Debbie Nathan

My Enemy, My Stocks

Here’s a must-read from the wonderful writer Judith Levine, about how Wall Street is as irresistible to Americans as wife beaters are to women:

For a girl who grew up in a communist family, this month’s events should be cause for fireworks. As Marx predicted, the self-sown seeds of capitalism’s own destruction are spreading tendrils under the foundations of Wall Street, opening fissures in the walls of marble. Lenin told his comrades the profit-insatiable capitalist would eventually sell the people the rope to hang him with. Now he’s sold us the rope — and we’ve hanged ourselves. But the salesman, too, is gazing nervously at the gallows.

It’s an infidel’s Rapture, the End Times as foretold by the Prophets Karl and Vladimir.

So why do I feel so blah?

Read more at Judith’s blog: www.judithlevine.com/blog

And speaking of End Times, my blog buddy Daniel Radosh will be speaking in New York next week, about his book Rapture Ready, which is all about fundamentalist Christian tchotchke- and pop-music culture. I understand Dan will be drawing lessons from all those commodities to discuss Sarah Palin’s rhetorical tchotchkerai — like, how certain things she says that sound harmless and rubbery, like these cute little guys, actually refer to scary political shit. The lecture is at St. Francis College, at 180 Remsen Street in downtown Brooklyn, on October 16 at 6 p.m. It’s free.

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And speaking of rhetoric, Christ, get me Rewrite! A half-banner New York Times front-page headline today reports that the federal Treasury — the U.S., that is — “MAY TAKE OWNERSHIP STAKE IN BANKS TO EASE CREDIT CRISIS.”

“Take ownership stake in”??

Isn’t the correct (and much pithier) expression “NATIONALIZE”?

In fact, this evening I just heard BBC’s TV news show — the one that airs in this country — refer to this story as “partial nationalization.” Guess that’s just “British English” though. Wonder what weird, inflated, gutless expression the Post, the Daily News and other US MSM will use?