Abductedcow.com is a website written by Wade Treichler for no particular reason. Topics covered include politics, geekery, artsy-bits, hippy rage, zombie plans, bicycles and whatever else I feel like at the time. You can also follow me on twitter, or check out my web solutions company Spoke Creative Group. For the love of god, please report all spelling errors.
In case you missed the recent round of politi-theater, Congress recently neglected to extend unemployment benefits to nearly 1 million fellow Americans because they’re concerned (as they should be) about deficit spending (although we’ll ignore the fact that bush-era wars/war-on-terror/war-on-drugs spending by the GOP accounts for a large chunk of this). Turns out we’ve been down this road before. In 1937, after unprecedented Federal spending helped cut unemployment in half, Republicans pressured FDR to balance the budget. Unemployment doubled.
“The Depression, as bad as it was, would have been much worse without the government spending,” says Alan Brinkley, a historian of the Depression at Columbia University. “And the 1937 effort to balance the budget — I think almost every economist would agree — was a catastrophe.”
Ok, setting aside the negative humanitarian (and economic) impact of axing benefits for 1million people, I get the tough on big-government thing, and in some ways I agree with it. But when you have economists telling you to keep dumping money into public projects, and historians saying, look this has happened before, it might do you well to listen for change, as opposed to cranking out another soundbite for your conservative base.
Changing commanders in the middle of a war is never easy. Lincoln fired lethargic General McClellan and appointed Grant to command the Army of the Potomac. The troops were not happy with the change. Truman fired General MacArthur, and conservatives hammered him for it….Generals frequently tend to be more popular than presidents. They appear stronger, more purposeful, more competent. But they have the luxury of only focusing on war, on killing the enemy or capturing ground. Presidents, whether they want to or not, must deal with the big picture. More…
Before I get hammered here for taking the side of the president, let’s try a little litmus test – go find a local freelance reporter with nothing to lose, use facebook, or maybe just buy a billboard if you’re well off. Proceed to speak/post with zero filter about your job, your boss, your coworkers, the public face of your company, etc. Then report back here as to the status of your employment in about a week.
Really. Don’t I look like I’m just having a great time?
Every four years the world goes justifiably insane. From Frank Deford…
The Olympics has embraced team sports more and more — but, even with celebrity Dream Teams, the games remain more of a variety show.
By contrast, like it or not, the World Cup is pure, raw, down-and-dirty unadulterated sport at its best. There are no World Cup hymns. There are no podiums for the runners-up. Losers walk.
Last night while eating dinner at the Whole Foods Pasta Bar, we were seated next to a brit, and struck up an amiable dinner conversation between us, him and the chef. “I’m actually a US citizen now,” he said with a noticeable amount of chagrin. “Oh so, Saturday,” I replied, “I guess that’s going to be interesting for you with England vs US?”
“Well on Saturday, respectfully you and your country can get fucked as far as that’s concerned.”
Ah sports, the great unifier. I plan to take the higher ground than our dinner friend: Saturday will find us at Fado or some equally worthy beer-serving establishment, beverage in hand at too early a time in the day, possibly in colonial garb, screaming obscenities at our cousins, the Brits.
