Personal Asides: The Economy—Gasp—It’s Falling!...Dirty Jokes and the New Testament…The Sunday Lineup for Political Shootout.

russstewart


The Economy.

Did you get the feeling a few days ago that the same people who do the weather…generating scare headlines of multi-days of snow, sleet and frozen pipes…have been fooling around with the economic news? A few days ago the Dow dropped 140 points and the media gasped. At least the “Tribune” did, ruled as it is by those apart from the editorial page who rub their knuckles raw with glee that they have found yet something else with which to bludgeon George W. Bush. Well they did their damndest—but now the Dow has picked up. And it is an amazing thing: the media that see loss of prestige, defeat for the United States in Iraq, the ignominy of disgrace for Bush, just cannot find the will to report the economy’s facts.

For the facts are that these factors are at record levels—no thanks to the media which neglects to report it: U. S. exports, industrial production, real hourly compensation, corporate profits, federal tax revenues, retail sales, GDP, productivity, the number of people with jobs, the number of students in college, airline passenger traffic—all at record levels. That isn’t just me talking: that’s Brian Wesbury the brilliant Chicago-based economist who last year won the “Wall Street Journal’s” prize for calling the economy right on the money.

Instead, in the “Tribune” and “Sun-Times” we have the same old liberal hand-wringing. And in the “Sun-Times,” the black egomaniacal patriarch with the trademark pout, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. grinds his axe on Democratic National Committee boilerplate. Ralph Martire continually writes his self-same crusade for higher taxes with no rejoinder. Really, does the “Sun-Times” really believe that it can rescue its sinking ship by becoming the Loop edition of the “Chicago Defender”? Lynn Sweet, brilliant reportorial advocate as she is, in the style of George Tagge who was Robert R. McCormick’s political agent and George Rothwell Brown who was Hearst’s…she is a superb chronicler of Barack Obama’s destiny, but does the paper have to be larded with the pathetic offerings by the publisher’s wife, Jennifer Hunter in the masquerade of journalist, who handled the newspaper’s endorsements by perpetrating a survey to candidates that was so slanted in its questioning that it became a laughingstock?

Wesbury writes in “The Wall Street Journal,” this: “One would think that the unbelievably dramatic turnaround in the economy from the malaise of the 1970s to the boom of the past 24 years would prevent the return of big government. But it appears that a growing number of American politicians, journalists and their constituents have forgotten the awful reality of the 1970s economy. Part of the problem is that people younger than 45 don[t have even the slightest idea of how bad it was, or what caused it. They also have no idea that when Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan turned away from socialism in the late 1970s and early 1980s continental Europe (Germany, France and Italy) kept going . Then while the U. S. and U. K. boomed, continental Europe fell behind.”

He’s right that many of our journalists are too young to remember what happened and too shallow to research. But there are some who aren’t that young. What is the mean average age of the “Tribune” editorial board? What is the mean age of the “Sun-Times” editorial board? For that matter, what is the mean age of the “Sun-Times’” Steve Huntley? I would guess he’s a couple of fifty, wouldn’t you? He was around to see the changes from the Carter years to this. I respect newspapers of advocacy but even when the economic news isn’t portrayed with accuracy but is used as a cudgel against the president when in fact the record is stunningly good, how in the world can you respect anything else they turn out?

The New Testament.

I have a lot more personal improvements to make before I get down to eliminating the fun I derive from telling scatological jokes…but here’s a reminder that the Good Book doesn’t look with favor on them. Ephesians 5:3-4 says “Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place but instead, thanksgiving.” I have a lot more personal improvements to make before I get down to eliminating the fun I derive from telling scatological jokes…but here’s a reminder that the Good Book doesn’t look with favor on them. Ephesians 5:3-4 says “Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place but instead, thanksgiving.”

Another: Colossians 3-8: “But now you must put…away anger, fury, malice, slander and obscene language out of your mouths.” And finally, Philippians 4:8: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever if gracious, if there is any excellence and there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The Sunday Lineup.

I doubt if any of the so-called pundit class have a better record in calling the fine-print election details of last Tuesday than has Russ Stewart of Nadig newspapers who made his predictions last Sunday. In a long litany of right calls, I heard only one that turned out wrong—his failure to predict the victory of Sandi Jackson. But everything else was right on the button.

This week we’ll feature another fine analyst—Jeff Berkowitz whose TV shows on cable range throughout the Chicagoland area…and maybe even downstate for all I know. He will be on with Gary MacDougall, the former state Republican chairman. That’s next Sunday on WLS-AM 890 at 8 p.m.