Daily Archives: Friday, July 3, 2009

Krugman asks the question

July 3, 2009, 9:00 AM

Secrets of the WSJ

This morning’s Wall Street Journal opinion section contains a lot of what one expects to see. There’s an opinion piece making a big fuss over the fake scandal at the EPA. There’s an editorial claiming that the latest job figures prove the failure of Obama’s economic plan — something I dealt with in the Times. All of this follows on yesterday’s editorial asserting that the Minnesota senatorial election was stolen.

All of this is par for the course; the WSJ editorial page has been like this for 35 years. Nonetheless, it got me wondering: what do these people really believe?

I mean, they’re not stupid — life would be a lot easier if they were. So they know they’re not telling the truth. But they obviously believe that their dishonesty serves a higher truth — one that is, in effect, told only to Inner Party members, while the Outer Party makes do with prolefeed.

The question is, what is that higher truth? What do these people really believe in?

Emergency room response, Canada versus US

Only anecodotal, but thought I’d pass it on.  Two or three weeks ago while visiting in Canada, I suffered a TIA.  Short, not serious and subsequent tests showed no worrisome conditions or abnormalities (I ought to note the event happened during a raucus family wedding and there were certain types of misbehavior involved).  My wife took control of the auto and we zipped to the hospital on Vancouver Island where I was taken in and tested with an administrative delay of five minutes.

By way of contrast, last evening I drove my wife to the hospital as she was experiencing some symptoms which might have been heart-related (they weren’t, as it turned out…everything quite fine heart-wise).  We sat in the emergency waiting room for four hours before a doctor saw her.