1. in praise of competition: in the middle of a somewhat annoying US
National Public Radio interview with Iran's president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad (complete with honking horns in the background -- but the
interruptions by the interviewer were worse), the station decided to
broadcast a speech at the UN by the current US president, someone
who's even less interesting. So I switched to LA's competing NPR
station, which was continuing the interview.
(The competition between these two stations is a test run of Charlie
Andrews' recommendation that a "labor republic" should initially be
organized as a bunch of competing not-for-profit enterprises. It
started out bad, but has mellowed out so that now it's bearable. The
bad start may have been due to the influence of KCRW's obnoxious
program manager.)
2. I can't believe it: the NY TIMES published a marginally-literate
full-page cartoon trashing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposed
bail-out for the banks as "communist" and burying capitalism and
private enterprise. ("to each his own ability, to each his own need.")
This must have been very expensive! Is the sponsor (Bill Perkins of
Houston, TX) of those crazy oil magnates that President Eisenhower
complained about in his "military-industrial complex" speech?
--
Jim Devine / "Nobody told me there'd be days like these / Strange days
indeed -- most peculiar, mama." -- JL.
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