June 12, 2009
Dave Must Go (Charlie Law)
I've never been a devoted fan of David Letterman, but I've watched his show enough to appreciate his wit. He can be truly funny, and his political humor, though always one-sided, is some of his best work.
But this week he went too far.
By now, more people know about his remarks Tuesday night — about Palin, mother and daughter — than they do about the potentially regime-changing election in Iran and the stiff new U.N. sanctions against North Korea. > Read More
Post a Comment (39) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This June 8, 2009
What, No Halo? (Charlie Law)
U.S. politics is boring.
From The Associated Press:
The current reformist salvo is a video clip sent by e-mail and on CDs of [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad telling a top cleric, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, that a "light" enveloped him during his address to the U.N. General Assembly in 2005 and that the crowd stared without blinking during the entire speech.
Post a Comment (2) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This June 1, 2009
Rational Self-Interest, Irrational Self-Deceit (Charlie Law)
The brand of economic theory loosely known as the Chicago School gets much of the credit — or blame, these days — for promoting the existence of “rational economic actors” who keep a free market churning along smoothly. The idea is that each participant in an economy, whether an individual consumer or a large corporation, makes rational, self-interested choices based on the best available information. The more complete the information, of course, the better the choice. But the “rational” part is assumed. > Read More
Post a Comment (4) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This May 4, 2009
Low-Down Pirates on the High Seas (Charlie Law)
This may be an indictment of this season's television programming, but it seems there's seldom anything on TV more spellbinding than the news.
An influenza epidemic going global, a financial crisis taking down one economy after another, an ice shelf half the size of Scotland detaching itself from Antarctica, pirates roaming the Indian Ocean. Who needs to watch “24” with these plots developing on CNN?
Of the aforementioned topics, let's take a look today at pirates, since that's the one challenge where we've seen at least a little headway lately. > Read More
Post a Comment (6) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This March 23, 2009
Everyman Can — Or Can He? The Limits of Citizen Journalism (Charlie Law)
Stenciled pamphlets, mimeographed manifestos, photocopied fliers — maybe even chunks of clay or scraps of parchment; citizen journalism has no doubt been around, in one form or another, for a long time. The idea of private citizens writing the news or venting their opinions has especially flourished during the past two centuries in the USA, with the right to free expression anchored in its governing documents. But the movement has truly come into its own on a global scale only during the Internet age.
Check out this list of “participatory news sites,” where you can find what is surely just a fraction of the English-language Internet sites set up by the vast grassroots news force. > Read More
Post a Comment (5) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This March 10, 2009
Learning from the Bees, Part II (Charlie Law)
Anyone following the spread of colony collapse disorder among the world's honeybees over the past two years is encouraged by the recent abatement, slight though it may be, of that pernicious plague.
At the same time, scientists, beekeepers, honey-lovers and people who like strawberries remain at best guardedly optimistic. Even if the epidemic is slowing and some new colonies are thriving, no one is quite sure what caused all this in the first place. > Read More
Post a Comment (5) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This March 8, 2009
One Plague Lifted? (Charlie Law)
For well over a year now, of all the things to worry about, I've been especially worried about honeybees. You probably have been, too.
It was some of the most distressing news that made its way across the Internet: Bee colonies were disappearing at a truly alarming rate. Over a third of the U.S. honeybee population, and nearly 50 percent of honeybees in some areas, had simply vanished, as if they had been suddenly recalled to the mother ship. > Read More
Post a Comment (9) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This March 5, 2009
We Are the World, Etc. (Charlie Law)
A schoolteacher friend is having her high school students work on projects dealing with the Great Depression. She tells me that, in her U.S. history class, the coming of spring always coincides with the stock market crash of '29, followed by World War II in April, the ’60s in May, Watergate in early June and “all the rest” squeezed in during the last dizzy days before summer vacation.
This year, though, there's an interesting twist: A lot of kids in the class are wanting to try to compare what's going on right now with the economic crisis of the 1930s. > Read More
Post a Comment (0) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This February 21, 2009
Smoked Fish and Potatoes (Charlie Law)
When the current economic crisis first began to make the news sometime in late 2007, comparisons with market disturbances of the previous 15 years were immediate. The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and the recession of 1992 were the main benchmarks.
In a few months' time, news analysts were reaching into the 1980s to find scenarios worthy to be compared with our present malaise: The stock market freefall of 1987 and its backdrop, the savings and loan scandal, were the bugbears for a while. > Read More
Post a Comment (8) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This February 16, 2009
If Only … (Charlie Law)
for every Bernie there were a Leonard …
Post a Comment (4) Permalink TrackBack
Email This Post
Share this post
What's This