Here’s what’s going on:
- Dow closes up 340 points on Europe debt plan (WashPost) —
- EU officials rush to hold bailout deal together (The Guardian) — Beware of economic unions bearing Greeks.
- Sarkozy: Euro for Greece ‘was a mistake’ (BBC) — Whoa. And Athens thought the Germans were way harsh… Speaking of which, you may want to read this story about Greek concerns that they will lose their sovereignty.
- Gaddafi’s killers face prosecution (The Guardian) — Rule of law may crop up in unexpected places.
- U.S. opens drone base in Ethiopia (WashPost) — I gather there was no ribbon-cutting.
- H-P to Keep PC Business (WSJ) — Thereby giving Netflix a run for its money for the 2011 Never Mind Award.
Sorry not to have anything local, but I couldn’t find anything front-worthy at this hour…
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I saw that, but didn’t know enough about it. The story I saw was sketchy. And without knowing more, I didn’t want to reward a crank caller with excessive attention. It invites copycats. Or worse, inspiring somebody to do it for real…
Yep, that’s a fine, well-tempered column — just what I expect from Kristof, né Krzysztofowicz.
Usually, I don’t appreciate families changing their names. But in this case, the shortened version makes for a better byline.
And I want to make sure that everyone sees the difference between a calm, thoughtful, focused, articulate column like that and people waving those signs and chanting on street corners — right?
Brad, given your skepticism about OWS, as well as your usual willingness to listen to what Nicholas Kristof has to say (as opposed to, say, Frank Rich) I highly recommend to you and everybody this recent and very levelheaded piece.
Yep, I see the difference. Only a few read the calm, focused, thoughtful, articulate article. The demonstration gets the point across to more people, and also demonstrates to the politicos that there might be more than 1 vote involved here.
No, Karen… the demonstration doesn’t get any clear, well-considered point across to anyone. The column does.
And you know what? Relatively few people will see the Occupy Columbia demonstrations. You can be anywhere in the world and call up Kristof’s column any time (as long as you haven’t gone over your quota of free NYT reads for the month).
It takes a tiny bit of effort. But it should take effort to be a good, informed citizen. It shouldn’t be about venting one’s emotions.
And of course, there you see my anti-populist attitudes on display. I will always trust the thoughtful, well-read people with a good understanding of the way the world works to call the shots. Policy should NOT be driven by popular movements in the streets.
This is not an oppressive regime without freedom of expression. People who have carefully considered ideas to express (and even those who don’t) have basically no barrier to publication these days. I now have four-to-five times the traffic on my blog that I had when I was a leading figure in SC’s MSM.
This isn’t a place where you have to take to the streets. It just isn’t. If you can use the Web to organize a protest, you can use it to express your ideas.
Many important changes in the law started with grassroots demonstrations that ultimately led to the more thoughful, well written discussions in editorials which eventually end up in congress. We’d still have Jim Crow laws and men-only voting without the OWS demonstrations of the day. Not sure why Brad is such a curmudgeon on this point. It seems obvious to me that the intent of the founding fathers was to have noisy protests, not just staid, and rather unaffective, letter writing (and today blogging) campaigns.
Are you saying, Brad, that fewer people nationwide have noticed the OWS movement than have read the article to which you refer? There’s a place for both, and both, I think, are needed.