Wednesday, November 26, 2008

On the home front...

Originally, I thought Mitt Romney's NYTimes piece on the auto industry bailout was surprisingly realistic and reasonable. However, I find this piece from salon.com to be more on target. It recognizes the historical fact that Henry Ford and the industry he led helped to create the American middle class, along with the UAW, which rose standards for all worker, and made reality the idea that a factory worker could make enough to live the same quality of life as his company's management.

This piece gave me more perspective on the recent outsing of my former Congressman John Dingle from his commitee chairmanship; though Dingle can easily be portrayed as defending the auto industry at all cost, he has also been introducing legislation for univeral healthcare every year for the last half century. The fact is that Dingle cares about the people involved in the industry and the reprocussions that its failure would have, while someone like Romney doesn't.

I also like the point of view that the salon piece takes on the SUV boon of the last decade: though it is widely viewed as irresponisble, it was a way for the Big Three to countiue to live up to their obligations in the social contract.

Maximum Fun


Check out the work of Chip Kidd, who has designed book covers for the last 20 years or so. I saw him being interviewed at Bumbershoot this year at a taping of The Sound of Young America.

Monday, November 10, 2008

The South will come again!

The South seems to be becoming politically irrelevent, and from the sound of some of these comments, culturally and intellectionally isolated.