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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (89060)	11/22/2004 10:24:11 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 108807

I can imagine a government run by a lot of anti-intellectuals. They would make rash decisions; they would be unable to analyze data that did not fit their preconceived model of what the world should be like, rather than what is is like; and they would make the kinds of blunders that a good knowledge of history and other cultures would have prevented... Oh Wait we already have that government now it's such a treat watching them blundering around the world Being ignorant does not inoculate anyone from having abysmally bad judgment- as we see every day from the white house.

To: carranza2 who wrote (89060)	11/22/2004 6:45:42 PM
From: Grainne	Respond to of 108807

Government actually is structured in the way I think. And you seem to agree for the most part, unless I am misunderstanding you. That is, there are elected officials at the very top of the administration, and then a huge number of academics under them. And in that group, Georgetown is a highly respected institution. Incidentally, since you or someone was talking about how Condi was PROVOST at Stanford, that is more of an administrative postition than an academic one. It doesn't really add much to her foreign policy credentials. While it is true that even academics make mistakes, I would place my bet on them being right more often than people like Bush and Condi Rice who believe they are guided by Jesus. It is fine to be religious, but I think that is a personal thing and Jesus should not be making government policy decisions from behind the scenes. People who have spent six or eight years in college and grad school studying a particular subject are most likely going to know quite a lot about it. Here is an interesting article from a Princeton economics professor on his opinion of what Bush is doing to the economy. I think a debate on this kind of issue is far more relevant than if Bush snorted coke: Krugman: Economic Crisis a Question of When, Not If Mon Nov 22, 2004 02:22 PM ET Printer Friendly \| Email Article \| Reprints \| RSS (Page 2 of 2) Top News Iraqi Govt. Stands by Voting Date Despite Violence Iran Halts Key Nuclear Work to Avoid Sanctions Powell Wins Israeli Pledge to Help Palestinian Vote MORE Crisis might take many forms, he said, but one key concern is the prospect that Asian central banks may lose their appetite for U.S. government debt, which has so far allowed the United States to finance its twin deficits. A deeper plunge in the already battered U.S. dollar is another possible route to crisis, the professor said. The absence of any mention of currencies in a communique from the Group of 20 rich and emerging market countries this past weekend only reinforced investors' perception that the United States, while saying it promotes a strong dollar, is willing to let its currency slide further. "The break can come either from the Reserve Bank of China deciding it has enough dollars, thank you, or from private investors saying 'I'm going to take a speculative bet on a dollar plunge,' which then ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy," Krugman opined. "Both scenarios are pretty unnerving." In the longer-term, Bush's version of social security reform, which Krugman says would relegate pensions for the elderly to the whims of volatile financial markets, could have wide-ranging implications for future generations. The only bright spot in having Bush in power for another four years, said Krugman, is that further economic mismanagement might trigger some sort of popular outcry. "I do believe at some point there is going to be a popular tidal wave against what has happened," concluded Krugman. "In the meantime, you keep banging on the drum, you keep telling the truth. "And then eventually we have the great demonstrations, which I think are important to let the government know that many Americans are not happy with what is happening," he said. reuters.com