paying even minimal attention to current events in america could lead to a sense of fear, foreboding and angst. america is certainly facing troubles with the decline of the dollar, soaring oil/gas prices, rising unemployment, stagnation of middle america's wages, expensive health care, bank failures, rising home foreclosures, inflation concerns, rising violence in afghanistan and the list goes on...
a beautiful encapsulation of these sentiments with an optimistic look to the future is found here. also fun, is reading the 300+ comments accompanying the article...
from obama's protectionism to mccain recalcitrant iraq stance, the candidates are not making the choice easy. my thoughts on obama are changing in response to reading his book however. i will elaborate further in a later post when i finish (and if i get ambitious--with a nod to the fairness doctrine--after reading mccain's latest book.)
5 comments:
I read the article when the magazine came. Other than gas prices, most of the malaise is coming from constant reporting of the recession which hasn't arrived, the housing market that is being rescued by the American taxpayer and the constant barrage of negative news and talking heads. Are you seeing an upsurge in ER problems because of the 'doldrums?'
For Obama: It is making it hard for me to know just what he would do as President. His stands for the primary are now so different that the stands he is currently taking that I'm not sure what he will do as President. Do I take him at his face value on what he says today or what he said several months ago?
it's a hard question about seeing the effects of the 'doldrums' in the ED. certainly staff have been discussing the effects of high gas prices and oil prices (with attendant rises in grocery costs etc.) and its effects on their daily lives.
if you believe the hottest times here in the IE are due to global warming then we certainly see our share of heat related death and severe illness.
in palm springs there has been a burgeoning of physicians who will not take medicare. at the urgent care (not bound by EMTALA--a federal mandate to treat regardless of income with no monetary compensation) i had to turn away a nice gentleman who needed lab work done and would have had to pay out of pocket for the services.
bank failures and the tightening credit crunch have all but eliminated the 'no down payment' options for purchasing a home--which may adversely effect amy's and my ability to purchase a home in a few months.
bush's cuts in federal support of subsidized loans for education have placed amy and me out of the income bracket that can defer our loan payments interest free on the $60,000 or so in the subsidized loans that we have.
stagnation of middle america's incomes and the ineptitude on the bush administration's part in enacting more fiscally responsible and broad sweeping health-care reform may lead to over-compensation in the legislation that is eventually passed (by democrats)--which threatens to be bureaucratically heavy and innovatitvely light.
bush's ineptitude in passing tax cuts that were inefficient, poorly formulated, porous and top heavy did not serve well the anti-tax lobby in pointing out the usefulness of fiscal conservativism and trimming bloated subsides while bolstering efficient and important programs.
pops: what to believe from obama. it's a difficult issue and as he ups his pandering to the right--including his blatant use of his religiousity in a manipulative way (only repeating stephen's assertions about romney wearing his religion 'on his sleeve')
for all his talk of compromise, his track-record in the senate is one of the most consistently party-line-liberal.
however, it's hard to hold that against him as his illinois district is one of the more liberal in the country. one could argue that he was voting his constituencies' will and that he would appropriately move center with a more diverse constituency.
obama's book (audacity...) is persuasive and powerful. good ideas mean something, and his book is full of them. i worry that mccain is more worried about the 'gotcha' and reactionism, than introspective planning with a broader vision of the future.
Send the book up when you are finished.
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