Affordable National Service

26 April, 2004

There's been some enthusiasm building lately on the center-left for some form of compulsory national service -- either military or doing community service work a la AmeriCorps. I'm not a fan of the idea, because I think the benefits are overrated and I find forced service distasteful. But I also wonder about the cost. If you're requiring all our young men and women to do a year or two of service, you have to give them a living stipend of some sort. It seems to me that that would be awfully expensive. Perhaps in 2000, when we had a budget surplus, it would have been workable. But it's going to be hard enough to dig ourselves out of the budgetary hole that Bush has dug, add an expensive new program (health insurance), and work against a Congress that will most likely remain Republican-controlled. So it seems like national service would be out of our price range. The only option that occurs to me is to replace low-wage government workers (like janitors) with low-wage young people serving out their national service (this might even save money, depending on how many menial jobs currently pay more than a subsistence wage).

Then again, I'm no budget expert. If I'm overlooking something important, speak up.

Stentor Danielson

The Donor On The Street

03 May, 2004

I tend to be skeptical about claims of subtle media bias, but the juxtaposition of vignettes was hard to miss in this otherwise informative story about the rise of small donors in this year's presidential race. First we're introduced to Tom Joyce, a first-time Bush donor who spent "24 years in the Navy, including a stint at the Pentagon." From the other side of the aisle, we meet Yasmin Netervala, who told the reporter that "After living in France a few years ago, ... she grew more interested in French politics than the American kind."

A veteran vs. a world-trotting Francophile. We report, you decide.

Stentor Danielson

Lessons Of Mussolini

30 June, 2004

Shorter Joe Engel: "If the left doesn't stop comparing us to fascists, then by golly we'll just have to be fascists!"

(via Matthew Yglesias)

Stentor Danielson

When $175,000 Just Isn't Enough

31 July, 2004

Poor Tom Ridge. According to unnamed friends, the Homeland Security Director is considering stepping down after the election because he's too stressed out and because $175,000 a year just isn't enough money to put his two children through college. Ridge denies he's planning to step down, of course, and maybe it's true. But unfortunately the thought process behind his comments (perhaps made in moments of frustration) is all too plausible.

In today's world, it's a rare person who feels like they have enough money. (This may explain why the rich dismiss the poor's complaints as mere envy -- they know in their hearts that when they complain about money, it's not a legitimate complaint, so they assume that's the case for others.) We all think that if we had just a little bit more, we'd be satisfied.

Ridge is used to making $175,000 a year, and $140,000 a year as Governor of Pennsylvania before that. He's surrounded by people making similarly bloated salaries. And the private sector can offer well-connected ex-officials salaries an order of magnitude greater. So his sense of what's average is probably quite off-base. The sacrifices he'd have to make to put his kids through college seem easily avoidable. Being Homeland Security Director has blinded him to how good he really has it.

Stentor Danielson

Keyes V. God

18 August, 2004

There's been some buzz recently about remarks made by now-Senate candidate Alan Keyes back in May about September 11. Keyes' theory is that the terrorist attacks were a wake-up call from a God angry about abortion. It's nice that he managed to narrow it down so well, since the last time we heard this theory, Pat Robertson was attributing the attacks to the whole suite of conservative bogeymen, from pagans to feminists.

Keyes isn't painting a terribly flattering picture of God. Being omnipotent, God is usually able to target his punishments a bit more effectively. He promised Abraham he'd let the whole city of Sodom off the hook if he could find 10 righteous people in it. And when he couldn't, he still took the time to evacuate Lot and his family. So knocking down the World Trade Center and the Pentagon sounds like a pretty ham-handed strategy. Perhaps Keyes thinks that 4,000 pro-choice WTC employees were warned to stay home on September 11.

Stentor Danielson

Poetic Justice As Fairness

13 September, 2004

Once upon a time there was a man who was president of the United States. He did something wrong, then tried to hide it. His misdeed had precious little to do with his fitness to carry out the duties of the presidency. But his opponents siezed on it as a way to call his character into question. So they hammered him on it, digging and digging to find some dirt that would help them get him out of office. Backed into a corner and unwilling to admit a mistake, the president lied about what had happened. "Aha!" said his opponents. "We knew he was a scumbag all along! Obviously he's not fit to be president."

It was stupid when it happened to Bill Clinton, and it's stupid when it happens to George W. Bush.

Stentor Danielson

Dog Bites Man

02 October, 2004

In what kind of a crazy world is it news that John Edwards thought John Kerry won the debate?

Just because an important person is saying stuff doesn't mean it deserves space in the newspaper.

Stentor Danielson