Activist, Inc. (ws Re: Professor Punished for Witty Remark)

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Thu Dec 13 18:46:33 PST 2001


> Faustine wrote:
>
>> Last year, Brookings had revenues of 29 million.
>> The RAND Corporation had revenues of 157 million.
>
>> One year, one hundred fifty seven million.

Cooincidentally, I bumped into *this*, today. Reminded me of the time, in
my teens, when I finally discovered exactly how much unions gross a year in
"dues", and what they paid for.

Put a big hurt on the whole crunchy-granola rosy-colored hippie-glasses
power-to-the-people-raht-on thang, that did...

Cheers,
RAH


> http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=95001590
>
>
> SCENE & HEARD
> Activist Inc.
> Professional agitators can't claim to be a "grassroots" movement anymore.
> BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
> Thursday, December 13, 2001 12:01 a.m.
> It seems every time you read a story about a domestic conflict--whether
>it's drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, free trade clashes,
>or tobacco litigation--two adjectives always describe the opponents. On
>one side are the "grassroots" organizations--disorganized, under-funded,
>struggling folk willing to live hand-to-mouth in the name of their noble
>goal. On the other are "powerful" corporate and political
>interests--fat-cats with loads of money, contacts and discipline, willing
>to use any tactic to get their way.
> David-and-Goliath descriptions add the touch of drama, which is no doubt
>why journalists continue with the "grassroots-powerful" routine. Yet even
>as they do, the rest of America is cottoning on to the fact that such
>descriptions are not only outdated--they're completely backward. These
>days, most "grassroots" groups are far better moneyed, networked and
>operated than many corporations and political lobbies. And they've become
>far more ruthless in accomplishing their goals.

<snip...>

> ActivistCash.com, unveiled yesterday, is run by the Guest Choice Network,
>an organization of 30,000 restaurant and tavern operators. The Guest
>Choice Network has become a front line defense against today's nanny
>culture. Or, as its first Web site--nannyculture.com--puts it:
>"Unofficially we include anybody who stands up against the growing
>fraternity of food cops, health care enforcers, vegetarian activists and
>meddling bureaucrats who 'know what's best for you.' " The site offers,
>among other things, information on junk science and food scares.
>
> Now, however, the group has gone further. Over the past year it has used
>freedom of information laws to get the IRS documents of the country's
>leading activist groups--more than 100,000 pages of information the
>activist hope Americans won't see. "What we uncovered is an intricate,
>organized, well-funded web of what you might call the "'new left,' " says
>John Doyle, the group's communications director. "It allows a person to
>finally link the environmental activists with the animal rights activists
>with the anti-corporate activists, and see that they all operate together
>in the anti-choice arena."

<Details elided about how most of these organizations have more
interlocking boards than a gilded-age Morganized railroad trust, and so
on....>



-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'





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