Politics: July 2009 Archives

It's a guilty pleasure and a slightly shameful admission: I've been following Sarah Palin's Twitter feed. She certainly is a frequent, enthusiastic and, arguably, effective user of the medium.

Alas, much of her tweets consist of defensive stuff like this:

"Criticism is something easily avoided by saying nothing, doing nothing, being nothing."Aristotle Don't fear it;it means u make a difference

Now, I am not somebody who loves being criticized myself (laughs bitterly); however, I recognize that sometimes when somebody criticizes you, they may have a point. Maybe there's something I can learn from what somebody is telling me. It may not be what I want to hear, but it may be what I need to hear, in order to do better in the future.

That may have been Aristotle's ultimate point (I'm having trouble locating the original quote in context) but that's not Ms. Sarah's. Criticism just means she should keep on doing whatever she's doing. If people are noticing it, that's good. But she doesn't have to listen to her detractors (though she often answers back to them in her tweets and offline), doesn't have to pause in her tracks, doesn't have to reflect on any mistakes she may have made.

Sarah, "u" may be making a difference, but you, we all, should pause and reflect on whether it's a good one or not.

"The stimulus isn't working!"

| | Comments (0)

So a lot of people are grumbling that the economic stimulus package isn't working. And maybe it isn't. The economy is still shedding jobs like a cheap carpet, and my state is circling the drain.

What irritates me is that a lot of the grumbling is on the right. Six months into the new administration, and they are unwilling to give Obama the chance they demanded that the country give Bush... for eight years.

time-stimulus-chart.jpg

Yet why should they be so unhappy? As the above chart from the July 13 issue of Time magazine shows, they got the thing they're always clamoring for... tax cuts! That's right, so far, something like 60% of the stimulus is tax cuts.

I'm sorry, but are tax cuts only acceptable when a Republican president is in power?

As for why they aren't working... well, it doesn't seem to me like they worked that well over the last decade either. (though recent research suggests cuts can be stimulating)

Do we need a second stimulus bill? I don't know, but it looks to me like the first one hasn't even kicked in yet.

Music I Listen To

 

Link Roller

Powered by Movable Type 4.2-en

Photos

DSCN4807.JPG DSCN4808.JPG DSCN4810.JPG DSCN4812.JPG DSCN4813.JPG DSCN4816.JPG

Books

Widget_logo

About this Archive

This page is a archive of entries in the Politics category from July 2009.

Politics: May 2009 is the previous archive.

Politics: September 2009 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.