Boomer Narcissism My Ass!

Some sort of cultural pundit on NPR mentioned that generations subsequent to the baby boomers weren't burdened with the narcissism the boomers willingly bear. Narcissim is looking at yourself in the mirror, not taking pride in your accomplishments.
I recall she referenced that, for instance, the boomers delusionally believed the Beatles were the best rock and roll band of all time. Well, I don't know if that's true, but a list of the best 100 rock and roll bands since 1950 would have a paucity of groups post 1980 (unless they were also trying to sell something to people of later generations). 
And while there have been some powerful writers over the decades, show me seminal works like Catcher in the Rye or Catch 22 published in the last twenty five years. 
 I'm sure we don't need to mention that baby boomers did manage to accomplish a few things politically. We're waiting.
Perhaps this article about Time magazine's international edition covers explains it better than anything I've just said. Time magazine has to dumb down the American edition cover because the next generations are clueless about anything that doesn't happen to them, for them, or about them. Talk about narcissism!



Each week, TIME Magazine designs covers for four markets: the U.S., Europe, Asia and the South Pacific. Often, America's cover is quite, well – different. This week offers a stark example.
Witness:

Yes, what you see is TIME devoting its cover in international markets to a critical moment in Egypt's revolution – perhaps the most important global story this week – while offering Americans the chance to contemplate their collective navels (with a rather banal topic and supposition, to boot).
This is not an isolated incident, for perusing TIME's covers reveals countless examples of the publication tempting the world with critical events, ideas or figures, while dangling before Americans the chance to indulge in trite self-absorption.
Witness these stunning dichotomies:

Viewing these covers, a question must be asked: do these moments of marketing (through a choice in covers) reveal more about Americans, or about the state of American journalism?
I fear the answer.

Article appears here.

Dear One Term Rick: Fuhgetaboutit

If Missouri is the “Show Me” state, Michigan must be the “We'll Believe Anything” state. I mean, we actually elected a man as governor who laid out absolutely no specifics on his vision of governing our state. Although he loved to proclaim himself a non-politician, he rolled out every vague platitude and aphorism about “strengthening the state” and “increasing employment” that every first time candidate hopes will satisfy disinterested voters, but in his case they actually did.

And while there are a number of articles to follow about how his unrevealed plans were to strap the poor and middle class with the bill for enacting his vision, for now let's discuss how his new “Fix the Roads” refrain is one more stab at a chance to punish the innocent to pay for his inequitable budget balancing strategy.

It's not that the roads don't need the work. Lord knows that if you drive across this great country you'll notice that Michigan has just about the crappiest roads around. I haven't visited all 50 states and I suppose Alaska may be worse, but for the 28 or so states that I have traversed we're the worst. I definitely agree that the roads need fixing.

But...

My car didn't ruin the roads. Neither did yours. This article claims that it would take 10,000 cars to do the damage one 18 wheeler inflicts on the roads. USA Today believes the correct number is 9,600 cars required to do the same damage, but points out that their assumption is based on the legal weight limit posted for most states at 40 tons. But, as of 2008, over 500,000 trucks with permits allowing them to carry more than 40 tons pounded the nations roads and bridges. If you really want to read an analysis, the University of Kansas did an exhaustive study on a stretch of Kansas highway that concluded the damage from large trucks amounted to roughly $.02 per truck per mile. (see page 122).

So wait a minute. One-term Rick wants me to pick-up the tab? He wants me to pay $1.2 billion to fix roads that I didn't ruin? (By the way, isn't $1.2 billion roughly the amount One Term Rick told businesses they didn't need to pay in taxes henceforth? What a guy, eh?) He wants to raise gas taxes by $.14 per gallon but wait! According to MarketWatch (page 2 of 8) Michigan already has the 7^th highest gas taxes in the country.

It seems pretty clear who busted the roads but One Term Rick prefers groveling to businesses since he'll need a lot more cash this next election when the good citizens of Michigan know exactly what a Tough Nerd means...tough on the middle class.

At this point I'd rather One Term Rick let let the roads devolve to gravel than kick in one more cent for his plan to reinvent the State of Michigan on the backs of the poor and middle class. If the people that broke the roads refuse to fix them, don't come asking me for the money.