| The Kensington Review |
29 August 2005 |
| Latest Commentary: | Volume IV, Number 103 |
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Crawford Protests Generate Heat but No Light -- This week-end, the American media covered the Cindy Sheehan vigil outside the president’s Crawford, Texas ranch and the counter-protest that the president’s supporters held. The feelings there were clearly deep, but the amount of thinking going on was negligible. The imminent hurricane disaster awaiting New Orleans quickly moved this story off the front page, but America is well past the point where some serious thinking about Iraq is due.
Uzbekistan Tells US to Get Troops Out -- During the Cold War, the US had as allies some governments that weren’t particularly nice. From the beginning -- during the Korean War, the US sent troops to die for a foreign dictator (Syngman Rhee, Butcher of Jeju). It was the “lesser evil” argument against global communism. Today, the Bush administration is trying to fight a war on terror (Fascislam actually) and at the same time, trying to spread democracy. The problem is that his allies in the first fight are his enemies in the second. For that reason, he has just been told by his Uzbekistan allies to get US troops out of their country. The American media has largely ignored this, but who lost Uzbekistan? Greenspan Worries About Asset Prices -- Speaking at the annual Federal Reserve Jackson Hole Symposium sponsored by the Kansas City Fed, Chairman Alan Greenspan said he was concerned about the increase in asset prices. “Our forecasts and hence policy are becoming increasingly driven by asset price changes,” he said. When the value of stocks and bonds to say nothing of real estate rises relative to income, it isn’t economic growth. It is asset price inflation. The only reason no one worries about it is that it favors the rich. The Fed should have been worrying about this all along Batboy Suspended for Drinking Milk -- Baseball is one of the most beautifully perfect things in God’s creation. In order to survive the howling stupidity of the owners of Major League Baseball and their minions, it has to be. That stupidity plumbed Marianas Trench-like depths this week when the Florida Marlins suspended a batboy for six games. His crime was drinking a gallon of milk on a bet. © Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
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