Headlines and Sidelines

Professor J,


To counteract having the Glenn Frey song "The Heat is On" stuck in my head  I am dreaming of hauling in armloads of firewood to a snowy mountain cabin and whipping up some Irish coffee. Planning a wedding in this heat has given me nightmares of a cake that liquifies as the topper sinks into it and melting unity candles. I'm hoping September feels like fall. I'm glad you are enjoying the heat wave, though! :)

So if something good has come about from the Murdoch circus it has at least brought to light just how common some of these practices are. By the same token couldn't we say that the current debt circus is bringing about the same result? Everyone is talking about the debt, which seemed to be on the radar of very few Americans until recently.

Here's a question: Wouldn't a flat tax go a long way toward solving a large part of the problem with loopholes and deductions for those who can most afford to pay? (Yes, I know that lots of people are getting out of paying under the current system and that tax prep is a multimillion dollar business, so this would be hard to accomplish.) I'm envisioning a 60 second commercial to run nightly during tax season giving the public a refresher on how to calculate percentages if they've forgotten it since high school. 

When you came back from your recent R&R you commented on my piece about travel and how it changes us (Is there anything you can't find another side to? ;)) I suppose it's possible that people may stubbornly remain the same if they really try. How sad. In The Wall Street Journal I've been following the adventures of Yoder & Sons (or in this case one son) as they have been taking a dream father/son trip across Africa. They are nearing the end of their journey and I found this excerpt from Sunday's article particularly interesting:


"We have scores of similar stories, and they're all the more humbling -- shaming, really -- because we'd fully expected to face anti-American sentiment, perhaps open contempt, especially in the predominantly Islamic countries we've traveled through. And we expected to have to watch our backs a little. It was an ignorant preconception: Not once have we encountered any anti-American hostility or sense of personal danger.

Instead, the English words we hear most frequently from perfect strangers are "welcome" and "thank you." Surely, we thought, we would encounter hostility in Sudan, a country with many recent disagreements with the U.S. Our most frequent conversation: "Where from?" "America." "Welcome to Sudan! Thank you!" Strangers invited us to tea more often in Sudan than in all other countries combined."


Here is the link to the full article. Taken Aback by the Kindness of Strangers I fully expect these two to write a fabulous travel memoir at the end of their trek.

Oh, and it looks like BP recovered nicely just as you predicted a year ago. Recently when I was at the gulf I talked to several business owners and you know who they blame for their dismal tourist season last year? The media. Yes, they say that BP did the physical damage but the media did the economic damage. But you know what they wanted to know from me? How was MY area getting along with all the water we had. "We saw it on the news." :)

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming: I know you've been getting antsy to move on to our next discussion. This may be a good time. When the news this week is filled with the end of the NFL lockout and the unfortunate but oh so predictable death of Amy Winehouse,  I can't help think of Hedges' quote "We are chained to the flickering shadows of celebrity culture, the spectacle of the arena and the airwaves, the lies of advertising, the endless personal dramas, many of them completely fictional, that have become the staple of news, celebrity gossip, New Age mysticism, and pop psychology."

Note to the reader: If you would like to follow along with us in this upcoming discussion the book to read will be Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges. Yes. It is just as cheerful as it sounds. Did you enjoy your summer break? :)