Thursday, May 01, 2008
How about a Bullshit Holiday?
Following up on yesterday's entry about the consequences of low-quality information.
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Comrade McCain has been proposing a "gas tax holiday", and Hillary has unfortunately picked up on this trivial idea.
It's a dim reflection of FDR's original "bank holiday", which was his first real act as President. The bank holiday, followed immediately by new regulations, succeeded in stopping a slow but steady run on banks. Nationally, very few banks experienced a panicky stampede as seen in A Wonderful Life... but most people had lost faith in the ability of banks to keep track of abstract money, and preferred to have it in a physical form like gold.
What we have now is a complete loss of faith in government competence and truth. People are seeking information that feels more "golden", and much of this "gold" is actually pyrite.
So Polistra begs Comrade McCain: You're the man with the reputation for Straight Talk, the reputation for Mavericity and Independence. Start your term with a Bullshit Holiday to slow down the run on dangerous information. Instead of closing the banks, open the archives. Let us see all the documents relating to our government's lies and coverups, starting with the most obvious ones like Oswald's KGB connections and Terry Nichols's jihadi connections. We know you haven't been telling the truth about these things; we don't know what the exact truth is, but we know with 100% certainty that the official story is nowhere near the truth. Just as FDR coupled the Bank Holiday with new regulations, you can couple the Bullshit Holiday with a new resolution to tell us the truth about basic things like inflation and interest rates, and about our motives in continuing to waste soldiers in Iraq. You don't need to give away any strategic details; just tell us what you're doing and why. Treat us as adults. That will be enough. Please, sir? ¶ 4:06 AM
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Comrade McCain has been proposing a "gas tax holiday", and Hillary has unfortunately picked up on this trivial idea.
It's a dim reflection of FDR's original "bank holiday", which was his first real act as President. The bank holiday, followed immediately by new regulations, succeeded in stopping a slow but steady run on banks. Nationally, very few banks experienced a panicky stampede as seen in A Wonderful Life... but most people had lost faith in the ability of banks to keep track of abstract money, and preferred to have it in a physical form like gold.
What we have now is a complete loss of faith in government competence and truth. People are seeking information that feels more "golden", and much of this "gold" is actually pyrite.
So Polistra begs Comrade McCain: You're the man with the reputation for Straight Talk, the reputation for Mavericity and Independence. Start your term with a Bullshit Holiday to slow down the run on dangerous information. Instead of closing the banks, open the archives. Let us see all the documents relating to our government's lies and coverups, starting with the most obvious ones like Oswald's KGB connections and Terry Nichols's jihadi connections. We know you haven't been telling the truth about these things; we don't know what the exact truth is, but we know with 100% certainty that the official story is nowhere near the truth. Just as FDR coupled the Bank Holiday with new regulations, you can couple the Bullshit Holiday with a new resolution to tell us the truth about basic things like inflation and interest rates, and about our motives in continuing to waste soldiers in Iraq. You don't need to give away any strategic details; just tell us what you're doing and why. Treat us as adults. That will be enough. Please, sir? ¶ 4:06 AM
