Victor Davis Hanson and the non-existent ‘investors’ strike’
Victor Davis Hanson, writing in National Review, repeats a claim that has become all too familiar. According to Hansen, investors are so afraid of and offended by the Obama administration that they have refused to invest, in effect conducting a “sit-down strike … that has paralyzed the country and has been largely ignored by the media.”
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, let’s ignore it no longer. However, before we try to assess the validity of Hanson’s argument, we should test the assertion on which it is based. Has there in fact been a sit-down strike by capital “that has paralyzed the country and has been largely ignored by the media?”
Oddly, Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention. He simply assumes that it is true and assumes that his readers will assume that it’s true.
It is not true. In fact, it is demonstrably false.
This is not a new meme, of course. Conservatives have been making this identical claim from the very beginning of the Obama presidency. As far back as March 9, 2009, the Wall Street Journal editorial board was telling its readers that the stock market was faltering because of what it called “a declaration of hostility toward capitalists across the economy” by the Obama administration. (At that point, the administration had been in power for all of five weeks.)
Here’s what they wrote back then, under the headline “The Obama Economy: As the Dow keeps dropping, the president is running out of people to blame”:
“From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence — and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth….
“The powers in Congress — unrebuked by Mr. Obama — are ridiculing and punishing the very capitalists who are essential to a sustainable recovery. The result has been a capital strike, and the return of the fear from last year that we could face a far deeper downturn. This is no way to nurture a wounded economy back to health.”
Again, that was five weeks after Obama’s inauguration. Here’s what the stock market has done since then:
Dow Jones Industrial Average, Jan. 23, 2009 to present
That’s a 59.4 percent increase, representing one of the fastest rises in the history of the Dow Jones index. Since the Dow bottomed out on March 6, 2009 — three days before the WSJ editorial was published — the index has doubled.
Quite the “capital strike,” right? And yet the meme survives.
Now, let’s take a look at a less well-known but still critical measure of investment, Gross Private Domestic Investment:
The chart illustrates the fact that since the second quarter of 2009, gross private domestic investment has risen by $564 billion, an increase of 38 percent. For comparison’s sake, GPDI increased by 24 percent in the two and a half years after the economy bottomed out in the 2001 recession under George W. Bush. (See note below)
Hanson, in other words, has based his entire argument on a “fact” that is not a fact at all, but a fabrication. When conservatives started offering this critique barely a month into Obama’s presidency, it was absurdly premature but at least had some plausible foundation in the data. Today, the data tell us that the critique is utterly without foundation, yet still it is being offered.
Why? Because it conforms to the ideology, and in the minds of the modern conservative movement, conforming to the ideology is far more important than conforming to reality.
(NOTE: That raises an obvious question. If investment is indeed rebounding, why is the economy still so troubled? The answer is, because we have so much ground to make up. By the time Obama took office, private investment had fallen to levels not seen since 1997. The Great Recession had wiped out all of the gains of the 21st century and then some. During this recovery, we’ve clawed our way back to the investment levels of 2004.
– Jay Bookman
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368 comments Add your comment
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:07 pm
Finn – Attic fans are one of the greatest inventions ever put into a house. I really don’t understand why people don’t use them more today. We wouldn’t have to turn the A/C on in my parents house until it got to be about 95 or so outside as long as we opened the windows and turned on the attic fan. Ah, good times.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:08 pm
Jay 3:54
Just as is true with the thread’s topic, it would appear that not only does a certain political segment accept what they read from trusted sources, they quote those sources and can’t imagine that anyone would read them, let alone arrive at a conclusion actually based on the data -
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:11 pm
kayaker 71
““Without a shred of evidence????? What in the hell are you talking about?”
Don’t you even read the thread kickoff posted by Jay before you post?
“Oddly, Hansen offers not a shred of evidence or data to support that contention. He simply assumes that it is true and assumes that his readers will assume that it’s true.
It is not true. In fact, it is demonstrably false.”
As far as the rest of your post, I think if you read the comments before you came in you’ll find your answer -
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
4:12 pm
It never ceases to amaze how many of you liberal posters have your nose up Bookman’s posterior. Anything he says seems to be written on some granite tablet and he is carrying it down from the mountain to tell all you liberals how to think, what to believe and most all, how not to think for yourselves. He has been proven wrong…. dead wrong…. and he has demeaned a well meaning, intelligent journalist…… but you continue to cling on to his shirt tails decrying that all “wing nuts” have only one synapse short of a green onion. I’m out of here….. enough of this.
real john
April 30th, 2012
4:13 pm
Interesting Article. However, I tend to think that the Wall Street Journals opinion on March 9, 2009 was actually pretty accurate..
“From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence — and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth….”
I would argue that Obama and his own economic teams forecasts would even agre that the recession was longer and we have been in subpar growth if you go back and look at their own economic forecast back in March 2009. Obama’s own forecast (and most of the economists he loves to cite) have been a bit optimistic vs the actual growth the last three years or so.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:14 pm
willard gets back up and said it was a” cheap political ploy.”
First flip flop of the 12 Presidential election.
Finn McCool (Class Warfare === Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
April 30th, 2012
4:15 pm
Kayaker, we prefer the term “not the sharpest tool in the shed”
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:16 pm
“I’m out of here….. enough of this.”
Oh, the drama.
Thomas Heyward jr
April 30th, 2012
4:17 pm
Krugman’s balls must be shrinking because his voice keeps getting higher and higher. Shifty, nervous little worm. Looks like Bernanke’s brother too.
.
Undoubtably, Krugman would want some Government stimulas on his Depends.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
4:17 pm
The best name in today’s game?
Yaya Touré.
Brother AmVet
He’s got a brother named Kolo, currently serving a ban for testing positive for a failed drug test.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
4:19 pm
71: “…and he has demeaned a well meaning, intelligent journalist…”
Riiiiiiight.
Hanson believes that the Iraq War is a good and worthwhile undertaking and that it has been, on the whole, a laudable success.
That was easy.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:21 pm
The cons have lost it.
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
4:21 pm
Jam, you are brilliant. I had no idea that there were temperature variables across the globe. Imagine my surprise to find out ocean currents and wind effects temperature. Who would have thought? Thanks for setting me straight. Here is a little experiment for you to try. On a hot day, go out to your front lawn, if you have one. If not, borrow one. Take your shoes off while standing on the grass. Then walk barefooted on the pavement or better yet asphalt. You will personaly experience “climate change.” It is up to you to find the greenhouse gas that caused the temperature change. Also, here is a little history lesson. Weather stations are located at airports because weather is a very important factor in flying. As few a a hundred years ago, runways were grass or dirt. Today they are concrete or asphalt. Might that change effect temperature?
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:22 pm
kayaker
Just curious, but has Jay ever said ANYthing you approved of?
*****
Attic fans…love ‘em
Krugman…can’t abide him
Tundra Dude
April 30th, 2012
4:26 pm
Victor Davis Hanson and the non-existent ‘investors’ strike’
Consider the source. This came from an employee of a non-existent “think tank”.
Their main chores are to fetch water and wave pom-poms for their corporate sponsors. He’s probably good buddies with (uncle) Tommy Sowell,
“We don’t need no stinkin’ charts” ~ Victor Davis Hanson
Obama is over
April 30th, 2012
4:29 pm
Gene Epstein in Barron’s this weekend pointed out that the fall in state and local GDP has been the greatest since WWII, with the investment portion also shrinking. It is ironic that you use the chart on Gross PRIVATE domestic investment. Last Friday’s GDP number came in at an annual rate of 2.2%. If you strip out the decline in the Government sector from last Friday’s number, private sector GDP rose at 2.8%. Thus, all of this Government stimulus has had a negligible effect on GDP. The fact that GDP is growing at 2.2% after 3 years of a ZERO% Fed funds target is pretty embarrassing for Obama. The uncertain business environment you refer to is a result of the regulations being created in Washington. And it is not just taxes. The Durbin amendment to Dodd Frank was designed to help consumers by lowering the transaction fees charged by retailers on debit cards. The theory by the Obama administration was that retailers would pass on all these savings to consumers. Yeh right. The oil companies pocketed an additional $1 billion last year from reduced transaction fees for debit cards at the pump. Like most of the failed Obama policies, Dodd-Frank was designed to help Americans by creating more government regulations and involvement. The reality is that we got another 2000 page complex set of rules and regulations raising the cost of all financial services in the U.S. that does not provide any protection from another systematic banking failure. The only people truly benefiting from the economic policies of the Obama administration are folks getting paid back for campaign support (special interest lobbyists, organized labor) and lawyers/accountants who are getting paid to decipher all of this foolishness for people trying to figure out how to do business in the U.S. It is like the ParkAtlanta controversy. The City wants to encourage people to come to Atlanta for conventions and spend money, yet at the same time wants to create rules to jack up parking fees to gouge them while they are here. It makes it hard to compete with other cities who are actually trying to become friendly destinations.
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:30 pm
Lets see…..VDH is a military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets. He was for many years a professor of classics at California State University, Fresno, and is currently the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007,[1] the Claremont Institute’s Statesmanship Award at its annual Churchill Dinner, and the $250,000 Bradley prize from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in 2008.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Davis_Hanson
Jay Bookman writes opinion pieces for the AJC.
So, when it comes to the state of the economy, or any other topic, who would you trust has a clue about what he is writing about?
Maybe Jay can call Mr. Hanson and give him his opinion of what he thinks of Mr. Hanson’s column.
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:33 pm
curious
Okay, taking that resume…how does that qualify him as an expert on economics?
Hmmmmmmmm
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
@saywhat?
Well, the old saying works for you…. The acorn doesn’t fall very far from the tree… I guess you are coloring withing the lines….
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
Now it seems Obama’s buddies at Solyndra after taking their unearned bonuses have left a toxic mess for the City of Milpitas to clean up. Go green and donate to Obama. Nothing else matters.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/04/28/solyndra-not-dealing-with-toxic-waste-at-milpitas-facility/
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
VDH is a military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets.
And if that doesn’t qualify him to write authoritatively about economics, what does!
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
Thanks for setting me straight.
Just quit puking up long ago repudiated con talking points about the experts changing the name to fit your goofy conspiracy theories.
Besides, I take no credit. Thank the awesome network of scientists around the globe and other people at the hundred plus year old, ultra-prestigious National Geographic.
What a hoot that you don’t have one single, solitary, worldwide respected organization like that one on your anti-science side of the debate ledger, huh?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:35 pm
josef – I was actually wondering that myself. Easy to see how he could fancy himself to be an expert on war and ancient history, but economics doesn’t really seem to fit in with that resume.
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:36 pm
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:33 pm
Maybe you should ask Jay that question.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
4:39 pm
Still 1-0 with 5 yellow cards handed out so far. 81st minute.
Soothsayer
April 30th, 2012
4:39 pm
THIS JUST IN! Former President Bill Clinton will be/as campaigning for President Obama’s re-election campaign.
Gosh! I wonder if King Dumbass the First will be campaigning with Mitt Romney?
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
4:40 pm
Does Hanson do global warming too.
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:41 pm
Maybe you didn’t see this then;
Jay Bookman writes opinion pieces for the AJC.
Doesn’t look like economics fits his resume either.
Pass the Cheesy Grits Please
April 30th, 2012
4:42 pm
Weather stations are located at airports because weather is a very important factor in flying. As few a a hundred years ago, runways were grass or dirt. Today they are concrete or asphalt. Might that change effect temperature?
How do you argue with the level of stupidity above ?
Simply mind boggling.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:42 pm
President Obama and President Clinton make a pretty good team.
Might as well make President Clinton VP.
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:42 pm
curious
Just being EOI here but the Imam does have some credentials in the study of economics…of course I’d be just as impressed by his credentials as a witch doctor or tarot reader for all the faith I put in what that “discipline” has to offer…
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:43 pm
I wonder if Clinton will be bringing Lewinski along to show Obama his famous ‘hide the cigar’ act?
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:44 pm
getalife
Just a question, but if he’s prohibited from a third term as President, does that preclude him being vice-President?
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:44 pm
getalife
Just a question, but if he’s prohibited from a third term as President, does that preclude him being vice-President?
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
4:45 pm
Dear Jay @ 1:42 and various other times, are you attempting to argue that US has an investment climate as good as during those four Bush years when Republicans controlled the Congress? I think any dispassionate reviewer would note that the US is adding regulations and taxes, and the growth areas in the world are not. A rational investor looks for the best potential return, and that does not exist under the Obama administration.
Current employment in the private sector is 132,821,000, below the Obama first day total of 133,561,00, and well below the total when democrats took control of the Congress in Jan 2007, 137,118,000. Our overlords have regulated-away 4 million jobs; thanks democrats.
The Dow today is around the same place it was in December 2007, one year after democrats took control of Congress; thanks, democrats, for the past 4.5 years. Leftists are people who believe they can regulate an entity without adversely affecting its performance, as if the regulations have no effect. Those of you who think the world is operating well under Obamanomics need to vote for the Messiah again in 2012; the rational among us will vote otherwise.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:46 pm
Casual Observer
I was going to write “rather makes one wonder how a person with his credentials and background could write a piece so devoid of citations and supporting facts, doesn’t it?”
Then I remembered his target audience -
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
4:48 pm
5 minutes added for stoppage time.
Steve - USA (I support "None Of The Above")
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
“Jay Bookman writes opinion pieces for the AJC.”
I hate to defend Jay and I have to do it again.
They guy does write an opinion blog but when he states an opinion he does reference the source of the facts that he uses to arrive at those opinions. You may not agree on how he uses his sources but he is not pulling theories out of his back side.
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
I think any dispassionate reviewer would note that the US is adding regulations and taxes…
Really! Where?
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
Oh, and Casual
If it had been a piece the Right had been critical of, we’d see the inevitable posts of “oh yeah? Ptui on all that ivory tower education. Did he ever serve in a line unit in the Marines, huh? Or the Army? Did he ever serve at al????????!!!!!”
But I do note that not once did the Left levy that ’stop-em in their track’ rejoinder.
Soothsayer
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
Mighty Dumb: “Might that change effect temperature?”
Might that change affect temperature?
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
“does that preclude him being vice-President?”
I don’t know.
larry
April 30th, 2012
4:49 pm
I wonder if Romney will be bringing Bush along so Bush can show Romney the famous ” hide the WMD” act ?
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:50 pm
Casual Observer – As you pointed out, he writes opinion pieces. The above piece that we’re all (or started off anyway) discussing is just that, an opinion.
getalife
April 30th, 2012
4:52 pm
josef,
One of their donors talked about getting two Presidents for the price of one.
(ir)Rational
April 30th, 2012
4:52 pm
josef – I would say it does, simply because the VP must be eligible to be president. Obviously, he could be president for 2 more years, but what happens if he needed to step in with more than 2 years left in the term? He would be ineligible.
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:53 pm
josef
“Just a question, but if he’s prohibited from a third term as President, does that preclude him being vice-President?”
I’d say yes, ’cause even if Clinton took the VP slot and was ineligible to serve as president if the need should arise, succession would have that fall to Spkr Boehner.
And that’s why it ain’t gonna happen -
Matti
April 30th, 2012
4:53 pm
ragnar the rand cultist,
You could invest here if you wanted to. You could be a “job creator.” Blah blah blah, personal responsibility and all that. You CHOOSE to ignore what’s best for this nation in favor of what’s best for you. Free country (for some); your choice.
Why not just admit you’re rather earn an extra tenth of a percentage point on your investments that to be a part of pulling the United States of America out of this recession? Or… don’t admit it. I don’t care, but let’s not pretend that this is about anything else than what you want for YOU. Your faux patriotism is rancid. Time to toss it.
Soothsayer
April 30th, 2012
4:53 pm
Fresh sheets
larry
April 30th, 2012
4:54 pm
Leftists are people who believe they can regulate an entity without adversely affecting its performance, as if the regulations have no effect.
Gee. all those regulations……………I wonder who signed them into law ?
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
4:55 pm
Just so you will be aware, the same “incompetent” Bush, with a comparatively conservative Congress from Jan 2003 – Jan 2007, saw private sector employment rise from 130,270,000 to 137,118,000, when the democrats took Congress.
Side note, the Dow, on Jan 1 2003, stood at 10,453.92, and on Jan 2007, when the democrats retook Congress, the Dow stood at 12,463.15. Don’t think the performance under the democrats was so robust, and I attribute that to the regulatory mentality democrats bring to government.
josef
April 30th, 2012
4:57 pm
Thanks for the input…I’ve wondered about that…
getalife
Get upstairs…Jay’s got a post for YOU!
Casual Observer
April 30th, 2012
4:58 pm
Here is some more of that article the was left out;
Most economists since 2009 have been completely wrong in their forecasts, reminding us that their supposedly data-driven discipline is more an art than a science. After all, a great deal of money is invested and spent — or not — based largely on perceptions, hunches, and emotions rather than a 100 percent certainty of profit or loss. And the message Americans are getting is that the Obama administration is hostile to investment and business, and thus should be waited out.
Barack Obama’s original economic team — Austan Goolsbee, Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag — have long fled the administration, and have proved mostly wrong in all their therapies and prognostications of 2009. Despite the stimulus of borrowing over $5 trillion in less than four years, near-zero interest rates, and chronic deficits, the U.S. economy is in the weakest recovery since the Great Depression and mired in the longest streak of continuous unemployment of 8 percent or higher — 38 months — since the 1930s. The Mexican economy is growing more rapidly than is ours. Why did not massive annual $1 trillion–plus deficits spark a recovery, as government claimed an ever larger percentage of GDP, and new public-works projects were heralded by the administration? – VDH
Of course, all this is wrong also, right Jay?
Paul
April 30th, 2012
4:59 pm
larry
I believe the correct question is, ‘who voted for and passed the laws upon which the regulations are based and designed to implement?”
USMC
April 30th, 2012
5:00 pm
“But it’s nonetheless good to see your patriotism at work.”–Jay
I guess Jay forgot that he drove a TOYOTA for years… Patriotic???
As Bookman pushes/espouses for the FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE of America, he at the same time questions one’s patriotism..
What a joke; definitely a lack of common sense on Jay’s part- so what else is new.
At least the Inman Park Arts Festival was fun!
ragnar danneskjold
April 30th, 2012
5:02 pm
Jay’s final italicized note merits discussion, as it goes to the heart of what caused the “bubble” to form and what caused it to collapse. I have written my arguments on the various government elements that caused the bubble to form, primarily (1) the Basel accords, (2) Fed easy money, (3) taxpayer subsidy in the form of FNMA/FHLMC, and (4) CRA. The first pushed banks away from commercial credit and into mortgages by regulatory fiat. The second deprived the investment community of real returns on sounder investments by inflation (which also masks internal problems of individual investments. The third created a taxpayer-guaranteed market for the lousy product urged by the fourth factor.
In contrast the leftists proffer that the cause was a vague, unprecedented “greed.” Glad we have a specific cause to treat, there.
265 more days
April 30th, 2012
5:06 pm
Soothsayer
April 30th, 2012
4:39 pm
THIS JUST IN! Former President Bill Clinton will be/as campaigning for President Obama’s re-election campaign.
Gosh! I wonder if King Dumbass the First will be campaigning with Mitt Romney?
So the Former POTUS is campaigning for O’Bama, I wonder why Gore and Kerry didn’t want to get that close to him.
They BOTH suck
April 30th, 2012
5:06 pm
Rags
Why no mention of the housing / construction bubble and the the time frame you are referencing?
The same direct and indirect short term benefits that were realized by the impacted industries were also felt in a negative way by a high percentage in those same industries…
Surely you are taking that into account, right?
That bubble didn’t start in Jan 07……. It had been building for several years and there is evidence to show that it was already cracking in 06………
Jay
April 30th, 2012
5:07 pm
I think any dispassionate reviewer would note that the US is adding regulations and taxes, and the growth areas in the world are not.
Then you think incorrectly, Ragnar. The US has been CUTTING taxes throughout the Obama presidency. But the fact that you do not know or will not acknowledge that basic fact says an awful awful lot.
A rational investor looks for the best potential return, and that does not exist under the Obama administration.
And yet the Dow has doubled, and investment has increased at a faster rate under Obama than it did under Bush, which again completely refutes your claim. Where is this universe in which these things that you claim are true? It sure isn’t THIS universe.
Fly-on-the-Wall
April 30th, 2012
5:15 pm
Jay points out that some of the top earning US companies are sitting on so much cash they don’t know what to do with it. My personal, totally biased response to that is that corporate America has decided not to invest in the US any longer. That isn’t for all the usual reasons that the right says, it simply has to do with economics and these same corporations see more profit in doing business overseas – they’ve given up on the US people and economy because they can do everything at slave labor wages overseas and get away with it so….they do!
They figure that either way Americas will still buy what they can but the real money is overseas because a) labor is dirt cheap b) there are more people over there, almost 2 billion versus the 300 million here in the US c) little or no environmental enforcement in those countries.
Now I’m sure the Righty-Tighies will get their undies all in a bunch saying that if we did the same then we could compete. Hogwash and you know it. Can you live on a few dollars a day? Try it and then tell me that the US population would be better off if we just cut our wages to match the lowest in the world so we could keep manufacturing here. It has nothing to do with union or tree huggers because without them this country would be nothing – literally.
I’ll step down from my soap box.
USMC
April 30th, 2012
5:21 pm
Jay Bookman has joined Comrade Obama’s WAR ON SUCCESS!
Jay and Dear Leader want to ruin the greatest country in the world by CHANGING it through Socialist reforms and government take-over.
Incredible… or at least that is what Rush Limbaugh told us today on the radio.
Michael
April 30th, 2012
5:42 pm
I have invested and made good money, but USMC has his head up his———-.
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
April 30th, 2012
6:52 pm
Once again, Jay, you have left out a few salient facts. Check the outflows from equity funds to fixed-income funds (or into gold or the mattress) over the past three years or so. Significant. Retail has sat this one out, because they know it has been created by a combination of large institutional program trading (from the Corzine types hoping to get retail back in, so they can get out), and the Fed’s constant, significant devaluation of the dollar to pay for the Manchurian Candidate’s multi-trillion dollar pipe dreams. If you are paying your debts on contrived below-market rates, with dollars that are worth significantly less, and will be into the foreseeable future, the value of your company has to increase. That is also the sole reason investment is up – you have to take what the Marxist will give you.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 30th, 2012
9:01 pm
Headline: “US not reporting all Afghan troop attacks on American soldiers”
“The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or foreign solider is killed by an Afghan in uniform. But The Associated Press has learned it does not report insider attacks in which the Afghan wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target. It also does not report the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/30/us-not-reporting-all-afghan-troop-attacks-on-american-soldiers/
The above is very similar to what Jay does when he writes an anti-gun editorial.
He compares the number of people killed accidentally by guns vs. the number of “justifiable homicides” with guns but fails to include:
The number of perpetrators wounded by gun toters.
The number of perpetrators scared off by a miss.
The number of perpetrators scared off because they saw a gun.
The number of perpetrators scared off because they thought their proposed victim might have a gun.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
April 30th, 2012
10:06 pm
Headline: “Jay Bookman’s blog is being spammed by rabbit holes”
SSDD
Rockwell
April 30th, 2012
11:13 pm
Barack Obama campaigned four years ago assailing President George W. Bush for wage losses suffered by the middle class. More than three years into Obama’s own presidency, those declines have only deepened.
The rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s has generated relatively few of the moderately skilled jobs that once supported the middle class, tightening the financial squeeze on many Americans, even those who are employed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-01/obama-fails-to-stem-middle-class-slide-he-blamed-on-bush.html
lovelyliz
May 1st, 2012
9:07 am
People who don’t believe in facts, science, history and math are rarely bothered by economic reality
Victor Davis Hanson: “All Fall Down” « CITIZEN.BLOGGER.1984+ GUNNY.G BLOG.EMAIL
May 6th, 2012
10:56 pm
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