I hear a lot of talk on right wing talk radio about how great the economy is, and how it’s all thanks to George W. Bush. Well, here’s a little snapshot of the Bush economy:
One euro now buys $1.4065, the first time in the common European currency’s nine-year history that it has crossed the $1.40 mark. And one dollar now buys $1.0008 Canadian dollars, the first time that the two currencies have traded that closely since late 1976.
Three years ago the US dollar and the Euro were pretty much 1:1, and the Canadian dollar was worth something like seventy US cents. Heckuva job, Bushie.
As for General Petraeus, I have no idea whether his military strategy is right, but at least he has one — and he has stated that by ‘’late summer'’ we should know if it’s working. As General Petraeus told the BBC last week, ‘’I have an obligation to the young men and women in uniform out here, that if I think it’s not going to happen, to tell them that it’s not going to happen, and there needs to be a change.'’
We need to root for General Petraeus to succeed, and hold him to those words if he doesn’t — not only for the sake of the soldiers on the ground, but also so that Mr. Bush is not allowed to drag the war out until the end of his term, and then leave it for his successor to unwind.
I eagerly await the next Thomas Friedman column, in which he holds General Petraeus to his words.
No wait, my mistake — this happened just a couple of towns over from where I live, here in the enlightened Northeast.
GUILFORD — The parents of a freshman student whose teacher resigned after he gave her a sexually explicit illustrated book said Wednesday their daughter has been the target of harassment from fellow students, and they want the school district to do more to clarify the issue with other parents.
The girl’s father, who asked that his family remain anonymous because it has already been the target of criticism, described the graphic novel that English teacher Nate Fisher gave the student as “borderline pornography.”
So at this point you’re thinking, this must be some kind of sleazy predator of a teacher, right? Well, not exactly.
The book, one of a series of comic book novels by Daniel Clowes, is called “Eightball #22.”
Yep. Daniel Clowes.
Maybe in the course of “clarifying the issue with other parents,” the school district could explain that this vile pornographer Clowes is also one of the most highly acclaimed practitioners of his craft alive today, a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the recipient of numerous Harvey Awards, and an Academy Award nominee, among other things.
What an obvious lowlife! No wonder that teacher lost his job. Next thing you know, he might have been teaching James Joyce, or Shakespeare. Have you seen the things those guys wrote about?
… adding, here’s a review of the book in question from Time magazine. Worst case scenario, leaving all snark aside, Clowes’ book might not have been an age-appropriate assignment — but for its psychological themes, not any perceived “pornographic” aspects. (Though I’m informed by a journalist friend that this issue of Eightball was recommended by the School Library Journal for grades 10 and up.) In any case, barring other information we don’t have yet, it is certainly not something a rookie teacher should lose his job, and possibly career, over. Let alone be prosecuted for. As a Publisher’s Weekly blogger notes:
As for whether the teacher in question can be prosecuted…well, Clowes’ new comic strip running in the NY Times and general reputation as a respected literary figure would certainly make any legal action very interesting. In fact, EIGHTBALL #22 was eventually collected by Random House as the grahpic novel ICE HAVEN, making prosecution seem crazy mad. But sadly, worse things have happened in these United States. If nothing else, this small town tale of a very protective father, a well liked teacher, and a girl harassed by her schoolmates could be something out of…A DANIEL CLOWES COMIC!
…also adding, just to be crystal clear: there is nothing remotely pornographic about the book this student was given. If you haven’t read it, don’t be misled by the sensationalistic description in the first link; the New Haven Register is not, let’s say politely, the New York Times. And anyway, as I say, one could describe most of the classics of Western literature, not to mention the Bible, in equally lurid terms. Eightball #22 (later compiled as “Ice Haven”) unquestionably contains mature themes, but to even use the word “pornography” in conjunction with it is an absurdity beyond my capacity to express.
BAGHDAD (AP) — The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, amid mounting public outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the U.S. Embassy’s security provider Blackwater USA.
The move came even as the Iraqi government appeared to back down from statements Monday that it had permanently revoked Blackwater’s license and would order its 1,000 personnel to leave the country — depriving American diplomats of security protection essential to operating in Baghdad.
“We are not intending to stop them and revoke their license indefinitely but we do need them to respect the law and the regulation here in Iraq,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN.
The U.S. order confines most American officials to a 3.5-square-mile area in the center of the city, meaning they cannot visit U.S.-funded construction sites or Iraqi officials elsewhere in the country except by helicopter. The notice did not say when the suspension would expire.
I thought I already knew the entire extent of Alan Greenspan’s creepiness. I was wrong:
Shortly after Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957, Mr. Greenspan wrote a letter to The New York Times to counter a critic’s comment that “the book was written out of hate.” Mr. Greenspan wrote: “Atlas Shrugged is a celebration of life and happiness. Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should.”
I suspect someone somewhere once wrote a similar letter to the editor about Mein Kampf. But they didn’t end up Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Almost completely forgotten now is the November, 2002 estimate by Medact, the British affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, that an invasion of Iraq and subsequent civil war “could cause half a million deaths.”
And rightfully so, since subsequent events have completely discredited them. This is from a British polling company working in Iraq:
In the week in which General Patraeus reports back to US Congress on the impact the recent ‘surge’ is having in Iraq, a new poll reveals that more than 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have been murdered since the invasion took place in 2003.
Previous estimates, most noticeably the one published in the Lancet in October 2006, suggested almost half this number (654,965 deaths).
These findings come from a poll released today by O.R.B., the British polling agency that have been tracking public opinion in Iraq since 2005. In conjunction with their Iraqi fieldwork agency a representative sample of 1,461 adults aged 18+ answered the following question:-
Q How many members of your household, if any, have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003 (ie as a result of violence rather than a natural death such as old age)? Please note that I mean those who were actually living under your roof.
None 78%
One 16%
Two 5%
Three 1%
Four or more 0.002%
Given that from the 2005 census there are a total of 4,050,597 households this data suggests a total of 1,220,580 deaths since the invasion in 2003.
That’s what the Iraqis have asked for, and gosh, it just never occurred to President Bush to think of such a thing, but if that’s what they want, well doggone it …
The document, entitled Rebuilding America’s Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
The plan shows Bush’s cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: ‘The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.’
The PNAC document supports a ‘blueprint for maintaining global US pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests’.
This ‘American grand strategy’ must be advanced for ‘as far into the future as possible’, the report says. It also calls for the US to ‘fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars’ as a ‘core mission’.
(And conveniently enough, the military’s been hard at work building permanent bases.)
Why you shouldn’t believe anything you read, see or hear
Be sure to check out Laura Rozen’s posts about the strange case of Alexis Debat, here, here, here and here.
It’s a particularly shocking lesson in the fact that, in terms of providing accurate information, the media is an incredibly rickety contraption. The reason for this, of course, is that the media doesn’t exist to provide accurate information. It exists to make as much money as possible for its owners. It does an excellent job at that.
And yet people—well, upper middle class white people—have a deeply held commitment to the idea the media exists to be accurate, and in fact does give you a tolerably accurate view of the world. Why this bizarre delusion persists is an interesting question.
