Oh, to be not driving. The last two two weekends worth of driving could have seem me somewhere deep in Central America had I aimed in a different direction. Don't get me wrong - I like a long drive. But I like not doing it was well. What did I learn? PEI is a long way away but most places aren't. New England is very nice when the leave are turning. Don't let the teenager at checkout pack your sushi tray lunch.
- Mr Can't Take A Hint Update: "The Liberal Leader, facing his national caucus for the first time since the election in which he lost 19 seats, apologized to his defeated MPs but then made another pitch for his carbon tax scheme that contributed to their loss." Helllllooooo! You lost the election on that point!!! Stoppy talky time now.
- Pity Alan Greenspan. A Randian who has come to see the fundamental error of his belief system. See, he believed in Objectivist rationality so that he didn't see any need for financial regulation. Note he said he was in a "state of shocked disbelief" - did you know the markets were being run as a matter of belief? He did. Now there are outstanding derivative market speculative debts which value almost as much as the entire global economy - over 50 trillion dollars. Talk about your irrational exhuberence. Thank you Ayn Rand and all the dopes who took her seriously.
- Puntland? I never knew.
- What could be worse that suffering from an economic bubble burst? Maybe suffering from an economic bubble burst in which Margaret Atwood is a pundit on the topic? I love anytime the conclusion is everything was wrong and everything will not change. Incisive.
- Remember when I railed against UK hoodie law? The surveillance society? Well, even the people being asked to impose it are revoting now. h/t to RJ.
That is it. Computer seizing and time a clicking. Maybe more later.
Comments
Chris Taylor - October 24, 2008 11:09 AM
If being a mediocre author is sufficient background to be an economic pundit, when do we get to see the NYT promoting famous economists and accountants as literary critics?
Hans - October 24, 2008 11:54 AM
Atwood must surely be the most pointless and tedious Canadian authors of her time, especially when she veers into non-fiction, as she is apparently doing with her exploration of the concept of and issues around debt. had I known she was looking into this area of human activity, I could have saved her (and us) the trouble of her recent ramblings in the NYT and, presumably the book she is therein promoting. Memo to Atwood: Google "The Golden Rule + Confucius" cf. Jesus of Nazareth.
Chris Taylor - October 24, 2008 12:44 PM
To be fair, I enjoyed Alias Grace; Atwood's lifelike depiction of 19th century Ontario (particularly Kingston) was excellent. But then it went careening off the rails when the titular character suddenly became the only woman in the 19th century to have read Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique...
David Janes - October 24, 2008 1:13 PM
Hans! She's a Canadian Institution, not unlike The Waterford in St. John's.
Hans - October 24, 2008 1:23 PM
Thank god the real David Janes is back!
Not the real "David Janes" - October 25, 2008 4:14 AM
Or is he?
;-)
Temujin - October 25, 2008 10:00 PM
I wouldn't call myself an expert on Rand, but I suspect she's rolling in her grave at what Greenspan et al hath wrought. He was an objectivist and he was a friend of Rand, but he was also in charge of the Federal Reserve. If anything is more anathema to objectivists than the Fed, I'd like to know.
Pinning this one on her is more than a little disingenuous.
Alan - October 25, 2008 10:06 PM
Hardly - the guys imports the wacky ideas into his day job and we all get bitten in the ass. The infection that objectivist thinking has imposed on the market place, the abdication of responsibility that it teaches, is exactly what Greenspan and the other players who withdrew sensible regulation over the years played out.
Douglas - October 26, 2008 10:04 AM
Puntland is definitely getting a CFL in Africa franchise.