An Author's Perspective
Featuring new fiction from Ken Brosky and author authors, as well as occasional political commentary whenever something really important happens. But mostly fiction.
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Inevitable Bubble?
I happened upon this from economist Paul Krugman's blog that I thought was worth sharing:
John Stossel: Deluded
In honor of a recent post relying on John Stossel as a source of "information," I thought it might be nice to make a list of some of the more outrageous claims and outright mistakes Stossel has made (and believe me, this is not a full list). Why? Because John Stossel is the Libertarian version of Sean Penn. You see, Sean Penn is a liberal, and he's also an idiot. He champions liberal ideals but he doesn't understand any of them, much in the same way John Stossel does with libertarianism. Penn, if I'm not mistaken, is actually still crossing the country talking about the benefits of ethanol. Stossel, on the other hand, enjoys promoting his mistakes on national television.
Sensenbrenner and the Corporate Tax Rate
Republican House Representative Jim Sensenbrenner has been going out of his way to somehow blame Democrats for the current economic woes. It doesn't make much sense, since Republicans were running things for six years, but hey, what does that matter? The GOP is desperate, and Sensenbrenner is notorious for proudly displaying his delusions.
McIlheran is Confused ... again
Since this didn't end up appearing on Patrick McIlheran's blog, I thought I would share it with you to ensure you understand the difference between BAD government and GOOD government. In a recent post, Patrick uses the the bad policies of governments in pseudo-communist China and Africa (read: dictatorships, to varying degrees) as a reason why governments in general are "bad." Patrick relies on a story in The Spectator, which just so happens to be--surprise!--an extreme right-wing newspaper. The article in question, which you can read here, talks about a recent visit to Cameroon where the journalist went through multiple roadblocks, which can have horrible effects on food transportation.
Earth Day/Week: The Inhofe 400
Let's talk about Global Warming Denial within the U.S. Congress, specifically Senator Inhofe. For those of you who don't know Senator Inhofe, he gained a lot of media attention for releasing the "Inhofe 400," a list of 400 scientists who allegedly believed global warming was false. There's only one problem: most of the 400 have been thoroughly debunked. Not only have a majority of the scientists been completely debunked for various reasons, still more are actually coming out and REQUESTING to be taken off the list. Why? Because they believe global warming exists, and that it's caused partly by human beings. They don't want to be on the list!
Weekend Homework #5
Well, here we go! It's time for the weekend homework, and this week I'm going to provide you with a number of links to Web sites that you can use again and again. I'll try and do this again in the future, but for now, this will give you a great head start. Bookmark these.
McCain's MLK "mistake"
John McCain's vote against Martin Luther King Day was no mistake, and you need to understand this because race plays a BIG role in the modern conservative movement. It plays a big role because the modern conservatives first began in the late 50's to play on the racism of white Americans in order to turn what was once a very tiny sliver of the Republican Party into what we now know as the GOP.
Dissecting a Hit Piece
Let's have a little fun today. Today we're going to take a look at a conservative hit piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and we're going to dissect it. We're going to take it apart and examine it much in the same way you might examine a frog in Science class. Why do we examine frogs in science class? Why, to learn from them, of course! So it goes with this particular editorial. We're going to learn about it so we can more readily identify hit pieces in the future (and there are a LOT of hit pieces out there). This is going to be a great time.
Condi Rice and Osama bin Laden
What's the connection between the two, you ask? Well, for starters, they're both extremely incompetent. Make no mistake about it, Osama bin Laden is an egomaniac with relatively low intelligence when it comes to terrorism (he was NOT the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He funded them and gave his "blessing," and little else). To learn more about just how fallible al-Qaeda truly is, I suggest you pick up a copy of The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. The book outlines al-Qaeda's history and the history of modern Islamic extremism as well as the tactics that have been used by multiple intelligence agencies in attempting to track it and/or put a stop to it. A great book, to be sure.
Another chance on Telecom Immunity
Telecommunications companies do NOT deserve retroactive immunity for breaking the law just because the Bush Administration needed to spy on us illegally. Let me tell you something flat out: Telecom companies have PLATOONS of lawyers whose sole job is to determine what is legal and what is illegal. FISA was set up to provide Telecom Companies with a legal way of cooperating with the government. If the Telecom companies STILL need retroactive immunity even with all of these aspects already implemented, then there is NO DOUBT they broke the law with the help of the Bush Administration.
Weekend Homework #3
Congratulations, Wisconsin, on choosing Barack Obama. It's good to see that Hillary Clinton's recent populist rhetoric isn't sucking too many people in ...
Roger Clemens, Condoleeza Rice, and LIES
There were two separate committee hearings on Wednesday, February 13th. One was Roger Clemens testifying before a committee regarding whether he used steroids 10 years ago. A lot of media were there, if you didn't notice. A lot of cranky old Republicans, too, who have made this their pet project (and to a lesser extent, Democrats). This is probably what you heard about repeatedly throughout the day by the major media outlets. It's important, isn't it? Maybe, to a certain extent.
Telecom Immunity Should Upset You
The Senate has now officially passed a bill for retroactive telecom immunity. Why do the telecommunication companies need immunity? Because they helped the Bush administration break the law. They broke the law by spying on the American people without a warrant. This is an impeachable offense for the president and vice president. For the telecoms, this is a clear example of corporations breaking the law and violating our Constitutional rights to privacy. This immunity was accomplished with the help of the Democratic Party, which is led by a man by the name of Harry Reid who seems to have the backbone of a one-celled organism.
Weekend Homework
In the interest of attempting to contribute positively to my community, I'm offering you a list of reading materials to help you exercise your brain during the weekend. Rather than wasting your weekend injecting electric heroin into your brain, here are some articles that are relevant to your life and may even help you learn something (gasp!). Not only that, each article only takes about ten minutes to read. Go ahead. I know, it's scary at first, learning on the weekend ... but maybe that kind of mindset is exactly why we're in so much trouble in the first place ...
Tax Cuts? Tax CUTS?!
While you're whittling away the day with your various chores, here's something to think about: How many tax cuts have been passed since the Reagan era?
