Talking He3ads

Saw some of the Sunday yakkers today. Larry Summers was annoying enough to get me to switch channels quickly. He had clearly been given instructions not to say anything of substance, so the interview quickly got tedious. I can see why some people don't like him. If he's not going to say anything, why is he there? Couldn't he just announce that he's only going to answer questions on A and skip the tedious circumlocutions?

Other channels had Republicans, which was worse. They clearly have decided to stake their politicals futures on the hope that the Bush recession/depression will still be going strong in 2010, giveing them a chance to avoid extinction. Obama, for some reason, has chosen to indulge them. I suspect that this is a mistake. Republicans have learned only the politics of fear and have jumped on the opportunity to exploit what they think of as weakness.

I think he needs to bring the fire. Democrats are trying to argue policy details while the Republicans continue to spew a cloud of lies and nonsense. Democrats should be out there reminding the public how we got here - by practicing exactly the policies that the Republicans keep still trying to push.

Cooperation needs to be based on both trust and fear. We should be spending every moment reminding the public and the Republicans exactly how we got into this mess. Every Republican from the Midwest and East needs to start hearing from angry constituents whose jobs they voted out of existence.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anti-Libertarian: re-post

The most pointed critique of social security and liberalism in general is the libertarian critique. The problem with libertarians, for a liberal, is that we have too much in common. We both believe in individual rights, tolerance of individual differences, and dislike government prescription of religion. The basic difference, it seems to me, is the different answers we give to Cain's (with thanks to the Captain - my original version had the corpse asking the question!) famous question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" That's not really my basic bitch against the libertarians though. My real complaint is the same as my complaint against most religion - its premise is a fraud. For those who can't stand to wait for the punchline, I believe that trying to implement libertarian principles leads to tyranny or social disintegration. Demonstrating that takes some historical (and pre-historical) context. For all but the last 15,000 or so of the 100,000 years the human spec
Read more

Uneasy Lies The Head

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown ........... Shakespeare Henry IV, Part II. So it is with us and our slightly distant primate cousins , so it seems. A 9-year study of wild baboons in Kenya by Princeton University and the Institute of Primate Research may turn conventional assumptions of alphas males upside down. The study found that alpha males have high testosterone levels, which allows them to dominate other baboons, get access to more food, and attract better mates. This is expected. Surprisingly, though, the alpha males also have high levels of stress hormone glucocorticoid, which scientists measured from their feces samples. In fact, the stress of alpha baboons was on par with low-ranking baboons. The convention wisdom is that access to food and females provides life security and thus less stress for dominant males. Conversely, weak males who are constantly threatened by starvation and physical violence from stronger males are thought to be more stressed. The st
Read more

We Call it Soccer

The US played its best, and maybe only good game of World Cup, but lost thanks to brilliant goalkeeping by the Swedish keeper and the bizarre method soccer uses to settle ties when three US stars could not put the ball on frame from the 12 yard spot.  At the end it came down to a blocked shot that spun in by maybe a couple of centimeters. Well, that's football - too much like life.   Which brings me to a modest proposal.  Replace the thirty minute overtimes with as many 7-player 15 minute periods as needed to settle it.  Scoring should be much easier with fewer players.
Read more