Noam Chomsky on Misguided Outrage

Today on the list: President Obama confirms that his is a Republican health care plan, Noam Chomsky considers “a level of anger … like nothing I can recall in my lifetime,” and a random act of culture that brings a Macy’s crowd to its feet.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

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Chomsky: Outrage, Misguided The U.S. midterm elections register a level of anger, fear and disillusionment in the country like nothing I can recall in my lifetime.

Senator Graham Wants a 3rd War — Iran A veteran senator says the US should not be satisfied with stopping Iran’s nuclear program but should also destroy its military capabilities and deliver a major blow to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.

Financial reform has a terrifying loophole — and the banks found it There were many factors that led us to the financial crisis of 2008 — dangerous derivatives, irresponsible ratings agencies, negligent regulators — but one was more important than the rest.

Learning From The 2010 Midterm Elections, Part 2 It is often easier to give advice to others than to learn lessons oneself. What lessons should those of us who are self-conscious leftists learn from the midterm elections of 2010?

A Recipe for Fascism American politics, as the midterm elections demonstrated, have descended into the irrational.

Philosophers Through the Lens I have spent almost a quarter century photographing philosophers. For the most part, philosophers exist, and have always existed, outside the public spotlight.

Did Republican House Landslide Kill Net Neutrality? The Federal Communications Commission has published the agenda for its November Open Meeting. It comes two days after the Democrats took their shellacking in the midterm Congressional elections. And once again, the FCC’s Open Internet proposals are nowhere to be found on the list of action items.

President Obama Confirms Strategy to Introduce a Republican Reform Model PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, partly because I couldn’t get the kind of cooperation from Republicans that I had hoped for. We thought that if we shaped a [health care] bill that wasn’t that different from bills that had previously been introduced by Republicans — including a Republican governor in Massachusetts who’s now running for President — that, you know, we would be able to find some common ground there. And we just couldn’t.

Thought Crimes In Israel, the far-right Knesset member Michael Ben Ari has proposed a bill that would require entire film crews to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and to declare loyalty to its laws and symbols, as a condition for receiving public funding.

Economics and ethics? Economics and ethics. OK, so they’re not two words that are often mentioned in the same breath. Not after the Chicago Boys in Chile. Or Jeffrey Sachs’s “shock therapy” in Bolivia and Andrei Shleifer’s financial shenanigans in Russia. Or, most recently, the role of economists leading up to the financial crisis, as exposed in Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job.

Flash Mob Hallelujah Chorus at Macy’s [formerly Wanamaker’s] in Philly: