January 2011
26 posts
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Ayn Rand took government assistance while decrying... →
Cognitive dissonance, hypocrisy, and rationalization all wrapped into one!
Nerd Alert: I love literary references in...
The New York Times, on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission:
The report, which was heavily shaped by the commission’s chairman, Phil Angelides, is dotted with literary flourishes. It calls credit-rating agencies “cogs in the wheel of financial destruction.” Paraphrasing Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” it states, “The fault lies not in the stars, but in us.”
Of the banks that bought,...
“The captains of finance and the public stewards of our financial system ignored...”
– Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, via The New York Times
Quiet Emergency
Two rows down in the balcony the woman nudged her sleeping companion. The man didn’t snore, nor did he wake. She nudged again. She abandoned subtlety and faced him, held his shoulders, and gave a good shake.
Why is she so adamant? He must be snoring. I just can’t hear it.
Her murmurs turned to words as she looked him head on, still grasping his shoulders, and tried to comprehend his...
“The financial crisis of 2008 was a teachable moment, an object lesson in what...”
– Paul Krugman in today’s column, The Competition Myth
Krugman speaks the truth, albeit an oversimplified one. The credit crisis and resulting recession can’t be pinned on a single failing. Systemic failure brought on The Great Recession: over-leveraged banks traded over-valued...
Extreme Weather
On a day when my nostrils froze walking a block, it’s difficult to remember that New York City recorded the hottest summer ever a mere 5 months ago. Record-breaking also brings to mind Moscow’s July.
Less convincing when said today, I still prefer sweat that won’t evaporate.
LCD Soundsystem was tonight's soundtrack for...
I’m going to miss this teacher.
Nearly 130 Arrested in Huge Mob Crackdown →
In an unprecedented assault against seven mob families in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, the F.B.I. and local authorities began arresting close to 130 people on Thursday on charges including murder, racketeering and extortion, people briefed on the arrests said.
[…]
The arrests were expected to be announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. at a news conference Thursday...
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Our Political Divide
In this morning’s column, Krugman accurately points out that today’s political divide runs deep:
One side of American politics considers the modern welfare state — a private-enterprise economy, but one in which society’s winners are taxed to pay for a social safety net — morally superior to the capitalism red in tooth and claw we had before the New Deal. It’s only right, this ...
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“I wasn’t going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday. I...”
– Anthony Miller, Republican chairman of the Arizona Legislative District 20, resigning from his elected position after the shooting of U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords. Miller said that verbal attacks from local committee members with ties to the tea party made him concerned about his family’s safety.
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publicradiointernational:
Rep. Louie Gohmert...
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Weekend Screenings
At the finish of 127 Hours, I cried balled; for the duration of Blue Valentine I remained dry-eyed.
Danny Boyle’s approach is immediate, gripping and commands a visceral reaction. One moment in particular produced a shudder and near-nausea that I’ve never experienced in a theater.
Derek Cianfrance delicately offers fragments of two lives, and keeps the viewer at an emotional...
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George Packer: Arguing Tucson →
In fact, there is no balance—none whatsoever. Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side’s activists bring guns to democratic...
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Close Read: Holding Giffords’s Hand : The New... →
peterwknox:
This is a READING REQUIREMENT. Short, beautiful, touching, and tough.
Agreed. And blinking back tears at my desk.
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Twitter’s Response to WikiLeaks Subpoena Should Be... →
Twitter and other companies, notably Google, have a policy of notifying a user before responding to a subpoena, or a similar request for records. That gives the user a fair chance to go to court and try and quash the subpoena. That’s a great policy. But it has one fatal flaw. If the records request comes with a gag order, the company can’t notify anyone. And it’s quite routine for law...
“I think it was a semiautomatic, and he must have got off 20 rounds.”
– Tell me again why civilians are allowed to purchase these guns?
No, seriously. What are they for.
And you do realize that after Katrina the (new, controversial) Walmart ARMED looters (the only case when I’ll use the indiscriminate label of “looters”). Why do we have stores in cities that can arm...
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Economic Eyes on Texas
In this morning’s column, Paul Krugman explains why Texas wasn’t recession-proof:
Part of the answer is that reports of a recession-proof state were greatly exaggerated. It’s true that Texas job losses haven’t been as severe as those in the nation as a whole since the recession began in 2007. But Texas has a rapidly growing population — largely, suggests Harvard’s Edward Glaeser,...
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