or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
January 16, 2005
Some Shockingly Competent Journalism By The New York Times
The New York Times, on Social Security, is almost acting like a newspaper. Not a great newspaper by any means -- just a competent one. Still, given their normal tendencies, even competence is genuinely shocking.
Maybe it shouldn't be, though. The New York Times essentially represents America's non-crazy rich people. And America's non-crazy rich people have always supported Social Security. In fact, they were essential to the creation of Social Security during the Depression. The non-crazy rich realized you couldn't have a modern, industrial economy without it.
Unfortunately, the percentage of America's rich who are crazy has steadily increased since then. Indeed, the New York Times is one of the last strongholds of the non-crazy rich.
These articles are all worth reading:
"The Conservative New Deal"
A primer on what's happening with Social Security.
"Social Security Bashing: A Historic Perspective"
Excellent history of how the crazy rich have, since the 1930s, ALWAYS claimed Social Security was about to go "bankrupt"
"Social Security Agency Is Enlisted to Push Its Own Revision"
An appalling look at the Bush administration's use of the Social Security Administration to lie to Americans... just like they used the CIA to lie to Americans about Iraq's terrifying WMD.
