Daily Office:
Tuesday
¶ Matins: Aren’t economists great? Now they tell us: “Recession Began Last December, Economists Say.”
¶ Tierce: Pankaj Mishra’s Op-Ed piece, “Fresh Blood From an Old Wound,” throws another log on the fire for resolving territorial disputes, some of which are older than most people alive today. Tibet, Palestine, Kashmir — these vexing contests between arrogant sovereignties and fierce patriots clearly require a unified focus. In their details, these problems differ greatly, but their consequences in the greater world are dismayingly similar. We need a permanent UN Commission to deal with territorial disputes (perhaps there already is one!), or at least to provide a forum for discussing them.
¶ Vespers: George was there: on the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk, George Snyder sat in a theatre in the Castro and watched Sean Penn impersonate the slain civil rights leader.
Oremus…
§ Matins. But they only whispered about it. They were still afraid of Uncle Alan.
Close the B-Schools, today!
§ Tierce. Territorial integrity is obviously a primary concern for every government; that’s what makes powerful leaders so tenacious. It is equally obvious, however, that governments are worse than ineffective when they are seen as invalid by local populations.
The modern nation-state is built all too largely on shaky ideas about “nationality,” “race,” and doubtful historic claims. A few quiescent challenges to current arrangements: Flanders, Cyprus, Catalonia. Let’s not forget Corsica! Not so quiescent: Kurdistan.
(Of the three states that would lose territory to a prospective Kurdistan, Iraq would give up the least. Bigger bites would come out of Iran and Turkey — much bigger in Turkey’s case.)
§ Vespers. As soon as I can find my head and screw it back on — it thinks that it’s still in St Croix — I’m going to see Milk.
The economy : it is tough to declare we’re in a recession when the GDP expands, but, yeah, it is certainly a “DUH!!!!”
This whole “recession” argument pretty much confirms to me that a primary function of our government is PR. We’re got exactly one word to define economic hard times — but by definition we can’t use it until those times are over. (A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Obviously that information isn’t available until that time has elapsed, and then some.)
So, when times are hard, all the newspapers can do is write, “Times are hard!” Cry “We’re in a recession!” and some idiot Republican will reply “We can’t be!” (See Ben Stein’s preposterous NY Times article several months back.) Then six months down the line they’ll cede to, “Gosh, I guess we were!”
This strikes me as startlingly stupid, and I went to Califoria public schools.
Sean does a great impersonation. I’m just saying. A friend said he thought Sean played Harvey a little too swishy and effeminate. Another friend who knew Harvey interrupted. “He WAS a little swishy and effeminate,” she explained. “In those days gay men weren’t all obsessed with being caricatures of masculinity. Or with bloating up on steroids like action figure dolls.”