The Daily Crisis
- Thread starter Big P
- Start date
Big P
Well-Known Member
Cash-strapped California considers legalizing sports gambling...
Stimulus Slammed: Republican Senators Release Report Alleging Waste...
Students paid with taxpayer money -- to lobby for more taxpayer money...
AZ SHERIFF: 'OUR OWN GOVERNMENT HAS BECOME OUR ENEMY'
Mexican drug cartel puts $1M bounty on Sheriff Joe's head...
NEW LOW FOR O: USATODAYGALLUP HAS OBAMA APPROVE AT 41%...
Stimulus Slammed: Republican Senators Release Report Alleging Waste...
Students paid with taxpayer money -- to lobby for more taxpayer money...
AZ SHERIFF: 'OUR OWN GOVERNMENT HAS BECOME OUR ENEMY'
Mexican drug cartel puts $1M bounty on Sheriff Joe's head...
NEW LOW FOR O: USATODAYGALLUP HAS OBAMA APPROVE AT 41%...
PussymOneyWeed
Well-Known Member
hmmm a million dollar bounty? you know hes going bye bye soon. Im sure somebody in texas/mexico wants that money bad enough.
PussymOneyWeed
Well-Known Member
^LOL right
Big P
Well-Known Member
'Solar Tsunami' to Strike Earth Tonight...
- August 03, 2010
Solar Tsunami to Strike Earth Tonight
The Sun's surface erupted early Sunday morning, blasting tons of plasma into interplanetary space -- directly towards the Earth.
That wall of ionized atoms should hit the planet tonight, say scientists, creating a geomagnetic storm and a spectacular light show and possibly threatening satellites in orbit.
"This eruption is directed right at us and is expected to get here early in the day on Aug. 4th," said Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "It's the first major Earth-directed eruption in quite some time."
The solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, was spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which captures high-definition views of the sun at a variety of wavelengths. SDO was launched in February and peers deep into the layers of the sun, investigating the mysteries of its inner workings.
"We got a beautiful view of this eruption," Golub said. "And there might be more beautifulviews to come if it triggers aurorae."
Views of aurorae are usually associated with Canada and Alaska, but even skywatchers in the northern U.S. mainland are being told they can look toward the north Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for rippling "curtains" of green and red light.
When a coronal mass ejection reaches Earth, solar particles stream down our planet's magnetic field lines toward the poles. In the process, the particles collide with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere, which then glow, creating an effect similar to miniature neon signs.
The interaction of the solar particles with our planet's magnetic field has the potential to create geomagnetic storms, or disturbances in Earth's magnetosphere. And while aurorae are normally visible only at high latitudes, they can light up the sky even at lower latitudes during a geomagnetic storm.
The solar particles could also affect satellites, though scientists think that possibility is remote. Orbital Sciences Corp. believe a similar blast may have been knocked its Galaxy 15 satellite permanently out of action.
The sun's activityusually ebbs and flows on a fairly predictable cycle. Typically, a cycle lasts about 11 years, taking roughly 5.5 years to move from a solar minimum, a period of time when there are few sunspots, to peak at the solar maximum, during which sunspot
activity is amplified.
The last solar maximum occurred in 2001. The latest minimum was particularly weak and long- lasting. The most recent solar eruption is one of the first signs that the sun is waking up and heading toward another maximum.
Louis541
Well-Known Member
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/crime/2010-03-18/story/jacksonville_jury_wants_death_penalty_for_womans_slaying
Whoa, I kicked this kids ass in high school for hitting a girl. I guess the lesson didn't get through....
Whoa, I kicked this kids ass in high school for hitting a girl. I guess the lesson didn't get through....
blazin256
Well-Known Member
court requiring you to attend AA and NA classes is unconstitutional...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/08/BA99S1AKQ.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/08/BA99S1AKQ.DTL
Louis541
Well-Known Member
Yeah. It was funny as hell. I tore his ass up in the cafeteria. Anyone remember a long ass time ago I made a thread about how I got robbed. I used to be good friends with the dude who ripped me off. In the middle of senior year the upstanding gentlemen on death row in my last post hit his girlfriend. And my friend just stood there, talking about how Randy (The murderer) as a punk bitch. I even asked him if he was gonna stand there and let that happen.
Long story short, after I got him to take a swing, I body slammed him into a lunch table.
Just glad he didn't fuckin stab me. This was only like, three and a half years ago.
Long story short, after I got him to take a swing, I body slammed him into a lunch table.
Just glad he didn't fuckin stab me. This was only like, three and a half years ago.
Big P
Well-Known Member
Faltering US recovery trips dollar
By Jack Farchy in London and Alan Beattie in Washington
Published: August 3 2010 18:31 | Last updated: August 3 2010 19:49
The dollar has fallen to multi-month lows against the worlds major currencies as investors bet that evidence of a faltering US recovery will lead to further monetary easing by the Federal Reserve.
Currency traders said expectations of looser US monetary policy raised the prospect of a return of the so-called dollar carry trade, in which investors take advantage of low US interest rates to invest in higher-yielding currencies.
By Jack Farchy in London and Alan Beattie in Washington
Published: August 3 2010 18:31 | Last updated: August 3 2010 19:49
The dollar has fallen to multi-month lows against the worlds major currencies as investors bet that evidence of a faltering US recovery will lead to further monetary easing by the Federal Reserve.
Currency traders said expectations of looser US monetary policy raised the prospect of a return of the so-called dollar carry trade, in which investors take advantage of low US interest rates to invest in higher-yielding currencies.
Big P
Well-Known Member
Big P
Well-Known Member
Girlfriend of Hartford Shooter Speaks Out
Girlfriend of Connecticut Gunman Who Killed 9: Racial Harassment 'Would Make Somebody Go Crazy'
By EMILY FRIEDMAN, LEE FERRAN and JASON STINE
Aug. 5, 2010 —
The girlfriend of the man who gunned down eight people before turning the gun on himself at a Connecticut beer distributorship Tuesday said she heard evidence of enough racial harassment the man had allegedly suffered at work to drive someone "crazy."
"He said every day when he'd come in, there'd be new stuff on the [bathroom] wall," Kristi Hannah told "Good Morning America."
"One was a hangman with a noose around his neck and underneath it said, 'Kill the n-word.'"
Hannah, who said she was gunman Omar Thornton's girlfriend for nine years, said he showed her cell phone pictures of the racial slurs written in the bathroom.
"I know what I seen on that wall and that picture and that would make somebody go crazy," she said. "If they keep doing it to somebody over and over and over and over and over. And I know that was happening to him because no one just wakes up one day and does that."
Company and union officials have said they were unaware of any harassment.
Hannah's comments came in stark contrast to those made on panicked 911 calls during the 45 minute rampage which were released Wednesday.
"Someone got shot, I got shot," Steven Hollander, the vice president of Hartford Distributors, told a 911 operator as he hid in his office. "We need the cops."
Hollander told the operator he knew the gunman.
"His name is Omar Thornton. He's a black guy, and get the cops here right away, I'm bleeding all over the place," Hollander said. "We need cops right away."
Hollander is believed to be one of the first of Thornton's victims and one of the few to survive after being shot. He was treated at a Hartford hospital for a gunshot wound to his neck.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO STEVE HOLLANDER'S 911 CALL
Thornton opened fire right after meeting with Hollander, 50, who had given him a choice either to be fired or quit. Thornton had been trailed by a private investigator hired by the company after he was suspected of stealing alcohol from the distributor, police said.
In the 911 call, Hollander described a scene of complete chaos.
"There are people running all over the place," he said. "He's running, he's shooting at someone else, he's still shooting. He's still running after people, he's not leaving."
"Oh, s***, he's still shooting, I hear guns out there," Hollander said. "He's in the parking lot shooting people, he's carrying a red lunch bag."
When the 911 operator asked Hollander if the gunman had worked at the distributor, Hollander said, "Yeah, 'til I just fired him."
"Today, just now, before he started shooting," Hollander said. "He's chasing people in the parking lot."
One woman told emergency dispatchers she was hiding in a storage closet, crying for help and repeating "Oh my God, Oh my God."
Thornton passed over several people during the rampage inside and around the distributor, according to Manchester Police Lt. Chris Davis, who said Wednesday authorities believe the first few victims were likely targeted.
Davis declined to specify who the first of Thornton's victims were, but said that many of those who were killed were "executives" or "higher level" employees. All of those who were shot were 49 or older.
Recounting the Shooting
The first of Thornton's victims were found right outside the kitchenette where authorities believe he had stowed two handguns in a red metal lunchbox.
At one point, Thornton chased two people outside of the building and shot them, said Davis. He shot through a glass window to reenter the building, which was locked, and continued shooting.
The first 911 call was received just before 7:30 a.m., according to Davis.
When authorities arrived just three minutes later, the scene was "chaotic" and the walls of the massive distributorship were hard to navigate because of the stacks of liquor cartons that created makeshift hallways.
"We got calls from people under their desks and hiding in their offices," said Davis. "He really went through the whole building in a fairly short amount of time."
One of the 911 calls was made by an unidentified woman who was crying as she told the operator what Thornton looked like.
"He's a tall black guy, he's like the only lack guy who works here almost," the woman told the operator. "Come get me."
Another unidentified man called 911 and told operators that he knew people were dead.
"I know for a fact two people are dead in here. In the hallway, they were both shot right in the head," the man said.
Police eventually found Thornton, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, in a corner office on the southwest side of the building.
Thornton had signed a one-line resignation letter after he was confronted with video surveillance evidence that showed him stealing alcohol from the distributor. A moment later, Thornton requested a drink of water and went to a nearby kitchenette where Davis said he had stowed his weapon-packed lunchbox.
Hartford Distributors Shootings: Details Emerge About Gunman Omar Thornton
Thornton used two 9mm handguns during the attack, and authorities later found another shotgun and extra clip of ammunition in his car. Davis said that it is believed the three guns were purchased at an East Windsor gun store. Hoffman's Gun Center, a store in East Windsor, is listed on Thornton's Facebook page.
Wilbert Holliday, Thornton's uncle, told ABC News that he didn't think the shooting was random and that his nephew had complained about racial discrimination at work.
Holliday said that Thornton called his mother after the shooting spree and talked to her for about ten minutes, telling her, "I killed the racists that were bothering me."
According to Holliday, Thornton had filed complaints with the Teamsters union about alleged racial harassment and had pictures on his cell phone of the N-word and a hangman's noose scrawled on a bathroom wall at Hartford Distributors.
Union representatives strongly denied the allegations.
Gregg Adler, a union attorney, said Thornton had never filed a harassment complaint with the union, but had filed a separate grievance that had been settled in his favor regarding insufficient training. Adler said that it was clear Thornton knew the protocol for filing a complaint.
Asked about the union's denials that Thornton had filed a complaint, Holliday said, "Of course they're going to say that."
The newest employee of the distributorship's 65 drivers, Thornton began shooting at what would have been one of the busiest times of day at the warehouse.
"It couldn't have been a worse time of day," said John Hollis of the Teamsters Union. "The day shift was coming in and the office staff was all there. It was the time of day where the most employees would be in the building."
Connecticut Shootings: Chaos as Gunman Prowled Hartford Beer Distributorship
Davis said authorities believe about 50 people were in the building at the time of the shooting.
Early Wednesday Manchester police released the names of those who died in the shooting. Among the dead are 57-year-old Francis Fazio Jr., 56-year-old Douglas Scruton, 49-year-old Edwin Kennison, 51-year-old William Ackerman, 51-year-old Bryan Cirigliano, 60-year-old Craig Pepin, 50-year-old Louis Felder Jr. and 61-year-old Victor James.
Police listed two men survived gunshot wounds. In addition to Steven Hollander, 77-year-old Jerome Rosenstein is in critical condition at Hartford Hospital.
ABC News' Clarissa Ward contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures
Big P
Well-Known Member
Big P
Well-Known Member
UPDATE: Court overturns California gay marriage ban...
Medical Marijuana Sold at Discount Rate to DC's Poor...
San Jose becomes latest California city to vote on marijuana tax...
Man fatally stabs friend, drinks blood...
Man Killed At Anti-Violence Event...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Churchill 'banned UFO report to avoid mass panic'...
'Eisenhower agreed'...
Telegraph.co.uk
UFO files: Winston Churchill 'feared panic' over Second World War RAF incident
Winston Churchill was accused of ordering a cover-up of a Second World War encounter between a UFO and a RAF bomber because he feared public "panic" and loss of faith in religion, newly released secret files disclose.
By Andrew Hough, and Peter Hutchison
Published: 12:01AM BST 05 Aug 2010
4 Comments
Link to this video
* Do you know the scientist who wrote to the Ministry of Defence? If so please contact us on either [email protected] or the newsdesk 0207 931 2500 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0207 931 2500 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
The former Prime Minister allegedly banned reporting of the “bizarre” incident, off the east coast of England, for half a century amid fears disclosures about unidentified flying objects would create public hysteria.
He is said to have made the orders during a secret war meeting with US General Dwight Eisenhower, the then commander of the Allied Forces, at an undisclosed location in America during the latter part of the conflict.
The claims are contained in thousands of pages of declassified files on UFOs, released on Thursday online by the National Archives.
The 18 files, which cover from 1995 to 2003, are made up of more than 5,000 pages of reports, letters, and drawings drawn from correspondence with the public and questions raised in parliament.
The allegations involving Churchill were made by the grandson of one his personal bodyguards, an RAF officer who overheard the discussion, who wrote to the Ministry of Defence in 1999 inquiring about the incident after his grandfather disclosed details to his family.
According to the series of letters, written by the guard's grandson who is now a physicist from Leicester, a reconnaissance plane and its crew were returning from a mission over occupied Europe when they were involved in the war incident.
During their flight, on the English coast, possibly near Cumbria, their aircraft was approached by a metallic UFO which shadowed them.
Photographs of the object, which the crew claimed had “hovered noiselessly” near the plane, were taken by the crew.
Later, during discussions about the unexplained incident, the two men were claimed to have become so concerned by the incident that Churchill ordered it remain secret for 50 years or more.
During the meeting, a weapons expert dismissed suggestions the object was a missile as the event was "totally beyond any imagined capabilities of the time".
Another person at the meeting raised the possibility of a UFO, at which point Churchill ordered the report to be classified for at least half a century and reviewed by the prime minister to stop “panic” spreading.
“There was a general inability for either side to match a plausible account to these observations, and this caused a high degree of concern,” wrote the scientist, whose details are redacted.
"Mr Churchill is reported to have made a declaration to the effect of the following: 'This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic among the general population and destroy one's belief in the Church'."
Apart from telling his daughter – the scientist’s mother – about the incident when she was nine, the bodyguard, who was “greatly affected by his experience”, only disclosed the details to his wife on his deathbed in 1973.
The scientist, also an expert in astronomy who said he developed software for use in "spacecraft thermal engineering", was told years later by his mother.
Stressing he was not a “crackpot”, he said he wanted to investigate the science behind the incident after his grandfather, who was bound by the Official Secrets Act, remained convinced that the object was secret technology being tested by a foreign power.
After investigating the claims, an MoD official said there was no evidence to support the claims as all “UFO files before 1967 were destroyed after five years” due to insufficient public interest. This was supported by a Cabinet Office official.
While there was documents supporting the events, historians last night believed it more than likely occurred.
They said that Churchill had a known interest with UFOs, even asking for a report in 1952 on “flying saucers” and what it “amounted to”.
Dr David Clarke, author of The UFO files and Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, said the “fascinating” files showed the level of concern about such “bizarre incidents” during the war.
“It does tie in with what we already know as you have to remember that this was also long before the phrase UFO was created,” he said.
“I suspect there is an element of truth to the statement.”
Medical Marijuana Sold at Discount Rate to DC's Poor...
San Jose becomes latest California city to vote on marijuana tax...
Man fatally stabs friend, drinks blood...
Man Killed At Anti-Violence Event...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Churchill 'banned UFO report to avoid mass panic'...
'Eisenhower agreed'...
Telegraph.co.uk
UFO files: Winston Churchill 'feared panic' over Second World War RAF incident
Winston Churchill was accused of ordering a cover-up of a Second World War encounter between a UFO and a RAF bomber because he feared public "panic" and loss of faith in religion, newly released secret files disclose.
By Andrew Hough, and Peter Hutchison
Published: 12:01AM BST 05 Aug 2010
4 Comments
Link to this video
* Do you know the scientist who wrote to the Ministry of Defence? If so please contact us on either [email protected] or the newsdesk 0207 931 2500 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0207 931 2500 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
The former Prime Minister allegedly banned reporting of the “bizarre” incident, off the east coast of England, for half a century amid fears disclosures about unidentified flying objects would create public hysteria.
He is said to have made the orders during a secret war meeting with US General Dwight Eisenhower, the then commander of the Allied Forces, at an undisclosed location in America during the latter part of the conflict.
The claims are contained in thousands of pages of declassified files on UFOs, released on Thursday online by the National Archives.
The 18 files, which cover from 1995 to 2003, are made up of more than 5,000 pages of reports, letters, and drawings drawn from correspondence with the public and questions raised in parliament.
The allegations involving Churchill were made by the grandson of one his personal bodyguards, an RAF officer who overheard the discussion, who wrote to the Ministry of Defence in 1999 inquiring about the incident after his grandfather disclosed details to his family.
According to the series of letters, written by the guard's grandson who is now a physicist from Leicester, a reconnaissance plane and its crew were returning from a mission over occupied Europe when they were involved in the war incident.
During their flight, on the English coast, possibly near Cumbria, their aircraft was approached by a metallic UFO which shadowed them.
Photographs of the object, which the crew claimed had “hovered noiselessly” near the plane, were taken by the crew.
Later, during discussions about the unexplained incident, the two men were claimed to have become so concerned by the incident that Churchill ordered it remain secret for 50 years or more.
During the meeting, a weapons expert dismissed suggestions the object was a missile as the event was "totally beyond any imagined capabilities of the time".
Another person at the meeting raised the possibility of a UFO, at which point Churchill ordered the report to be classified for at least half a century and reviewed by the prime minister to stop “panic” spreading.
“There was a general inability for either side to match a plausible account to these observations, and this caused a high degree of concern,” wrote the scientist, whose details are redacted.
"Mr Churchill is reported to have made a declaration to the effect of the following: 'This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic among the general population and destroy one's belief in the Church'."
Apart from telling his daughter – the scientist’s mother – about the incident when she was nine, the bodyguard, who was “greatly affected by his experience”, only disclosed the details to his wife on his deathbed in 1973.
The scientist, also an expert in astronomy who said he developed software for use in "spacecraft thermal engineering", was told years later by his mother.
Stressing he was not a “crackpot”, he said he wanted to investigate the science behind the incident after his grandfather, who was bound by the Official Secrets Act, remained convinced that the object was secret technology being tested by a foreign power.
After investigating the claims, an MoD official said there was no evidence to support the claims as all “UFO files before 1967 were destroyed after five years” due to insufficient public interest. This was supported by a Cabinet Office official.
While there was documents supporting the events, historians last night believed it more than likely occurred.
They said that Churchill had a known interest with UFOs, even asking for a report in 1952 on “flying saucers” and what it “amounted to”.
Dr David Clarke, author of The UFO files and Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, said the “fascinating” files showed the level of concern about such “bizarre incidents” during the war.
“It does tie in with what we already know as you have to remember that this was also long before the phrase UFO was created,” he said.
“I suspect there is an element of truth to the statement.”
Big P
Well-Known Member
JULY UNEMPLOYMENT -131,000 JOBS... Gov't revised payrolls for May and June show 97,000 fewer jobs than previously reported...
Odd mix of bad news...
WELCOME TO THE RECOVERY
BAIL OUT: Top Economic Adviser To Leave White House...
And out-of-touch leaders don't see the need to cool things off.
It is, obviously, self-referential to quote yourself, but I do it to make a point. I wrote the following on New Year's day, 1994. America 16 years ago was a relatively content nation, though full of political sparks: 10 months later the Republicans would take the House for the first time in 40 years. But beneath all the action was, I thought, a coming unease. Something inside was telling us we were living through "not the placid dawn of a peaceful age but the illusory calm before stern storms."
The temperature in the world was very high. "At home certain trendscrime, cultural tension, some cultural Balkanizationwill, we fear, continue; some will worsen. In my darker moments I have a bad hunch. The fraying of the bonds that keep us together, the strangeness and anomie of our popular culture, the increase in walled communities . . . the rising radicalism of the politically correct . . . the increased demand of all levels of government for the money of the people, the spotty success with which we are communicating to the young America's reason for being and founding beliefs, the growth of cities where English is becoming the second language . . . these things may well come together at some point in our lifetimes and produce something painful indeed. I can imagine, for instance, in the year 2020 or so, a movement in some states to break away from the union. Which would bring about, of course, a drama of Lincolnian darkness. . . . You will know that things have reached a bad pass when Newsweek and Time, if they still exist 15 years from now, do cover stories on a surprising, and disturbing trend: aging baby boomers leaving America, taking what savings they have to live the rest of their lives in places like Africa and Ireland."
View Full Image
Barbara Kelley
I thought of this again the other day when Drudge headlined increasing lines in London for Americans trading in their passports over tax issues, and the sale of Newsweek for $1.
Our problems as a nation have been growing on us for a long time. Their future growth, and the implications of that growth, could be predicted. But there is one thing that is both new since 1994 and huge. It took hold and settled in after the crash of 2008, but its causes were not limited to the crash.
The biggest political change in my lifetime is that Americans no longer assume that their children will have it better than they did. This is a huge break with the past, with assumptions and traditions that shaped us.
The country I was born into was a country that had existed steadily, for almost two centuries, as a nation in which everyone thoughtwherever they were from, whatever their circumstancesthat their children would have better lives than they did. That was what kept people pulling their boots on in the morning after the first weary pause: My kids will have it better. They'll be richer or more educated, they'll have a better job or a better house, they'll take a step up in terms of rank, class or status. America always claimed to be, and meant to be, a nation that made little of class. But America is human. "The richest family in town," they said, admiringly. Read Booth Tarkington on turn-of-the-last-century Indiana. It's all about trying to rise.
Parents now fear something has stopped. They think they lived through the great abundance, a time of historic growth in wealth and material enjoyment. They got it, and they enjoyed it, and their kids did, too: a lot of toys in that age, a lot of Xboxes and iPhones. (Who is the most self-punishing person in America right now? The person who didn't do well during the abundance.) But they look around, follow the political stories and debates, and deep down they think their children will live in a more limited country, that jobs won't be made at a great enough pace, that taxestoo many people in the cart, not enough pulling itwill dishearten them, that the effects of 30 years of a low, sad culture will leave the whole country messed up. And then there is the world: nuts with nukes, etc.
Optimists think that if we manage to turn a few things around, their kids may have it . . . almost as good. The country they inherit may be . . . almost as good. And it's kind of a shock to think like this; pessimism isn't in our DNA. But it isn't pessimism, really, it's a kind of tough knowingness, combined, in most cases, with a daily, personal commitment to keep plugging.
But do our political leaders have any sense of what people are feeling deep down? They don't act as if they do. I think their detachment from how normal people think is more dangerous and disturbing than it has been in the past. I started noticing in the 1980s, the growing gulf between the country's thought leaders, as they're calledthe political and media class, the universitiesand those living what for lack of a better word we'll call normal lives on the ground in America. The two groups were agitated by different things, concerned about different things, had different focuses, different world views.
But I've never seen the gap wider than it is now. I think it is a chasm. In Washington they don't seem to be looking around and thinking, Hmmm, this nation is in trouble, it needs help. They're thinking something else. I'm not sure they understand the American Dream itself needs a boost, needs encouragement and protection. They don't seem to know or have a sense of the mood of the country.
And so they make their moves, manipulate this issue and that, and keep things at a high boil. And this at a time when people are already in about as much hot water as they can take.
To take just one example from the past 10 days, the federal government continues its standoff with the state of Arizona over how to handle illegal immigration. The point of view of our thought leaders is, in general, that borders that are essentially open are good, or not so bad. The point of view of those on the ground who are anxious about our nation's future, however, is different, more like: "We live in a welfare state and we've just expanded health care. Unemployment's up. Could we sort of calm down, stop illegal immigration, and absorb what we've got?" No is, in essence, the answer.
An irony here is that if we stopped the illegal flow and removed the sense of emergency it generates, comprehensive reform would, in time, follow. Because we're not going to send the estimated 10 million to 15 million illegals already here back. We're not going to put sobbing children on a million buses. That would not be in our nature. (Do our leaders even know what's in our nature?) As years passed, those here would be absorbed, and everyone in the country would come to see the benefit of integrating them fully into the tax system. So it's ironic that our leaders don't do what in the end would get them what they say they want, which is comprehensive reform.
When the adults of a great nation feel long-term pessimism, it only makes matters worse when those in authority take actions that reveal their detachment from the concernseven from the essential natureof their fellow citizens. And it makes those citizens feel powerless.
Inner pessimism and powerlessness: That is a dangerous combination.
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Odd mix of bad news...
WELCOME TO THE RECOVERY
BAIL OUT: Top Economic Adviser To Leave White House...
-
- AUGUST 6, 2010
And out-of-touch leaders don't see the need to cool things off.
- By PEGGY NOONAN
It is, obviously, self-referential to quote yourself, but I do it to make a point. I wrote the following on New Year's day, 1994. America 16 years ago was a relatively content nation, though full of political sparks: 10 months later the Republicans would take the House for the first time in 40 years. But beneath all the action was, I thought, a coming unease. Something inside was telling us we were living through "not the placid dawn of a peaceful age but the illusory calm before stern storms."
The temperature in the world was very high. "At home certain trendscrime, cultural tension, some cultural Balkanizationwill, we fear, continue; some will worsen. In my darker moments I have a bad hunch. The fraying of the bonds that keep us together, the strangeness and anomie of our popular culture, the increase in walled communities . . . the rising radicalism of the politically correct . . . the increased demand of all levels of government for the money of the people, the spotty success with which we are communicating to the young America's reason for being and founding beliefs, the growth of cities where English is becoming the second language . . . these things may well come together at some point in our lifetimes and produce something painful indeed. I can imagine, for instance, in the year 2020 or so, a movement in some states to break away from the union. Which would bring about, of course, a drama of Lincolnian darkness. . . . You will know that things have reached a bad pass when Newsweek and Time, if they still exist 15 years from now, do cover stories on a surprising, and disturbing trend: aging baby boomers leaving America, taking what savings they have to live the rest of their lives in places like Africa and Ireland."
View Full Image
Barbara Kelley
I thought of this again the other day when Drudge headlined increasing lines in London for Americans trading in their passports over tax issues, and the sale of Newsweek for $1.
Our problems as a nation have been growing on us for a long time. Their future growth, and the implications of that growth, could be predicted. But there is one thing that is both new since 1994 and huge. It took hold and settled in after the crash of 2008, but its causes were not limited to the crash.
The biggest political change in my lifetime is that Americans no longer assume that their children will have it better than they did. This is a huge break with the past, with assumptions and traditions that shaped us.
The country I was born into was a country that had existed steadily, for almost two centuries, as a nation in which everyone thoughtwherever they were from, whatever their circumstancesthat their children would have better lives than they did. That was what kept people pulling their boots on in the morning after the first weary pause: My kids will have it better. They'll be richer or more educated, they'll have a better job or a better house, they'll take a step up in terms of rank, class or status. America always claimed to be, and meant to be, a nation that made little of class. But America is human. "The richest family in town," they said, admiringly. Read Booth Tarkington on turn-of-the-last-century Indiana. It's all about trying to rise.
Parents now fear something has stopped. They think they lived through the great abundance, a time of historic growth in wealth and material enjoyment. They got it, and they enjoyed it, and their kids did, too: a lot of toys in that age, a lot of Xboxes and iPhones. (Who is the most self-punishing person in America right now? The person who didn't do well during the abundance.) But they look around, follow the political stories and debates, and deep down they think their children will live in a more limited country, that jobs won't be made at a great enough pace, that taxestoo many people in the cart, not enough pulling itwill dishearten them, that the effects of 30 years of a low, sad culture will leave the whole country messed up. And then there is the world: nuts with nukes, etc.
Optimists think that if we manage to turn a few things around, their kids may have it . . . almost as good. The country they inherit may be . . . almost as good. And it's kind of a shock to think like this; pessimism isn't in our DNA. But it isn't pessimism, really, it's a kind of tough knowingness, combined, in most cases, with a daily, personal commitment to keep plugging.
But do our political leaders have any sense of what people are feeling deep down? They don't act as if they do. I think their detachment from how normal people think is more dangerous and disturbing than it has been in the past. I started noticing in the 1980s, the growing gulf between the country's thought leaders, as they're calledthe political and media class, the universitiesand those living what for lack of a better word we'll call normal lives on the ground in America. The two groups were agitated by different things, concerned about different things, had different focuses, different world views.
But I've never seen the gap wider than it is now. I think it is a chasm. In Washington they don't seem to be looking around and thinking, Hmmm, this nation is in trouble, it needs help. They're thinking something else. I'm not sure they understand the American Dream itself needs a boost, needs encouragement and protection. They don't seem to know or have a sense of the mood of the country.
And so they make their moves, manipulate this issue and that, and keep things at a high boil. And this at a time when people are already in about as much hot water as they can take.
To take just one example from the past 10 days, the federal government continues its standoff with the state of Arizona over how to handle illegal immigration. The point of view of our thought leaders is, in general, that borders that are essentially open are good, or not so bad. The point of view of those on the ground who are anxious about our nation's future, however, is different, more like: "We live in a welfare state and we've just expanded health care. Unemployment's up. Could we sort of calm down, stop illegal immigration, and absorb what we've got?" No is, in essence, the answer.
An irony here is that if we stopped the illegal flow and removed the sense of emergency it generates, comprehensive reform would, in time, follow. Because we're not going to send the estimated 10 million to 15 million illegals already here back. We're not going to put sobbing children on a million buses. That would not be in our nature. (Do our leaders even know what's in our nature?) As years passed, those here would be absorbed, and everyone in the country would come to see the benefit of integrating them fully into the tax system. So it's ironic that our leaders don't do what in the end would get them what they say they want, which is comprehensive reform.
When the adults of a great nation feel long-term pessimism, it only makes matters worse when those in authority take actions that reveal their detachment from the concernseven from the essential natureof their fellow citizens. And it makes those citizens feel powerless.
Inner pessimism and powerlessness: That is a dangerous combination.
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