Most of us think the stock market is the sole indicator of a good or bad economy. However, with so much investment going overseas, it doesn’t tell the whole story. More important is labor statistics. The top retailier, for instance always seems to lead the pack in job creation, but most of it is part time and roughly at minimum wage, but its greatest impact on creating jobs is abroad by importing tons of foreign made goods. There was a time when buying American was the patriotic thing to ...

Though a full third of the nation is poorly educated are they without common sense, too? -- hardly. Common sense, however, is constantly bombarded with the amoral static and sophistry of the right wing, such as: Every one should be free to pursue the American dream of wealth -- without stating the odds are equivalent to winning the lottery -- let alone the ultimate dream of good health, happiness and helping the less fortunate. Fifty percent of Americans own stock therefore com...

Brad Wardell pointed out in one his recent articles on the character of America, that the federal government is but a small part of governance compared to all that is done on state and local levels. This is not an isolated view among conservatives who still carry the vestige of rugged individualism in their hearts pumping through their veins governmental malnutrition as though the US were just any country advocating the law of power, rather than enlightened, constitutional law. That locals have ...

In the fifties the slogan for Big Business was “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” The inference, of course, is that the largest company and employer is bound to have a beneficial effect on the economy in profits, growth, improving wages and growth of the middle class to sustain business activity. Today this economic concept is lost. “What’s good for Wal-Mart is not necessarily good for the country.” For the implication here is that this current largest company and emp...

I was embarrassed during the 2000 campaign when the Democrats kept harping on the soaring DOW, which to the average person means very little since the books are always cooked to suit the whims of the time. The millions of modest stockholders that politicians are always heralding possess a piece of the action by pensions mainly in mutual funds which seem never to rise or fall very much. There are scandals, of course, where a corrupt company cajole employees to invest in their employer, such as ...

Those that see in black and white and ignore the grays make for far easier problem-solving. It is no mystery the Bush ‘03 State of The Union offers to “confound the designs of evil men...our calling,... a blessed country is to make the world better.” It is far simpler to accept the statement at face value than to delve into its grays. A pesky liberal, however, is driven by some weird “noble discontent” and expects clarification:  Is evil confined to al Qaeda or to all evil men in the “axis” a...

In the old days — dating myself here — the Hearst columnist Westbrook Pegler, whom I read only to get my juices going over his unmitigated hatred of Eleanor, Franklin, and Harry, I at least was apprised of the irrational opposition to the New and Fair Deals. So, too, with Bill O’Reilly, though not to the same extent since I’m much older and heard it all before, but he is more intense over current culture is why I read him once in a while; and now I could not resist an addendum to my “Why Liber...

 On my sister’s birthday, December 13th, she got an extra kick to celebration by the capture of Saddam Hussein. It was particularly joyous to her because her granddaughter had served in Iraq. Seeing this once feared tyrant so disheveled and disoriented was a moment devoutly wished. Here was a man who sent his sons to go out in “glory” while he cowered in a living tomb.  Over the months, in hearing the Democratic candidates criticizing Bush for his failure to find bin Laden and Saddam, I felt ...

In the “Family of Politics” issue last year of The American Prospect, I suppose a liberal magazine needs the luxury of self therapy in repeating the painfully obvious — what the heck the conservatives harass us obsessively with their trite commentary. Still, I find it vexing to read such commentary as:  Portes’ “Many children of immigrant parents are not living out the American Dream. Until better jobs and schools materialize, they are at risk of becoming the next underclass.”Coontz: “The m...

  As On liners can see from the blurb below, I wrote this where I taught a long time ago to the district superintendent for the express purpose of warding off “get tough,” autocratic process of assessing teachers because administrators aren’t really trained thoroughly on that score — I have the feeling even less so today in many schools. You will see how difficult it is to evaluate teachers, let alone an entire school. This current fetish for tests won’t do it for the simple reason they are...

 D desperation  E  egalitarian’s demise  M moderation or muddling  O omissions  C  calcification  R  rearranging postures  A anything goes to suit the polls  T  terrorized by the right  The democrats are uncomfortable as a minority party even though a majority — not electoral — agrees with their views when they stick by them. Unfortunately, they are obsessed with the hopeless aim of regaining the red states.

R  religion is power  E  errant thinking  P  public education is failing  U unabashed self-righteousness  B  brilliant strategy of deception  L  labor unions are the enemy  I   instant dollar gratification  C  cunning in undermining the general will  A analysis at its lowest level  N negativism toward any kind of regulation  Republicans are a majority because of the electoral college, which in the first place was designed to protect sparsely populated states to ne...

 I heard on C-span concerning the depletion of manufacturing jobs as analogous to the loss of agricultural jobs during the first half of the last century. The productivity level of agricultural products was so enhanced that small farms became almost obsolete. The analogy, however, is flawed because the massive shift to the industrial cities was absorbed by manufacturing jobs. Even the increased productivity of manufacturing by virtue of robotic assembly lines in the latter half of the last cen...

 “Yankee Go Home” doesn’t apply to South Korea where only a half year ago its citizens demonstrated against our 37,000 troops stationed there — what with the north’s incessant provocation. After fifty years the south is nevertheless more than a match against its neighbor despite its larger army but poorly equipped. Even though South Korea spends ten times what the north does in armament — $320 per capita, or 3.4 percent of its GNP — it could fortify itself independent of the US, except for a n...

Annually I’m distressed when floods and forest fires wreak terror on our populace and properties. We get all riled up over terrorism but never make any attempt to control these catastrophes. Because of FEMA we tend to think that floods are taken as a matter of course without an effort to begin planning a way to eliminate or at least minimize the devastation by mass projects of strategic dam-building and embankment construction. The US has lost its will to develop safety infrastructure secon...