Respect Authority

Neo-Hooverism is the new buzz word being thrown around by all the new media types. They argue, convincingly, that the GOP’s stonewalling of the auto industry bailout is a renaissance of conservative economic policies championed by President Hoover, who infamously marched us right into the first Great Depression.

Union busting and fiscal “conservatism” aside, if it’s considered neo-Hooverist to question the premise of throwing gargantuan sums of money at an industry that’s been failing for more than a generation and expecting a different result… then maybe neo-Hooverism isn’t such a bad idea after all.

It’s about time I admit that I don’t really understand how anything can be too big to fail. As I understand it, a country is a fairly big and important institution, and yet they fail all the time (Argentina more often than most). Propping up any industry, white or blue collar, is dumb. Governmental intervention in the failure of a major industry shouldn’t be approached with a bailout paradigm - it’s the wrong metaphor. Read More ›

As 2008 draws to a close, more and more attention seems to be getting paid to Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” award. Oh who ever will it be? Will be be a) Obama, or b) someone other than Obama? As we wait with baited breath, let’s step back for a minute and ask ourselves why on earth we give a damn about this arbitrary title from one of print journalism’s most rapidly declining publications.

Remember now, Time used to be a well respected news magazine. They didn’t always pick the fan favorites, giving the now coveted title to Adolf Hitler in 1938, and twice to Joseph Stalin (1939 & 1942). Even as recently as 1996, the prize was awarded to people outside of the public realm such as Dr. David Ho, a pioneer in AIDS research, even acknowledging that “Ho is not, to be sure, a household name. But some people make headlines while others make history” (Ho is not a household name, LOLZ… but I digress). Then… they kind of gave up. “The Whistleblowers,” “The American Solider,” “Bill and Melinda Gates, and Bono”? Time, that is not only grammatically incorrect, it is more than one singular person. Stop rewriting the rules to your own goddamned contest. And then who can forget the epic blunder of 2006. “You,” where they put a computer with a reflective panel on the cover, for people to look at on magazine racks and shout “OH MY GOD, IT’S ME!” That’s about when I stopped reading Time for good.

But there’s something interesting about the race this year. Sure, all signs point to Barack Obama (on Time’s website under “Cons” they include “Hasn’t cured cancer, nor won the world series.” They don’t bring the news anymore, but they sure can still bring the funny! Am I right or am I right?), but maybe that’s just too obvious. And wasn’t the real thrill of the 2008 election that we did it, that it was our hope that brought the Obamas to the White House? And we’ve already been the Man of the Year, so that’s out. Read More ›