John T. Reed’s news blog

They completed refurbishing the Times Square National Debt Clock yesterday. You can also see it on line where it never left. It changes in real time like a runaway train 24/7..http://www.usdebtclock.org/.Click on it to see the moving numbers. I say the most important number is the debt-to-GDP ratio. If it is above 60%, you cannot join the EU. We don’t want to join the EU, but it is telling that at 106% we would have no hope of being approved. A couple of bench marks: It was 17% when FDR took office, 31% when Reagan took office. We were the...

Trump just honored the WW II Navajo Code talkers. They seem to be nice old men. They served in the Marines in the Pacific during World War II which was dangerous. But the notions that they were more heroic than ordinary riflemen or that two guys speaking Navajo on the radio in a combat zone was a satisfactory secret code is dopey on its face. Here is an article I wrote about it when the movie about that came out: A movie (Wind Talkers) says that Navajo Code Talkers used an unbreakable code decisively in the Pacific during World War...

Apropos of tax law, the word “loophole” is a dysphemism. One observer captured it. “When Congress passes it, it’s an ‘incentive.’ When we use it, it’s a ‘loophole.’”.I am going to put long lists of both euphemisms and dysphemisms in my book on dishonest arguments. They are forbidden words. If you use them, you are dishonest..Is that censorship? Nope. Just calling a spade a spade..Who put me in charge? You, if you claimed to be honest. If you claim to be honest but use euphemisms or dysphemisms you engaged in false advertising or something similar. .The purpose of euphemisms and dysphemisms...

How much of the reaction to Charlie Rose is plain old ageism?In 2013, Brent Musurger got into big trouble. Here is what the New York Times said at the time.‘On Tuesday morning, commentary on the broadcast of the Bowl Championship Series national title game between Alabama and Notre Dame included words like “creepy,” “awkward,” “uncomfortable” and “heteronormative.” ‘The subject was not Alabama’s 42-14 victory, but comments made during the game by the ESPN play-by-play announcer Brent Musburger regarding the girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A J McCarron. In the first quarter, ESPN showed McCarron’s girlfriend, Katherine Webb, who was sitting near...

These sex scandals are conflating sexual behavior which is criminal with sexual behavior that is eyebrow-raising with sexual behavior that is legal, if inept, tin-ear seduction.• It is illegal to have sex with someone who is under the age of consent in the state in question, and should be.• It is illegal to force someone of any age to have sex with you when they do not want to.• It is unethical and maybe illegal for a gatekeeper to convey to a job applicant that they must put out on the casting couch to possibly attain a sought-after position.• It...