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7246 [lbo-talk] negative freedoms -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 5:15 PM, James Heartfield wrote: > Negative freedoms at least have the virtue of creating the room for > you to do what you want to do, whereas 'positive freedoms' seem too > often to entail the freedom to do what someone else thinks that you > should do. Wait a minute. I thought "positive freedoms" were those you could exercise because you're well-nourished, well-housed, and well- educated, and so have a lot more of a chance actually to do something t ...

Document Size:	5063
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 14:28:18 PDT 2008

7247 [lbo-talk] bad for the party? -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 4:43 PM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > Were not people saying the same in the 1960s and > 1970s? And then we got the "Reagan revolution." > > I think that the best predictor of the popular > attitudes is the economy. If it is growing, everyone > has high expectations about the future and becomes > more receptive of liberal ideas. It it is going south, > people get scared, bitter, close in thier ranks and > adopt reactionary ideas. But that' ...

Document Size:	5525
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 13:56:18 PDT 2008

7248 [lbo-talk] bad for the party? -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 4:15 PM, Dennis Perrin wrote: > Still, they're > probably good about queer marriage, so there's that. But that's probably a good proxy for a whole lot of other social attitudes. A very good thing. And here's what Matthew Dowd, Bush's chief strategist in 2004, said to the NYT today about same-sex marriage: "At best, it doesn't move voters, and at worst for Republicans, it moves them against them. Not so much on the issue, but it becomes, 'Why are we having a dis ...

Document Size:	5111
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 13:34:31 PDT 2008

7249 [lbo-talk] help fund a Grace Paley biopic -- rank: 1000

[from David McReynolds] I'm sending this short note to pretty much all my lists. For those of you getting this, I was able to watch an 18 minute beginning to a film about Grace Paley, to be called: Grace Paley: Collected Shorts. For those who don't know who Grace Paley was (she died last August), visit your bookstore. Grace's voice was unique - as was her life. Many of us in the peace movement and the women's movement count it as a privilege to say we were arrested with her. Lilly Rivlin n ...

Document Size:	6293
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 12:59:26 PDT 2008

7250 [lbo-talk] bad for the party? -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 3:07 PM, Dennis Perrin wrote: > Yes, yes -- but don't romanticize the young out in these parts, or > in my old > stomping grounds of central Indiana. There are plenty of young > reactionaries, and their demographic is fed things like mixed > martial arts > and fundamentalist Christianity. I see it every day. It depresses > the hell > out of me. For sure. I said things are getting better, no more.

Document Size:	4996
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 12:16:06 PDT 2008

7251 [lbo-talk] bad for the party? -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 2:40 PM, Dennis Perrin wrote: > Doug: > > "It may well be that the country just isn't as > conservative as it was 20 years ago, and is getting less so all the > time." > > Man, I wish that were true. Depends on how you define > "conservative," I > suppose. Well, less friendly to war, less exercised by same-sex marriage, less hostile towards poor people, more secular. It's partly demographic - younger people are less conservativ ...

Document Size:	5212
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 11:53:28 PDT 2008

7252 [lbo-talk] bad for the party? -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 1:14 PM, Marvin Gandall wrote: > Charles Brown writes: > >> Funny thing is, I have almost never watched cable news or Fox until >> I started tracking this campaign. I may be a maniac and naive >> dreamer, >> but I get this feel that the right is on the defensive. > ============================ > Seems so... > > * * * > The Republican Panic > Wall Street Journal editorial > May 15, 2008 Not to mention this, from Peggy N ...

Document Size:	13688
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 11:34:44 PDT 2008

7253 [lbo-talk] stupid press release of the day: don't save that stimulus check, spend it! -- rank: 1000

From: "Frank W. Martin" <martinf at PlannedTVArts.com> Date: May 16, 2008 10:09:00 AM EDT To: <dhenwood at panix.com> Subject: Small Business & Stimulus Checks Hello, A recent article on Newsweek.com suggested that the number one way to spend the stimulus check from the government was to pay down debt. But is that really a good way to grow the economy? If you like to shop, score bargains and receive personal service, using your stimulus check to pay down debt could ...

Document Size:	8806
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 10:03:36 PDT 2008

7254 [lbo-talk] practical libertarianism -- rank: 1000

[from today's blast from The Von Mises Institute, on the possibility of giving aid to Burma and China] But whether it is termed disaster relief or food relief, it is still foreign aid funded by the forced looting of American taxpayers and given to countries that most Americans can't locate on a map and in many cases have never even heard of.

Document Size:	4844
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 07:18:43 PDT 2008

7255 [lbo-talk] BHO & working-class whites -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 8:19 AM, Andy F wrote: >> You think you can undo foundational myths with rational argument? >> Good luck. > > That's the kind of thing Chomsky's good at, although he has a way of > overestimating the potential of careful explanation. > > How did you come around? Actually that's one of the problems I have with Chomsky, as much as I admire him. The power of fact-checking and rational argument is limited - and not just on foundational myths. We had a ...

Document Size:	6071
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 05:36:40 PDT 2008

7256 [lbo-talk] BHO & working-class whites -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 6:25 AM, Jerry Monaco wrote: > But they can't > even engage the idea that the U.S. is a terrorist nation. Until > they can > hear this, until they can unlearn their nationalist education they > are lost > to the kind of politics that can help to turn the U.S. around. You think you can undo foundational myths with rational argument? Good luck.

Document Size:	5006
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 04:51:39 PDT 2008

7257 [lbo-talk] Labor Solidarity Event for Imprisoned Bus Drivers inTehran\Iran: Tues June 3 in NYC -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2008, at 5:20 AM, Chris Doss wrote: > Maybe Carrol has a crush? That would be sweet. The libido never dies, does it? Doug

Document Size:	5232
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 16 04:50:06 PDT 2008

7258 [lbo-talk] Labor Solidarity Event for Imprisoned Bus Drivers inTehran\Iran: Tues June 3 in NYC -- rank: 1000

On May 15, 2008, at 6:48 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Doug and Lou almost never argued with the content of Yoshie's posts -- > they merely called her names for jposting them. Why they have to > keep on > making stupid sneers after she has left the lists is a mystery. > Perhaps > Pope's portrait of Atticus explains Doug. He has a hard time > tolerating > those who do not hold him in awe. If that were true, I'd have booted your grumpy ass long ago. On the first, factual point, y ...

Document Size:	5803
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu May 15 15:58:43 PDT 2008

7259 [lbo-talk] CPI up only 0.2 per cent -- rank: 1000

On May 15, 2008, at 2:03 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > Does that take into account how much different the food supply is > today > than it was 30 years ago, or is it just energy and transportation > costs? > I mean, a good portion of the US pretty much _eats_ oil three times > daily. In 1959, it was 7% on energy, 25% on food, for a total of 32%. That fell to 6% and 21% in 1972, a total of 27%. It peaked at 9/20/29% in 1981. Troughed at 4/14/18% in 2001. In the first quarter of '0 ...

Document Size:	5198
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu May 15 11:26:08 PDT 2008

7260 [lbo-talk] CPI up only 0.2 per cent -- rank: 1000

On May 15, 2008, at 1:44 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > Well, I guess we get to see what it's like without the carrot, eh? Yeah, and it's not so good. Though the impact on household budgets is considerably smaller (so far) than it was in the 1979-81 spike. And the current energy share of consumption expenditures is about where it was in the 1950s. It fell into the first oil shock, rose through the 70s, fell in the 80s and 90s, and is back up again over the last four years or so. It'd take $20 ...

Document Size:	5106
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu May 15 10:54:12 PDT 2008