Free range comments welcome on the day’s FrontBurner topics, or anything else that strikes your fancy. Quit walkin’ and get talkin’.
I’m interested in what folks think of this from our buddy Gordon Keith.
Comments in general — good, bad, and who makes you read them?
Re: Did Last Summer’s Oil Spike Cause The Recession?
No, the recession has been in the works for years. I remember speaking to economists and real estate professors in ’05 and ’06 saying the bust was coming. The Oil Spike was caused by rampant oil speculation and growing talk of Cap & Trade. Hell, one ‘investor’ bid up the price of oil just so he could have the bragging rights of saying he was the first to buy oil at $100 / barrel!
I don’t think one part of the economy led to the entire recession. As El Rey put, this has been in the works for years. It is a “perfect storm” of free market factors, plus some external “global” pressures. We will survive.
I don’t agree with everything he says…but, Ed Wallace has some interesting thoughts on his “car” show Sat. mornings on KLIF. He mirrors El Rey on the rampant speculation part of the math.
I’m willing to wait out Obama on the theory he’s the new millenium’s Jimmy Carter. I’m up for 8 years of “Regan” starting 2012, okay 2013.
Gordon’s excellently written blog didn’t address a few crucial points. First of all there are many fine and informative blogs at the DMN which don’t attract a notable cesspool of comments. And to include the comparison of comments from articles to blogs isn’t an accurate analogy. Secondly, it’s most often the blogger’s tone (or reader’s perception of the tone) that elicits either desirable or undesirable comments. Not a believer? Compare Inside Corner to the DMN Cowboy’s blog.
The fact is the blogger has to take a large portion of responsibility for the quality of comments. Page views v. constructive comments. It’s the blogger’s decision, but I’m not sure one can have cake and eat it too.
But Gorden’s gist “we (most of us, me included) suck†is spot-on.
A slightly off-topic note:
As a long-time reader and fan of Tim’s I was surprised by the optic and butt posts. My initial thought was he’s either naïve or arrogant. After further thought I believe along the continuum between naïveté and arrogance is a point of genius. Tim and Wick have nailed that spot. I’m looking forward to a new and improved FB.
Well played, gentlemen!
PER GK: I think it was shockingly on the money and very well reasoned. In fact I am stunned to say that I feel his overview of what happened after Rome was stormed was an indication that he’s smarter than I thought and a very real thinker who can write very well indeed. In other words, it’s the best piece I have read ANYwhere on the whole ‘Open Mic’ phenom of interactive media participation and it’s ultimate residue when alter egos use alternative rules of engagement when cloaked in the flag of ‘democratic’ cyberspace ‘entitlement’ programing. Bravo……….or as they say in Rome, ‘Amen’.