Today's Stories

I woke particularly early this morning, and decided to read a lil NYT before moving along. Two articles struck me.

• Reagan and Reality by Bob Herbert - Gipper's got a new documentary coming out! Looks pretty interesting, I'll probably check it out at some point. I'm glad someone finally made a movie setting Gip's past record straight. It seems like when Bush's dumbass was president the Right deified Reagan for some reason. I'd see folks on Fox News talking about how he was the greatest President in history, and I'd wonder if they were saying it purely to be controversial. Maybe because he wasn't seemingly as bad as Bush was at the time? In 2011 I do often think foldly of GW's memory (my logical side thinks it's just because I was younger during his time in office). It seemed not a day could go by without him screwing something up. Iraq? Tax cuts? Oil? By the end, when you heard that the economy was spiraling into the biggest catastrophe since the Great Depression - it was like, "No duh. Look who's been running the show." But I bet "Reagan" is worth seeing. Good characters back then. Americans. I don't know, I consider myself out-outspokenly liberal, and certainly left-wing, but I have to admit the Right does have some charm... Reagan, Bush, Palin, and don't forget smokin' John Boehner! Yeah, I expect better out of them and their policies have ruined lives, but when not looking at life too seriously, hey, at least they're Americans!
  

• Wall Street's Dead End by Felix Salmon - As someone who works in the industry it does seem like this is the direction American investors and corporations are heading... "as the number of initial public offerings steadily declines, the stock market is becoming little more than a place for speculators and algorithms to compete over who can trade his way to the most money." Thanks partly to Reagan (and don't forget Bush) the rich keep getting richer, and the majority are none the wiser. That's what keeps Americans from rioting in the streets, the obliviousness to the great swindle, the loss in value.

NYT Cover