What's Good for America. . . .

Hey, Sloppists, how much cash you got on you?  No need to go to the ATM, just, how much do you have right now in your pockets or wallets or between sofa cushions?  Ten bucks?  Great!  The Solipsist himself has about five, so. . . we can buy 30 shares of GM!

Seems like a sound investment.  It was trading at $70 a share a little over a year ago.  If it ever comes back to even half that, we make (uh. . . hold on. . . carry the two. . . ) a lot of money!

Alas, it will be a while.

Yes, the venerable General Motors is bankrupt.  How should we feel about this?

We feel bad for workers losing jobs, as well as communities devastated by the closings of factories and dealerships.  At the same time, though, left-liberal sympathies conflict with a sense of pragmatism.  The fact is, GM is going under because they failed to make cars that people wanted to buy.  Last year, when the Solipsist's car (a Jeep) finally died, YNSHC promptly went out and bought a Prius.  Not because he has any antipathy toward American workers (let's face it, most Toyotas are probably built in America anyway, albeit at non-unionized factories), but because Toyota makes good cars that last a long time and get good gas mileage.  In years past, nothing other than stubbornness stopped GM from building similar cars.  How long should stubbornness be rewarded?

Look, we hope GM comes back, not because we have some misplaced sense of patriotism, but because we want Americans (well, all people, really) to have good jobs with good benefits.  Plus, we have a faint hope that a chastened GM will come back stronger and wiser--maybe harnessing that fabled American can-do spirit to create the next wave of automotive innovation: safer cars, sturdier cars, greener cars.

GM is dead.  Long live GM.

*******************************************

On a more serious note, a moment of silence for Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, Kansas.  Yesterday, Dr. Tiller, one of only a handful of doctors in the country willing to perform late-term abortions under certain circumstances, was murdered in the vestibule of his church (!).  No word on whether the god-fearing assassin was directly affiliated with any of the more prominent anti-choice groups.  Just one more example of the lunacy of right wing haters.  Pro-life indeed!

************************************

The answer is '13.'  The question is, "How many paragraphs into a story about the death of Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic, does the New York Times article mention the movie?"

Strikes us as a superb example of  journalistic restraint.