So many opinions.. so much discussion.. so much controversy..

Every now and then (and today, at 12:40 PM I still haven’t headed in to work yet) I like to pass an hour of time by going to the New York Times opinion page and clicking on everything with a remotely interesting headline.  Lately this habit has become more fun because of schadenfreude–

Well, really, it’s not schadenfreude– I was unemployed myself just months ago– as it is a sort of Vonnegut-like glee at catastrophe.  The whole world seems to be going to hell, and you see it in the unemployment numbers as well as the torturous debate about new media, which is really a debate about the future of knowledge.  What inspired me to post today (and here begins the eponymous spouting off) is the symmetry among the various themes of culture, economy, and ecology, the latter vis-a-vis the weak but still transformational climate change bill which, weakened as it is, will never make it past the (appallingly timid) US senate.

more))