News of the real
October, 2005
The Larger Shame
“One of the most dispiriting elements of the catastrophe in New Orleans was the looting. I covered the 1995 earthquake that leveled much of Kobe, Japan, killing 5,500, and for days I searched there for any sign of criminal behavior. Finally I found a resident who had seen three men steal food. I asked him whether he was embarrassed that Japanese would engage in such thugery.”
Nicolas Kristoff, September 6, 2005, The New York Times
Moral news: The true nature of our personal and national character is revealed at times of crisis.
To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars
“A survey by The New York Times found that about 132,000 of the nation’s prisoners, or almost 1 in 10, are serving life sentences. The number of lifers has almost doubled in the last decade, far outpacing the overall growth in the prison population. Of those lifers sentenced between 1988 and 2001, about a third are serving time for sentences other than murder, including burglary and drug crimes.”
October 2, 2005. The New York Times
Challenging news: America generates a whole city of prisoners without hope of freedom.
Government Intervention in Stock Market Detailed by New Report
“A major Canadian financial management firm concludes that the U.S. government has intervened to support the stock market so many times that ‘what apparently started as a stopgap measure may have morphed into a serious moral hazard situation, with market manipulation an endemic feature of the U.S. stock market.
The Sprott report concludes: Given the available information, we do not believe there can be any doubt that the U.S. government has intervened to support the stock market. Yet virtually no one ever mentions government intervention publicly, preferring instead to pretend as if such activities have never taken place and never would.”