I don't always explain myself well, though I often get inspired to try. When the editor of the Horn Book, Roger Sutton, talked on his blog about pink slips being passed out to good editors in the publishing business (most recently heads were rolling at Simon and Schuster) and then asked for opinions about why it was happening, I went thermonuclear with my opinion. I believe the words trickle-down, get-rich-quick and greedy sots were among those I used to express myself.
Here's why I just couldn't leave it alone: 1) I had just listened to Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Mike Davis (a socialist historian) on Bill Moyer's Journal (archived online) and 2) I had been listening earlier to the audiobook of Sarah Vowell's WORDY SHIPMATES, about our strange Puritan beginnings. Maybe the lesson to be learned, if you want to stay calm, is not to listen to anyone. Cancel your subscription to the newspaper and try to reach Nirvana by reciting mantras. Instead, I listen to Sarah Vowell and Mike Davis. So the State of the Union has been on my mind, to say the least.
If you are unable to resist listening to bright people talk about where we're headed in this country, here are links to the interview of Davis and a review of the audiobook of Vowell. The cartoon at the top of this post describes how I feel when I try to explain things myself!
I like your comment. When letting rip use both barrels I always say.
ReplyDeleteJulie,
ReplyDeleteI read books and articles by Matt Taibbi. Some of the stuff he writes about Congress and things like the failure of banks and the greed on Wall Street makes me want to go ballistic.
Add to the above the reading of Jane Mayer's THE DARK SIDE, Jeremy Scahill's BLACKWATER, Thomas Ricks's FIASCO, etc.--and that should be enogh to send any American citizen over the edge.