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20311 [lbo-talk] anti-suburban snobs -- rank: 1000

John Thornton wrote: >Trotting out "Myths of Rich and Poor" is pretty unconvincing >evidence for much. This book is full of deliberately misleading >statistics and lies of omission. It's one of the sleaziest, most dishonest books I've ever seen. Their chapter on mobility was ripped to shreds by Peter Gottschalk, when it appeared as a "essay" in the Dallas Fed's annual report; they reprinted it unchanged in the book. Doug

Document Size:	4937
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 24 18:39:45 PDT 2004

20312 [lbo-talk] anti-Suburban snobs, was petro-thusians -- rank: 1000

<james at communistbanker.com> wrote: > Cheap mass transportation means that working class people have more use > values. If you distort market pricing to represent a guesstimate of > the 'costs of environmental damage' then you will price certain > consumer goods out of the reach of the working class. Regardless of > the merits of the environmentalist case, raising prices is not > progressive, and it implies that the problem is that consumers just > don't get ...

Document Size:	5870
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 24 14:09:32 PDT 2004

20313 [lbo-talk] Eat shit and die, was United against a Pro-War Democrat -- rank: 1000

C. G. Estabrook wrote: >"...won the war of national liberation for the Vietnamese"? Vietnam today >doesn't look much like a country that won such a war. The US achieved its >war aim -- thwarting an example of independent development under domestic >control. The U.S. did horrible things to Vietnam, no doubt about it. But I'm afraid "independent development under domestic control" is nearly impossible. No such thing. The world is too interdependent for that - coun ...

Document Size:	5504
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 24 12:30:45 PDT 2004

20314 [lbo-talk] anti-Suburban snobs, was petro-thusians -- rank: 1000

James Heartfield wrote: >No, Dwayne, you don't get it. >It does not matter what you or I think is the best place for people to live. >It matters what they think is the best place to live. But if the price of transportation isn't adequately reflecting the costs of environmental damage, their choices are based on false information. Of course, I know you think there's no such thing as environmental damage. But most scientists disagree. Doug

Document Size:	5122
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 24 12:28:31 PDT 2004

20315 [lbo-talk] The Candidates, Seen From the Classroom -- rank: 1000

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >The "F" in John F. Kerry stands for Failure in Rhetoric. > >The Candidates, Seen From the Classroom >By STANLEY FISH >Published: September 24, 2004 >CHICAGO This is a really good piece. I especially like this: >If you can't explain an idea or a policy plainly in one or two >sentences, it's not yours; and if it's not yours, no one you speak >to will be persuaded of it, or even know what it is, or (and this is >the real point) know w ...

Document Size:	5421
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 24 12:24:52 PDT 2004

20316 [lbo-talk] Ruy Teixeira on why most of the polls are crap -- rank: 1000

snit snat wrote: >I asked this question awhile ago, hoping Doug would post it to AAPOR. They rarely answer my questions, actually, so I've sorta given up asking them. I think I'm too "ideological" for them. So I'm mostly just a spectator now. Doug

Document Size:	4970
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 24 12:16:49 PDT 2004

20317 [lbo-talk] accuracy of tracking polls -- rank: 1000

Alex Gerdemann wrote: >A while ago someone posted a historical comparison of >final poll results with actual election returns. The >results seemed to indicate that the polling was fairly >accurate. However, I'm wondering what that tells us >about the accuracy of tracking polls. Perhaps >pollsters use larger sample sizes or more rigorous >methodology as the election approaches, but smaller >samples and quicker questions in earlier "tracking" >polls. Has an ...

Document Size:	5646
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 24 06:41:54 PDT 2004

20318 [lbo-talk] China -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >Why do you want one? The Chinese people struggled, but, for the present, >they have lost. Simple enough. What good is an explanation, except >perhaps for antiquarians of the future? It seems a commonplace enough >matter that most revolutions lose. Why should one expect otherwise? >Human history is not a Dick & Jane reader. Wow, an early approximation of an answer. So the failure is just one of those things? It had nothing to do with China's level of developm ...

Document Size:	5083
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 23 16:02:07 PDT 2004

20319 [lbo-talk] Philosophy of Science & Sex, Kink and Ick -- rank: 1000

Curtiss Leung wrote: >Carrol and Doug: > >>> It is really quite absurd to attempt to predict what sexual behavior >>> would be like in post-capitalist society. Mao again, "Marxists have >no >>> crystal ball." >> >> He'd be shocked to learn that China is now the #1 target for foreign >> direct investment, having surpassed the U.S., wouldn't he? Still >> waiting for that analysis of what went wrong with his revolution. > ...

Document Size:	5887
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 23 15:58:49 PDT 2004

20320 [lbo-talk] Ruy Teixeira on why most of the polls are crap -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >Doug: >> But they're supposed to compensate for this in the weighting scheme, >> or at least try to. >> > >Doug, I think you put too much confidence in this whole business. Not really - that's why I said "supposed to." Election polls do have a pretty rigorous real-world test - the comparison of final results with actual votes (assuming those are counted more or less correctly). We'll soon see if this year's are any worse than earli ...

Document Size:	5342
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 23 15:53:58 PDT 2004

20321 [lbo-talk] miracle bra! -- rank: 1000

Since I do a radio talk show, I get al kinds of press releases promoting possible guests - a few of them useful, most of them crap. Here's a delight. Noramlly I delete contact info to spare the guilty, but this is so dumb they deserve what they get. Gives new meaning to lap dancing. Doug ---- >NEW BRA ENLARGES YOUR BREASTS WHILE YOU JOG >New workout bra allows women to increase their breast size while >they improve lap times. This bra really works! Listener give-aways. >Call 727-447- ...

Document Size:	5061
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 23 12:51:26 PDT 2004

20322 [lbo-talk] Ruy Teixeira on why most of the polls are crap -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >Yes. Telephone polls tend to "oversample" older people who tend to stay >home, and these tend to be more conservative and pro-republican. Main >reasons are that younger people are more mobile, they tend to move more >frequently and thus have specific phone numbers registered in their names >changed or disconnected, they also more likely not to have land lines >altogether and use only cell phones. But they're supposed to compensate for this ...

Document Size:	5335
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 23 09:27:53 PDT 2004

20323 [lbo-talk] Ruy Teixeira on why most of the polls are crap -- rank: 1000

Seth Ackerman wrote: >I understand why a bad LV screen would give a skewed finding. But why would >Gallup consistently get so many Republicans in their RV sample? Is there >some reason why Republicans are more likely to answer the phone when Gallup >calls? Look forward to an answer to that Q in the next LBO, now in preparation. Doug

Document Size:	5059
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 23 09:20:06 PDT 2004

20324 [lbo-talk] Brando update -- rank: 1000

New York Post [Page Six] - September 22, 2004 BRANDO: WEIRDER THAN EVER AFTER he died last July, Marlon Brando's ashes were mixed together with those of his long-rumored lover Wally Cox and scat tered in Death Valley. Apparently Brando had kept Cox's ashes around since the star of the "Mr. Peepers" TV show, who was once his roommate, died in 1973. That wasn't Brando's only bizarre relationship. He was a frequent guest at Michael Jackson's Never land ranch. "The last time my father ...

Document Size:	5508
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 23 07:20:33 PDT 2004

20325 [lbo-talk] Philosophy of Science & Sex, Kink and Ick -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >A major form of bourgeois art is devoted (how self-consciously I do not >know) to dramatizing the ease with which the "superior part" of society >can rise above the rest by transcending capitalism in their private >life. That is the essential thrust, for example, of _Lost in >Translation_, in which the central protagonists float easily above the >"alienated" world about them, engendering similar illusions (or >delusions) in the audience ...

Document Size:	6046
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 23 06:31:44 PDT 2004