I agree completely with both Mr. Burd and the firs...

2009-02-03T14:32:00.000-05:00

I agree completely with both Mr. Burd and the first poster.

While our local poverty reduction committee has good intentions, most of its members don't have the critical thinking skills needed to figure it out. Being service providers, they believe the solution to poverty is to just find the right service and start providing it. They can't believe it's as simple as providing an adequate income. While some poor people need some services, most of them will find their own solutions if we would just give them enough funds to feed and house themselves decently.

It'a not rocket science, it's just common sense.

"What we need to talk about, what someone needs to...

2009-01-30T09:26:00.000-05:00

"What we need to talk about, what someone needs to talk about, particularly now, is our ever-deepening-ignorance (of politics, offoreign languages, of history, of science, of current affairs, of pretty much everything) and not just out of ignorance but our complacency in the face of it, our growing fondness for it. A generation ago the proof of our foolishness, held up to our faces, might have elicited some redeeming twinge of shame -no longer. Today, across vast swaths of the republic, it amuses and comforts us.We're deeply loyal to it. Ignorance gives us a sense of community; it confers citizenship; our representatives either share it or bow down to it or risk our wrath."

Mark Slouka in February's Harper's. He's writing about the United States, of course. But are things any different here?

The essay is called 'Quibble'. I think it's worth the time to read.

Comments on The Burd Report: What a load of Crap!

I agree completely with both Mr. Burd and the firs...

"What we need to talk about, what someone needs to...