A profusion of factoids describing the degradation of all but the top 1% of Americans during the past decades.

It is difficult for me to value opinions full of glib mis-characterizations, snottily presented, as journalism.

It is not even journalism.

The subtext of this attempted hatchet job is disgust that voters on the right and left like Obama. There is no more right wing group than the Manhattan Institute, hence the proliferation of unfounded, unproven, and just plain made up characterizations that make up this piece. "Proleptic" is the word that attracted my attention to the story and sure enough the definition, for us vocabulary deprived folks, is just as untrustworthy as his contention that Obama is unqualified for ... More »

The story pulls the difference between the two candidates into a sharp focus on the issue of no specifics vs. faith in the future of government. It has been a contention of many that Obama is lacking in policy and therefore not as qualified as Clinton. This story emphasizes that "hope" can be more than an empty promise. Given the sorry political state of our country these past 4+ decades, it could be a powerful force in the nomination and subsequent election since statistically ... More »

Good but limited story. http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/1/58 is the address. Small registration fee. This is an update of a previous study that had been a bit better for our country, as I recall.

This program is particularly interesting because the advisory cast of characters is the same that has been destroying our reputation abroad and bringing on the blowback of 9/11, &c., apparently to assure contributers to the front runners that the congressional military industrial complex will keep rolling along with no interruption for the foreseeable future. This when people overwhelmingly want change.

Though I remember reading substantially the same article sometime ago, I thought then as now the most important thing about this story is the duplicitousness it demonstrates about our government and both its political parties. Is this to bring democracy to Iraq or is it to steal oil in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East with all of the new military bases and airfields. Who decided to spend the money on this? When did the discussion take place? I ask, you decide. dci

I appreciated this well written explanation of the difference between Obama's and Clinton's health care proposals; but it seems the NYTimes has eliminated the other contenders proposals. It would be a much more helpful had the story contained a capsule comparison with their health care plans. Some, in my view, are better. dci

I would not call this journalism. It is propaganda, and not very clever either, as it is larded with cliched brickbats at straw men in a futile attempt to bolster his baseless enthusiasms. A political attack dog, pure and simple.

It was fun to read if only because of Harsanyi's amusing approach to the fulminations of the book's characterizations of blogdom. In importance, it would seem the reviewed book's author might have waited a few years (25?) before his pronouncements on such a large phenomenon. 175,000 new blogs a day are a lot to digest, though, so I suppose the book would be just what those who have already made up their minds might want to read. I won't, so it was good to read this review. dci

I liked this story though it is not only long but needs to be read almost in its entirety to get the overall thrust, which is that non-believers, other believers and even insufficient believers have been persecuted and even killed through the ages . The story begins with a recent character defamation but recalls how Christian persecution through a so-called war on satanism and even the 'war on terror' has benefited from charges highly publicized but seldom investigated until too ... More »

Yes. It opens a door to something I for one had not known to be possible to the degree shown in the story; it bears careful watching. I do not like the whole idea, even for research as it can be done deceptively. There is enough governmental and corporate deception already visited upon us. dci

I guess it all depends on perspective. To say that there were not bitter disputes during Roosevelt's tenure is to misrepresent the outspoken hatred expressed at everything Rooseveltian. I was a child at the time and even so, remember that aspect of the period vividly. You would have thought he was Hitler except that the latter was shown more sympathy--until WWII finally blew that sentiment back into the closet.

It is good in that it outlines the "centrist" view of expenditures for war. Ignored (other than possible increased State Department spending) are other ways of dealing with conflict. The assumption is that the world will always be on the brink of catastrophe, a pretty pessimistic if not completely hopeless point of view. dci

If this is journalism, I would say it isn't good in that it has come from a man who is finally feeling scared of the development of religious sanctimony in his preferred party. He has always wanted it two ways and now that he has aided a party that would discard him in in a millisecond, he is feeling vulnerable as a person. Would that he would say he has been mistaken in his past writings about Anglo-Saxon religiosity, e.g., GWB , but of course he would not be the opinionated expert ... More »

Very informative about a very important topic: How governments try to insulate themselves from their constituents thereby undermining the very democracy they claim to be defending. The ultimate hypocrisy: taking power from the people to gain control over the people. dci

Who knows? Given Friedman's romantic views of the middle east and lack of concrete facts, just for starters, his work is unassailable until, that is, it is overtaken by actual events. His predictive style of writing is tiresome at best and his track record both in the middle east and elsewhere is poor. In my view his stories are not reviewable. dci

For a short news article about a long interview I find it satisfactory. It is interesting because of the source though anyone following the events of the past 70 years (and more) can hardly find anything surprising in it. It is where we are, sadly.

No real surprises here though you have to wonder at the self-reported 'happiness' given the comments quite to the contrary. People do tend to put a good light on themselves even as they are 'unhappy' with the larger picture. What the interviews seem to show is that there is great naivete about what exactly is causing the malaise. Powerlessness? Nevertheless, the story reinforces the tenor of the present time.

This opinion piece is just that. The commonplace that things will get worse if we leave is not something that is necessarily true. Not allowing Iraq to complete a civil war which has been held off by the West for a hundred years is much worse. The opinion buys the WMD excuse which was never true and fails to mention oil that was always true. Failing that, what are we to make of the rest of the story? Stay how long? How many deaths to occur? Stay until the American people can't take ... More »

This make nice article strikes me as an attempt to reassure religious subscribers that they don't necessarily accept these writers' views; in so doing it makes the relationship of science and this commercial magazine a little fuzzy. After all, Dawkins is a scientist and if they don't accept his scientific credentials they should say so. Otherwise this is having it both ways--claiming that they are not polite enough is not what you call scientific and, given that we have a president ... More »

There is nothing here of any importance unless evasive cant and fear mongering are acceptable achievements in an interview of public servants. Every misleading and self-serving statement by Lieberman has been said before ad nauseum by all those following the Republican talking points propaganda memos, following the lead of its Nazi progenitors of yore. The only question in my mind is why Shapiro thinks so little of his readers that he would allow such claptrap to be published and ... More »

This story is very engrossing and it is very important because it recognizes that contrary American mythology, there is CLASS in our country after all. It is based on $$$ and it is as persistent as it is persistently denied by the mantra that everyone is in the middle class--even the upper fraction of 1% on the income scale says it is. When lack of footnotes is used to denigrate Payne, you know she has hit a nerve. Good story beautifully told.

It shows how out of touch this man has been with the flow of political events since the launch of the "cold war." That he has belatedly come to to this view is revealing--and probably is, unfortunately, typical of politicians in general, if they ever really ruminate at all. Where the excerpt falls short is that it only reflects Gore's reflection after his inept campaign, and not the years leading up to it. It is a rather pathetic story, but revealing of the lack of historical ... More »

Having followed this contretemps for some time, and Dershowitz's unlawyerly ad hominems toward anyone with whom he disagrees even longer, I can only assume an irrational Zionism has corrupted his common sense. It is sad, but his response to this article is typical when no coherent defense can be made. A good story and very carefully written.

Yes, as far as it goes. A couple examples: incandescent bulbs also dim with age, CFLs are less directional than incandescents & disperse the light more evenly eliminating shadows causing the illusion of less light. Also, 'dimmable' CFLs are not too hard to find. I have all CFLs since 2000 and even if they saved no energy, they are very pleasant to use. My resistance was overcome by having a solar power back up system in a power outage prone forest. Wanting to make battery power last ... More »

Y E S. IT CONFIRMS THE OBVIOUS, THOUGH THE INTERACTION OF THE GENERALS WITH THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, IF ANY, IS UNKNOWN.

Though she doesn't state it, the "men" she speaks about are the typical crybaby white American male who feels powerless, threatened by what he isn't (impossibly powerful) and, instead of self-examination, strikes out at woman, gays, assorted ethnic types and anyone whom they think are having more fun and may be happy. It is sad, but at some point writers who are incapable of articulately enjoining the facts of a story instead of making ad hominem attacks should in my view be shut out ... More »

The idea that the NYTimes and NPR are liberal when they are very establishment oriented--middle of the road at best--and that the Wall Street Journal, other than their totally bizarre editorial pages, is right wing journalism (their reportage is excellent in my view), is a false dichotomy. Why is it so difficult to stick to facts? Facts may be disputed but calling them liberal or right wing is done by those who don't have the capacity to cope with facts they do not wish to entertain.

This writer does 'opinion,' parroting neocon talking points like Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe. Straight out of American Enterprise Institute, they deviate not a bit from their counterparts elsewhere. They think they are funnier than they are--but to the political "gotcha" crowd, well, they probably love this half baked stuff that usually evaporates from political discourse. Nothing original here.