Asia Times: Crash Club

[marmar]

Crash Club
By Mike Davis


When my old gang and I were 14 or 15 years old, many centuries ago, we yearned for immortality in the fiery wreck of a bitchin' '40 Ford or '57 Chevy. Our J K Rowling was Henry Felsen, the ex-Marine who wrote the bestselling masterpieces Hot Rod (1950), Street Rod (1953), and Crash Club (1958).

Officially, his books - highly praised by the National Safety Council - were deterrents, meant to scare my generation straight with huge dollops of teenage gore. In fact, he was our asphalt Homer, exalting doomed teenage heroes and inviting us to emulate their legend.

.....(snip).....

Shaking the three pillars of McWorld

Let me reprise the obvious, but seldom discussed. Even if debt-limit doomsday is averted, President Barack Obama has already hocked the farm and sold the kids. With breathtaking contempt for the liberal wing of his own party, he's offered to put the sacrosanct remnant of the New Deal safety net on the auction bloc to appease a hypothetical "center" and win reelection at any price. (Dick Nixon, old socialist, where are you now that we need you?)

As a result, like the Phoenicians in the Bible, we'll sacrifice our children (and their schoolteachers) to Moloch, now called Deficit. The bloodbath in the public sector, together with an abrupt shutoff of unemployment benefits, will negatively multiply through the demand side of the economy until joblessness is in teenage digits and Lady Gaga is singing Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MG28Dj01.html

[leveymg]

1. Awfully cheerful about it. I thought the point of chicken was to avoid crashing the ride.

Nobody wants to hitchhike home.

[xchrom]

2. Brutal...but honest. Nt