| Latest Commentary: | Volume VI, Number 83 |
|
“Post-Surge” Policy on Its Way -- The Busheviks are rapidly discovering that they didn’t have until September after all. The main thrust of a progress report on the Surge in Iraq-Nam was leaked to the press earlier this week. Not one of the goals the White House had hoped to achieve has been met. That is the very definition of failure. Individual Republican Senators with more foreign policy expertise than the entire administration combined have decided a new course is needed. The “Post-Surge” strategy will hit Washington this month, not in September.
Zimbabwe Arrests Shopkeepers for Not Lowering Prices -- More than 1,300 businesses have been charged and fined in Zimbabwe in the last fortnight for refusing to obey orders that required them to slash prices by 50%. Those not so charged have faced fines for hording goods. Best of all, 33 top businessmen have been arrested. President Robert Mugabe seems to think that market forces will move because he says so. Instead, he will find that there will be nothing on sale in the shops, and when the army can no longer buy anything with its pay, the end will at last be in sight. Sony Cuts US Playstation 3 Price by $100 -- Sony’s Playstation 3 game console is, by any measure, a fine piece of technology. However, Sony just cut the US price for the box by $100, making the retail price for the 60-gigabyte model $499 rather than $599. An 80-gig version will hit the markets soon at $599 and will include the online racing title “MotorStorm.” The company appears to be trying to make the system as big a commercial success as it is a technical one, but it seems like too little too late. American Antidepressant Consumption Triples -- The United States of America is the only country in the world founded on the belief that mankind has inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Other nations may gladly sign up for the first two, but some would doubt whether pursuing happiness is the basis for a system of government. Judging from recent reports, Americans’ pursuit is not terribly successful. Adult use of antidepressants almost tripled between the periods 1988-1994 and 1999-2000. Maybe happiness isn’t everything. © Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
|
