In Good Hands

Let's face it: I don't get to write like I used to. Part of that is that I'm no longer a Subject Matter Expert (God help me -- FAAisms still infect my brain). Air Traffic Control moves on and I am left further and further behind.

But for these last few days, I have been forcing myself to catch up on Krugman. And then, this morning, while I was trying to find a piece from Fareed Zakaria, I got lost on James Fallows' page for an hour. Or two. I was really struck by this one. Find me another author with an audience this bright, willing to debate in civil language, and I'll give them a read. I'm sure there actually are others. Just as I am sure we all don't have the time to read them all. We have to choose. And the older I get, the more I realize how important the choice of whom we give our limited time to is.

Which is what inspired me to write this. Looking back, I'm proud of the choices I have presented to you. Paul Krugman. James Fallows. Robert Reich. I think each has held up well over these years we've spent together. Looking over my blog, I see that I will have to update it. (Big DUH.) Podcasts have become my main media these days. I can't read as I walk and take pictures but I can listen. Rachel Maddow and Kai Ryssdal's MarketPlace are a daily routine now. Bill Moyers' podcast is becoming almost a weekly spiritual ritual. All I can say is he appeals to our better nature. There are many others but these are the best.

By the way, here's the segment on Farred Zakaria's Global Public Square I was searching for.



In closing, I'll remind you that in the archives here at Get the Flick is a review of the book "A Peace to End All Peace" about how the borders of the Middle East were set after World War I, a review of James Fallows' "Blind Into Baghdad" detailing our foolish rush to war and a review of Thomas Ricks' book "Fiasco" about the disastrous implementation of our foolish policy. The disaster of our involvement in Iraq didn't "just happen", it wasn't fate and don't let anyone tell you that no one saw it coming. It was a choice. A bad one.

Choose the voices you allow in your head wisely.

Don Brown
June 21, 2014