I don’t usually read Paul Krugman’s columns in the NY Times, but sometimes I do. But, this is kind of priceless. My reaction to the news that Krugman won the Nobel Prize in Economics was “Krugman?!” – since the Nobel Prize sometimes goes to obscure and brilliant people, but not always to people whom one has heard of. Time.com’s Justin Fox (the Curious Capitalist blogger) notes that too – lay people know Krugman more for his columns than his day job as an econ prof – even maybe those Scandanavians who determine Nobel prize winners. But, still – Krugman is impressive, so kudos!
Meanwhile, that stock market’s really something, right?
So, can baseball make a nice, pleasant distraction? Well, I don’t think so. Major League Baseball’s in the middle of playoffs, but I don’t know who to root for. I’m not a Boston Red Sox fan, but know next to nothing about Tampa Bay; I’m so not rooting for Phillies because no Met fan should do that; and yet supposedly, I’m not supposed to root for the Dodgers either, because – well – they left Brooklyn. And, it didn’t help that they didn’t beat Phillies last night. So, there’s a small quandary there.
Has tv been much help? … I don’t get “Heroes,” and am all but ready to toss in the towel; I don’t hate the show, but I really need to see why I care for it. “How I Met Your Mother” — well, Marshall found a new job – working as a lawyer for some mega bank. Umm, but surely the economy will make a dent to that? (then again, he is an Ivy League-educated first year lawyer; he has to be employed eventually). But, has Ted really found the future mother of his children?…
Who knew?: Emily Dickinson had quite a murky love life back in the day, any information of which gets suppressed because people don’t believe that she could have had such a thing. I could believe it; her poetry has some elements that makes one wonder of the extent of her love for the mysterious someone.
The second Presidential debate felt not as exciting to me; perhaps it was the audience’s anxiety over the economy or McCain’s saying “my friends” way too much, and even Obama getting a little boring with his specific non-specific items. The Time.com live blog of Poniewozik, Tumulty, and Grunwald was terribly entertaining; drink every time McCain says “my friends,” indeed! I even almost squealed with glee that NY Times’ Frank Bruni, a former political reporter but now a restaurant critic, was back on duty with his analysis of the debate.
NY Times’ Tom Friedman on criticizing Sarah Palin’s unhelpful view of patriotism:
And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”
What an awful statement. Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic.
I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.
Sorry, I grew up in a very middle-class family in a very middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, and my parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly. No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
I can understand someone saying that the government has no business bailing out the financial system, but I can’t understand someone arguing that we should do that but not pay for it with taxes. I can understand someone saying we have no business in Iraq, but I can’t understand someone who advocates staying in Iraq until “victory” declaring that paying taxes to fund that is not patriotic. [….] Patriotic is offering a plan to build our economy — not by tax cuts or punching more holes in the ground, but by empowering more Americans to work in productive and innovative jobs. If Palin has that kind of a plan, I haven’t heard it.
As we get closer to Election Day, imagine a Parallel Earth where Al Gore did become President… umm, well, thanks to this Slate article about what if Republicans were to swear to move to another country (like those crazy liberals who swore they’d move to Canada – but, umm, didn’t), I found a Saturday Night Live opening segment where they did imagine such a goofy Parallel Earth! See below; enjoy!
