Now, I know that–consciously or unconsciously–we all engage in spin; what each of us sees as reality is shaped to a considerable extent not just by our individual beliefs and/or prejudices, but by how much we really know about the subject at hand. But more and more, people are spinning whole cloth?what we used to call lying.
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Category Archives: Public Policy and Governance
War of Words
As Humpty Dumpty famously said to Alice, "When I use a word, my dear, that word means whatever I want it to mean." Here in the U.S. of Wonderland, we are about to launch a "preemptive" attack on Iraq–preemptive being the word that means whatever George W. Bush wants it to mean.
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Unending Culture Wars
Whatever one’s position on same-sex marriage, it is difficult to understand why the issue is suddenly so much more urgent than tax relief or job creation. In the wake of President Bush’s call for an amendment to the federal constitution, even reliable culture warrior Tom DeLay responded by saying "there is no particular reason for haste." For that matter, in the (highly unlikely) event that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages, a state constitutional amendment would provide no more protection than the defense of marriage statute currently on our books. Aside from its symbolism, the proposal has no substance.
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Game Theory
Some people go into politics because they care about policy. Others view politics as another species of sport: who wins? how? what tactical maneuvers are effective? What’s the score? For those of us who have been unable to understand how or why a man with no obvious engagement with any policy issue, domestic or foreign, became President, game theory may supply the answer.
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Fight Fair, Dammit
In Florence, Italy, there is a famous marble statue of two Greek wrestlers,nude, and magnificently muscular. The statues are, as we say, ‘anatomically correct,’ and one wrestler has hold of the other by an organ that my male friends tell me is quite vulnerable. I have forgotten the statue’s real name, but my husband always calls it "fight fair, dammit."
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