The Humbug Express

[mgc1961]

Hey, has anyone noticed that “A Christmas Carol” is a dangerous leftist tract?

I mean, consider the scene, early in the book, where Ebenezer Scrooge rightly refuses to contribute to a poverty relief fund. “I’m opposed to giving people money for doing nothing,” he declares. Oh, wait. That wasn’t Scrooge. That was Newt Gingrich — last week. What Scrooge actually says is, “Are there no prisons?” But it’s pretty much the same thing.

Anyway, instead of praising Scrooge for his principled stand against the welfare state, Charles Dickens makes him out to be some kind of bad guy. How leftist is that?

As you can see, the 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.

Let me walk you through a case in point, one that I’ve been following lately.


Go on, you know you can't resist reading an article with humbug in it. Here, I'll make it easy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/opinion/24krugman.html?_r=1&hp

[mgc1961]

1. Newt "Mr. Opportunity" Gingrich has your unemployment solution!

Yes siree, Mr. Gingrich earnes $10,000 a month in his spare time and all he needs is a book of stamps, a box of envelopes, and an account at his local discount trophy store. You too can replicate his fabulous success. Just send him $79.95 in three easy payments and he'll reveal the secret to achieving his American dream. Call now!

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/maddow-newt-gingrich-direct-mail-scam-artist#comments

[mgc1961]

2. Hit The Panic Button!

PARIS — It snows in winter. This shattering discovery has now cast Britain and France into chaos for a week, with London’s dysfunctional Heathrow airport leading British claims to be officially designated a third-world nation.

Brits have been glued to the radio listening to people like the director of Alaska’s Anchorage airport describe how, with the help of vehicles called snowplows and stuff called de-icing fluid, it’s actually possible in the 21st century to keep an airport open after a snowstorm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/opinion/24iht-edcohen24.html?hp

[mgc1961]

3. Austerity Rules

Say what you will about its appeal (or lack thereof) as fiscal policy, but the Top Word of 2010, according to Merriam-Webster, is austerity. The distinction is based on its popularity on the dictionary's Web site, and runners-up were pragmatic, moratorium, socialism, bigot, doppelgänger, shellacking, ebullient, dissident, and furtive. Try using all of those in a sentence.

It makes sense that readers might be confused by the suddenly ubiquitous term, more evocative of great aunts and catechism teachers than taxes and public-sector salaries. The Oxford English Dictionary—apologies, Merriam-Webster, but my heart belongs to one—lists the first definition as "harshness to the taste, astringent sourness." Then comes the common definition: "Harshness to the feelings; stern, rigorous, or severe treatment or demeanor; judicial severity." Only down at the bottom, in section 4b, does the OED get around to something approaching the 2010 vernacular: "Applied attrib., esp. during the war of 1939–45, to clothes, food, etc., in which non-essentials were reduced to a minimum as a war-time measure of economy."

That's not very helpful. So what is austerity, economically speaking? And why did it become so very prevalent in 2010?

Read on at http://www.slate.com/id/2278912/