Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Senate version worse than the House version?
Based on economic and legal analysis, the authors conclude that the Buy American provisions would violate US trade obligations and damage the United States’ reputation, with very little impact on US jobs. They estimate that the additional US steel production fostered by the Buy American provisions will amount to around 0.5 million metric tons. This in turn translates into a gain in steel industry employment equal to roughly 1,000 jobs. The job impact is small because steel is very capital intensive. In the giant US economy, with a labor force of roughly 140 million people, 1,000 jobs more or less is a rounding error. On balance the Buy American provisions could well cost jobs if other countries emulate US policies or retaliate against them. Most importantly, the Buy American provisions contradict the G-20 commitment not to implement new protectionist measures–a commitment that was designed to forestall a rush of “beggar-thy-neighbor” policies.
Now, I thought this was a new era in which America would be earning all kinds of respect from her “allies” and her “neighbors” by not going around being “arrogant” and thinking she was all that & a bag o’chips. That whole humble-humble-humble argument, again.
We had a debate last year about whether people respect those who stand for nothing, and just work like the dickens at being luuuuved by others. It ended with a dead-even split; history says the suck-ups aren’t liked very well at all, but the American electorate decided America should go ahead and be a suck-up, and surely it’ll work out for the best.
So where’s the sucking-up? Going all isolationist doesn’t seem to have an awful lot to do with those fawning displays of obsequiousness that the “majority” voted in.
Don’t look at me. I’m a big believer in the Syndrome “That’s How It Works” Paradigm.
See? Now you respect me, because I’m a threat. That’s the way it works.
All men, who are honest, believe in the Syndrome Paradigm. That’s because all men were once boys. And in the world of boys, when the girls and grown-ups are gone…Syndrome’s got it nailed, brother. You’re a threat, you get respect — you aren’t, you don’t.
And I see this thing called the “international community” as just one big locker room. I didn’t start seeing that way because I’d been in a locker room — I started seeing things this way after I’d been reading the news for awhile.
But I’m willing to be proven wrong. So prove me wrong. This doesn’t seem like the right way to go about it. In addition to which…if you must so thoroughly screw up domestic things like the economy, and it’s really that unavoidable, I’d like to respectfully request a little more — focus? Don’t go messing up the foreign-relations stuff as well. Obama’s got four years to be our modern Jimmy Carter, and that involves a lot of screwing-up, at home, and abroad.
Those are big shoes to fill, but forty-eight months is a long time. Pace yourself. Baby steps.
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Somehow the “brilliant” Pres. Obama misses the point of ‘unintended consequences’. It’s as if he’s never held a position of great importance, besides community organizer that is.
Close GITMO, our enemies are emboldened; NO preconditions with talking with Iran, Iran gets cocky, sets their own preconditions, wants us to leave the ME and apologize for our transgressions; increase spending at an unprecedented level and threaten to tax businesses, layoffs sky rocket…
Chickens…coming home…to roost…
- tim | 02/04/2009 @ 13:10