The Baltic country of Latvia is struggling through the recession along with the rest of the world, but its leaders have taken an unusual approach to the situation. According to the Wall Street Journal, Latvia's Security Police recently detained economics lecturer Dmitrijs Smirnovs for two days for expressing pessimism about the current crisis.
Apparently, this was not the first foray by the Latvian police into the public discussion about economic prospects. Officials have been studying newspaper reports, chat room conversations, even text messages, for Negative Nellies violating the country's laws against spreading false or scurrilous info about the economy.
If such a law were passed in the U.S., whose head would go on the chopping block first? Certainly the Wall Street Journal is a wellspring of negativity. Fox and MSNBC are chronically aggrieved. I wouldn't want to be George Will or Rush Slimebaugh Limbaugh when the brownshirts start rounding up naysayers.
As a BloggingStocks writer, I might have to go underground myself. Just in case, I want to assure you that the economy is doing just fine; great, actually. Go buy oodles of stocks, Comrade.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
12-03-2008 @ 7:54AM
Rod Santos said...
Rush Slimebaugh??
My, my, isn't Tom Barlow the good little left wing liberal wingnut?
12-03-2008 @ 8:39AM
Bobby said...
See,, this is what qualifies as real intrusion by governement in personal lives & freedoms. Not the bullshit we belly ache about here while our gov't tries to protect us from outside insanity.
The people of Latvia would regard the Patriot Act in its rightful respect, an act of protection. Think about it....
12-03-2008 @ 8:44AM
CA said...
Hey Barlow:
Are you kidding me? What planet have you been living on? If laws were passed for negativity, every news outlet in this country save Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and certain Talk Radio programs would have been shut down. The entire liberal campaign agenda, which included 99% of the media, was built upon negativity! You folks would be in jail if this were Latvia.
Why do you think it's always liberal groups marching and demonstrating in this country (and never conservative groups)? Because libs are negative, whining, sniveling little cockroaches. I rest my case!
12-03-2008 @ 8:51AM
Barack said...
Who the hell is Tom Barlow....what a moron!
12-03-2008 @ 9:03AM
Kevin said...
Mr. Barflow,
I hear they are looking for 'columnists' over in Latvia. Brains are not a pre-recquisite . . .
12-03-2008 @ 9:10AM
Jon Boy said...
Ever wonder What $700 billion actually buys?
Here is a List of 25 things
http://www.curiousread.com/2008/10/what-does-700-billion-actually-buy.html
12-03-2008 @ 9:26AM
uncle buck said...
I was Latvian Orthox but my "kavorka" (lure of the a-ni-mal) kept me out.
12-03-2008 @ 9:48AM
Dave said...
Tom,
Just because you can't argue facts with Rush, no need to get into name calling.
Simply admit your left wing agenda has been a failure in every country that ever tried and leave the name calling out.
12-03-2008 @ 10:24AM
DanRad said...
What was that line Voltaire used when the Brits hung an admiral for not being aggressive enough even though he would have lost his whole fleet-ah yes, "l'amiral anglais Byng etait fusilleee pour encourager les autres"-Admiral Byng was shot to encourage the others...great double entendre there! My money is on Milton Friedman, then Alan Greenspan, for first against the wall these days-were such to occur here-grin! So mebbe the Latvians have advanced in civility :) Or maybe I am just thinking of V's "Dr. Pangloss" whose philosophy they seem to have shared-"Everything is for the best in this the best of a ll possible worlds." Still maybe the Latvians are onto something-didn't FDR say "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself!"?
12-03-2008 @ 10:39AM
Mickydoo said...
Every time I read the comments that follow behind an online news article, I am constantly reminded of the stupidity of ordinary mortals. I'm so sick of the conservative vs. liberal agenda being tied to everything I read. It wouldn't be so bad if the comments were more than just opinionated BS or based on actual fact.
You can yell "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" all you want, but America has nothing to fear when it comes to socialism/Marxism/communism... whatever you want to call it. We have always been, and will always be, a capitalist country. It's the fear-mongering idiots who think it's okay to give up basic civil rights under the guise of "protection" that make me want to puke.
When are you all going to stop running your jibs from behind the safety and anonomity of your computer and actually DO something?
12-03-2008 @ 11:02AM
JOHN said...
what I don't get is how come the people that caused this economic meltdown are not in jail? And why are the tax payers having to foot the bill for this bailout? The U.S. has gotten really whimpy and corrupt.
12-03-2008 @ 11:27AM
richard said...
Hey! I wonder if any of OUR Negative Talking Heads invest such that they benefit when the market drops.
12-03-2008 @ 11:55AM
Tom Barlow said...
I shouldn't have included the Limbaugh slam here, because it detracted from the story.
Still, demeaning him is one of the key directives in the 2008 edition of the Liberal Left-Wing Media Handbook.
12-03-2008 @ 12:00PM
Neo said...
This is a great example of terrible reporting. I want news and facts. I do not want the opinions and political slander of the writer. Whoever Tom Barlow is he needs to go back to school and learn what journalism is all about.
12-03-2008 @ 12:56PM
Patriot said...
The rise of the 4th Reich - here in the USA. For more info, infowars/com and
http://www.uaff.us/deathcamps.htm
12-03-2008 @ 1:16PM
Bob Marshall said...
Tom, don't even compare yourself to Rush with either insults or apologies. You are obviously a liberal idiot that knows nothing about Latvia. You should learn that if you want to be a journalist you need to know what you are talking about?
12-03-2008 @ 1:18PM
TomBarlow66 said...
And here I thought I could get away with half-truths and name calling. After all, it works for Rush.
12-03-2008 @ 1:31PM
Ronald Sarson said...
How can anyone take a report seriously when it crosses the line from the normal liberal slant to derogatory name-calling? Would any lib take a commentary seriously if it mentioned Obummer?
12-03-2008 @ 5:02PM
Harry said...
In the past 30 years the only thing that has gone up is communication technology. The actual content has completely collapsed and 90% of economic problems have been caused by the media. Let's try pushing the good side of America and see what happens.
12-03-2008 @ 5:57PM
batgirl said...
If it wasn't for Foxnews, we would not have had one bit of truth during this election. The left wing media put Mr. Obama into office. I want to know why the CEO's of these companies still have their jobs. No one bailed out Enron, who I don't feel was any worse than some of these companies. Don't jump on me- my opionion only. Mr. Frank was telling everyone that these banks were in fine shape.