$70 Trillion Dollars

The best explanation for the Credit Crisis that now grips the the world (and yes, this is a world-wide phenomenon--the ripples are just beginning to spread) that I have found is an episode of Chicago Public Radio's This American Life entitled: The Giant Pool of Money. It's available through iTunes for $0.95, and believe me, when you hear what happened, it will take your breath away.

$70 Trillion Dollars.

The Crisis of '08--A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

I really don't have much to say that smarter people haven't already (and in some cases, for years), but I think the following sums up my opinion:

Good Lord, I miss Lileks

James Lileks is the master of the fisk: She should never have said, "Sexual inadequates that they are."


The Money Quote:
You have to love the “Sexual inadequates that they are” line as well; if there’s one thing that’s amused me in the last two weeks, it’s the screechy distaste of Ms. Palin coming from men who embodied the Modern Alda Paradigm of masculinity, which is to say they are nervous around cars, think guns are icky, had their own Snugli, have wives in corporate jobs who make more money than they do, and still get dissed behind their backs because they can’t figure out how to make the bed. The Lost Boys, if you will. Now, some women can’t stand Sarah Palin for their own reasons, personal or ideological; same with men. Some men, however, are made deeply uneasy by her, because she’s the one who ignored the sensitive poet-guys in high school for the jocks.

(...)


John Doyle, the cleverest critic in Canada, comes right out and calls Palin an Alaska hillbilly.


“Cleverist” is a matter of opinion, but I’d suggest that when Mark Steyn gets a haircut, the shorn pieces fall to the floor and form, at random, cleverer observations in the form of Chinese characters.

(hat tip Kathy Shaidle; why aren't you reading her blog?)

For the record--I would rather be stricken with the worst case of gout in all of recorded human history than put my child in a Snugli; if I should ever be blessed with fatherhood, I will transport my children thusly:



Lone Wolf and Cub:Baby Cart From Hell


What man doesn't want a baby cart with spring loaded naginata, twin tantoin the handlebars, bullet-proof iron plating, and concealed musket calliope with a drawstring trigger!

Now, who does this remind me of?

Somebody famous, I'm sure...hmmm....



(with a hat tip to Kathy Shaidle)

My thoughts on the Palin nomination

First off, let me get it out of the way: Sarah Palin is the Vice-Presidential Candidate, not the Presidential Candidate. Anyone stupid enough to scream "She's not experienced enough to be President if McCain dies in office" (or any variation of that meme) ignores the fact that the same argument applies to Obama in deuces and crowns--and Obama is shooting for the driver's seat from the get-go.

Second, attacking the woman through her children is the behavior of villains, not heroes; it is a rather hard sell to suggest that the Democrats are the "good guys" representing the best interests of the American people when they and their supporters (the most tangible example of whom the do represent) are attacking motherhood:

This abortion prohibitionist hag won’t cut it among women with brains.And BTW she is a good example of reproduction run amok. 5 kids; 1 retard. I wonder if the bitch ever heard of getting spayed.

To be fair, Obama has tried to reign in the Kos Kids and their also-rans, but the faithful don't seem to be listening. Even Michael Moore (yes, that Michael Moore, folks--broken clocks, and whatnot) has pointed out how self-destructive this is getting:

But before everyone gets all smug and self-righteous about the Palin selection, remember where you live. You live in a nation of gun owners and hunters. You live in a country where one out of three girls get pregnant before they are 20. You live in a nation of C students. Knocking Bush for being a C student only endeared him to the nation of C students. Knock Palin for having kids, for having a kid who's having a baby, for anything that is part of her normalness[sic] -- a normalness[sic] that looks very familiar to so many millions of Americans -- well, you do this at your own peril.

There's a good reason why this kind of warning is falling on deaf ears, and it is graphically summed up in this image:




And that's an attitude from 1976, folks. There is a fundamental disconnect between the metropolitan base that supports the Democrats and the bulk of the country's population located in the Heartland, and it is a disconnect that is widening at an alarming pace. In the short term, I fully expect to see as many as 5% of the electorate to vote Republican this year out of sheer spite for how Palin--and by extension, the values she represents--have been treated. In the long term? Sorry, but my tea leaves just aren't that good.

Third, we can now dispense with the illusion that Democrats represent the best interests of women.




When the spokesperson for the National Organization for Women comes out and states: "She's more a conservative man than she is a woman on women's[sic] issues. Very disappointing.", it's time to turn up the house lights, turn the chairs up on the tables, and begin swabbing the floor, because the show's over and it's time to go home. Simply because Palin is pro-life, she doesn't represent a woman's position on womens' issues? Archie Bunker wasn't that narrow-minded.

No, when it comes down to it, the selection of Biden as Obama's running mate came down to a question of what special interest group was going to have their say; and in the end, women lost out. The Democrats may talk the talk, but it is the Republicans who walked the walk, and that will have consequences down the road for everyone.

Don't get me wrong, folks: this is still a choice between the lesser of two evils (McCain is not about to flop over, no matter how much scaremongering the Kos Kids and HPosties do), and it is still Obama's race to lose. But even if they push Biden down a flight of stairs, adding Hillary to the ticket now (not that she's about to such a thing--she has a legacy to protect) will only highlight the pandering all the more. And it's that pandering that has turned off so many--the same "many" that Obama needs to win. The Race is in a dead heat, with a full two months to go, so we had best brace ourselves for much more of the same that we have seen in the past week.

The ancient Chinese curse reads: "May you live in interesting times".

Don't we, though?