The Short List — Wed., June 25
June 25th, 2008 by Joe Bardi in Presidential Politics, The Morning PapersHow stupid are we as a nation? CNN interviews author Rick Shenkman, in this clip posted to YouTube on June 15.
- Nick of time: Congress acts to remedy the mortgage crisis.
- Alan Greenspan: “We are on the brink.”
- A new documentary on Lee Atwater has conservatives crying foul.
- The IRS opens an investigation of local firebrand Bill Keller. The preacherman cries “Romney!”
- Oh good, Imus is shooting his mouth off again. I had gone months without hearing moronic, racist drivel.
- Bet you don’t know how much oil there is in the world. Turns out, no one does.
- George Carlin’s final interview, a wide-ranging, bittersweet affair, pops up on the Psychology Today’s website. Plus: HBO plans a Carlin marathon and WBAI looks back at history.
- The Mullet drops his cushy ESPN job to become coach the Lightning.
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June 25th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Re Shenkman: perhaps this is why the Founders favored a republican form of government, with the electoral college electing the president and not popular vote, over direct democracy.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
My guess is that the Founders favored representative democracy because it allowed them more complete control over the country that resulted from their negotiations. Although a case can be made that representative democracy was a more efficient way of going about things than direct democracy was.
Of course, in the age of the Internet, that is becoming less true.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Or perhaps they sensed human nature was less than perfect and people would often prove dumb, indifferent, changeable in their opinions and often easily swayed by demagogues, and prone to pursuing their own often selfish, often venal ends and that representative democracy and limited government was better than direct democracy and government that tried to do all things for all the people.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
K: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”
June 25th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Don Imus wins the award for worst use of sarcasm ever. Plus, if he was being sarcastic, that would mean he was defending Pacman. Pretty sure Pacman’s been arrested six times for being a bad person and doing bad things. He is not the first athlete to do this, nor will he be the last.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Buffett and Greenspan more or less said the same thing at the same time.
Glad they spoke up…I’m sure we never would’ve figured it out without their help.