There was recently a very big blowout with a couple race related posts. The posts were removed at my request. Josh was then compelled to put them back up. It’s Josh’s Web site, so I respect the decsion.
Yet, without explanation, I feel as though previous comments and subsequent posts lack proper context.
Here’s how it works, folks. We all take different positions along the political spectrum and try to have a nice balance of opinion. Sometimes, in order to stimulate the debate, we’ll adopt aliases. Amy, you know how you like what Keith has to say? Well that’s just me, posting the other side of the conversation. If the other American Madness posters want to pull the masks and reveal themselves, that’s up to them.
Posting as I often do as the right of center voice on this board, led down a path of particular peril for my reputation. I divide the fault between myself and Josh, as he should have done a better job editing subsequent posts to remove specific references to comments I made. Josh knows how we post and should have done more to protect my reputation.
But he didn’t.
The mistake I’ve made is that I put my real name next to my posts. And unfortunately, I am cursed with a unique name. Rather, I should’ve just adopted a concatenation of my middle name and the street I grew up on, like Paul Woodland, and adopt it as my nom de plume.
Anyway, it’s gotten entirely too personal for me now. As I told Josh, I’m out.
I’m quitting my job today to become a tour guide. I’m going to offer fanny-packed, fat asses from the Midwest a personal tour through what was once New York’s financial center.
We’ll start the tour in Grand Central, and make our way to the building formerly known as Bear Stearns, and talk about the greatest real estate steal since beads were passed to Indians. I’ll make up some nonsense about secret passages between that building and JPMorgan, because tourists like that stuff.
Then it’s over to Lehman Brothers Barclays, where people can have their picture made with the largest, ugliest sign of monkey bile blue in the world. Who would’ve thought Lehman’s original monstrosity would one day be considered tame when compared to what Barclays put up. We’ll also be sure and stop by 2 CPW so people can see where Erin Callan had racks of cloths brought to her since she was too busy making up numbers to have time to eat and shop.
We’ll definitely make our way downtown. The New York Fed will be a good stop. I’ll point out the corner where John Thain put his nuts in a jar and handed them over to Ken Lewis. I’m sure people will want to see the street formerly called Wall Street and its symbolic bull’s sudden case of blue balls.
Finally, we’ll be sure and wave as we pass by the Wall Street Journal’s offices, the same way they waved off excess leverage without bothering to stop and talk to anyone.
I know, it isn’t “cool” to insult the intelligence of Barack Obama. So then, at whose feet should the blame be laid for this piece of idiocy? From barackobama.com, specifically his page laying out his foreign policy positions:
“Seek New Partnerships in Asia: Obama will forge a more effective framework in Asia that goes beyond bilateral agreements, occasional summits, and ad hoc arrangements, such as the six-party talks on North Korea. He will maintain strong ties with allies like Japan, South Korea and Australia…”
Um, Obama does know that Australia is not “in Asia,” right? He does know Australia is a continent separate from Asia, right? Or do they not teach geography at Harvard Law? Maybe he should have snorted coke off a globe.
I ran a search this morning for Nobama on Google, Ask and Yahoo. Below are screen shots of the results.
The pictures are a little small to read all of the text (you can click on the photo for a full size result). Google and Ask both delivered sites selling Nobama related merchandise at the top of the search. Yahoo did not. Rather, I was offered Obama’s official site first. The search engine took it upon itself to include an Obama search.
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Somebody said something rather stupid today in the Dallas Morning News. For those of you who just flew in from the face of Venus, I’ll provide you the link.
Almost one of every four Texas residents – 24.8 percent – were uninsured in 2006 and 2007, based on an average of the rates for those two years. That’s up from 23.9 percent for 2004 and 2005.
…
But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain’s health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)
So most of the liberal blogs stopped there and had a roast of John Goodman. Fair enough. What Goodman said is ridiculous. He hasn’t been what we call in my business, “media trained.” In other words, don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to see in print. No doubt, he’s wishing someone had given him that little nugget before a reporter from the Dallas Morning News called him up yesterday.
But the blogs ranting on Goodman do a bit of an injustice in not reporting the rest of his (still foolish, but somewhat rational) quote. Here, I’ll help:
“So instead of producing worthless statistics that people fling around in vacuous editorials and pointless debates, the Census Bureau should produce meaningful numbers, identifying all of the sources of funds people will draw on if they need medical care,” he said.
To his point, to say this person is uninsured, or that person is insured, lacks nuance. It lacks context and most of all it doesn’t address the problem.
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