Lucid Links (121509, Morning)
Whether the downturn is a still a recession is apparently a debatable matter in Liberal Land, and even within the Obama administration.
As I noted a few days ago (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), an Associated Press item by Martin Crutsinger last week was written as if the recession, which as normally defined ended in the third quarter (the fact that it was artificially influenced by excessive government largesse doesn’t change the fact that growth was positive), is still around and negatively impacting federal receipts five months later.
Obama economic adviser Larry Summers told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Sunday that “everyone agrees that the recession is over.”
Meanwhile over at NBC, Christine Romer, another administration economic heavy hitter, told NBC’s David Gregory that “of course (it’s) not” when asked if the recession is over.
As easy as it would be to ridicule the inconsistency, the more important point is that the current Obama-media muddle shows why having an objective standard is necessary. The “normal people” definition of two or more consecutive quarters of negative economic growth is crystal clear. Subjective evaluations like the one done by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which still believes that a recession began in December 2007, aren’t. That’s why NBER should never have been named the official determiner of when a recession begins and ends, and the dictionary definition should rule.
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As I have watched the his Chevy ads, I can’t help but wonder what in the world Howie Long has been thinking.
Long has been a guest on Bill Bennett’s talk show, and this commenter at FreeRepublic in 2006 says that Long is a self-described conservative Republican. So I don’t get it, unless he’s locked into a contract that was inked well before GM became a ward of the state.
Every commercial for a GM or Chrysler product or service should carry a prominent disclosure that it was financed by taxpayer dollars.
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From the “Keep Your Kids Out of Public Schools” file (HT Michael Graham via Michelle Malkin), there’s this report from eponymously named in the circumstances Taunton, Massachusetts:
A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The father said he got a call earlier this month from Maxham Elementary School informing him that his son, a second-grade student, had created a violent drawing. The image in question depicted a crucified Jesus with Xs covering his eyes to signify that he had died on the cross. The boy wrote his name above the cross.
“As far as I’m concerned, they’re violating his religion,” the incredulous father said.
…. The student drew the picture shortly after taking a family trip to see the Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, a Christian retreat site in Attleboro. He made the drawing in class after his teacher asked the children to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas, the father said.
This isn’t just some isolated rogue teacher with hostility towards religion. Several school officials had to agree before the kid was sent home.
There’s a bitter irony at the school district’s web site, noted by Graham (bold and italics are the district’s) — “Nickname: The Christmas City due in large measure to elaborate annual Christmas displays.”
