In the past few years, I’ve come to realize that there’s a lot of humor inherent in the proceedings of the American political arena. More and more, it’s begun to look like a ridiculous joke to me – and damn, is it hilarious.
The reason I find it so funny is probably because I find it so infuriating. I love my country, and I’d like to think I have the option of voting for someone who can govern it well. As such, I’d like to see the issues threatening its wellbeing – the economy, the foreign policy issues, civil rights issues, etc. – done justice by those who ask to be entrusted with so much power.
Instead, the American political arena is insulting, full of bullshit, and nothing exemplifies that quite like the ongoing Democratic primary contest. Every week, Clinton and Obama trade lower and pettier blows, and even I’m barely amused anymore.
It seems like every time I open a newspaper, Clinton and Obama have offended each other’s sensibilities once more. Clinton attacked Obama – she’s so mean! She’s so negative! Obama attacks her negativity, and they chase each other in an endless circle of petty minutiae that have little or nothing to do with the real problems that America faces – all while complaining that the political arena operates on petty attack politics and empty rhetoric.
Is this supposed to convince me of anything besides their incompetence?
And journalists – who should be concerned with educating citizens about the issues and candidates – are exacerbating, if not causing, the problem by orchestrating the ins and outs of this absolute circus. After all, ABC selected the ridiculous questions asked during the “debate”, so it’s not just the candidates that are to blame here.
Don’t get me wrong – I like a good laugh. But this is an important year, what with the issues of the war and the economy so immediately needing attention, and now is the time to take things seriously and do what needs to get done. Our country pioneered modern democracy. It is time to stop making a spectacle out of the democratic process that should be making America great.
Interesting obituary in the New York Times today. Dith Pran, a Cambodian photographer who barely escaped the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and whose story was immortalized in the film “The Killing Fields” died this weekend.
Photography is an important element of journalism, particularly journalism that takes place on the very edge. Pran wound up as a prisoner in Cambodia himself as a result of his efforts to get the story. My thoughts are with the Pran family, and with those of all journalists and photographers who lose their lives in the search for the truth. The article is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/nyregion/31dith.html?hp
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Many private and public universities put their endowments on the stock market, and many make enormous returns. Fortunately for (smart) college students, this financial robustness means lower tuition costs;
On Monday Harvard said that next year it will substantially increase its financial aid to middle-class students, bringing its actual tuition costs down to or even below that of some state universities. This is possible because of Harvard’s — and other universities’ — growing financial success, and it is a signal of far-reaching changes that will ripple throughout higher education.
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http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6428
The University just released the results of a study on how most kids don’t walk to school anymore, whereas the majority of kids did fifty years ago. It correctly identifies the sort of environments that are good for walking– i.e. sidewalks with buffers like lawns and trees between it and the street–and those that are bad, like sidewalks without buffers, a lack of sidewalks, or the prevalence of high-speed traffic.
Yet the survey only answered certain questions– it didn’t answer why so few kids walk to school. Allow me to state the obvious: suburbanization. The post-1950s American landscape is built for cars; in other words, almost every place built since then has been unwalkable (meaning there are few if any sidewalks), or hardly walkable (there are sidewalks that don’t lead anywhere except out of a zig-zagging subdivision road onto a large collector road with heavy traffic going 40 mph.) Most kids across America, unfortunately, live in this landscape, because their parents have determined them to be “safe” and “secure.” But, they are deprived of the opportunity to walk to school, or have easy access to a park, library, or sports field. They can’t walk to their friends house if their friend lives in another subdivision; even if it is a quarter mile away, it would require a much longer walk to go out to the main road, around the walls (or moats– whatever separates the housing pods), and into the next subdivision.
Thus the kids either don’t leave the house, or they need to get a ride in their parent’s car. And it is the same predicament for getting to school.
In 1940, 48 percent of the US population was located in metropolitan areas, and about 70 percent of this population lived in urban areas. In 1990, 78 percent of the country’s residents were in metropolitan areas, but only 40 percent of this lived in central cities. The numbers are likely similar today. So, it’s clear that more and more kids are living in modern environments that are so inhospitable that they can’t even walk to school, yet clear-thinking adults (their parents) choose to raise them there, because apparently it is the proper setting for families.
And thus the American landscape continues to change the complexion of everyday life. This trend toward de-urbanization will only implode and lead to a more severe crisis as we run out of oil to facilitate it, though.
Apparently not Sen. Stabenow’s husband. Saw this on the Free Press, apparently he paid $150 to a woman he met on the internet to have sex with him. Too bad the Troy police found out when they pulled him over for diving on a suspended license.
I predict the next person outed in a prostitution scandal is Mary Sue’s husband.
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April Fool’s jokes rarely play out well. That said, two bloggers managed to get out well-placed jokes this morning.
Local blogger Johnny Quest posted on the UM College OTR site that graduation would be taking place at the Big House after all. Quest attributed his post to a Michigan Daily story on the subject; no such story exists.
The humorous Stuff White People Like produced a mock press release saying that the blog had been bought by Target. The blog had recently listed Target as one of its items that “white people like.”
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Reading the Daily is something I do daily, especially their editorials. I like that daily dose of righteous indignation. Today I read one titled Leaning Left, by Karl Stampfl. He confesses that the University’s staff has what he calls “[a] liberal slant”. While calling for “diversity” (someone at this university gets a quarter every time that word is uttered or read) of opinion, he calls conservatives’ opinions “misguided convictions” and “spectacularly wrong”. What a hypocrite. How about starting this intellectual diversity page on the Daily’s editorial board?
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Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, the Senate Majority Leader in Lansing, called for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to resign today after it was learned that prosecutors are seeking perjury charges against the polarizing mayor.
It’s funny that Bishop, of that far-flung suburban town, will tell the Detroit mayor what to do after, you know, all those years of working closely with the mayor and caring about the City.
Okay…I’ll state the obvious…Bishop does not care about Detroit (at least in a way such that he’d ever support measures making the City a priority in his capacity in congress), and is seizing on this newsworthy event to score points with his largely anti-Detroit electorate. Bishop and his constituents don’t get to vote for any possible new mayor…so I suggest that they butt out.
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ABC News correspondent and 20/20 anchor John Stossel spoke at U-M this afternoon. Stossel, brought to campus by Students for a Free Economy (SFE), Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), and the College Libertarians, spoke out against a litany of government regulations. This included critiquing the FDA’s drug approval process, fitting in with the title of “Socialized Medicine Stinks,” that Stossel claims kills people who could have been saved if drugs awaiting approval were available.
The lecture, held in Palmer Commons, drew a full crowd.
“The more I watched competition work, I saw that it was the only thing protecting consumers,” said Stossel. While he said much of his early career in consumer reporting involved reporting on business fraud, he said that he changed his focus after coming to ABC. “There were not that many big, national scams I could report on,” Stossel added.
Stossel explained that his experience has shown him that regulations by government are more harmful than helpful, even when they have good intentions. While examples about the FDA and medical malpractice torts stayed within the medical topic, Stossel broadened his message to include objections most government interventions in the marketplace, from the post office to public schools.
“This is why I say socialized medicine stinks, because everything socialized stinks,” said Stossel. While Stossel resisted most government action, he defended a public military when an audience member asked if he favored having no government at all. While Stossel says he has been criticized as a conservative, he self-identified as “a libertarian.”
Stossel encouraged students to act upon his belief that the marketplace can work better than government. He even said he “dreams” of a day when a candidate will campaign on a platform of reducing the scope of government.
He concluded his speech saying, “I hope that you fight for that liberty that makes everything possible.”
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Our faithful readers can now hear The Michigan Review, thanks to our up-and-running podcast program. So far, we have interviewed:
Check out the podcasts here or in iTunes, and be sure to spread the word!
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