silver crunches numbers better than just about any number cruncher on the Internet. He says Obama has cut taxes for 98.6% of working households in this country. You'd think Republicans would like him for that, wouldn't you?

Joe Conason on attempts by Bill Clinton's foes to find fault with his mission to North Korea.

Salon offers us two convenient guides — one to myths about Obama's health care reform efforts; the other, to nonsense about his birth certificate. Not that the people yelling about these matters care much about facts…