Try.

Paul Ryan responded to criticism that the math in Mitt Romney's tax plan doesn't ad up by telling "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace it would take too long to explain. “You haven’t given me the math,” Wallace said during an interview that aired Sunday. "It would take me too long to go through all of the math,” Ryan said.

Bazinga!

RomneyBot now equipped "with a series of zingers that he has memorized and has been practicing on aides since August"nytimes.com/2012/09/29/us/…

— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 29, 2012

THIS IS THE FUCKING PROBLEM

"The Obama story begins with Professor Hegel..."

(link)

That's interesting, kid. Now let me tell you about the decade *I* grew up in.

(link)

Even a replacement ref knows this is piling on

But still enjoyable.

Wow, Death Looks Terrible!

He Might Have Used That Time to Learn to Draw

Fun chart on money from XKCD guy.  Still not a fan.

From the Boo Hoo File

The Obama campaign, is, gasp, slightly spinning Romney's record. Apparently, they are distorting his abortion position!

A: Has anyone distorted Romney's abortion position as fraction as much as Mitt Romney?

B: One thing the Democratic Party has finally, finally learned: when you're hit, don't bitch like this.  Hit back harder.

Schadenfreude-nator Technology Review

After the direct hit on Mitt Romnney from a hand-carried assault Schaudenfreudenator a couple of weeks ago, there is now this laser hit from the air-based system, featuring an epic face-palm from Joe Scarborough.

I re-post the Schadenfreudenator technology review here in the interests of public edification. As you can see, the Schadenfreudenator works by sudden rapid expansion of core identity flaws and cognitive dissonance, creating an propellent explosion of inappropriate delight. In the air-based high-energy laser schadenfreudenator system, a high energy fear laser replaces small bursts of chemical awkwardness.

A Hand-Held Assault Schadenfreudenator (U.S. Army Division of Fear )

1. Stock (of personal despair)
2. Plasmatics Housing
3. Manaheim Steamroller
3a. Sociopathic Glee Dispenser
4. Forward Spring
5. Fallback
6. Gastric Expansion Chamber
7. Master/Slave Cylinder Dungeon
8a. Flexible Protective Cylindrical Housing
8b. Extra Ribbing for Her Pleasure
9. Domination Coil
10. Futility of Moral Action Flange
11. Emotional Disengagement Safety
12. Marquis De Sad
13. Fear Pin
14. Confidence Coroder
15. Unrecognized Inevitability of Death Adjustment Screw
16. Chump Bracket

An Air-Based Schaudenfreudenator, (courtesy, Pentagon Office of Inappropriate Delight)

Once it starts there'll be no stopping it

Philly Fed President warns of runaway economic growth

(link)



SHOPKEEPER Well of course it was nailed there. Otherwise it would muscle up to those bars and: voom!

PRALINE Look, matey, this parrot wouldn't voom if I put four thousand volts through it. It's bleeding demised.

Now it can be told

Rebar for Tootsie Rolls - Lesbian Edition (link)

It seemed like a good idea at the time

Romney is the Republicans' Dukakis.  The candidate that forces even the most recalcitrant old-schooler to say "we've got to figure out something better than this."

We use to link Jon Stewart at lot here, and generally stopped, I think because it was just redundant.  But imagine an undecided voter watching this:

It's not a routine Stewart takedown, it's Daryl Dawkins smashing the backboard (lest we forget).

Romney is doing this because he has to tell three different stories to three different constituencies (Wall Street, the religious right, and the undecided independents) and just can't do so coherently.  His incoherence is not just his personal shortcoming, it is the incoherence of the entire GOP.  Reagan and the Bushes dealt with this by appealing to conservative ideals without actually enacting any, and by faking right (espoused conservatism) and going left (weaponized Keynesianism) on fiscal matters.  This works great until the balance sheet is wrecked, which is why Clinton and Obama had so little fiscal latitude when they took office.

We're also getting the first look at the full 7-day Gallup sample period since the 47% remark.  It is not pretty.

Anyway, the game wears thin.  This piece by Andrew Hacker is instructive:  in 1990 31% of Americans considered themselves Republicans, now it's 24%.  Hard to see where they think this is going.

What he said

Dave Krieg's Strike Beard: Seahawks 14, Packers 12

Hand-wringing and Pearl-clutching because we didn't win "the right way" is for losers like John Kerry and Al Gore, not fans of a rising NFL power built on ferocity and vicious brutality.

Sad tales from the mysterious East

While carmakers will use this week's Paris auto show to display models such as Audi's updated $146,600 top-of-the-line R8 coupe and Porsche's $126,000 four-wheel drive 911, the fate of the vehicles will be decided thousands of miles away in China, where premium-car buyers are showing signs of saturation.

(link)

Better than Lawrence Welk could have done it

Extreme Deep Field

(here)

Well, Laird, what'll it be?

Seahawks win, or the integrity of the game?

In a bizarre ending that capped a brutal weekend for replacement officials, the Seattle Seahawks somehow beat the Green Bay Packers 14-12 on Monday night in a game that's certain to re-ignite frustrations over the locked-out refs.

(link)

Josh Sitton told me the 2 biggest goats were Pete Carroll & Golden Tate, “be a man & admit that it was a bullcrap call” bit.ly/UDU1Qd
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) September 25, 2012

In Super Bowl XL real refs' bad calls handed Steelers victory over Seahawks. #Karma #Biggerstakes seattletimes.com/html/seahawks/…
— Jeremy Meyer (@jpmeyerDPost) September 25, 2012

Got that Seattle? When the call goes for you, you need to man up, admit it, and give the other team the win. When the call goes against you, you should shut up, show some class, understand these things happen sometimes.

Bedtime

I's tired.

 

Triscuits, ftw

What snacks do we like?

(link)

That's not why I'm following you, Buzz...

Getting ready to watch the DWTS Premiere live. I think it's going to be a great show. twitter.com/TheRealBuzz/st…

— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) September 24, 2012

Color me "cautiously optimistic"

It's hard to keep up

Paul Ryan reaches out to the ladies.

Wow...just wow...

[Romney] pitched a fit just minutes before the broadcast and refused to come out unless the Spanish language network re-taped the introduction, said Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas. 
“It was a very awkward moment, believe me,” Salinas told BuzzFeed.com. 

Romney was apparently upset because co-anchor Jorge Ramos mentioned that Romney had agreed to give them 35 minutes while Obama pledged an hour to answer questions the next night, Salinas said.

(link)


This Pew survey is enlightening.   When Romney supporters are asked whether their support is more for Romney or against Obama, 45% say for Romney, 52% against Obama.  Those figures for Obama:  74% and 22%... 

Daily Beast elaborates here.

Brain scans explain everything

This:

Your brain on pseudoscience: the rise of popular neurobollocks

So, instead, here is a recipe for writing a hit popular brain book. You start each chapter with a pat anecdote about an individual’s professional or entrepreneurial success, or narrow escape from peril. You then mine the neuroscientific research for an apparently relevant specific result and narrate the experiment, perhaps interviewing the scientist involved and describing his hair. You then climax in a fit of premature extrapolation, inferring from the scientific result a calming bromide about what it is to function optimally as a modern human being. Voilà, a laboratory-sanctioned Big Idea in digestible narrative form. 

Note to Students: This is a Glockless Environment

I grew up with years of training about responsible firearms ownership.  Concealed weapons in college classrooms isn't it.  A.  Ignoring the long history of balanced gun laws even in the Old West, the gun rights movement has gone down a rabbit hole, raging red and creating real fears where there were only imaginary ones.  

Note to students: bring a Glock, fail the class. 

What could go wrong?

Dr. Stout offered a not-so-modest proposal: along with releasing their tax returns and medical records (and, sometimes, birth certificates), maybe political candidates should be asked to prove their psychological fitness before their names go on the ballot. Though psychopaths can apparently fool even skilled psychiatrists into thinking they're normal, Dr. Stout maintains that standardized psychological tests like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (and someday maybe brain scans) might be able to tip voters off to candidates who exhibit worrisome personality traits.

(link)

Late Avengers Movie Review

It was worth $3. Some points:

1.) Loki is a trickster, not malevolence incarnate who hangs out in an office building with an iphone5/ laser/ spear. Sheesh. Let the Norse Gods be in the woods!

2.) Aliens in thrall to Loki come through a time portal from across the universe, land in New York, burst into an office, and shoot up someone's markerboard.  Ok.

3.) Whoever talked Scarlett Johanssen into breast reduction surgery is the real enemy of America.

On Chuck Jones' 100th birthday, my Great Movies piece about three of his cartoons. dld.bz/bNc6f

— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) September 21, 2012

Je t'aime, Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman on Voter ID. NSFW.

Thank you for your service

After winning the MVP award for his performance leading the Longhorns to the BCS National Championship with a stirring victory in the 2006 Rose Bowl, Vince Young went on to a successful NFL career.  Well, sort of successful - he started 50 games and had a career passer rating of 74.4, right between Y.A. Tittle and Jake Plummer.  Could have been better...could have been worse...

No, he did not achieve greatness.  But he played a man's game as well as many others, and in so doing took home $25 million in guaranteed money.

All of which is gone now.

I wonder if he got his degree from the University of Texas...

Need help here

What's the difference between an activist and a militant?

Move along, nothing to see here

Computers: So Much Thank

A Modern Computer Person

In Today's Society, we have made great advances in our lives by the use of modern computing, or Information (also known as I.T.) technology.  Computers- which were once the size of rooms (!)- are now small enough to fit in something like a pen or a shoe or a slice of cheesecake, where the benefits of computing or "I.T.", as it is known among computer-using professionals, are very great.

But the real benefit of computers is how much less expensive it makes ordinary things, like going to a grocery store, where employees no longer have to laboriously count every chip (such as potato) when they take inventory, and in the home, where the hard work of calculating where exactly to set the radio dial is now handled by advanced computers, or "IT," using a small computer chip, which is smaller than even a potato chip, inserted into the radio.

Yes, the savings are everywhere. Cars use computers, or "I.T.", to monitor the amount of gas that goes into the engine, and adjust things like fuel injectors. Also the cars are made by computers, with the help of robots and people.  Also the computers are made by robots and computers, or "I.T.", and people, who have created the famous computer robots.

The great advantage of these new computers, or "I.T.", is that they are not only smaller than entire rooms, but that they make things so much cheaper than they once were. It's even getting very hard to think of what isn't cheapened now with the use of computing technology, or "I.T."  For example, computers can now use radios to inform satellites to tell insurance companies using computers what cars controlled by computers but driven by people are doing, which cheapens insurance by up to 30%, according to an ad that I saw. 

So many things are cheapening. Chairs can now be made by simple computers. And also tables, using robots or foreign people that saw and glue wood. Dangerous and filthy mining can be done by computer robots, and many museums will now show you dangerous and filthy Art- but made by artists? No! Computers again! And the government is simply doing wonders with computer robot invisible plane missile fighters that can kill anyone they really need to.

Music, which once required large numbers of people to learn for many years to play such old-fashioned instruments like saxophones and guitars, may now be made cheaply by many fewer people using computers, or "IT," like Skrillex does. You may have heard his famous "WUB WUB" sound: it sounds like a computer going "Wuuuub! Wubwubwubwub!"  Essays, like this one, no longer have to be printed when computers can print them onto screens without using messy ink.  Computers can even write essays now, so  sensitive, huffy writers are increasingly unnecessary, thanks to the improvements of I.T.  Soon I bet even Skrillex will be replaced by I.T. Old Lawyers and bankers increasingly use I.T. to do things that young lawyers and bankers used to do, and I.T. never needs a vacation or a bonus! I should explain that I.T. usually means "computers."

Computer Robots, or "I.T.", have a lot of promise to cheapen all kinds of things people used to do that other people used to think was valuable, like farming, steel things, sales, roofing, nursing, food making, educating children, lawn maintenance, educating adults, banking, insurance, growing genetically perfect children in vats, accounting, financial investing, and even working with computers and robots, or "I.T."  And what's even better is that our country's top engineers are working harder and harder(using computers of course!) to make computers and computer-robots that make people feel like they have friends and that anyone cares about them.

In this world of "I.T.", we can look forward to virtually everything being cheapened. I should explain again that I.T. usually means "computers."

Every year or so?

I’ve been reading the old books, books that I’ve read before. The first time you read a book, you don’t read it at all carefully; you just read it for the story. You have to keep rereading. Every year or so I read Shakespeare straight through. But then I go to the latest by Agatha Christie or Rex Stout. I read every book of theirs. I do like a book with an elaborate plot. But I haven’t any definite plan of reading. I read almost everything, and I like anything that’s good. I’ve just reread a book of A. A. Milne’s called Two People, which I had read several times before. His novel is simply a novel of character. It’s not the sort of thing I can write myself, but as a reader I enjoy it thoroughly.

(link)

Alton Brown brings handmade tweets

Nice.

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This Brother Got Paid

Shoutout to David Viniar, retiring from Goldman, mopping his brow after some very heavy lifting in recent years.  He did not suffer financially, however - here's a highlight from the Golden Age.

Correction

Many years ago, the Sea Lord asked me if a steam-powered airplane had ever flown successfully.  I was fairly sure that none had, and I thought my confidence justified because I was sure I'd have heard about such a craft if it had existed.

It turns out I was wrong on both counts, and I'd like to correct the record:

In 1933, the Bessler Brothers built and flew the world's first and only successul steam-engine airplane.

At the end of the article, there's a video clip from contemporary film reels.  If you want to go straight to the fun stuff, here it is.

Can we question the Police?

Judge: Police Can Question Citizenship

(link)

The Day the Music Died

Steve Sabol, who was the creative force behind NFL Films, his father’s innovative enterprise that melded cinematic ingenuity, martial metaphors and symphonic music to lend professional football the aura of myth and help fuel its rise in popularity, died on Tuesday in Moorestown, N.J.

(link)


Relevant:

It's a fair question

Romney is apparently able to stay credibly close in the polls no matter how egregiously evil, incompetent, or treasonous his behavior.  Amazingly, he might still win, despite verbally urinating on half the American people.  It's not real likely on today's numbers, but maybe he has a 30-35% chance.

I think it is time to bust this out again:

 

But if elected, brace yourself for breathtaking incompetence.  An overconfident man, his principles softened by a lifetime of entitlement, his heart hardened by decades of separation from normal people, a man inexperienced in the facts and details of national politics and without natural political allies in Washington...he could make Franklin Pierce look like Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Left, right or center, you do not want this.

Romney at home tonight eating ice cream straight from the carton and buying boats online in the dark

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) September 18, 2012

Mitt Romney: Getting Tough to Satirize

Report: Romney Took Millions in Burmese Orphan-Sausage Maker Merger

Mitt Romney Attempts to Fight Off Three-Toed Sloth Attack: Video

Romney Proposes Extending Oktoberfest to Two Months

Romney Tragically Offends Volcano God

Romney:  Ship Poor to Denmark

Gaunt-Looking Romney Pulls Gun on Jim Lehrer in Debate

Presidential Campaign Balloon Give-a-way Kills Four

Ann Romney Leaves Mitt for Joe Lieberman

Mitt Compares Self to Superhero Giant-Mouth Black Spiderman

Former Candidate Found Writing "Big Jet" on Large Cardboard Box

Video: Mitt Romney Kissed by Dozens of Bi-Curious Amish Men

Today's tomorrow's less-good-than-the-FSL's-headline

Romney moons beggar and slaps orphan, still supported by 42% of Americans.

Mittens on Peasants

Romney lets fly with complete contempt for half of America in this jaw-dropping video.  More at TPM.

It would be nice to see him as kind of goofy and pathetically needy, but make no mistake about his maliciousness, his sense of deserved privilege, his

limitless arrogance. Someone needs to make clear to this perfect ass that the United States is a promise and an obligation to all of its citizens, not just his precious little circle of privilege and power.

That someone is us. Register, if you know anyone that hasn't already, at Rockthevote.org, and vote. It isn't enough to just win. We have to smack it down with authority.

 

 

.

Next time you're in a tactical situation....

"The Malevolence" - what do I win?

(link)

"You never go full McCain"

"[H]ey, trust me, put me in the job and we’ll deal with all those silly fiddly details later. And you know what...this had a reasonably good chance of working. But ultimately it only works if you actually trust Romney — or alternately, have no reason to distrust Romney — to make sane, responsible and intelligent decisions.

"Which is why Romney blew up his chance to be president this week: He showed, manifestly, that he’s indeed capable of making horrible, awful, very bad, no good, terrible choices.

"It’s as if at every turn in the crisis Romney had an opportunity to do something that wouldn’t make him look like a cat with a bag on its head navigating through a room full of bar stool legs, and chose instead the opposing course. It’s impressive in its way, but it’s a not a good way to be impressive."

(link)


On a related note, I showed my kids McCain's 2008 concession speech:



I loved McCain once, not without reason, but of that campaign I must say nothing became him like the leaving of it.  So let it be with Romney.

Ahem

We didn't abrogate freedom of speech when the only viable choices seemed to be facism or communism, and we didn't when we had nuclear missiles pointed at us.  And we won't let some bullying rioters push us back either, right Government?  Right?

Epithet development

I'm trying to come up with a word that summarizes Mitt Romney, a new coinage with a little precision on it.  I think the best I can do this morning is "twaddle-pest".

But surely that can be improved upon...

This clown's impotent, suicidal and incredibly stupid

"I'm kind of a Snooki fan. Look how tiny she's gotten. She's lost weight. She's energetic. Just her spark-plug personality is kind of fun," said Romney – who is in the past has been more likely to quote the 1990s-era comedy show "Seinfeld" than "Jersey Shore."

(link)

Wow

It's like this once competent-seeming man has turned into a gaffe-o-matic.

Today:

"No one can say my plan is going to raise taxes on middle-income people, because principle number one is (to) keep the burden down on middle-income taxpayers," Romney told host George Stephanopoulos.

"Is $100,000 middle income?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less," Romney responded.

His campaign later clarified that Romney was referencing household income, not individual income.

Median household income in the U.S. is $50,000.  A family that makes $250,000 is in the top 3%...but still very poor compared to Mitt and his backers.  If you don't even make that much, well...

Good article here on Krugman, Stiglitz, and that strange field once called "political economy."

Some people hate teachers' unions because they hate teachers. bit.ly/QezkaT

— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) September 13, 2012

Bacon Number reflections

Playing with new Google functionality:

• Charlie Chaplin:  2, via Tippi Hedrin
• Buster Keaton:  2, via Patty McCormack
• Erik Estrada: 2, via Tim Matheson
• Traci Lords: 2, via Denise Richards

3s are hard to find...

• Rudolph Valentino: 3, via Gary Cooper and June Lockhart 

But not perfect - no Dylan Sprouse?  Really?

Okay Google, listen up.  Dylan Sprouse was in - starred, actually - in The Suite Life Movie with Brenda Song, who, like everyone else in Hollywood, has a Bacon number of two, hers via Aaron Sorkin.

This took me back to the Oracle of Bacon (remember?) which, I learned, is not dead.  In fact, last year they calculated who really is the ultimate center of the Hollywood universe.  I'd plumped for Caine, but it's hard to argue with their finding.  Isn't/wasn't he, after all?

Bizzaro World Anti-Fact

Was it even an hour before Team Mittens used the death of four American diplomats in Libya as an excuse to make up a lie about the President?  Misrepresentation, falsehood, fact-challenged:  I'm wearing out my thesaurus. 

 I think I'll call this sort of thing "a Bizzaro World Anti-fact."

I just call him "Sir"

Average annual premiums for family coverage rose 4 percent and individual premiums rose an average of 3 percent in 2012, increasing faster than employee wages and overall inflation for the 13th straight year, according to a nationwide survey of businesses released Tuesday from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

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[W]hen the health care wars were heating up in August of 2009, and centrist Dems were dragging their feet, Rahm mounted an aggressive push to get Obama to shelve ambitious reform.

"For the better part of a week in August Rahm made the case aggressively," the book says.

Rahm urged the president instead to pursue a sharply reduced plan that would have insured more than 10 million Americans because it could get bipartisan support. Rahm's idea was to expand on previous Congressional plans to expand coverage for children, and boost the number of single mothers eligible for Medicaid -- hence "the Titanic plan."

But the book paints Obama as resolute about moving forward, contradicting impressions at the time that Obama hadn't exercised enough leadership on the issue. "I feel lucky," he told advisers at the time, according to the book. "I think we can get it done."

At a subsequent meeting in the Oval Office on September 1st, the book reports, Robert Gibbs cracked a joke about bad poll numbers on health care.

"This is about whether we're going to get big things done," Obama said. "I wasn't sent here to do school uniforms."

Rahm then asked Obama if he still felt lucky

"My name is Barack Hussein Obama and I'm sitting here," Obama answered. "So yeah, I'm feeling pretty lucky."

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Hodgman's 9/11 Message

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Reality Has Too Many Democrats!

What does it all mean? We all know what it means. Obama is likely to win. 

(link)

Reasons Mitt Romney will eliminate arts funding entirely.

- American art clashes with the mansions' couch pattern.
- Need that $150 mil to round off numbers on check to B.P.
- Worried too much Mapplethope might turn Paul Ryan gay.
- Artist found on Craigs' List messed up portrait of Ann with hideously specific teeth.
- Offended by Bob Ross making all those millions off the federal government.
- Council Bluffs, Iowa production of "The Iceman Cometh" hit too close to home.
- All those photos, and who the hell knows what Cindy Sherman really looks like?

Krugman soft on Keynesianism

Dude, wtf?  Stop being reasonable, how can I criticize if you're being reasonable?  Stop it!

(link)

Let's see Paul Ryan do that

The guy on the right is thinking "ordinarily I'd kick a guy's ass for that, but I can't mess with Joe Biden!"

(link)

Pay n' Save

Speaking of the proper colors! I miss it around here - you could buy whiskey, Spam and an Uzi back in the day.  By the By, uber-douche Donald Trump drove this once huge business it into the ground.

Seahawks Logo with Proper Colors

Found on the Innernits.  For T-shirts and whoosits. Now don't you feel better?

Dang

[I]t was only after her death in 2009 that her work came to prominence, when a bargain hunter stumbled upon a grocery box full of old pictures at an auction house... 

 (link)

I, for one, welcome our new sea otter overlords.planetsave.com/2012/09/08/sea…

— TheOtherFront (@TheOtherFront) September 8, 2012

Laughton: If I had a million

Why I'm just about finished with the NFL

Tom Scocca puts his finger on it: The NFL does not care if games are unwatchable.

Or, if you have better things to do with your time, you can send the league $69.99 for a subscription to NFL Game Rewind. There, in tacit admission of what's wrong with the regular broadcasts, the NFL will supply you with condensed version of games, or the power to fast-forward through the dull parts yourself, or access to the fabled all-22 footage, with its revolutionary promise to actually let you see what the players are doing. The National Football League: where watching football is a premium add-on

Clinton's speech in graphs

Brilliant.

(link)

The Only Economist Worth a Damn

Sure it's fun to watch economists fight.  We had a great one a couple of weeks ago.

Simon Wren-Lewis wanted Mankiw and Taylor drummed out of the corps for writing things he didn't like.  Krugman joined in the chorus.

My first reaction was:  um, ok guys, it worked for Stalin.

My second: if Taylor and Mankiw really misquoted and misattributed as severely as Krugman claims (Taylor denies all), they have sold their professional reputations for a sackful of silver.  Which, since they both already have many sackfuls, and work for famous universities, is quite annoying.

And dysfunctional.  I'm a moderate, and I mean it.  I want diverse views, based on sound evidence and vetted by professional economists, aired around election time.  That's how this thing is supposed to work.

It's not happening, and frankly, Krugman's protestations aside, I'm not seeing it on either side.  I have Taylor and Mankiw pretending Mitt Romney's team can do math, and I have Krugman DeLong, etc., between self-righteous reminiscences of the Nixon administration, pretending we're in a liquidity trap when core inflation is running 1.8% y/y, within 0.2% of the Fed's target.

The reason everyone gave up on Keynesianism in the first place is that increases in government expenditures do not magically create growth, or value to society.

If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GNP would go up.  But the utility of the product would be zilch...  - Warren Buffett

And don't give me that bullshit about how easy it is to borrow money.  It won't be easy forever, and every Democrat-in-power I've ever met is delighted to throw dollar N+1 at the nation's problems, whether the long term effects will be inflationary, destabilizing, or ebola.  And don't tell me it's the Republicans fucking up the schools when Jerry Brown is building a magic train to nowhere that will cost $68 billion, no doubt because some alleged economist told him the multiplier effects would be higher than school funding.  I'm sorry, that's a little unfair, let me rephrase that:

It will be fine day when the California schools receive an appropriation of $68 billion and the California High Speed Rail Authority has to hold a motherfucking bake sale.

Meanwhile, the elephant in the room - health care costs that have run several percentage points above inflation year after year for decades - is lost in a mess of posturing, indignation and counter-indignation.  This is amazingly stupid - the U.S. healthcare system is a cocktail of mis-incentives that is destroying the country.  It's it not "going" to do so, it is doing so now.  Hagist and Kotlikoff called it back in 2005:

Although healthcare spending is growing at unsustainable rates in most, if not all, OECD countries, the U.S. appears least able to control its benefit growth due to the nature of its fee-for-service healthcare payment system. Consequently, the U.S. may well be in the worst long-term fiscal shape of any OECD country even though it is now and will remain very young compared to the majority of its fellow OECD members.

Ezra Klein explains further, because, apparently, that is necessary.

The only president who has successfully instituted measures that can help deal with the core problem is a fellow named Barack Obama.  Even if the Republicans win it will be extremely difficult to repeal Obamacare because it actually helps solve the problem.

It would be nice to see more economists who think like him.

I wonder how Romney's wife's horse did?

The Daily Dot reports [Michelle Obama's] speech was shared more than 20,000 times on China's Twitter Sina Weibo. The social network also saw more than 1,000 comments on the speech, the Atlantic notes.

Tea Leaf Nation, an e-magazine, broke down some of the reactions in China, noting the speech received "a particularly warm reception." Among the Chinese comments, the speech was called inspiring, divine and moving. There were criticisms too, but those appeared to be in the minority.

According to the Daily Dot, one user identified as Yingwang Dechang said: “I’m not an American, so why, when I’ve finished listening to this speech, do I have such an urge to cry?”

Mitt: Moot?

How do I get into that 1%?

Selch’s boss testified that while 99 percent of employees would have been immediately fired, Selch was one of the one percent who could be granted a one-free-mooning reprieve.

(link)

#1 son asks the big question

"Is Osama bin Laden better off than he was four years ago?"

UPDATE:  #1 son upset that John Kerry is stealing his jokes.

That's true

via an Ebert tweet:


Revolt of the Rich 
Our financial elites are the new secessionists.

(link)

Consider Yourself Neutralized

Obama Neutralizes A Typical Source Of GOP Strength: Foreign Policy

Foreign policy and defense matters are normally a source of vulnerability for Democrats, but they're getting a fair amount of attention from speakers down in Charlotte.

"There are more mentions of Osama bin Laden than unemployment in the Democratic national platform," says Micah Zenko, a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. "You play to what your strengths are."

(link)

Oh Personalized Facebook ads, You and Your Unintentional Zeitgeiste

Not even the chair

Good 'un on Slate

The Assassination of Clint Eastwood by the Coward Mitt Romney by Tom Scocca.

Good piece, and I particularly liked this parenthetic jab,

This is not the best way to demonstrate that your candidate is something other than a ruthless human weathervane (that is, a successful business consultant).

(I kinda forgot about Tom Socca. He's good. Kinda reminds me of Joe Queenan.)

Your Reasons are Bad and You Should Feel Bad

Why I'm a Republican at NPR.

My six favorites

It's the meme that keeps on giving.  My selections:


Obvious



Literal



Surreal



Old School



Empathetic



Existential

4:01, Weasel-Boy

(link)

I hate Hungarian Nazis

The paramilitary marchers, mostly bussed in from outside, heard an impassioned speech by Laszlo Toroczkai of the far-right Sixty-four Counties group, who told them there were three options: "To emigrate, to become slaves of the Gypsies, or to fight."

"All the trash must be swept out of the country," said Attila Laszlo of the paramilitary For A Better Future Civil Guard.

And Zsolt Tyirityan of the Outlaw Army said "the Gypsy is genetically-coded for criminality".

(link)

Go away, you clueless fuckwits

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is now going to fix California, because it is hostile to business.  Big priority for them.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce seems not to have noticed that every other country in the world wants its own Silicon Valley, which has only invented everything that mattered over the past 40 years, from the personal computer to Avastin.  The New York Times' Dealbook blog comments:

The truth is, there is no consensus on how to create this community. This is a problem because many are trying and few are succeeding. France, Norway and Malaysia have all failed despite fervent efforts. In the United States, California still dominates. Thirty-five companies on The Wall Street Journal’s 2011 list of the top 50 venture capital-backed investments are based in California. 

Yes, it's the one place on earth where companies grow fresh from the loamy soil, where dynamism and creativity dominate and the hidebound rules of corporate plutocracy do not apply.  I can hardly wait for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to "fix it" so it will one day work as well as the American Trucking Association (the former employer of CoC's Tom Donohue).

Of course there is one simple way to make significant headway on California's budget woes:  correct the nation's longstanding use of the state as a cash cow.  As this article demonstrates, over the past 20 years the hippy-dippy libtards in California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and Minnesota have supplied significant financial support to the self-reliant, rock-ribbed denizens of places like Mississippi, Alaska, Alabama, and Arizona (I omit West Virginia, as it is a special case).

Anyway, to return to the original topic: Fuck off, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Take your clueless bullshit back to Planet Clueless, and shove it up your clueless asses, you clueless cretins.  This tendency to cluelessness must be checked.  It wears thin.  Go away, and stop being so clueless.  It will be better for all concerned, even for fuckwits such as yourselves.

I trust this will resolve the matter.