There’s a possibility of war looming in Asia, where the belligerent nation is led by a psychopathic jerk with nuclear weapons. In a sane world, this would be a concern.
However, from what I can tell today’s hot item on the blogosphere is Moosewoman’s Thanksgiving tweet. I’m not even going to bother to link to it, because Moosewoman is getting, well, old. Like the leftover lime-pineapple jello mold that sits in fridge too long because nobody really wants it. She’s turning into the Kim Kardashian of politics — over-publicized and splashed all over media, but it’s hard to say exactly why.
It’s a slow news day, and let’s hope it stays that way.
Update — Interesting — Harold Meyerson, “How Germany Got It Right on the Economy.” In a nutshell, they didn’t allow the financial sector to run wild and overrun manufacturing, and they’ve got strong unions. And now the German economy is the strongest in the world.
Update: Krugman’s blog is very much worth reading.
Update: In the “what’s wrong with this picture” department — Ross Douthat discusses a “compromise” on the abortion issue proposed by William Saletan, and Saletan’s “compromise” (which, according to Douthat, is to allow elective abortion only to 12 week’s gestation) leads heavily on the work of a guy named David Garrow.
Yes, three men are debating a “compromise” on abortion. To me, this is something like Texas and Wyoming “compromising” on Connecticut speed limits.
The German unemployment program also supports its uses at, I believe, 80% of salary and for two years. It is a federal program, not dependent on the state you live in. No going back to Congress for every few months for extensions, no fights over how long is too long. Their economy can continue running and work things out sanely because its people can continue living and spending at a reasonable level.
Imagine.
I am certainly going to remember that article about Germany when I hear some rightie sneering about socialism. A weaker case could be made for Canada, whose banks didn’t engage in so much American style speculation.
I’ve read elsewhere that German manufacturing decided to specialize away from commodity products (think China) and into high end, precision goods (think BMW), which is why they’re still alive today.
Saw an interview on Charlie Rose about Korea – it looks like another attempt by a dirt broke nation with nukes to extort money and food from the rest of us. It’s a game of chicken – the west (including South Korea) is trying to ignore this latest provocation (as it has done in the past), which will only incite the provacateur to up the ante.
Robert Reich had this to say about MooseWoman
Say what you will about the entire Kardashian clan, the whole lot of them combined won’t do 1/1000th of the damage to this country that a single one of “The Whore of Babblin’ On’s” petulant, angry, or moronic tweet’s does. And she’s everywhere!
When I was a young teenager, and hadn’t yet discovered NY’s great WNEW FM with the fantastic DJ’s like Allison “The Nightbird” Steele, Scott Muni, Richard Neer, etc, I listened to AM radio. And there was this phenonmenon known as ‘one-hit-wonders.’ People like Rick Dees with “Disco Duck,” or Terry Jacks with arguably the most insipid song of all time, “Seasons in the Sun.” And the stations would play the song over and over again. Sometimes doing “Insant-instant/Replay’s-replays!” Aaaaargh!
Sarah reminds me of those one-hit-wonders. But, now it’s 2+ years later, and her shrill song with the moronic lyrics is still being played on every AM and FM station in the country, 24x7x365, you can’t get away from it, and it’s driving you crazy!
It’s like having Shirley Ellis’ “The Name Game” as an ear-worm., and everytime you meet someone your mind does the following:
“Come on everybody!
I say now let’s play a game
I betcha I can make a rhyme out of anybody’s name
The first letter of the name, I treat it like it wasn’t there
But a B or an F or an M will appear
And then I say bo add a B then I say the name and Bonana fanna and a fo
And then I say the name again with an F very plain
and a fee fy and a mo
And then I say the name again with an M this time
and there isn’t any name that I can’t rhyme…”
OK, now say Palin-
Bonana fanna fo FALIN’. FAILIN’!!!
That’s the only one that that I can stand, there maha, maha, bo maha, bonana… AAAAAAARGH AGAIN!!!
There is something hinckey with that Douthat column. It claims to allow comments but there aren’t any posted. I know that I wrote one when I read the column on Wednesday. And it shows as having been written when I look for comments. But the Times claims there are 0 comments.
My comment:
No more compromises. No more. You’re a man who won’t have to make that decision at any time. Saletan is a man, who will never have to make that decision. I can only think of the woman having a wanted child who finds out that there are horrendous medical issues happening and who must abort to save her own life. I mean, something such as encephalic head, maybe no heart or other vital organ. The decision must be between the woman, her husband/partner and her doctor. That’s it. No other person, unless asked by the woman for an opinion.
PurpleGirl: I left an invisible comment on Douthat’s blog, too. Here’s mine:
Men telling women what to do about ‘choice’ is like the planet Mars telling Venus what her orbit should be, to the benefit only of Mars.
I suggest that we start framing the people who are against a woman’s right to choose as being “Pro Forced Labor.” Yes, with all of the nasty associations tied to that.
Next, they’ll be telling me what God I need to believe in, and make Christ the default diety. Oh, wiat, never mind…
Need a chuckle today? Taiwanese TV does as good a job as any of explaining Our Snowbilly Snooki:
http://www.nma.tv/2010/11/25/growing-up-palin-ex-governor-and-her-family-become-celebrities/
“In a nutshell, they didn’t allow the financial sector to run wild and overrun manufacturing, and they’ve got strong unions. And now the German economy is the strongest in the world”
I’ve been telling my wife for the past couple of years if Sarah Palin gets anywhere near the white house we are moving to Deutschland! Unfortunately for Germany they have to bail out the rest of Europe, hopefully they won’t go down with the ship. It’s not lookin like that European Union thing was such a great idea?
“Imagine a deal … in which pro-choicers accept restrictions on second-trimester abortions in exchange for pro-life support of contraception. Both concessions would hurt, but that’s what makes the deal fair.â€
That’s a classical hostage negotiation technique…Introduce an element into the negotiation that has no considerable relevance to the negotiation while diluting or shifting the subject at hand, and then leverage that element as a concession. The issue is a woman’s right of sovereignty to her own body… and contraception falls within that sovereignty.
People like Douthat (I won’t tell you my mental nickname for the guy; it involves a feminine cleaning product) and Glenn Beck have no concept how deeply offensive people find them. Sarah Palin probably knows but doesn’t give a fig; she gets her speaking fees.
Douthat had this article about the Democratic base and the recent election and he uses the term “the unchurched”. I really felt it was like dropping the “N” word to him; it was like he was putting non-Christians into some other category; not quite as human as “his people”.
As for abortion: if I were a woman I wouldn’t feel inclined to make compromises about my body and my health to cater to some other person’s desire to keep women barefoot and “down on the plantation”.
belligerent nation is led by a psychopathic jerk with nuclear weapons
But Cheney and Bush are out of the White House now.
Good thing, or we’d all be digging fallout shelters now.
There is something oddly amusing about Douthat and Saletan debating a compromise solution, as if the pro-life side would ever agree to compromise on what it sees as heinous murder. It’s a little like debating whether a unicorn would prefer a bedding of straw or lambswool – we’ll never know, and it’s stupid to spend time discussing it, because such a situation is COMPLETELY IMAGINARY.
Sad thing is that there are many women out there with bullhorns supporting Operation Rescue. It should be remembered that the first (unsuccessful) attempt to murder Dr George Tiller was done by a woman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_Shannon
It’s often the case that these women actually had an abortion or two before accepting Jesus and becoming “pro-life.” Now they want to throw women into jail for having an abortion. I can’t help but wonder: why don’t they turn themselves in for murder and start serving their sentence?
As for the Operation Rescue men, many of them in earlier years knocked up some girl and paid for her abortion. So I would think that they too should be more than happy to go to jail as an accessory for murder.
While I’m on this particular rant (against hypocrites who want to imprison others), good old George W Bush was an enthusiastic warrior in the War on Drugs. As it is well-known that in his “wild youth” he was a big doper, I’m sure he won’t mine doing 10 years in the (now privatized) Texas penitentiary system.
I imagine that the USA would be a much freer society if all the born-again Christians got a taste of their own medicine.
Hate to say it, but that applies to some liberals, including Obama (even if he hasn’t been born again). And Clinton (even if he didn’t inhale). As long as the Justice Department continues to wage war on medical marijuana, our president might as well turn himself in and start serving time for his youthful indiscretions. Ditto for Congress (both current and former members). If all our political leaders had to obey the laws they make for others, it would be a different world. Newt Gingrich could share a cell with Bill Clinton – now THAT would be bi-partisanship.
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That last paragraph is Made of Win.