by
Lydia Chávez
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SFGate reports this morning:
Two Norwegian politicians have jointly nominated former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, saying his disclosures of secret U.S. documents have contributed to making the world more peaceful. READ MORE HERE.
Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still here.
As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.
At ML, I've been trying to figure out how to make my interest in local news sustainable. If Mission Local is a model, the answer might be that you - the readers - reward steady and smart content. As a thank you for that support we work every day to make our content even better.
More by Lydia Chávez5 Comments
It’s April 1st already?
Hey john want to nominate google or facebook? They’ve contributed heavily to peace in the Bay Area and beyond as of late, er I mean your real estate empire. Or maybe airbnb? That you so vainly defend as necessary for providing financial security for your family (meaning none of them have to work ever?). BTW it is one thing to wealth monger, another to wealth monger by negatively impacting others around you ( comments included), and yet another to embellish negative wealth mongering with public boasts.
I suggest John and other real estate speculators take a deserved break from back breaking wealth mongering and take a trip to Norway for some deep ethical retraining. Extra bonus for live experiences of an egalitarian society with a minimum wage that even allows coffee shop workers to take the summer off.
Summer in Norway being, what, 3 weeks?
It sounds like you’d be happier in Norway than I would. They have tax rates of 60%.
Don’t you mean _marginal_ tax rates of 60%? Saying ‘tax rates are 60%’ is disingenuous unless you specify what you mean. But as a rhetorician who specializes in disingenuousness, you know that.
But, yes, they pay higher taxes.
Funny, though, what Norway gets with those higher taxes:
– a higher standard of living
– greater longevity
– lower infant mortality
– much higher percentage of people self-describe as ‘happy’
– lower crime
– vastly lower incarceration rate
– negligible poverty rate
– universal health care
– universal 4-week paid vacation
– higher literacy rate
– low personal debt rates
– excellent free higher education
– etc etc
But Galtian Paradise USA #1, OK, OK!
I’ll grant you that we are much better at drone-bombing brown people and assassinating foreign statesmen.
You’re sounding like a typical American xenophobic yahoo today, John. Have you ever traveled outside of the USA? If so, are you the type of American who yells at foreigners and gets mad at them when they don’t speak English?
I think our friend John longs for that ultimate low-tax/deregulated Galtian Paradise that is Somalia.
When we travel outside the United States, we are the foreigners. Personally, I prefer the words “traveler” or “guest”.
I intend my minor correction as a compliment to your fact-based comment.