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Friday, October 15, 2010

Brooks of the NYT Dumps on Liberals and Unions.

Brooks of the NYT Dumps on Liberals and Unions.

Abstract: David Brooks blunders into reality.

As the summer heat wanes the body and the inane scribblings of the New York Times snarl the brain cells of those who seek competence, reason and a future in politics, a convenient and soothing diversion is usually indicated after a time. It is truth time! [Really!!] A reading of the ordinary propagandistic screeds from the far left-oriented writers at the near-bankrupt New York Times—aka the Walter Duranty Papers[1][2]--wearies the senses and enables the radiating frontal pain usually experienced from challenging a neuronal set that is customarily geared toward instruction and chain gang motifs rather than analysis. To our amazement, our Chief Babbler David Brooks[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] examines our contemporary government and reports that it too big and unwieldy. Stunned by this event, this piece must be read carefully to be believed.

How to best read my blogs:

[I offer extensive quotes in this blog so that the reader can view the exact language and can be confident that nothing was taken out of context or that nobody was misquoted. The easiest way to take in the salient points is to read the emphatic points in the quotes and then peruse my comments. Comments on my comments are always welcome: ryckki@gmail.com.]

Brooks begins with a problem:

Sometimes a local issue perfectly illuminates a larger national problem. Such is the case with the opposition of the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, to construction of a new tunnel between his state and New York.[11]--The Paralysis of the State By David Brooks Op-Ed Columnist Published: October 12, 2010 [Emphasis is mine in all quotes.]

There are many reasons why such a project is too expensive, unnecessary or foolish. Political pressures frequently lie at the heart of such programs. This is obviously a boon to the unions. The Big Dig in Boston has now passed the 22 billion mark and is the biggest highway project in the US history.[12] This project ran over by 785.71% and what it accomplished, except for funding unions, is not clear.

Christie argues that a state that is currently facing multibillion-dollar annual deficits cannot afford a huge new spending project that is already looking to be $5 billion overbudget. His critics argue that this tunnel is exactly the sort of infrastructure project that New Jersey needs if it’s to prosper in the decades ahead.” --The Paralysis of the State By David Brooks

Things like this, festooned with ‘benefits’ that will yield wonderful benefits in the far future, are mere gifts to the unions. There was no good reason to dig a hole instead of running a loop around Boston except politics. The Big Dig will not be paid off until 2038. That is probably just guess work too as was the initial project cost.

David Brooks gives us, surprisingly, a direct and factual look into government and the way they work.

Both sides are right. But what nobody seems to be asking is: Why are important projects now unaffordable? Decades ago, when the federal and state governments were much smaller, they had the means to undertake gigantic new projects, like the Interstate Highway System and the space program. But now, when governments are bigger, they don’t.” --The Paralysis of the State By David Brooks

The size of government here is correctly stated, in my view, as the chief cause of any spending program because such expensive items ride on the very top of a massive spending engine that spurts out billions of dollars per day in entitlements. The efficiency[13] of government runs by the inverse ratio of G/GDP where G is government spending and GDP = C +I+G where C is consumption and I is investment.

The answer is what Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal once called demosclerosis. Over the past few decades, governments have become entwined in a series of arrangements that drain money from productive uses and direct it toward unproductive ones.” --The Paralysis of the State By David Brooks

This is a clincher and a bit odd here as our Babbling Brooks usually keeps his nose in the groove like a 45 rpm record hammering out propagandistic text to fit a political song that is the very essence of the New York Times. Sometimes, David strays from the liberal fold and steps on the core constituency of the far left.

The end result is sclerotic government. Many of us would be happy to live with a bigger version of 1950s government: one that ran surpluses and was dexterous enough to tackle long-term problems as they arose. But we don’t have that government. We have an immobile government that is desperately overcommitted in all the wrong ways. --The Paralysis of the State By David Brooks

Brooks ought to look for another job after this heresy.

The antigovernment-types perpetually cry less, less, less. The loudest liberals cry more, more, more. Someday there will be a political movement that is willing to make choices, that is willing to say “this but not that.”

Someday. --The Paralysis of the State By David Brooks

I am not sure what this slant is directed to. The Brooks analysis seems perfectly clear and fits history and the current government. Give him 100 points for this one

rycK

Comments to: ryckki@gmail.com



[2] In honor of that celebrated Communist stooge and liar and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for the NYT. The color RED is used in my essays in honor of Walter Duranty, a saint, if there could be one, in the Marxist Archives of Honor.

He said that these people had to be "liquidated or melted in the hot fire of exile and labor into the proletarian mass". Duranty claimed that the Siberian labor camps were a means of giving individuals a chance to rejoin Soviet society but also said that for those who could not accept the system, "the final fate of such enemies is death." Duranty, though describing the system as cruel, says he has "no brief for or against it, nor any purpose save to try to tell the truth". He ends the article with the claim that the brutal collectivization campaign which led to the famine was motivated by the "hope or promise of a subsequent raising up" of Asian-minded masses in the Soviet Union which only history could judge.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Duranty

[4] The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Insanely Races to Liberal Sanity with Our Tax Monies in Education. Pay Raises for Incompetent Teachers!

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2010/06/07/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_insanely_races_to_liberal_sanity_with_our_tax_monies_in_education_pay_raises_for_incompetent_teachers!.thtml

[5] The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles About the Limits of Policy in Governance of Minorities. We Must Preserve their Social Capital.

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2010/05/06/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_the_limits_of_policy_in_governance_of_minorities_we_must_preserve_their_social_capital.thtml

[6] By David Brooks Op-Ed Columnist Published: May 3, 2010 The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Brokenness and other Fluffs He must like Utopias.

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2010/03/22/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_brokenness_and_other_fluffs_he_must_like_utopias.thtml

[9] The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Decision Making [?!] and Perception?

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/10/28/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_decision_making_[!]_and_perception.thtml

The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Nihilism with Innovative Socialist and Nihilist Overtones. Raise Taxes!

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/10/01/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_nihilism_with_innovative_socialist_and_nihilist_overtones__raise_taxes!.thtml

The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Obama and his Failure to Have a Clear Lead Over McCain.

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/08/05/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_obama_and_his_failure_to_have_a_clear_lead_over_mccain.thtml

The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Education.

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/07/29/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_education.thtml

The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Debt and Blame but Offers No Solution.

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/07/22/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_debt_and_blame_but_offers_no_solution.thtml

The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Lincoln, Mercury Pills and The Grip of Emotions. [?!]

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/06/06/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_lincoln,_mercury_pills_and_the_grip_of_emotions_[!].thtml

From the Babbling Brooks: Confusion, Hokum and Fluff: Vote for Obama

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/05/06/from_the_babbling_brooks_confusion,_hokum_and_fluff_vote_for_obama.thtml

Echoes from the Babbling Brooks Envision a New Conservatism. The New York Times Advises Us on Society, as Usual: Higher Taxes Posted by rycK on Saturday, February 16, 2008 10:37:49 AM

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/02/16/echoes_from_the_babbling_brooks_envision_a_new_conservatism_the_new_york_times_advises_us_on_society,_as_usual_higher_taxes.thtml

Brooks of the New York Times Mumbles about Bugs, Independent Voters and Mechanical Liberalism

Tuesday, January 08, 2008 10:36 AM

http://rycksrationalizations.townhall.com/g/50bf9f36-0e0b-4e9a-be6d-5234d0d54f2c

The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Obama and his Failure to Have a Clear Lead Over McCain.

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/08/05/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_obama_and_his_failure_to_have_a_clear_lead_over_mccain.thtml

The Babbling Brooks of the NYT Babbles about Education.

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/07/29/the_babbling_brooks_of_the_nyt_babbles_about_education.thtml

Echoes from the Babbling Brooks Envision a New Conservatism. The New York Times Advises Us on Society, as Usual: Higher Taxes Posted by rycK on Saturday, February 16, 2008 10:37:49 AM

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2008/02/16/echoes_from_the_babbling_brooks_envision_a_new_conservatism_the_new_york_times_advises_us_on_society,_as_usual_higher_taxes.thtml

[11] The Paralysis of the State By DAVID BROOKS OP-ED COLUMNIST Published: October 12, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/opinion/12brooks.html?_r=1&ref=davidbrooks

[12] The Big Dig was the most expensive highway project in the U.S.[2] Although the project was estimated in 1985 at $2.8 billion (in 1982 dollars, US$6.0 billion adjusted for inflation as of 2006),[3] over $14.6 billion ($8.08 billion in 1982 dollars)[3] had been spent in federal and state tax dollars as of 2006.[4] A July 17, 2008 article in The Boston Globe stated, "In all, the project will cost an additional $7 billion in interest, bringing the total to a staggering $22 billion, according to a Globe review of hundreds of pages of state documents. It will not be paid off until 2038."[5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig

[13] Inefficiency in California, Greece and Other Places and the Socialist Disease of Parasitism: They will NOT stop spending and WILL default.

http://rycksrationalizations.blogtownhall.com/2010/03/05/inefficiency_in_california,_greece_and_other_places_and_the_socialist_disease_of_parasitism_they_will_not_stop_spending_and_will_default.thtml

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