Note: Thanks to Alan Colmes, I am now a regular contributor on his website, Liberaland. He posted this piece this morning, so if you're interested in reading the complete piece it continues over there. Thanks.
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In the next town over from us the recycling station is in a huge semi-trailer. You have to climb six narrow metal steps to get up into it, but there is an aisle you can walk down and there are huge open boxes in which to throw your stuff.
The beauty of it is that while I’m dropping off my own recyclables, I can dig through the newspaper and magazine bins to see what’s there for the taking. Through the years we’ve found some fascinating reading, some of it as current as yesterday, but last week we found a treasure trove: Seventeen Consumer Reports magazines, ranging from1965 to 1980.
What struck me as I read through them was how much actual watchdogging went on within those pages; and what lengths they went to explain their findings. Page after page of small print, as if they actually anticipated that their readers would want to take the time to read it all. (No internet, no cable. I get it. But still. . .people read this stuff. They read it.)
Back in June, 1966, their headline story was about the new Medicare law taking effect in July. The law was complicated. Every aspect of health insurance, hospitalizations, physician and pharmacy services, and medical goods had to be considered. Nothing like it had ever been done on such a large scale before. The Government was poring an estimated $3 billion plus into it during the first year alone. Who would pay for what? Who would gain the most? Who would lose the most? (Sound familiar?)
(Continue here. . .)
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In the next town over from us the recycling station is in a huge semi-trailer. You have to climb six narrow metal steps to get up into it, but there is an aisle you can walk down and there are huge open boxes in which to throw your stuff.
The beauty of it is that while I’m dropping off my own recyclables, I can dig through the newspaper and magazine bins to see what’s there for the taking. Through the years we’ve found some fascinating reading, some of it as current as yesterday, but last week we found a treasure trove: Seventeen Consumer Reports magazines, ranging from1965 to 1980.
What struck me as I read through them was how much actual watchdogging went on within those pages; and what lengths they went to explain their findings. Page after page of small print, as if they actually anticipated that their readers would want to take the time to read it all. (No internet, no cable. I get it. But still. . .people read this stuff. They read it.)
Back in June, 1966, their headline story was about the new Medicare law taking effect in July. The law was complicated. Every aspect of health insurance, hospitalizations, physician and pharmacy services, and medical goods had to be considered. Nothing like it had ever been done on such a large scale before. The Government was poring an estimated $3 billion plus into it during the first year alone. Who would pay for what? Who would gain the most? Who would lose the most? (Sound familiar?)
(Continue here. . .)
Thanks, Katy. I hope I'm right, too. I never believed Reagan would be elected president--twice. I never believed GWB would somehow finagle his way into the White House and then--Good Lord!--get into it for a second term, so, bottom line. . .what do I know? LOL
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