Bobby Fischer has died.
Brought To You By The Department of Redundancy Department
Interesting article in the BBC about the subprime mess that is worth reading, but one phrase in particular stood out in the piece:
Some, such as Ron Todd, who lives in a suburb just south of the city, are in danger of losing their home after being made redundant by Northwest Airlines, a big local employer.
Is being made redundant a new euphemism, like being “downsized,” or is this just a British thing that I never picked up on?
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Yglesias on Russert
This is the definitive description of Tim Russert:
Actually, the balls Russert favors may be hard, but the pitches he throws aren’t curveballs, which go someplace useful. They’re sillyballs, which go somewhere pointless. Russert has created a strike zone of his own where toughness meets irrelevance. John McCain entered the zone last May, when he went on the show and repeatedly asserted that the Bush tax cuts had increased the federal government’s revenue. Hearing this, a tough but conscientious journalist might have pointed out that this is demonstrably false. Russert, however, reached for a trusty hardball and sent it sailing. McCain, he pointed out, was now supporting extending the very same Bush tax cuts that he had once opposed.
Well, yes, but this was a bit like asking someone who says the world is flat why he used to say the earth was round. The contradiction Russert pointed out was real—but hardly central. In fact, if tax cuts actually had increased revenues, then McCain’s change of heart would have been perfectly logical. The real problem was that McCain’s theory of the relationship between tax rates and revenue wasn’t true. In Russertland, though, as long as you acknowledge the contradiction, the questioner is satisfied. “You say the world is flat, but just three years ago you said it was round.” “You know, Tim, yes, I used to say the world was round, but times change, and that’s why I support the Bush administration’s bill to construct a restraining wall to prevent ships from sailing over the edge of the sea.” And so on.
In a nutshell.
Reading Assignment – Globalizing Labor: Lant Pritchett
You would think, by listening to just about any major political candidate, that “securing the borders” is the solution to, oh, just about everything? We all know that letting brown people into the country is downright dangerous and destroys our economy, right? The developed world compensates by giving the developing world $70 billion a year in economic aid and that helps ease our conscience. We’re giving them a hand up, not a hand out, right? Wrong. We’re making it worse. Read the February issue of Reason. And if you can’t get it (it’s not online yet), you can check out this NY Times article:
[Lant Pritchett] wants a giant guest-worker program that would put millions of the world’s poorest people to work in its richest economies. Never mind the goats; if you really want to help Gure Sarki, he says, let him cut your lawn. Pritchett’s nearly religious passion is reflected in the title of his migration manifesto: “Let Their People Come.” It was published last year to little acclaim — none at all, in fact — but that is Pritchett’s point. In a world in which rock stars fight for debt relief and students shun sweatshop apparel, he is vexed to find no placards raised for the cause of labor migration. If goods and money can travel, why can’t workers follow? What’s so special about borders?
Want to know more? Read this. It’s Lant Pritchett’s book, and you can download it for free or buy it. It’s 143 pages long and, since most of you are pretty literate, you’ll find it a very compelling read. I’m about halfway through and I’m going to read the rest later this month when I’m stranded in a hotel on a business trip. I am learning that border control is not necessarily the good thing just about everyone makes it out to be. Not even close. Again, you can read an interview with Lant Pritchett in the February issue of Reason Magazine.
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Hot As Hell
An unexpected heat wave in West Virginia, and I am actually wearing shorts.
It is a good thing, too, because my office is so damned hot I am sweating. To give you an idea how hot it is, the older secretaries, who generally wear sweaters in August, are bitching about the heat and opening their windows.
Factor in that I like to keep my house about 62 degrees, and you have an idea how miserable I am right now.
Remembering Andrew Olmsted
Like most online I only knew Andrew through his ideas, which consistently showed him to be one of the more mature, humane and independent voices in our digital town square. Andrew’s last blog post at Obsidian Wings asked readers to support a shelter for sexually battered women on a Native American reservation. His last column at Rocky Mountain News described a charity that Olmsted selflessly helped organize to provide toys and food for destitute Iraqi families.
Politically, more than anything, Andrew rejected the lazy thinking that goes with partisanship, yours and mine included. Granted that each of us thinks we have a uniquely informed perspective; we’ll get to that later. More to the point, though I don’t know whether Andrew ever expressed a political preference, and I won’t imply that he did, Andrew’s writing suggests that he would enjoy knowing that on his last day Iowans decisively chose candidates from both parties who embody, imperfectly if better than their rivals, magnanimity and an openness of spirit.
Here is another post on bitterness. I like to think that it would please him to know that in the first major contest of the season voters chose the farthest thing from it.
Begging For a Caption
Photographers always seem to catch Howard Dean in a moment, don’t they? Personally, I think Howard Dean is a great guy and really was a great governor, but he needs to stay away from the media. He just doesn’t do it well.
This is his lame impression of Gene Simmons. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)