> 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descriptions are not only outdated--they're completely backward.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: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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'