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Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Are Wikileaks and its media mouthpieces being played?

I was not impressed with the earlier Wikileaks revelations (as I wrote about in spiked here), and the latest batch haven’t led me to change my mind. As before, this is a big dump. This time it mostly consists of mundane proceedings, embarrassing personal remarks and confirmations about things we already knew. As Frank Furedi argues in today’s spiked, the news organizations with first access – the […]

More on airport screening

As I noted last week, I believe the airport security routine is excessive and ultimately irrational. And so, of course, I oppose the latest stepping-up in intrusiveness – the new imagining scanners, and the mandatory pat-downs for those who choose to avoid the scanner. But before getting too carried away with the protests against the latest airport […]

GM’s IPO: not a return to former glory

Thumbnail : GM’s IPO: not a return to former glory

General Motors went public again last week, raising $23 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) – the country’s largest ever. The US government’s ownership stake was halved as a result. The successful offering appeared to vindicate the Obama administration’s decision to bail out the struggling automaker in early 2009. For many of those who support free markets […]

“Don’t touch my junk”

Will John Tyner become the latest American folk (mass media) hero for uttering those words? As you will learn from this video, Tyner refused to be scanned by one of the new, full-body Advanced Imaging Technology machines at San Diego airport. He then resisted a TSA agent’s attempt to swipe his hand over his body, including […]

G-20 in Seoul: real conflict, but not a return to the 1930s

Conferences like last week’s G-20 gathering usually produce bland communiques and not much change. But the Seoul summit took this to an extreme: it involved real conflict which the final statement could barely conceal. As I recently described in spiked (here), the ostensible issue has to do with currencies and monetary policy, particularly between the austerity/trade […]

Buffalo: New York’s Midwest city

This video about Buffalo, produced by tourist and preservation groups, is quite impressive and reminded me of a few broader issues. First, we often forget that New York State encompasses what we know as the Midwest. In his New York Times op-ed yesterday, David Brooks argues that the trajectory of American politics is being determined by the working class of the Midwest: If Balzac […]

A protest vote not a Republican revolution

Thumbnail : A protest vote not a Republican revolution

The real lesson of the US midterm elections was that voters have little faith in either party to solve America’s problems. Read my spiked article in full here.

Democrats’ comfortable self-delusions

In today’s New York Times, David Brooks argues that the Democrats are self-worhsipping and self-deluding, and “have done a maginificent job in maintaining their own self-esteem”. Brooks is right on point, and it’s worth quoting him at length: For example, Democrats and their media enablers have paid lavish attention to Christine O’Donnell and Carl Paladino, […]

Juan Williams and illiberal liberalism

National Public Radio’s firing of its reporter and pundit Juan Williams is disturbing for advocates of free expression and debate. NPR is, of course, free to hire and fire whoever they want; Williams did not have a job for life. And, in my opinion, he’s not a particularly insightful commentator. But the circumstances of his firing are problematic. […]

The rent is too damn high

At a seven-candidate debate for governor of New York, Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party stole the show. Here is a video clip of his performance. His catchphrase was remixed into a dance-beat tune, which is catching on quickly. 

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