As a kid, we used to make fun of Canadian money, because it was worth less than American money. Canada was our dull country cousin, always going on "aboot" Mounties and snow.
Now comes this:
For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian is richer than the average American.
How much more evidence will it take before people wake and realize: Reagonmics failed. It was a stupid idea in the first place, but whatever: it's now been tried for 30 years and the results are in. America lags the rest of the civilized world for the first time since we conquered it.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Gaffe: when a politician accidentally speaks the truth
Uninsured not the issue:
After host Chris Wallace asked McConnell what the Republican plan is to address the estimated 30 million uninsured Americans who would lose the chance to get health insurance if the Affordable Care Act was repealed, McConnell said he wasn't concerned.
"That is not the issue," he said bluntly in a video clip that seems destined for Democratic fundraising messages and left-leaning blogs. "We're not going to turn the American health care system into a Western European system. … We need to clean up the health care the federal government is already responsible for before we start immodestly trying to take over the rest of the health care system."
Monday, July 2, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Why you can't argue economics with a Republican
I actually noticed this back in the 80's, when convenience store clerks would argue that we couldn't afford to raise the minimum wage. The arguments always went in a circle; first they would claim we couldn't afford welfare, and when I showed how we could, they would switch to how it was immoral to give money to slackers. And when I destroyed that argument, they would switch back to how we couldn't afford it. Repeat, ad nausem.
What I missed at the time is that one of those arguments was simply a red herring. The truth is that Republican economics have never been about prosperity, or wealth, or economics; they have always and only been about morality.
Buried in this article is a quip from another report:
Of course, no lesson was learned from this experiment, which in itself was accidental. The mere empirical facts were not allowed to interfere with ideological policy.
Reaganomics is not an economic theory, which explains why its adherents are so utterly unconcerned with the economic results of their doctrine. It is a moral position, and because it is embedded in an absolute, supernatural moral system, it (like any other deontological moral theory) is utterly unconcerned with empirical results. Ayn Rand is embraced not for her mathematical evidence (she doesn't have any) but for her narrative framing of a moral theory.
It is what used to be called Social Darwinism: the idea that society, like any other biosystem, rewards the strong and consumes the weak. This also explains their relationship to God, which is not one of a loving parent to a wayward child, but rather one of a powerful agent allying with a chosen people. The God of the Old Testament makes this perfectly clear; He will elevate the Jews above all other peoples as long as they worship him alone. He gets hosannahs and sacrifices; they get the lands of Cannan and all its little girls.
The Republicans have refined their position to the point that this should be obvious now. For example, during the entire Health Care debate, when Republicans were complaining that socialized medicine would bankrupt us, not once did they ever mention the fact that America pays twice as much for medicine as anyone else in the world. How could such an elemental fact of finance escape a financial discussion? Because, as the reaction to the SCOTUS ruling shows, the primary concern was never financial; that was just a smokescreen.
Look at the ongoing reactions - not fear of crushing debt, but fear of socialistic takeover. Some are calling it the death of America. Seriously? Over a freaking 2.5% tax? That's all it took to kill us? But of course it's not about the money.
It is about the moral idea that we owe anything at all to those weaker than ourselves. The ACA enshrines this idea into law, into the social fabric of the nation; and that leaves no room for the Libertarian notion of "I've got mine; screw you!" You might argue that we had already enshrined this notion with welfare, Social Security, and Medicare; but in case you hadn't noticed, the Republicans want to overturn those as well.
Some old-school Republicans still hold to the notion that charity to others is a private duty, not a public one; that the bonds that tie us together as a people must be voluntary instead of compelled by law. Of course they don't extend this the idea of military conscription; I've never met a Republican who thought it was wrong to draft people if that was the only way to save the nation. Still, it was a noble (if impractical) idea. But I don't need to argue against it anymore; Mitt Romney and his cronies have made it clear that their idea of charity is giving to those they like, not those who are in need. Christian charity always carried judgment with it; only the deserving poor were entitled to charity, and guess who decided who was deserving? Romney has only taken that to the next logical step: he still believes in charity for the deserving poor, he just thinks that if you're poor, that's proof you don't deserve anything.
What I missed at the time is that one of those arguments was simply a red herring. The truth is that Republican economics have never been about prosperity, or wealth, or economics; they have always and only been about morality.
Buried in this article is a quip from another report:
[T]he only social program ever to show documented success in impacting the marriage rates of poor people came in 1994, when the state of Minnesota accidentally reduced the divorce rate among poor black women by allowing them to keep some of their welfare benefits when they went to work rather than cutting them off. During the three-year experiment and for a few years afterward, the divorce rate for black women in the state fell 70 percent. The positive effects on kids also continued for several years.
Of course, no lesson was learned from this experiment, which in itself was accidental. The mere empirical facts were not allowed to interfere with ideological policy.
Reaganomics is not an economic theory, which explains why its adherents are so utterly unconcerned with the economic results of their doctrine. It is a moral position, and because it is embedded in an absolute, supernatural moral system, it (like any other deontological moral theory) is utterly unconcerned with empirical results. Ayn Rand is embraced not for her mathematical evidence (she doesn't have any) but for her narrative framing of a moral theory.
It is what used to be called Social Darwinism: the idea that society, like any other biosystem, rewards the strong and consumes the weak. This also explains their relationship to God, which is not one of a loving parent to a wayward child, but rather one of a powerful agent allying with a chosen people. The God of the Old Testament makes this perfectly clear; He will elevate the Jews above all other peoples as long as they worship him alone. He gets hosannahs and sacrifices; they get the lands of Cannan and all its little girls.
The Republicans have refined their position to the point that this should be obvious now. For example, during the entire Health Care debate, when Republicans were complaining that socialized medicine would bankrupt us, not once did they ever mention the fact that America pays twice as much for medicine as anyone else in the world. How could such an elemental fact of finance escape a financial discussion? Because, as the reaction to the SCOTUS ruling shows, the primary concern was never financial; that was just a smokescreen.
Look at the ongoing reactions - not fear of crushing debt, but fear of socialistic takeover. Some are calling it the death of America. Seriously? Over a freaking 2.5% tax? That's all it took to kill us? But of course it's not about the money.
It is about the moral idea that we owe anything at all to those weaker than ourselves. The ACA enshrines this idea into law, into the social fabric of the nation; and that leaves no room for the Libertarian notion of "I've got mine; screw you!" You might argue that we had already enshrined this notion with welfare, Social Security, and Medicare; but in case you hadn't noticed, the Republicans want to overturn those as well.
Some old-school Republicans still hold to the notion that charity to others is a private duty, not a public one; that the bonds that tie us together as a people must be voluntary instead of compelled by law. Of course they don't extend this the idea of military conscription; I've never met a Republican who thought it was wrong to draft people if that was the only way to save the nation. Still, it was a noble (if impractical) idea. But I don't need to argue against it anymore; Mitt Romney and his cronies have made it clear that their idea of charity is giving to those they like, not those who are in need. Christian charity always carried judgment with it; only the deserving poor were entitled to charity, and guess who decided who was deserving? Romney has only taken that to the next logical step: he still believes in charity for the deserving poor, he just thinks that if you're poor, that's proof you don't deserve anything.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
17 people who need to buy a clue
Here's a list of people so outraged by the Obamacare decision that they're going to flee American soil for some safer, saner non-socialist land... Canada.
People moving to canada because of obamacare
Seriously, Americans do not seem to understand that they are the only 1st world nation without public healthcare. And even a fistful of the developing world has it (Costa Rica, for example).
You know what other country has citizens so ignorant of the outside world that they think their crappy, miserable existence is as good as it gets? Thanks to Fox News, the media organization that actively makes people dumber, America finally has something in common with North Korea.
I bet Kim Jong-un is eager to learn our secrets. He spends a fortune on secret police to keep his people dumb; in America, Fox keeps people stupid and makes a profit at it.
People moving to canada because of obamacare
Seriously, Americans do not seem to understand that they are the only 1st world nation without public healthcare. And even a fistful of the developing world has it (Costa Rica, for example).
You know what other country has citizens so ignorant of the outside world that they think their crappy, miserable existence is as good as it gets? Thanks to Fox News, the media organization that actively makes people dumber, America finally has something in common with North Korea.
I bet Kim Jong-un is eager to learn our secrets. He spends a fortune on secret police to keep his people dumb; in America, Fox keeps people stupid and makes a profit at it.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Civilization not dead yet
By now you know that the Supreme Court did not give in totally to partisan politics, and managed to reach the legal result that almost every Constitutional scholar thought was correct.
What I want to point out is this:
Score another one for sheer competence. In this age of charisma and PR, people seem to forget that ability still matters, at least when the cameras are off.
I can't wait for the presidential debates. There are many, many Republicans who have actually convinced themselves that Obama is dumb, slow, and unable to speak without a teleprompter. They really believe he coasted through Harvard on Affirmative Action and got to be president of the Law Review because of PC politics. They think the debates are going to be slam-dunk for their side.
These people live in such a bubble of delusional I think there is a chance that even Romney believes this.
What I want to point out is this:
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli—improperly maligned by people who should have known better—carefully organized both the government’s briefs and his oral argument to make the tax-power option clearly available to Kennedy and Roberts.
Score another one for sheer competence. In this age of charisma and PR, people seem to forget that ability still matters, at least when the cameras are off.
I can't wait for the presidential debates. There are many, many Republicans who have actually convinced themselves that Obama is dumb, slow, and unable to speak without a teleprompter. They really believe he coasted through Harvard on Affirmative Action and got to be president of the Law Review because of PC politics. They think the debates are going to be slam-dunk for their side.
These people live in such a bubble of delusional I think there is a chance that even Romney believes this.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
My greatest writing barrier
The single biggest obstacle in my writing is: Microsoft Word.
Every single time - and I mean that quite literally, every time without fail - I sit down to use this program, at some point it leaves me murderously frustrated.
How is it possible to create a program so unbearably difficult to use? Especially when I am using it for such a simple task.
I get that when I am doing page layout for publishing, things can be twitchy. But simple things, like formatting and styles and tracking changes, should be bullet-proof. At no point should I be able to click a button and wonder "WTF just happened, and how do I make it unhappen?" Especially when it is the same button I've clicked ten times before.
It's just bad design. The entire program reeks of add-ons, tack-ons, and hacks. I would switch to Open Office, but I doubt it is any better. Just one of the ways Microsoft has poisoned the entire industry: their crap is now considered the gold standard.
Every single time - and I mean that quite literally, every time without fail - I sit down to use this program, at some point it leaves me murderously frustrated.
How is it possible to create a program so unbearably difficult to use? Especially when I am using it for such a simple task.
I get that when I am doing page layout for publishing, things can be twitchy. But simple things, like formatting and styles and tracking changes, should be bullet-proof. At no point should I be able to click a button and wonder "WTF just happened, and how do I make it unhappen?" Especially when it is the same button I've clicked ten times before.
It's just bad design. The entire program reeks of add-ons, tack-ons, and hacks. I would switch to Open Office, but I doubt it is any better. Just one of the ways Microsoft has poisoned the entire industry: their crap is now considered the gold standard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)