Daily Archives: November 12, 2003


ralls and savage

Ted Rall’s veteran’s day column Why we Fight (subtitled Iraq From the Other Side) may well reflect the view of some Iraqi citizens.
Rall’s is not on my reading list and this is the first Rall’s piece I have read so I have no good sense of context and whether this is meant to be an attempt at interpretation which, I think, would be a reasonable thing for someone to do or if this is a support piece that is really advocating for the Iraqi resistance.
Little Green Footballs and the comment thread here take the latter position and argue that Rall’s is supporting the Iraqi resistance and advocating the killing of US citizens. If, indeed, this is what Ralls is doing then shame on him.
And I would hope that these folks who condemn Ralls will also condemn michael savage who, on his national broadcast today (11/12), called for the death of US citizens (labeled by savage as leftists and liberal fascists).
Via Wizbang.


bush bails out energy companies

In a move that should not surprise anyone the bush administration has saved its energy buddies a bundle:

The Bush administration has dropped enforcement actions against dozens of coal-fired power plants that were under investigation for violating the Clean Air Act and allegedly spewing thousands of tons of illegal pollution into the air, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday.

So, the operators will not have large expenses that would end up on their customers bills but the customers will pay it anyway and probably more over the long run as they mitigate all the exernalities related to the effluent…health care, acid rain, etc.
More in this Open Source Politics article.
Via South Knox Bubba.


Nickology

Prompted by this satirical look at the new nickel designs The Noble Pundit makes some interesting historical comparisons and provides some great graphics of older coins. In academia the Treasury’s work, if left undocumented, would probably be considered plagiarism.
Chris also argues that:

The Romans used their coinage for propaganda which is why they had multiple reverses. While our coinage is a reflection of who we are, it is not a propaganda piece.
Our coinage should reflect a certain dignity.Multiple reverses take away from that dignity. That’s why I don’t really like the state quarters or the new nickels. They look nice, they’re interesting to collect, but I don’t really think that they are a good representation of who we are as a nation.

Given what you can buy with a nickel or a quarter these days I’m not sure there is much dignity left to take away and it is not at all clear that US coinage is not also progaganda.