Out of Balance


One of the things that stands out in this John Barry editorial that Boyd and Oyster pointed to is the cost of INVESTING in the US Gulf Coast versus the cost of DENYING the reality of the epic misadventure in Mesopotamia:

Restoring the coast will cost an estimated $14.1 billion — spread over 25 to 30 years. By contrast, Iraq costs $6 billion a month.

That's only a single point in a superb editorial, but it's worth mentioning for all sorts of reasons...one of which still mildly irritates me: one of the keynote speakers at the Rising Tide Conference repeated--numerous times--that he had no interest in local blogger opinions of Iraq, and that his only reason for reading NOLA blogs was for information about New Orleans.

Well, ok. Except that this attitude, IMHO, assumes a vacuum. In other words, you can supposedly isolate one issue from the other, which I disagree with. I'll also note an implied contempt for democracy--that is to say, that NOLA bloggers, or any bloggers, are evidently disqualified to "report" or opine about an issue of national importance.

I don't buy either one. Bloggers can and should be free to write about, well, whatever the hell they want to--and, to follow up on another point made by the same speaker, I'll judge the quality, veracity, or other attributes on a case-by-case basis. As it stands, I tend to read bloggers quite a bit more than "news" these days, at least in part because bloggers usually CITE news stories--which I'll also read--and because I happen to like certain people's writing style.

Besides, in an age that gives us both Jayson Blair AND Judith Miller--not to mention the WSJ editorial staff--I'll take my chances on the "unverified" internet...provided I've got a steady supply of salt.