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The post of the day
Thanks goodness we bailed out Bear Stearns back in March if we hadn’t we might have lost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and who knows what else. Oh wait…
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Thursday link roundup
- This Agitator post illustrates in perfect detail why it’s not even worth trying anymore. Short version, a noble citizen does soemthing that would save the fovernment 2.2 million dollars and deliver a higher quality. The feds refuse, and take years in doing so. Your tax dollars at sloth.
- Putin’s Rise to Power
- MaoPost.com – really cool
- Oil Econ 101 – and oldie but a goodie
- This little nugget from Marginal Revolution
In Brazil, they segregate their prisons according to gang membership. No exceptions. Not even for individuals who in fact are not members of any gang.
How does that work? Easy. Upon being admitted to the prison system, unaffiliated prisoners are required to join a gang.
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Obama equals Bush III
Check out this clip of Obama (accurately) decrying the false umbrage over some “lipstick on a pig” comment, and longing for a return to “issues”. Think of the implications. The McCain campaign is fighting the war they’re in, while Obama campaign fighting the war they wish they were fighting. It’s quite similar to most of the Bush presidency, and by extension saying that your enemies hate you for your “virtues”.
Just imagine what the debate would be like if the candidates had clear, consistent ideologies (a la Wilson, Reagan (sort of clear) or Polk) or clear records of achievement, like Bill Gates, David Petraeus, or Andrew Carnegie. Instead it’s a desperate attempt to convince the electorate that if elected they’ll pull off five consecutive miracles when they can’t even do simple card tricks.
In reading over this, I realize that the above paragraphs aren’t particularly clear, but I’m in a rush.
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An anaology I intend to steal
From this post about abortion on the primary feminist site; it captures my feelings on the political matter more or less
Not to beat this horse to death, but let’s use the 1st Amendment as an analogy. Everyone would agree it’s none of the government’s business if I choose to practice Islam. So what would you say if the government, while keeping it legal to practice Islam, nevertheless decided there were too many Muslims in this country and therefore decided to spend taxpayers’ dollars educating people on religions other than Islam. I assume you would find that completely unacceptable. I don’t see the difference between this and abortion. If it’s none of the government’s business whether women have abortion, then the government shouldn’t be in the business of discouraging abortions. What am I missing?
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David Friedman speaks at Google!
About his new book, Future Imperfect. Here is the video. All of my tech nerd readers should watch this, for the global warming moment alone if nothing else.
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Laughing out loud
“As for the little green men… they don’t want us to know about them, so they refrain from making contact… then they do silly aerobatics displays within radar range of military bases… with their exterior lights on… if that’s extraterrestrial intelligence, I’m not sure I want to know what extraterrestrial stupidity looks like.”
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Speaking of biases
From this diavlog about expectations and biases
Kleiman: There’s actually a psychological term for people with accurate self perceptions.
McCardle: Mentally depressed?
Kleiman: Yes. -
Perfectly put
Tom Brokaw made a reference on MSNBC today to the “commander in chief of the United States.”
NO!
The president is commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States, not of the country. We have no emperor. To think of the president of the United States as commander in chief of the country is to make this person the sovereign and we his subjects.
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Palin the tethered goat
It seems to me that the McCain campaign is using Sarah Palin to draw out the worst of the democratic leaning population, which will cause the not that interested voter to associate the Obama campaign with the Move-On/Cindy Sheehan crowd, and hence be turned to Obama. Pretty clever.
On another note, isn’t Palin a wonderful blank canvas on which people can project their hopes and desires? She’s the equal of Obama in that regard.
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Seldom mentioned Obama fact
He went to prep school. That’s neither here nor there, but I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned before.