Archive for February, 2009
I really enjoyed reading the extended back and forth regarding the school lunch program set off by this Alice Waters Op-ed on improving the school lunch program. The aspect of the debate I wanted to focus on largely circles around if Alice Water’s proposals are too extravagant to be justified.
I wanted to [...]
Filed under: Food Policy | 2 Comments
Tags: Alice Waters, Organic Food, School Lunch Program
I’m sure this point has been made in several places, but I’ve got say this quote from John Boehner is epic:
“We have a tougher job than our friends across the aisle. They’ve been offering Americans a free lunch for the last 80 years, rather successfully,” Boehner said, at a lunch hosted by the Christian Science [...]
Filed under: Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: John Boehner, Fiscal Responsibility, Federal Budget, Bush Tax Cuts
Ezra Klein writes regarding the prospects of health care actually helping you personally:
The salient fact about health insurance in the United States is not that 15 percent don’t have it. It’s that 85 percent do. That’s not generally been true for reformers who think much more about the uninsured than the insured. But it’s doubly [...]
Filed under: Economy, Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Health Care, Unemployment
More on Keepin’ It COOL
I’ve been told I wasn’t real clear in the last post about Country of Origin Labeling (COOL). So let’s try again:
1. In this instance conservatives/free traders are correct that foreign meats, fruits, vegetables, etc are just as safe as American products. This is true since we’re mostly talking about Mexican and Canadian products and the [...]
Filed under: Food Policy | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cool, Country of Origin Labeling, Tom Vilsack, USDA
When Liberty Equals Servants
Here’s a Brad Delong passage about historical relative prices featured by Matthew Yglesias
“In Agatha Christie’s autobiography, she mentioned how she never thought she would ever be wealthy enough to own a car – nor so poor that she wouldn’t have servants.”
Earlier this month I was critical of Brad Delong and Andrew Sullivan suggesting that [...]
Filed under: Culture, Economy | 2 Comments
Tags: Brad Delong, CATO, CATO Institute
Consider Albert Belle
Watching the slow trickle of stories come out about Barry Bonds and A-Rod taking steroids I wanted to write about Albert Belle.
Between 1994-96 Albert Belle was probably the best hitter in baseball finishing in the top 3 for the AL MVP each of those years. He was the first player to hit 50 home [...]
Filed under: Sports | 1 Comment
Tags: Albert Belle, Baseball, Hall of Fame, MLB
Bowden On The Way Out?
Back last week when I wrote that the Nationals should fire Jim Bowden, I didn’t know he was implicated in potential criminal activity. Apparently Bowden is pretty close to being fired:
The Nationals, meantime, are waiting to find out, and want to learn more about Bowden’s possible involvement in a growing baseball-wide scandal before they determine [...]
Filed under: Sports | Leave a Comment
Tags: Jim Bowden, Washington Nationals
Robots Kill Humans
Filed under: Culture | Leave a Comment
Tags: Flight of the Conchords, Humans are Dead, Robots
Keep it COOL
I don’t really understand what Tom Vilsack is trying to do with Country of Origin Labeling (COOL). He issued a final ruling on Friday, but includes a request for further “voluntary action” by producers, which would seem to create an unstable situation. Nonetheless we should soon have more information about where meat comes from. Not [...]
Filed under: Food Policy | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cool, Tom Vilsack
I’m not usually one to attribute much more then differing tastes to the Academy Awards not choosing the five movies I would have.
But I have to say that not nominating WALL-E for best really did the Oscars a disservice and undermined their ability to be relevant.
I understand not every good movie has a [...]
Filed under: Culture | Leave a Comment
Tags: Academy Awards, WALL-E
Bobby Jindal on The T.V.
Bobby Jindal’s interview on Meet the Press contained an interesting rationale for opposing the stimulus bill.
It had become clear on the last few days that he was only going to refuse money for unemployment benefit extensions and maybe other yet to be defined programs, rather then all the stimulus money. In explaining this position [...]
Filed under: Economy | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bobby Jindal, Federal Stimulus, Meet the Press, Stimulus Bill
Housing Crisis Responsibility
Another thing about the Rick Santelli rant is that it’s just inaccurate to say that burrowers are primary culprits of irresponsibility in the housing crisis.
You’ve got three primary private sector actors: Borrowers, lenders, and asset evaluators for the national banks. Borrowers facing default might well have made irresponsible decisions or lied to lenders. By [...]
Filed under: Politics | 1 Comment
Tags: CNBC, Housing, Housing Crisis, Rick Santelli
Charlie Crist on the T.V.
Seems to be saying that he doesn’t care if some crazy person on the radio says the stimulus bill is bad.
Bold leadership, which will presumably torpedo any possibility of ever leading the Republican party on the national level.
Filed under: Economy, Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Charlie Crist, Meet the Press, Rush Limbaugh
Let’s Talk About Our Economy
You might have seen this clip of Rick Santelli rallying traders to revolt.
I wanted to point our two things you can see in the clip. Firstly I really don’t get how he thinks that traders are go examples of people that could, “carry the water” or create wealth. How [...]
Filed under: Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: CNBC, Rick Santelli
Fire Jim Bowden
In further hard hitting analysis I think there is an increasing strong case that Nationals GM Jim Bowden should be fired. Here’s Thomas Boswell on Bowden’s missteps
Get a coveted No. 1 draft pick; don’t sign him. Promise a better team to inaugurate a new park; lose 102 games. Expect sellouts in Southeast Washington; [...]
Filed under: Sports | 2 Comments
Tags: Jim Bowden, MLB, Washington Nationals
Sources For That…
I found that this back and forth between Dave Sirota and Nate Silver to lower my opinion of both them, roughly equally. Both make the disagreement personal and both come off as rambling at times.
However, this particular passage by Silver bugged me.
And this is what ultimately bothers me about Sirota. Compare the experience of [...]
Filed under: Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: David Sirota, Nate Silver, Progressive Politics
Incidentally Tim Geithner is well on his way to being the least popular man in America not named Dick Cheney or George W. Bush. Both Conservatives and Liberals are lining up to throw him and his 1.5 trillion dollar bank plan under a bus already.
He’ll ultimately be judged by his policy proposals in the [...]
Filed under: No Category | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bank Rescue, Tim Geithner
One idea I’ve never liked is that the right and left are just mirror images of each other in terms of issue like intellectual honesty, evidenced based decision making, and willingness to criticize political allies.
Surely neither side is perfect and you can find particular examples of dishonesty, shoddy reasoning, or applying double standards among [...]
Filed under: Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Larry Summer. Tim Geithner, Political Ideology, Rush Limbaugh
Political Appointees and Taxes
A quick follow up to the Daschle post. One thing missing from the debate about Daschle and Geithner paying their taxes is the failure to acknowledge that nobody really “knows” how much taxes they owe if they have even moderately complicated taxes.
Taxes are complicated, and subsequently excuses matter. If your excuse is you took your [...]
Filed under: Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Daschle, Political Appointees, Taxes
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