Well there you go, that’s what a New York Times op-ed will do for you. On MSNBC this morning, Mika read a couple of paragraphs from it, and my words appeared on the screen as she read–it was the metaphorical part about the abstemious ant and the feckless grasshopper–and my name was there all along, four minutes worth!
And Joe says “absolutely ridiculous and stupid!” Mika goes into a peroration on consumer excess, indebtedness, and Joe responds “Consumerism! Exactly!”
And then the ever-charming liar Mike Barnicle rescues his bandmates from impending dead air by saying “I wonder if the guy who wrote that has any kids.”
I want on that show. Just so I can tell Mike that yeah, I do.
Politics and Letters 
That’s what you get for being such a radical! Be sure and let us know when you’ll be there live! I gave up on that show a while back ’cause it’s always the same thing. They need some fresh ideas, and you’re ‘it’.
Well that’s the weird thing, it doesn’t feel radical anymore to say these things. Like being an abolitionist in 1862.
Right. But in Morning-Joe-talking-head-land, they’re stuck back in the Lincoln-Douglas debates!
You know that you’ve hit the mark when the wankers wiggle and whine. Good for you, Jim. I’ve send out your NYT op-ed piece to everyone that I correspond with and suggested that they post it on their facebook pages.
rude and unfair, they should have had you there to discuss. out of curiosity, how would you have responded to their claim that too much consumption (led by easy credit) is what got us into this recession?
By saying they’re turning a problem of income distribution into a moral dilemma. People stopped saving and borrowed because wages stagnated, not because the moral fabric unraveled.
good answer
Nicely put, Jim. “Moral” with a huge dose of self-righteousness…and status anxiety?
Don’t worry. These are the same folks that think that gut feeling trumps 100 years of modern science. (“After all, the only people that can check the so-called facts of these ‘scientists’ are other scientists!”…Yes, in order to know something you have to…well…know something. We can all see why this bothers the Hannity crew.)
Well said, Ian MacDonald. Roz Chast had a cartoon in similar spirit of “Doc Palin” in a while coat holding a large crosscut saw and saying “I’m not one of those phony-baloney ‘Insiders’ who went to medical school. I just go by my God-given sense of right and wrong.” if you haven’t seen it: http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/Sarah-Palin-holds-a-saw-in-her-left-hand-and-wears-a-doctor-s-coat-She-sa-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8476253_.htm