ellenkushner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellenkushner) wrote2010-12-24 12:10 pm
ellenkushner) wrote2010-12-24 12:10 pm
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The Humbug Express
Among the scraps I read aloud from the NYTimes to Delia at the breakfast table toda*y was this, from Paul Krugman:
[T]he fundamental issues of public policy haven’t changed since Victorian times. Still, some things are different. In particular, the production of humbug — which was still a somewhat amateurish craft when Dickens wrote — has now become a systematic, even industrial, process.
[....]When discussing the alleged huge expansion of government under Mr. Obama, I’ve repeatedly found that people just won’t believe me when I try to point out that it never happened.... After all, they’ve heard over and over again about that surge in government spending and employment, and they don’t realize that everything they’ve heard was a special delivery from the Humbug Express.
*Others included the bitter debate in some families between colored and white Christmas lights (times like this, I'm glad I'm Jewish!), and a pretty hilarious list of Worst Holiday Presents Ever compiled from disgruntled readers; my heart went out to the one who wanted a book on Pompeii & got snow pants - hey, me, too!
Don't worry - a posting of Comfort & Joy coming later - first we have to finish our Cards, clean the house & go to the Circus!
Hope your holidays are happy ones all 'round.
[T]he fundamental issues of public policy haven’t changed since Victorian times. Still, some things are different. In particular, the production of humbug — which was still a somewhat amateurish craft when Dickens wrote — has now become a systematic, even industrial, process.
[....]When discussing the alleged huge expansion of government under Mr. Obama, I’ve repeatedly found that people just won’t believe me when I try to point out that it never happened.... After all, they’ve heard over and over again about that surge in government spending and employment, and they don’t realize that everything they’ve heard was a special delivery from the Humbug Express.
*Others included the bitter debate in some families between colored and white Christmas lights (times like this, I'm glad I'm Jewish!), and a pretty hilarious list of Worst Holiday Presents Ever compiled from disgruntled readers; my heart went out to the one who wanted a book on Pompeii & got snow pants - hey, me, too!
Don't worry - a posting of Comfort & Joy coming later - first we have to finish our Cards, clean the house & go to the Circus!
Hope your holidays are happy ones all 'round.
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Times like that I'm glad I'm Australian. Most people here don't throng their house with christmas lights because Christmas is immediately after summer solstice. Long days rather than long nights reduce the impact of those lights