This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
If filmmakers directed the Super Bowl
And this one is specially for Rahm Emanuel, and his retard(ed) controversy of the week:
So it looks like someone finally noticed what I have been crying about for years: the total and complete lack of a ‘liberal’ (aka American conservative) political option in Brazil.
However, I think that this goes beyond economic policy. I think that in Brazil we have a leftist culture that is totally ingrained and absorbed by the public in general. This culture is what ultimately makes a free-market/conservative option utterly impossible to appear and much less succeed in any way.
For instance: Fatalism rules in Brazil. You ask anyone on the streets or a politician or a computer programmer why they think Brazil is not a developed country they will definitely blame someone else. It is either Portugal’s fault (a very popular option when I was a kid in school), the IMF (also a very popular choice in the 80s – Brazil’s left used to say that the country’s inflation was directly connected to the IMF’s debt!), America, ‘politicians’ (as if the people who elected them had nothing to do with it), etc, etc.
Furthermore, the entrepreneurial spirit in Brazil is dwarfed by the power of government. It is not just that taxes are too high… The whole system is so convoluted and corrupt that in order to have a business people have to choose between operating outside of the law (at some level at least) or to buy out their way into the government’s arena (i.e., bribes and illicit favors). There is no incentive, neither from the people in power nor from people in the private sector, to completely dismantle this leviathan. It has become part of the system and it feeds from it.
So how can you expect the country to truly embrace capitalism with this frame of mind? Honestly, I am always truly surprised on how much Brazil has advanced despite all of this.
Canadian Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week – in the United States
Hmmm… Weird! I thought we were trying to copy Canada’s health care.
According to the Washington Post, some Haitians want U.S to ‘take over’. Take over the money giving, that is. For those bastards religious freaks who are trying to adopt poor children, oh those need to rot in jail. Maybe Haitians are afraid of running out of slaves.
Talking about Haiti, Voodoo high priest claims aid monopolised by Christians
Let me see… yeah, no comments.
Moving to good news, this is an interesting article on the revolution brought by McDonalds in Russia. Was that only possible because we won the cold war or did we only win the cold war because of businesses like McDonalds?
Back here in good ol’ America, here is King Obama’s prediction on how unemployment will decrease. It looks like they plotted an average between fast recovery rates and the slower ones. Somehow I doubt they got this right. Talking about the recession, this is Samuelson’s take on what happened and why. Sounds more realistic than all the ‘blame Bush’ usual articles.
Finally, this is an interesting NPR program on the question: Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older?
That’s it folks. I had some other links here but time flew by, I got to go!
The Kübler-Ross grief cycle shows that people with terminal illnesses need to go through seven phases during their process of grief. GB is no exception:
Shock stage: Initial paralysis at hearing the bad news. – GB’s shock was a classic!
Denial stage: Trying to avoid the inevitable. – Check out the last paragraph of his article linked – “I still cling to a fantasy“
Anger stage: Frustrated outpouring of bottled-up emotion. – Here GB compares Obama to… Reagan! Oh, the horror! Right next, he attacks Democracy (oh yeah, the authoritarian blood of the left pulses strong in GB’s veins as well!). Anger at its best.
Bargaining stage: Seeking in vain for a way out. – GB calms down a bit, say that “things are as they ever were” and now reminds us that “That doesn’t mean that there’s no difference between the parties, that everything would have been the same if McCain had won“. Oh, he also says in another post that Democrats are not stupid and they’re not evil, which represents a vast improvement. Last thing he wants is to get more people voting Republican, let’s not go crazy here! Let’s keep the faith in the Blue party…
Depression stage: Final realization of the inevitable. – This is where our dear pompous friend has arrived today. He moved past the attacks against Obama (“Don’t blame Mr. Obama. There’s only so much one man can do, even if he sits in the White House.“) and now the problem is with the whole system (“I’m sorry to say this, but the state of the union — not the speech, but the thing itself — isn’t looking very good.“).
So there are only two stages left:
Testing stage: Seeking realistic solutions.
Acceptance stage: Finally finding the way forward.
Now you may ask, what is Krugman’s “terminal illness” here? Was it his love for the Messiah? No. Was his love for the Democratic party? No way. What GB really loves at heart is himself. He wanted Obama to follow all his ideas, all his “New Keynesian” theories on how to govern our economy. He doesn’t care about who does it or how it is done (his attacks on Democracy are very revealing). The fact that the Enlightened Obama is not doing what he wanted is highly problematic. At first he blames Obama, but then he blames the system because he probably understands that not even himself would be stupid enough to follow all his ideology to the end.
I look forward to his Acceptance stage. My guess is that he will start ‘lowering his standards’ and will re-embrace whatever Obama does moving forward. Once the economy naturally recovers, he will say something like “even though Obama faced issues, he has done enough to save us”.
Then he will go back to making up new unproven economic theories and getting himself some new Nobel prizes.
1 – No, economic growth is not ‘here to stay’. It will go up, down, up and then down. Welcome to capitalism.
2 – Of course the growth was ‘faster-than-expected’. Nobody in the media really thinks we could get out of this slump anyway.
3 – Yes, winter weather batters the heartland. Just like summer will scorch it, and global warming will kill us.
4 – Funny thing that Obama is waiting so long to trial the 9/11 guys. I thought that, along with Guantanamo, was all Bush’s fault. By the way, did you notice how POTUS didn’t mention Guantanamo at all at the SOTU address? Maybe because he will take 3 years instead of 1 to close it? Or maybe because he will still be holding a bunch of terrorists indefinitely?
5 – Do we really need to keep talking about Saddam? He is dead. The war was won. Next.
6 – Bin Laden blames U.S. for climate change. You can’t accuse him of not being up to date on things. I think they should have invited him to Copenhagen, he must be very hurt about it.
Here you can read some excerpts from “The Politician”, a book by Andrew Young about his decade behind the scenes with John Edwards. These are my ‘favorites’:
Hunter’s pregnancy: According to Young, Hunter called him in May 2007 to say she was pregnant. Young says that when he informed Edwards, the senator told him to “handle it,” to which he replied: “I can’t handle this one.” Young writes that Edward unloaded on Hunter as a “crazy slut,” said they had an “open relationship,” and put his paternity chances at “one in three.” Young says that Edwards asked him for help persuading Hunter to have an abortion.
Donations: “S–t, they love me — they would do anything for me,” John Edwards would say after getting a big donation, Young writes. If refused, he would say, “What the hell — why are they wasting my time? I’m going to be president. I don’t have time for this s–t. Everyone wants to give me advice. I don’t want their advice. I want their money.”
Made in USA: Young says Edwards is an Atkins-dieter who hated making appearances at state fairs where “fat rednecks try to shove food down my face. I know I’m the people’s senator, but do I have to hang out with them?” Before a SEIU candidate forum in Las Vegas, Young says Edwards made him cut out a “made in the USA” label from Young’s own suit to sew in place of Edwards’s “made in Italy” label.
And to think that the media gave this guy multiple free passes… Can you imagine what else we would find if this garbage was scrutinized like Palin is?
The meltdown continues!!! Now Golden Boy says: Obama Liquidates Himself
This might be a bit too obscure of a reference, but GB’s cry baby reminded me a lot of this:
Sing it out loud with GB: “It’s pretty scary!!!” Hahahahahahaha
Congress Went to Denmark, You Got the Bill
“For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That’s $2,200 a day – more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment.”
Even Jon Stewart Mocks Obama For Using Teleprompter In Sixth Grade Classroom
Oh happy days – 25 reasons the British should be happy
Game over: Wisconsin inmate can’t play Dungeons & Dragons
Chris Anderson: “In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits”
Chile has finally elected a right wing President: Sebastián Piñera, a wealthy businessman and economist.
Here is what Piñera has to say about Hugo The Clown:
“Venezuela is not a democracy” … “Two great models have been shaped in Latin America: One of them led by people like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Castro in Cuba and Ortega in Nicaragua. . . . I definitely think the second model is best for Chile. And that’s the model we are going to follow: democracy, rule of law, freedom of expression, alternation of power without caudillismo.”
As the article say, this is all obvious but it is far beyond what Lula or any other brazilian politician will ever say about the Clown.
And of course, this is another hugely under-reported news. I read news sites daily and just saw this today.
Great news: Noted deficit hawk to announce three-year freeze in discretionary spending
Hehehehe, the Brown effect continues to shake things up. Next thing you know, Obama will start talking to Republicans again!
Oh wait.
Have you ever heard of March for Life? Honestly, this is the first time I hear about it. Can you imagine the media completely ignoring *any* other gathering of at least tens of thousands of people in DC? And this has been happening every year since 1973…
It’s truly a shame.
Shake ‘n Bake Conan!
Man, this has been a tough week for Liberals!
Ok, last one for today I promise. A quick joke from Jay Leno I heard on the radio today (paraphrasing):
“It’s been one year since Obama won the presidency. And he promised to bring things back to life right? The only problem is that Democrats were thinking he meant the job market, and what he really meant was the Republican Party”
Fantastic meltdown! When Chris Matthews is the one making sense you know things are out of control!!! Howard Dean was about to cry… From 5:23 forward the thing is simply amazing!
“You are saying that no matters who wins an election your argument wins!”
Sorry, I know the issue is serious and everything but watching Golden Boy jump off Obama’s bandwagon in his pompous and conceited way is really priceless:
“But I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.”
That is why I’ve always said that there are many, many worse things than Obama.
It took the American people one year to fix the mistake they made in giving unlimited power to Democrats.
There was no easier race to be won by Democrats. It has been so for the last 30 years. By the way, Brown is no super candidate and Coakley is not the disaster many are trying to paint now – it would be easier for Dems if that was the case. The thing is that this upset is not really about Massachusetts. This is about Obama, Reid and Pelosi and their arrogance and radical agenda. Even people who conceptually want a public health care system (Massachusetts has one) understand that what is happening in Washington is not what we need. Even further, this is not exactly a vote of confidence in Republicans. Brown truly is an unknown, a “nobody”. This is all about restoring the balance of power. Now that Republicans have at least the option of getting 41 votes to block bills in the senate things will be debated, not announced by the Democrat mob.
And this is not the first time we see this – 1994 was the most recent case. Democrats will have to wake up. The current health care proposal is full of pork, corruption and sweet deals. It has to be discarded and restarted from zero. Maybe Obama will follow Clinton’s example and start moving to the center to get things done. Or maybe he will go all Carter on us. In that case, Brown is just the tip of the spear and Obama should start looking for a new job soon.
Hmmm, it looks like Real Change is coming soon. Maybe tonight?
Actor Danny Glover Believes Haitian Earthquake Was Retribution For Failure Of Copenhagen
Will the press go after Danny like they went after Pat Robertson?
Make no mistake: both statements are equally stupid. Both are based in radical views of the world. However, Pat Robertson has no control over your money. He might say that he wants to create a huge tax to end with Voodoo or any religion for that matter, and that would go nowhere. Danny on the other hand, is part of a group that can kill our economy in a heartbeat (he would say that he wants us to be more like Cuba – which means kill our economy nonetheless).
I’d love to see more of the Global Warming Church people come out and follow Danny’s lead. Maybe that would make this issue more clear to people.
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