Best Of The Fray

Do The Math. And Again.

Subject:  Reich From Wrong
Re:Kausfiles: Infighting on the Left—Was the ‘90s Boom a Bust?
From: Max B. Sawicky, Economic Policy Institute
Date:  Mon Apr 23 1:25 p.m. PT

[Mickey Kaus] commits the very transgression for which he indicts Mr. Reich—selective data reporting to make a point … Sure, if you find the low point in the 1990’s for incomes, 1999 looks pretty good. Until you compare it to 1989 in inflation-adjusted terms. Then you can see that the 10-year change for the bottom 80 percent ranges from 4.8 to 9.1 percent. These translate into annual compounding rates of less than one percent. In other words, if you’ll forgive my lapse into technical jargon, they suck! …

[Find this post  here.]

Subject: Reply to Max B. Sawicky

Re:Kausfiles: Infighting on the Left—Was the ‘90s Boom a Bust?

From:  Mickey Kaus

Date: Mon Apr 23  2:14 p.m. PT

What a condescending crock! The argument of the item is exactly that you have to look at the whole business cycle, peak to peak. My point is that Reich deceptively cuts off the data before the next peak is reached—a peak that indeed may not have been reached yet …

[Find this post here. Sawicky counterarguedbut added, “Why describe what is really not so great as a ‘boom’? This is a bit misleading, so Reich’s skepticism, if a tad overdrawn, is well-taken.” Kaus said he’d settle for“overdrawn”and—as he put it—all ended peacefully.]

Subject: Worth the Wait

Re:Sports Nut: Lies, Damned Lies, and Triple Crown Statistics

From: Joe

Date: Thu Apr 19 11:55 p.m. PT

The argument that the Crown needs updating because it hasn’t been taken since Yaz did it in ‘67 seems oddly mistimed. It wasn’t long ago that baseball got to celebrate the double smashing of a record that looked out of reach for about four decades. And whatever one wants to call what Tiger Woods just accomplished in golf, surely few would have bet (at least until Tiger showed up) that such a feat was just around the corner. So to those longing for a winnable Triple Crown: Be patient. Lightning may strike sooner than you think—and, when it does, the flash will be all the more brilliant for being unexpected.

[Find this post here.]

Subject: Rights and Wrongs of Riots

Re:History Lesson: Riot Act

From: Joseph Britt

Date: Fri Apr 20  3:04 p.m. PT

The people who most resent police misconduct—because they have broken no law—are the people least likely to riot; actual rioters may resent the police, but part of that resentment derives from the fact that the police have to enforce laws that rioters are breaking. At a minimum, we are talking about two very different groups of people who the police need to respond to in different ways, even though both groups may be African-Americans with grievances against the police.

[Find this post here.]

Fray Notes:

Fray poster of the week was Zeitguy, who ran three separate (and excellent) discussions—here, here, and here—about Robert Wright’s “Earthling” column on intelligent design. As if the article itself didn’t stir up enough strong feelings.

We don’t condone impostors in the Fray, but there is such an extraordinary case in “Blorple Falls” here that we haven’t touched it: All gold star posters should go and take a look to see if they are featured. Then they should read this from Joan, who is worried that “being a star writer must be like being one of those ‘40s and ‘50s movie stars: You can never go out without your makeup … never let your hair down, be really shallow every now and then just because it feels good.” Absolutely: We have high standards.

Best Fray transition from the topic at hand (this Earthling to another subject: “Golf and Tiger Woods are great to hear about for a while but I believe the current situation with China to be more important.” We were also very appreciative of Tom R.’s blatant (and successful) attempt to curry favor with the Fray team with an uncalled-for Ayn Rand reference here.

A mention inToday’s Papers” of the complaint from a U.S. female fighter pilot in Saudi Arabia about wearing Muslim dress provoked considerable discussion, and the ever-splendid A.G.Android had an answer to the “When in Rome …” argument: “But we’re not in Rome. In this context, we are Rome. I don’t recall Rome taking a lot of guff from the barbarians about how the legions dressed.”