MetaFilter posts tagged with oped

Going Dutch

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:20:34 -0800

[E]ven if you are unemployed you still receive a base amount of [vacation money] from the government, the reasoning being that if you can’t go on vacation, you’ll get depressed and despondent and you’ll never get a job.
[...]
But does the cartoon image of [the Dutch system] — encapsulated in the dread slur "socialism," which is being lobbed in American political circles like a bomb — match reality? Is there, maybe, a significant upside that is worth exploring? [...] I think it’s worth pondering how the best bits might fit.

After a year and a half of living in the Netherlands, American writer Russell Shorto compares the Dutch "welfare state" to the tax, health care and social security systems of the United States.

Osama bin Elvis

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:45:19 -0800

What is the logical consequence of noting the fact that the terrorist groups that make a difference on planet Earth—such as Hamas and Hezbollah, the PLO, Colombia's FARC—are extensions of, respectively, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and Venezuela? It is the negation of the U.S. government's favorite axiom. It means that when George W. Bush spoke, and when Barack Obama speaks, of America being "at war" against "extremism" or "extremists" they are either being stupid or acting stupid to avoid dealing with the nasty fact that many governments wage indirect warfare.

International relations professor Angelo M. Codevilla argues that Osama bin Laden is not quite influential, not quite relevant, and probably dead. (multipage version)

There are two guards: one always speaks the truth, the other gouges the eyes out of people who ask tricky questions.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:10:23 -0800

All men are liars. Start with the follow-up to this much-discussed article.

Pro-nuance

alms — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 07:45:31 -0800

A right that ends in sorrow , aka the difficulty of standing up for something that really sucks. (via Amy Sullivan)

The (Non) Issues

MattD — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 11:05:55 -0800

Why this election is so disappointing... Opposite today's New York Times' 30-column-inch endorsement of John Kerry, Thomas Friedman makes a good case that several of the most important issues are not being talked about by either candidate in any serious way.

Sigh.

CunningLinguist — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 05:36:54 -0800

Al Gore on tomorrow's Bush-Kerry duel: The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show'' nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver.''

A Bush win and its likely consequensces.

thedailygrowl — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 23:06:35 -0800

What If Bush Wins? Sixteen writers ,right and left, predict the likely consequences of a second term for President Bush.

Election

semmi — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 09:51:51 -0800

An OpEd piece by Bruce Springsteen, announcing the tour of Vote for Change, the umbrella of a new group including the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Jurassic 5, James Taylor and Jackson Browne. (NYT)

Hunting snark

Prospero — Sun, 04 Apr 2004 08:09:27 -0800

Snark. In the newest issue of Bookforum, critic Sven Birkerts ruminates on what he considers to be the regrettable rise of the snarky book review, taking as his starting example Dale Peck's hatchet job on Rick Moody, written in 2002. "Psychologically [the literary] landscape [is one that is] subtly demoralized by the slash-and-burn of bottom-line economics; the modernist/humanist assumption of art and social criticism marching forward, leading the way, has not recovered from the wholesale flight of academia into theory; the publishing world remains tyrannized in acquisition, marketing, and sales by the mentality of the blockbuster; the confident authority of print journalism has been challenged by the proliferation of online alternatives. [...] All of this leads, and not all that circuitously, to the question of snark, the spirit of negativity, the personal animus pushing ahead of the intellectual or critical agenda. Snark is, I believe, prompted by the terrible vacuum feeling of not mattering, not connecting, not being heard; it is fueled by rage at the same."

Tom Friedman's T-shirt employment guru

troutfishing — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 12:24:36 -0800

Tom Friedman, well meaning NYT columnnist lunkhead, gets job outsourced In a stunning development, Tom Friedman - until recently the famous NYT op-ed columnist who has downplayed the outsourcing of American jobs, finds his job has been outsourced due to an egregious factual error concerning T-shirts. "[ BANGALORE, India ] I am delighted to write to you today as the new foreign-affairs columnist for the New York Times . My name is Tam Veeraraghavan. Ah, you say, you've never heard of Tam Veeraraghavan, but the name sounds vaguely Indian. Well, I am an Indian. I live in Bangalore. And I'm now the pundit you read in this newspaper. Now some of you might think that I'm an example of how outsourcing is hurting American workers. Well let me introduce you to Yamini Narayanan, an Indian-born 35-year-old with a Ph.D. in economics....."

a savage drunken pinball high on black-tar heroin

badstone — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 11:41:29 -0800

Where is my gay apocalypse?
I have been waiting patiently. I have been staring with great anticipation out the window of my flat here in the heart of San Francisco, sighing heavily, waiting for the riots and the plagues and the screaming monkeys and the blistering rain of inescapable hellfire. I have my camera all ready and everything.

Ed Anger, R.I.P.

chicobangs — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:02:38 -0800

Eddie Clontz, longtime editor of the Weekly World News, creator of Ed Anger, Bat Boy and other semi-real totems of society's fuzzy underbelly, is dead at 56.

The fact that I had to find this out in The Economist, of all places, makes me madder than -- than -- than George S. Patton at a Peace Rally.

maybe a pleasant demeanor isn't one of the many benefits of marriage

4easypayments — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 14:46:41 -0800

Single life is fine till about 30, then normal people marry. Neil Steinberg fires a trollish, yet illuminating salvo across the marriage gap.

Is Syria next?

skallas — Mon, 20 Oct 2003 23:35:05 -0800

Is Syria next? Or understanding the Syria Accountability Act. Interesting criticisms by Rep. David E. Price, who voted for it but with certain reservations here.

Krugman on Iraq

skallas — Sat, 30 Aug 2003 14:23:25 -0800

Krugman on Iraq "The direct military cost of the occupation is $4 billion a month, and there's no end in sight. But that's only part of the bill. This week Paul Bremer suddenly admitted that Iraq would need "several tens of billions" in aid next year. That remark was probably aimed not at the public but at his masters in Washington; he apparently needed to get their attention."

Osama, wild and free, is pleased...

troutfishing — Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:27:02 -0800

Terrorist playground: How America created a terrorist haven in Iraq Jessica Stern, a lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and author of "Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill" argues, in a New York Times op ed piece, that U.S. negligence has allowed Iraq to metastasize into a terrorist training camp to which Islamic militants from all over the Middle East are now flocking for a chance to attack American troops, and in which the Iraq/Al-Qaeda links alleged by the Bush Administration are becoming a reality. Listen to Jessica Stern on "On Point" tonight (a WBUR production and will be archived if you miss it).

Spoils of War

Postroad — Thu, 10 Apr 2003 07:56:54 -0800

Spoils of War This op-ed piece in The New York Times (free reg req'd) follows the path of money into who is getting what now that the reconstruction phase is about to begin. Might have called this piece: More than Oil.

'Our problem is that “Gee” is an abbreviation for Jesus.'

riviera — Fri, 21 Mar 2003 07:03:52 -0800

‘We can say “God”, “God” is fine, but we have to be very careful about anything that involves the name of the Lord and Saviour.’ Tory MP and Spectator editor Boris Johnson reflects on the process of getting a breezy op-ed past the editorial process of the Gray Lady. Jokes at the expense of the President of Guinea just aren't done.

Richard Perle in Guardian Shock!

skellum — Fri, 21 Mar 2003 02:46:32 -0800

Richard Perle in Guardian Shock! Op-ed piece brought to us from the ever-balanced Guardian, bound to whip up a whirlwind of protest in the paper’s letters page tomorrow. Perhaps you might care to pre-empt Saturday morning’s correspondence.

The Idiot Prince will have his war

PWA_BadBoy — Mon, 17 Mar 2003 23:31:34 -0800

Stan Goff puts it best in his anti-war article entitled "The Idiot Prince will have his war", outlining many of the logistical issues involved with waging war in Iraq, pointing a finger at a problem facing the United States that runs far deeper than the need for oil or the opposition of the United Nations. A fascinating and very chilling read.

Hey, guess what? Shut up.

raaka — Wed, 19 Feb 2003 18:45:45 -0800

Do us all a favor and shut up. You're for the war? Wrote an essay about it? Good, good. Good for you. Guess what? Shut up about it. Thanks. Oh, you're against the war? Fantastic. Wrote a poem about it? Find the nearest closet and tell it to the coats. Yea, that's right. Shut it.

superbowl marijuana

skallas — Wed, 29 Jan 2003 20:34:23 -0800

Amusing Op-Ed piece on this year's Anti-Drug Superbowl ad "But this has got to be good news for some. Infertility clinics are in for a big surprise with this one. Forget all those expensive, painful procedures. Simply grab some weed, and boom-boom!" [NORML article]

European Viewpoint

nofundy — Thu, 23 Jan 2003 08:47:08 -0800

From a European Perspective

"President Bush recently declared that the U.S. was "the single surviving model of human progress." Maybe some Americans think this self-evident, but the rest of us see it as a clumsy arrogance born of ignorance. "

Is this something many Americans need to hear but don't want to listen? Personally I appreciated Mr. Eno's honest and candid observations. And no, I don't think he hates America.

You Are a Suspect

Postroad — Thu, 14 Nov 2002 03:57:31 -0800

You Are a Suspect A growing awareness by those on the right and on the left that our rights are now seriously in threat of total erosion in light of new Petnagon proposal to track all moves of citizens in giagantic data base. may require reg for NY Times.

tsarfan — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 15:30:47 -0800

Sean Penn totally disses President Bush in the Washington Post but because he did it in a full page ad and not an op/ed column it is totally unlinkable to those of use on the web, and therefore dies on the vine. Two questions: How can one find the full transcript to Penn's advertisment, and why is it that only Republican movie stars are allowed have their voices heard in political discussions?