COMPRESSED NEWS #6

FAMILY MAN
BENFEY/ (2005) NEW REPUBLIC/10/31/27-30.

James Agee had it all. He was cast as a martyr and yet he had his fill. He died young. Perhaps he was bi-polar. He was a damn good writer, poet, novelist, and journalist. His most poignant was A DEATH IN THE FAMILY. It reviewed that life and death of his father. His parents were not compatible. Mom was brilliant and educated, and dad was not. He still missed his father and led a life of extremes from saint to sinner.

OIL IS HERE TO STAY OR IS IT LEAVING?
DEFFEYES (2005) TIME AND HUBER (2005) TIME /10/31/ 66

Deffeyes outlines how oil is limited and that we need to move to alternative fuels. Huber indicates how much potential oil is still to be drilled. We don’t need to worry. The articles are excellent for debate and taking sides papers.

THE BROKEN PROMISE/ SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR PENSION
BARTLETT & STEELE (2005) TIME 10/31/ 40-47

Defined pensions are excellent ways of retiring. You pay so much over a period of years and then you take so much out over a period of time. Along with your social security and Medicare, it WAS a good life. Now corporations are dumping their retirees so that profits increase. How is it done? You sell the company to a shell company. You declare bankruptcy, dump the oldsters, and then buy back the company. You then report record profits. Retirees sue and even if they win, they get pennies on the dollar.
The president and congress made this operation legal.

DOES LEADERSHIP MATTER?
GERGEN/(2005) U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT/ 10/31/ 91.

Thomas Carlyle once said history is biography. Tolstoy said the opposite. Great men are labels for eras. The 20th century generated Mao, Stalin, Hitler, FDR, and Churchill. There greatest was complimented by journalist keeping secrets by custom or at the point of a gun that Churchill was bi-polar and FDR was handicapped. The others had a compliant press.

At any rate, where are you Joe DiMaggio? We need some one of incredible substance to come forward and help us thought the night. The 21st Century has started out as slummy. You got a nickel to spare?