Archive for Blog

This column was submitted by guest contributor Eugene Schlanger.  Originally published in The University Bookman, it is a review of the book Beautiful & Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry, available here at amazon.com. Pointless Protest of American Poetry by Eugene Schlanger In this, his first book, David Orr, the poetry columnist for the New York Times Book Review, attempts to persuade the general reading public that contemporary American poetry is meaningful. Though he readily admits that... Read More→

Title: NYYRC June Social Location: Calico Jacks Link out: Click here Description: NYYRC June Social Join us for drinks to see old friends and make new friends! Half Priced Drinks! Cash Bar, Free Appetizers served Free Event, Members and Non-Members Welcome First event or coming alone? Let us know and we’ll introduce you around! RSVP: rsvp@nyyrc.com Start Time: 07:00 Date: 2011-06-01 End Time: 10:00  Read More →

QE2, or the second round of government money printing, ends next month.  From January to June, the Fed added $100 billion to the money supply through “open market operations.”  Obscurantist jargon aside, this means that the Federal Reserve under Bernanke swapped out fixed income products for fungible cash to the tune of $600 billion.  This was supposed to add liquidity and spur lending, and has arguably failed on all counts. The Fed, for its part, remains dedicated to its Zero Interest... Read More→

(Events are likely unrelated.) From MarketWatch: WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of people who filed new applications for jobless benefits leaped 43,000 last week to 474,000, the highest level in almost nine months. A Labor official attributed much of the increase to temporary layoffs in the auto sector and in the state of New York, where workers in the educational field such as bus drivers are eligible for compensation during the week of spring break. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch... Read More→

Today was a great day for the great United States of America, we finally got the man who is responsible for the 9/11 attacks as well as many attacks on American soldiers and civilians. Osama Bin Laden is no more. For too long he was hiding from the United States. For too long, he sent out threatening messages to United States and it’s Allies. And for too long he and his organization Al-Qaida launched attacked on America and it’s Allies. But thanks to our Navy SEALs and CIA, Osama got... Read More→

Talk radio has traditionally been a medium through which conservatives communicate.  The liberals might control the “papers of record” (the NYT and Washington Post, the left’s equivalent of Bibles) the weekly news magazines (think Time and Newsweek which all-but-official Obama propaganda mills, or more recently offer apologia for his failed policies), and Oprah.*  But conservatives continue to dominate the most democratic of all media, radio. A friend of mine recommended a radio... Read More→

The government reported Q1 GDP growth figures today at 1.8% annualized. From MarketWatch: The U.S. economy slowed markedly in the first quarter and inflation accelerated, clear evidence of the double whammy on the economy from higher gasoline prices. In its first estimate Thursday, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product rose at a 1.8% annual rate between January and March, slower than the 3.1% pace in the prior three months. Believe it or not, this was better than the predicted 1.7%. ... Read More→

The next political showdown will be one for the ages, and could very well determine the nature of American society for generations to come. President Obama and his party have gone on a federal spending binge unlike the nation has ever seen (with the exception of World War II).  Republicans, in response, are rallying around the Paul Ryan budget, which would reduce the debt by $6 trillion over 10 years and not raise taxes.  President Obama’s to Ryan’s budget is unspecific, but claims to reduce... Read More→

With the recent budget battles and threat of government shutdown, you would think that the President’s party would want to be level-headed compared with their Republican competition. Once again, Democrats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Harry Reid stated that cutting $61 billion from this year’s $3 trillion-plus budget was “extreme”. Really? Considering that most American’s have had to cut much more than three percent from their budgets, it’s not so... Read More→

A terrific example of Obama’s willingness to sanctimoniously school us on how to be post-partisan, and then violate his own principles was on display last week. At the same time that the President demagogued Paul Ryan’s fiscal plan by alluding to how it’s going to kill Granny, a video was played from the speech President Obama made to the Republican conference in 2010 during the health care debate. In it, Obama pronounces the importance of not demagoguing an opponent’s position... Read More→