Dan, it seems to me that CBS is rather centrist and CNN leans to the right. Perhaps you have no experience with truly leftist media, but they have no TV stations. The far left was outlawed and totally suppressed in this country in the 1950s.

What's really ironic is that the old communist slogan "workers of the world unite" is so apt today. The reason that out-sourcing American jobs to the third world countries is so profitable is that the workers there are totally exploited, having no rights to collective bargaining as they do here in this, a free country.

The best way to balance the trade here again is to export trade unionism (yes, the old communist agenda) by giving rights to workers overseas. Wages will rise for workers of the world, they will have more purchasing power, American workers will again be competitive in the world, and world prosperity will come at last, with an end of struggle, paving the way for everlasting world peace.

Now before you call me an optimistic Polyanna, I am fundamentally a cynic who knows that the above is a best-case scenario, and is very unlikely to actually occur. We cynics (yes, I know you are a cynic too) will continue to be entertained by folly on the world stage for many years to come.

I guess it's a matter of perspective, eh? what is defined as 'left' and 'right' changes with the times. I certainly don't agree with your assessment about CNN as 'right' and FOX as 'extreme right', but then we both have different experiences and our judgments are relative to those experiences.

the question is, if we did not outsource any employment would those countries that we currently outsource to see a general increase in their present quality of living and/or have the ability to maintain a satisfactory quality of living? In any case, can not those countries that are supposedly being abused make their own labor laws to protect themselves?

I wouldn't call you an optimist, I would call you an idealist. As for cyicism, that would be unfortunate and I don't believe it. Perhaps you would do better to refer to yourself as a skeptic?

Yes, in theory, they could. But what I mean by "exporting trade unionism" is what Bush said he wouldn't do (nation building) before he started doing it in Iraq (yes, that's a flip flop). By helping our fellow nations build democracy and civil rights we will be both helping their liberty and their prosperity. Recall that the rise of the middle class in this country was driven by labor. Our constitutional guarantee of free speech gives us the right to collectively bargain to balance the power of the corporations.

I don't know if you 1) work for a living like most people, 2) own your own business, or 3) are wealthy and don't have to work at all, but I like to remind my Republican friends who do work, that if they like the 40 hour work week, they can thank the labor movement. If it were up to the corporations we would all be working 60 to 80 hours a week for less pay, as was the practice at the beginning of the 20th century.

A skeptic, technically (philosophical definition), is someone who doubts our ability to really know anthing for sure. A cynic is someone who generally suspects sinister motivations in other people, and maybe he is even acquainted with the existence of the ignoble in himself. I think it's possible to know things well enough to take meaningful action, so I'm not a skeptic, and I've lived long enough to understand human nature, so I tend toward cynicism, but I like to try to see the idealism in others too. Otherwise, there would be no hope. I have seen authentic good in the world and in others, so I know that there is considerable hope.

I was thinking of a skeptic as someone who doubts as a matter of principle, not as one who believes that knowledge is intrinsically incomplete. The distinction is that the doubting is not due to believing in the impossibility of complete knowledge, but is due to the desire to avoid unwarranted belief. I see both views reflected in the dictionary definition:

2 a : the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain
(yours)
b : the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism characteristic of skeptics
(mine)

according to my interpretation of 'skeptic', you still qualify

sounds like you are an optimist whose optimism has been tempered by reality. Perhaps a dash of skepticism can help protect that optimism and channel it in useful directions?

I've spent a lot of time in academia scraping by and borrowing, but I have had lots of odd crap jobs and recently spent 4 months in Denver driving a taxicab for 70 hours per week. I'm back in the comfort and relative poverty of student academia, from which I intend to launch an interesting career.

ever see Collateral?

it's just a movie that underscores the potentially interesting people you can meet driving taxis

I'm sure that I will start by being a hiree, and I haven't really thought much past that