Monday, October 20, 2008

A rendezvous with idiocy

The Wall Street Journal published a story in today's paper that it should be absolutely ashamed of. Entitled "A Rendezvous with Destiny, Cast in Bronze," the story attempts to draw comparisons between the current economic environment and the Great Depression by interviewing people at the FDR Memorial in Washington DC. This is journalism at its absolute laziest.

While I could provide a lengthy response to the absurd notion that there are any parallels between today and the 1930s -- complete with statistics about unemployment, bank failures, etc. -- I will instead do so with a nod to the saying that picture is worth a thousand words:


1930s, as symbolized by a bread line statue at the FDR Memorial.


Today (photo taken Sep. 20 by yours truly here in DC, about 9:45am).

The only accurate parallel I can see is that just as FDR promised lots of government solutions to rescue us from the Depression, so does Barack Obama believe that his team of government planners can work similar magic. And by magic I mean lots of spending that does little to boost the economy while driving us deeper into debt.

At least the comments section in the WSJ story indicate that not everyone has lost their mind.

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