Truly, we live in an age of wonders. Some of the shared valencies here make sense, like William Shatner and Bacon (both hydrogenic). But it takes a deep thinker to elucidate the chemical kinship between Boobs and Lightning, or Cheetah and Mullet.
Turns out that more women, the world over, want to marry doctors than any other professional.
JEK, M.D.
Outlier
The noble and high purpose of this blog is certainly not to promote film and television programs of other people's making. But it is, on some level, to be an arbiter of genius. And given the quality of Season 1, it seems reasonable to promote Season 2 aggressively:
At this quite delightful blog (also linked on the right).
h/t Alex Cochran.
JEK
Is often told what's what by cute animals.
Scout Tufankjian, an old friend mine (and of all of us here at Nation Indivisible), recently ended a run as the Person With The Best Job Ever. Which job, of course, was being the lead freelance photographer of the Obama campaign, from the fist days in New Hampshire to Election Day. Needless to say, this is completely, mind-bendingly amazing. And while I can't really imagine what it must have been like to live the campaign that was completely mesmerizing just to watch from a distance, Scout has been kind enough to provide a few ways to try.
The most important one is her new annotated book of photographs.
Which she also described recently on CNN:
JEK
Bought 10
One of the founding precepts of Nation Indivisible -- if you can the loose association of cat herding principles that constitute our founding document "precepts" -- it's that all writing is biased and should be trumpeted as such.
So let me say that when it comes to articles written about bitter, unhelpful surgery residents, I'm really biased. Because I know that situation really well, and I always perceive a certain amount of bias on the part of the reporter, who presumably hasn't been paid minimum wage to stay up for 30 hours straight, working 80 hours a week trying to keep a bunch of people alive while also trying to keep both nurses and attendings happy. Which task is seldom fun and frequently impossible.
This article in the NYT is a classic example of a growing literature on this subject. Let's look at one section in particular, from among many of a similar theme:
It was the middle of the night, and Laura Silverthorn, a nurse at a hospital in Washington, knew her patient was in danger.
The boy had a shunt in his brain to drain fluid, but he was vomiting and had an extreme headache, two signs that the shunt was blocked and fluid was building up. When she paged the on-call resident, who was asleep in the hospital, he told her not to worry.
After a second page, Ms. Silverthorn said, “he became arrogant and said, ‘You don’t know what to look for — you’re not a doctor.’ ”
He ignored her third page, and after another harrowing hour she called the attending physician at home. The child was rushed into surgery.
“He could have died or had serious brain injury,” Ms. Silverthorn said, “but I was treated like a pest for calling in the middle of the night.”
Her experience is borne out by surveys of hospital staff members, who blame badly behaved doctors for low morale, stress and high turnover. (Ms. Silverthorn said she had been brought to tears so many times that she was trying to start her own business and leave nursing.)
Professionals like Ms. Silverthorn, the nurse in Washington, said the change was overdue.
“We go to school, we have a very important job, but there’s no respect,” she said.
She recalled a particularly humiliating moment on Dec. 25, 2006. Working in the pediatric emergency room, she called a drug by its generic name rather than its brand name.
“I was quickly shouted out of the trauma room and humiliated in front of everyone,” she said. But while “everyone knew the doctor was actually the one who didn’t know what he was doing,” she continued, no one said a word.
I don't want to give too much away, but if you haven't seen this movie, you really should. It's sorta Reservoir Dogs meets Sleepless in Seattle. It punched all my buttons: the life as grit and adrenaline from the guy who did Trainspotting and 28 Days Later button, the magical realism of Amelie button, and the great fantasy of a deterministic universe button, depressed and held.
JEK
Has three buttons
There was certainly a time when I would have considered the work presented by the Improbable Research collective to be the stuff of great whim and fancy. And many of you still may. Having spent the last year and a half in pursuit of the movement of a cation the mere existence of which has me a little skeptical, though, this sort of thing seems like utterly reasonable science to me.
JEK
Not exactly probable himself
Best. Background. Ever.
Unless you are a turkey or a lover thereof.
JEK
Lover of inadvertent metaphors.
It would be really awesome if someone could explain to me why letting Joe Lieberman keep his position as Chair of the Homeland Security committee is a good idea. Why? Here are some reasons that do not seem to make adequate sense:
1. The Dems think that they will get to 60 seats (including independents), and will thus have a filibuster-proof majority...but only with Lieberman on board. This would make sense if the Democrats' voting behavior was more like trained circus cattle and less like my cats when it's time to go to the vet. They just don't vote as a block, and on the most important issues of the day, they're more likely to get the vote of Collins or Snow than they are Lieberman.
2. He's done such a great job at Homeland Security that they can't afford to lose him. This is pretty clearly not the case.
3. They're worried about losing hawkish Jews. Two words ablate that issue: Rahm Emmanuel.
4. This is no time for infighting among Democrats. You know what was really not a good time for infighting among Democrats? The election.
I think this guy should be tossed from the Committee at least, if not the caucus, but am eager for dissenting views.
JEK
Holds grudges
Are good.
Others are bad.
These ones are good. And are linked on the right.
JEK
Always in search of a snarky message
If you were like me over the past few months, you spent a lot of time at FiveThirtyEight.com. That site was made by a guy named Nate Silver, who's a great example of what the University of Chicago can do to a mind.
Nate created 538 on a whim, applying his baseball stats skills to the election. Like us, he was interested in the election and its analysis. Like us, he liked Obama. Like us, he started a blog. Let's raise a glass to him, for having started in the same place and ended in the New York Times (etc.)
JEK
Strongly believes in learning by example
I'm totally sucked into the behind the scenes series on Newsweek. A group of reporters were given "exclusive behind-the-scenes" access to the Obama and McCain campaigns "on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day."
POHS
The Obama/Biden Transition team has the best named website around:
change.gov
It's worth perusing for many reasons. Here are three.
One: it's just a nicely designed site.
Two: it has all sorts of little indicators of the way this administration is going to be run, such as a flow chart of the executive branch that puts it UNDER the constitution and includes the Office of the Vice President.
Three: it's got a link where you can apply for a job with the administration. And my personal feeling is that if you believe in these people, and more importantly you believe in what these people stand for, then you should apply and see what happens. You should give them the chance to refuse you. This is not difficult -- the form is very short.
JEK
Filled out the short form.
I'm still looking for the right language to describe the sense of victory/joy/success/affirmation/realignment/booyah to capture my feelings about the country and its choice of President a few days ago.
So this post will be short on that language.
But I do think it's important to chart the journey of Nation Indivisible over the past few months, and look at how my own thinking has been shaped by this blog, and others, since our first post in January.
This is the 105th post to the blog since that time, for an average of about one post every three days. That's about half of my ideal, and about ten times what I thought would ever happen. POHS and DMW have committed themselves to this idea and have always challenged me to come up with something to top their inventive, entertaining, and always perspicacious posts, and that teamwork is certainly at the root of our continued success at growing Nation Indivisible.
CTL, who as of yet hasn't posted to the blog (or even commented on it publicly), recently assured me that she reads it, and that we should keep going with it, and that's a huge help, too.
Looking back at the first entry, I remember the cold night in Concord when, warmed by the promise of an America driven by hope rather than fear, I started this blog. Or, more accurately, took this blog out of my head, where it had been regularly updating since November 2000, and made it slightly more tangible. I remember thinking about how wonderful it would be to see a country united again; a country that shared a sense of a brighter future; a country that got a little better every day. And, yes, it seemed like Barack Obama would be a good president, too, but this, for me, has always been less about Obama the man, and more about Obama the movement -- about people emerging from the politics of fear and choosing the politics of hope. That's not about one man, or one moment. That's about our national character and it's ability to shake off the last eight years of misdirection. And when we did that on Tuesday, I was the happiest I've ever been.
Now, certainly, that's mostly because so far I haven't done the really happy things: I haven't been engaged, or married, or had a child. So national pride can still register on my scale. But even so, I was surprised by the strength of my emotion, by the depth of my patriotism, and by the real sense of belonging to something greater than myself that I felt on that warm Tuesday night, just watching television with good friends.
To be sure, most of that something greater was a sense of kinship with this nation indivisible. But a good measure was a sense of having shared a more specific journey with some people who, though I've never met them, were my regular companions -- often for hours every day -- throughout this process. They're all linked over on the right: Josh Marshall and Greg Sargent at talkingpointsmemo.com, Nate and Sean at fivethirtyeight.com, Andrew Sullivan...they all helped me to shape my own ideas about this race with commentary that ran in almost real time, almost 24 hours a day. We crow about our 105 posts in a year -- these guys were getting close to that in a week (or, in Andrew Sullivan's case, a day). We're amateurs, they're pros, and the difference is clear.
Still, in the coming months, I hope that Nation Indivisible continues to provide it's unique voice to this new America. I hope that we are able to increasingly move from showing you what we're watching, to telling you what we're thinking, to describing how we're translating those thoughts into concrete action. Because if there is one thing that Tuesday made plain to me, it's that just watching, while sometimes very, very good, isn't good enough.
JEK
2.0
So, much to say it's overwhelming. I wont even attempt to sum it up right now.
Instead, here's a nice article about Michelle from the Times of London.
Who would you like to share a Martini with? The answer of course... Michelle. (Barack could maybe make himself useful by popping out for some crisps.)
So there I am, reading Politico, and suddenly I'm reading about my old building in Chicago, and about how Obama works out in my old gym in its basement (and if he has any sense, chases his runs with their turkey burgers). And about how vice presidential prospects might have been vetted there. Made me feel a little homesick, truth be told. Raise a glass to Regents Park!
JEK
Hearts Hyde Park
Here's my (and CBF's, and DD's) take on the subprime mortgage crisis:
JEK
Keeping his day job
LATE UPDATE: Turns out that we actually won a spot in the Top 10 for the Boulder 24-Hour Shootout!
Click the title for the daily conspiracy theory, and another financial opportunity. I'm guessing the mystery bettor is Billy Jeff, but I suppose there are more interesting slash sinister possibilities.
But will it blend?
JEK
Suspending his campaign for abusing the class guinea pig
Remember 1996, when the republican candidate seemed hapless and cute? You could take signs with his name on them and rearrange the letters so they spelled "Olde." Ha ha! Those were the days. An attempt to relive them follows:
Clam in Panic!
Can-can, I limp!
I nip clan Mac.
Ahh. I feel better. This was An Bomb Idea.
WMD
Still searching for himself.
A cathartic and well-written article. But horribly reminiscent of a lot of other cathartic and clever diatribes from the last decade. All the points have been made again and again, but seem to have no sticking power with vast swaths of the electorate. So somehow, reading an article like this reminds me of 1994, 2000, 2004-- it reminds me of defeat.
DMW
Whose very house has become a Theocracy
We're a lot of mouth here at Nation Indivisible. Time to put some money there, as well, I think, in these final days before November 4.
Every little bit counts. Everybody has $5. So that should be straightforward.
Thanks.
JEK
Hates asking for money. Hates not feeling like he's done everything he could even more than that.
"It's a bad face for us to put up to the public, and it continues to impugn public mindedness and statesmanship of the political process," said state Sen. Fred Dyson, a Republican who has asked an Anchorage court to shut down the inquiry. "It's become a full-contact sport with no rules of engagement. It's very disgusting. People have a right to be disgusted, as they try to refrain their gag reflex. "
DMW sent this to me, but strangely did not post it here. So I've taken that prerogative.
It's a live-action view of the LHC.
Possibly.
JEK
Believes the universe is fundamentally sound
I'm not a lover of the average pundit interview, but this one shows uncharacteristic teeth, for a something not done by the BBC:
JEK
Admires people who don't take another answer for the answer to their actual question
This is a nice piece by Howard Wolfson, chief attack dog for Hillary Clinton, expressing his newfound support and admiration for Obama. It's striking in its endorsement, and sort of unbelievably trite in its explanation of how it took him so long. But I think it's good news, and probably reflective of the mood of many of the Clinton die-hards.
JEK
Sometimes blindered himself, honestly
Came across this in a software license I was reading today:
(click on the image to see it bigger)
Beerware is in Wikipedia, therefore it exists.
I asked my friend, Ted, who is president of a software company, and he'd never heard of this, but no doubt he will be producing exclusively beerware from now on.
POHS
unlawful in my relevant jurisdiction
This is a little news bit from the Harborview Medical Center ER, where I spent many, many happy hours. Takes me back, and makes me a little homesick for actual patient care.
JEK
Up on doctoring today
One of the little pleasures of the new McCain "celebrity" campaign, where Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are held out to be playing second fiddle to the greatest celebrity scamp of the day, Barack Obama, is that the Hilton's are actually maxed-out donors to the McCain campaign.
And they're none too happy about this, as Kathy Hilton's short blog entry in the Huffington Post makes clear, using a number of the Obama talking points.
But the most priceless thing in all of this is the bio that accompanies the post, cut and pasted below in all its glory. It puts Paris in perspective...all her celebutanting is probably just an unusual manifestation of Munchausen-by-proxy.
JEK
Enjoys a lavish lifestyle, with beautiful rooms in Massachusetts. In his frequent travels, he's always on the hunt for something to eat. Moving in glamourous social circles, he knows that smooth, radiant skin is just as important to the impression you make as a beautiful handbag, or the way you put yourself together.
"Born in New York City and raised in southern California, Kathy Hilton is a socialite, businesswoman, and mother of four, including daughters Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton, and sons Barron and Conrad Hilton. She has been married to husband and real estate entrepreneur Rick Hilton for 28 years.
Kathy Hilton enjoys a lavish lifestyle, with beautiful homes in California and New York. In her frequent travels, she's always on the hunt for treasures that she can bring back for her family, her friends and her homes. In fact, one of her great passions was a unique gift store which she owned for 8 years in L.A. There she specialized in gorgeous and unusual gifts perfect for her upscale clientele.
Kathy also has a passion for fashion and beauty. Moving in glamorous social circles, she knows that smooth, radiant skin is just as important to the impression you make as a beautiful handbag, or the way you put yourself together. Now she brings her intimate knowledge and deep appreciation of the finer things in life to the creation of her own luxurious and accessible beauty collection, Kathy Hilton Beauty.
Kathy, who was very close to her late mother, shares a very close bond with her own daughters, and they enjoy spending time together. Like other families, they have their ups and downs, though theirs tend to get publicized. Through it all, Kathy has always been a caring mother and staunch supporter of her family. Both she and Rick make it a point to be there for their children, cheering them on at personal appearances, runway shows and other events in their lives, and always standing by them.
Kathy is also known as a warm and giving woman outside her family. She is extremely active in various community and charitable organizations on both coasts, and has been honored numerous times for her generosity and efforts on behalf of others."
I sent this to my marketing professor, and he replied that a better 4-minute encapsulation of his daily life will never be made.
JEK
POHS sent this to me, so really he deserves credit for the post and I deserve credit for the free time. Also, to further reinforce his hip-ness, these are people that POHS knows from his improv life in Chicago (and I recognize a couple of faces, too).
It appears that the Cheney administration was recently thinking of ways to start a war with Iran. The problem that was identified was that Iran had not actually done anything that would legitimize our starting to shoot at them. So they started tossing around ideas for how to change that.
Here's what they came up with.
To their credit, they seem to have realized, in the end, that sending their crack special operations people to get killed by their own warships was a bad idea...and you'd hope the SEALs would not have gone along with it.
JEK
Sometimes wishes he'd joined the Navy. Not so much right now.
I really like the planet. A lot. And I think it's really photogenic, too. But I can't watch nature shows on TV, or read books and articles about natural phenomena, or, God forbid, see "An Inconvenient Truth," because all of these things inevitably end with a statement like:
"The habitat of the vermillion muskrat is shrinking due to encroachment by clear cutting for lumber mills." And then they show a cute little thing getting clubbed. I know that the message of this is that I need to use less lumber, but having reached a nadir of timber-wasting, it just makes me feel sad and hopeless.
So I was happy to read in the NYT today that not everything is quite as huge a terrible, man-made disaster, as I thought. I need to hear that every now and then.
JEK
Morale sensitive
You think that's bad...take a look at what John Edwards has been up to, while his wife sits at home metastasizing.
The worst part, for him, is the fact that when confronted he barricaded himself inside a men's room. Everyone knows that just makes the paps mad.
JEK
Scarlet Letterer
Oh this is juicy. And would probably end McCain's campaign is enough people read it.
The Wife John McCain Callously Left Behind
POHS
this seriously sounds like the plot of a soap opera
Who is this guy? Wikipedia has a pretty good summary from which I gathered:
Made a fortune in the 80's taking over companies or something. (I didn't really read this part, but sounds bad)
Makes a bigger fortune managing a hedge fund (no opinion).
Donated lots of money to Bush in 2004 campaign. (bad)
Perhaps the biggest financial backer of the Swift Boats for Truth (bad)
Donated a TON of money of Oklahoma State University (good)
The majority was for athletics (bad -- including a nasty immenent domain buy out of people's homes to build a new athletic "village")
Now is single handedly investing in a MASSIVE wind-power project with some natural gas too (good, probably in it for the money, but still good)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Boone_Pickens
Anyone know more?
POHS
research assistant
Is a pretty great little web-based show, from Joss Whedon, the Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Serenity guy.
Check it out.
JEK
Sucker for musicals
Below are the results of a poll done by the NYT. The headline on the web reads: "Poll Finds Obama’s Run Isn’t Closing Divide on Race," with a subhead: "Blacks and whites hold vastly different views of Senator Barack Obama and the state of race relations, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll."
Now look at the results. To me, what they say is: "Poll finds heavy support for Obama among African Americans." Subhead: "Blacks less likely to support McCain, whites split almost evenly and ready for a black president."
Which is pretty different.
JEK
Armchair Pollster
Late update: Seems I am not the only person to think so. The Obama camp is making a similar argument, as reported at TPM.
First you had to pick America's idol, then America's next top model. But now it's real, now your vote determines who lives in the White house...
I'm, of course, talking about the American Kennel Society's vote to select Obama's new dog. He doesn't own a pet and it's really hurting him in the polls. He's promised his daughters a puppy after the election and the American Kennel Society has selected 5 breeds that would fit his family. Now it's up to you to tell him which one to get. But will it be too late to save his campaign? Is McCain just too far ahead in the pet-race? This one's going to keep the pundits talking up to the last minute.
Vote now. This is just too important to pass up. Obama cannot be a strong president if he owns a Bichon Frise.
www.presidentialpup.com
POHS
issues that matter
Nation Indivisible friend, and hopefully soon-to-be contributor, Ben, [that's a lot of commas] is traveling this summer as part of his masters program in International Relations. So are many of his classmates. Between them, they make for a widely distributed group of good writers with an eye for detail. And Ben has made a blog for them. Check it out here, or linked in the sidebar.
And while I'm at it, our own POHS has some great stuff up from his last Central America trip here.
JEK
Linkmaster
Or the dirigibles, at least.
A few years back, while sailing in the middle of the Atlantic aboard a tall ship, one of my watch-mates and I spun out an elaborate fantasy of bringing wind power back to the modern age. We imagined fleets of sail-powered supertankers on the sea, and a return of the dirigible in the sky. Staring out for hours at the midnight sea and stars, it seemed reasonable enough.
It's nice to think maybe it was.
JEK
Wind-powered romantic
Happy Independence Day to you all!
How old would you put America, in person-years? I'd put it at about 16...a disaffected, frustrated, adolescent year with some Goth tendencies. Either that or a late 80's demented guy with some disinhibition issues.
Either way, I don't think this past year has been reflective of the fundamental principles of America, and will be one that it looks back on with a powerful urge to go back in time and talk some sense into itself.
Surprisingly, one of those voices seems to be coming from none other than Christopher Hitchens, the reasonable guy turned neocon turned, it now appears, reasonable guy. He's been a big supporter of the Iraq invasion, and a notable apologist for all that has come with it. But he just did something quite noble -- something that I'm surprised more self-respecting journalists and politicians haven't done. He got himself waterboarded. With all this talk about what that means, talk that never seems to come from personal experience, it's so refreshing to see someone just get it done to themselves and tell us what it feels like. And the fact that he didn't like it very much, despite being someone predisposed to downplay the negative effects, speaks volumes.
JEK
Partly cloudy patriot
You may have noticed a lot of chatter this week about the Damned Oil Speculator, a cruel beast whose malicious drive for Profit has no heart for the Plight of the Innocent SUV-Driving Suburbanite. There were commentaries. There were complaints. And, in the end, there were Congressional Hearings, with much associated Preening.
What there didn't seem to be was a lot of Common Sense. I'm no financier, but here's my limited understanding of how the market works: oil is a commodity. That means it can be bought and sold based on anticipation of its future price. This is good because it allows entities that buy a lot of fuel over time to anticipate, and to some degree control, their fuel expenses. And it allows energy companies to anticipate, and to some degree control, income. And it runs, naturally, on speculation -- anticipation by people of whether the price over time is going to go up or down. Which has to do with supply, and with demand, in the same way that all markets do. And since for every seller there is a buyer, this should be a self-policing process: for every person who thinks that prices will go up, another thinks that prices will go down. Speculation.
What seems to me to have happened is that the market has caught up with itself. It's not that oil costs twice as much because it's half as available today as it was six months ago, it's that the market consciousness has begun to acknowledge that oil is, incredibly, not an infinite resource dependent only on the the willingness of OPEC to create it from thin air. In other words, I think we've had $4 gasoline for years, and just haven't realized it. And now we do. Which is not all bad.
Like I said, I don't really know a thing about this stuff, so I've felt a little leery about jumping into a long discussion about it. But then I ran into this article in today's NYT, which says basically the same thing, and more.
JEK
Weekend economist
After watching this 4 minute video, you'll never look at MPG math the same way.
Turns out we should use GPM instead of MPG. Confused? You wont be after these fine folks from Duke are through with you.
POHS
The McCain website is really an endless source of great amusement. They seem to have taken down their prominent link for golf gear, but they have replaced it with an online video game. It fairly screams: "We are totally hip to these modern days, these 1980s!"
JEK
Prefers the current millennium, all things considered
Many of you have no doubt said to yourselves: those guys at Nation Indivisible are so...creative. And so science-y and medical! Why don't they have a corporate arm, in which they cater to the creative needs of doctorate-holders, and the doctorate needs of creative-types. We've been asking ourselves that very same question, actually, and today we go live with the answer: RxCreative.com. Tell everyone you know -- particularly if they work for Shonda Rimes.
JEK
At the forefront of...something.
My cousin Liz just sent this to me, and I gotta say, even as person without a huge amount of rhythm, that I thought it was pretty great. Great footage, great adventure, great example of corporate sponsorship doing something interesting (he's sponsored by Stride gum).
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
JEK
Often wishes he was more the dancer
We've talked a little bit about the coming apocalypse on Nation Indivisible, in a thread I would not have anticipated when this project started. But I don't think we've addressed the Rapture...something that the writers on this blog, at least, are unlikely to experience. But it's nice to know that there are some good evangelicals out there who have thought to provide a way for them to continue to nag us after they've gone off to Heaven, leaving us behind. Their scheme depends on email remaining up even when all the Christians are gone, but knowing what I do about Silicon Valley this seems like a safe bet.
JEK
Lapsed Unitarian, but somehow manages to be moral all the same
I'm only just realizing the gravity of the floods in Iowa and Illinois, the post below notwithstanding. I guess I have a tendency assume that, barring the only way out of the city being a 40 mile drive across Lake Pondchartrain, floods are an annoyance that should teach decadent people to be a little less entitled about their SUVs. Which is to my real discredit. But I'm reading more about them now, and it's pretty sobering. Not just the people who are losing their homes, but the effect on crops at pretty much exactly the wrong time in the growing season and the demand cycle. It doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility that people will starve in Asia and Africa because of the rain in Iowa.
Right now, though, the effect is local. I think it's great that the Obama campaign site has made flood relief their primary issue on their home page...I think it's great for Iowans, for the campaign, and for the candidate. But when I followed the link to the Red Cross site, I found that what is less great is the design of the site for directing you to the donation page (it's buried within an unlikely sub-page.) So if you're inclined to donate something, and prove the efficacy of American unity, you can do it easily by clicking here instead.
JEK
Geographic empathy is a work in progress
A while back I posted the NYT story about how Clinton is a PC, and Obama is a Mac. This, to me, was true, and a strong endorsement of the Obama candidacy.
Now check this out, culled from HuffPo:
JEK
PC turned Mac via DMW, who may or may not be a Republican turned liberal independent via JEK, depending on the source
I don't think I've ever watched an episode of Meet the Press.
I've been only vaguely aware of who was hosting any given presidential debate.
But all the same I've always had a soft spot for Tim Russert, based on what little I've known or heard or assumed over the years. That he was a tough, unsparing interviewer; that he didn't take no, or an unrelated talking point, for an answer; that he was revered by the people I knew in journalism, people I figured would know.
So I was sorry and shocked to see that he had died today, suddenly and unexpectedly. And moved to see Tom Brokaw crying as he reported it. And stunned to see the outpouring of the press in the hours following the first announcement. This event reminds me of the humanity of "the press". Not just because one of its big faces has just proven its mortality, but because seeing the completely over-the-top, head-of-state funeral quality of the coverage reminds me that the people in the news business, like the people in any business, know each other, know each other's spouses and kids, like and kid and goad and care about and mourn each other. And because they happen to have a very large microphone held to them, and because this is a huge event for them personally, this becomes a national news story. But really what it seems like, to me, is as though a family is in mourning, and they happen to have a bunch of cameras on them.
JEK
Admirer of those who make a lot of their lives, and are loved for it
Hurrah! R. Kelly has been acquitted!
This is great for two reasons. One is that prosecuting someone for a high-level felony on the basis of a video tape provided by someone complicit in the supposed crime, when both of the other parties, notably including the supposed victim, deny that the supposed crime ever happened, just seems like a bad idea. Particularly when heavy-handed enforcement of statutory rape seems to be one of the most frequent to occur along lines of race.
But the most important reason, by far, is that we will now not have to wait 15-20 years for the next installment of what is probably the best example of post-modernism in hip-hop that will ever exist. I'm speaking, of course, about the stunning genius that is the hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet".
One measure of its greatness: the Weird Al parody is so well-powered by the premise that it is itself a work of greatness. That you can take the derivative of a thing and still have it be this good implies a mighty area underneath the curve:
JEK
Likes to think he knows a good thing when he sees it
Check out this movie. It's a satire of private companies profiting from war.
I'm surprised I haven't heard of it before, since it's been out since May 23 and has a star filled cast. Apparently there's no ad money for it and, well, I guess this is just the kind of grassroots word of mouth it needs.
Review from The Huffington Post.
Movie Web Site.
pohs
Speaking of youtube videos, this one cracked me up. I like Condoleezza's nod. It's like taking an x-ray of Bush's speech.
pohs
When it comes to picking a running mate, there's two schools of thought; pick someone different or pick someone similar. In other words, pick someone who is strong in whatever the candidate is weakest or someone who reinforces the candidate's strengths.
Of course, a good VP pick will do both, and more. Such as, win at least one state that you'd otherwise lose, match up favorably in VP debates, have no skeletons in the closet... Oh yeah, and somewhere down on the list is whether or not they'd make a good president.
I'm of the school of thought that you should pick someone similar. It helps give your campaign one consistant message. Having a clear story line, or narrative seems to be the most important thing in modern presidential elections. Marketing execs figured out a while ago that humans naturally tend toward narrative. It would be wonderful if every American could look at a list of Obama and McCain's positions and decide with whom they sided and vote accordingly, but people don't like to process data. It takes time and energy, and it's hard to remember. Instead we like to make stories.
So, in this election we have the story lines of McCain as the experienced vetran with the strength to navigate the dangerous war and Obama as an inspriational force, transcending old politics to heal a wounded nation and navigate a damaging war. It would be wise for both candidates to pick running mates that don't go against these story lines.
Obama should not pick Jim Webb, Sam Nunn or Hillary Clinton. He should pick Bill Richardson or Colin Powell.
McCain, I'd like to see pick Pat Buchanan.
pohs
the article on Bill Richardson is particularly convincing.
The link to the MoveOn site, which really is pretty amazing, is here.
JEK
Procrastinating for the future of our country
Get a free Obama Bumper Sticker from MoveOn.org. The first one is absolutely free. I gave a $20 donation and I'm getting 10 bumper stickers. Don't know what I'm going to do with them, but I'm so excited. I almost gave $25 and got 100 bumper stickers, but I really didn't know what I was going to do with 100 bumper stickers.
Tell all your friends who live in battleground states!
https://pol.moveon.org/obamastickers/
POHS
So, since the big victory, the press has been full of news about the election. And it seems to me that almost all of that coverage has been about how Clinton lost. How her advisors failed her, her organization failed her, her Iowa strategy failed her, her fundraisers failed her, her husband failed her.
These post-mortems are satisfying, in their way.
But they seem to be missing one essential reason, every one of them, every time:
What if one reason that Hillary lost was that Obama was a better candidate?
After all these months, all these displays of great campaigning by how did we get back to the Clinton as Presumptive Nominee, upset through her own fault? This line of argument passively dismisses Obama's legitimacy as the strongest candidate, and I hope they fight this line of reasoning hard if it continues past the weekend.
JEK
Schadenfreude will only take him so far
If you scroll back a piece, you'll see a message and a comment thread about the MoveOn contest for movies about Barack Obama.
Now see it done McCain style (courtesy of TPM, who first pointed this out):
TPM also has this story today demonstrating quite clearly the target demographic of the Republican camp.
Fore!
JEK
Can't, just can't, get behind golf
Well.
All's well that ends, is all I have to say.
It'll be a few days before the general election starts up in earnest. In the meantime, this should help to pass the time:
When I was in Italy recently, I was struck by the degree to which people were following the Presidential race here in the US. Everyone seemed to know the details of the Democratic nominating process. And everyone -- I mean, everyone -- was for Obama.
Which apparently reflects a broader trend, as shown by this poll asking Europe & the Russians who they would vote for. NB the Russians always liking the tough-talker.
JEK
European sensibilitized.
Headline from Politico.com this morning:
McCain hits Obama on Petraeus meeting
By JONATHAN MARTIN | 5/28/08 5:02 PM
Says Obama hasn’t sat down with leader of Iraq troops; Obama camp response invokes McClellan.
I've been following the McClellan Story with relish, of course. It's refreshing to see the Inner Circle trying to circle the wagons around...what, exactly? Though I will admit that I buy the White House line that McClellan is saying things just to sell books, too...I have trouble believing that anyone who's been a flack for this administration would turn on it out of the goodness of their "heart."
But what really struck me about this headline is that when I read it I immediately thought that they were invoking not Scott McClellan, former White House Press Secretary, but George McClellan, the much adored, frequently invoked general in charge of the Union Army in the Civil War, and the man whose credulous belief in enemy propaganda and repeated failure to act allowed the Confederacy to grow from a grossly overwhelmed force of scrappy fighters into an army that almost took Washington more than once.
That might be the better invocation.
JEK
Chairman, Shelby Foote Deification Society
One of most unfortunate things about being a surgeon is that one is often forced to read things written by surgeons. Surgeons' writing is pretty universally terrible. These are people, remember, who have learned almost everything they know from one another, and the vast majority of them last wrote non-science in high school. There are exceptions, of course...Atul Gawande, whom I don't agree with on a lot of things, at least writes about those things with real skill.
Nowhere is surgical writing more likely to make me want to strangle myself than in the editorial section of the many cheap journals sent to me each week as vehicles for pharmaceutical and device advertising. One of the worst is "Surgical Rounds," whose editor, Bernie Jaffe, is sort of an archetype of the disaffected modern older surgeon. Almost every one of his editorials makes spurious arguments for a return to the Good Old Days of surgery...days that have not, in fact, ever existed. But that doesn't stop him from pining for a time when residents properly lived in their hospitals, he was paid millions of dollars a year and couldn't walk down a street without people bursting into applause at his passing, and insurance companies didn't give him any guff. Almost every one is enough to set me drafting resignation letters.
But this most recent one really goes beyond the pale. Bernie's given up on wishing for the happy days of the 1960s. Now, he's advocating a return to the real pinnacle of surgery, medicine, and society in general: Italy in the 1660s!
Yes, those were banner days. Fie on the so-called "progress" of the past 400 years!
JEK
Can't believe this isn't a joke, but is certain this isn't a joke.
A friend recently showed me this button. I hear it's also a bumper sticker. Wow, I hadn't realized it had gone up that much.
The same friend also showed me this article, and I guess compared to prices in other countries, I should be happy about $4 a gallon.
Sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking of happiness and economics as a zero sum game in which other people's suffering somehow means more "good" leftover for me. As someone who only has to fill up the tank every other month, at first glance I seem to be only minimally affected by gas prices. Similarly, I rent my apartment and can watch the housing market with detached amusment and think to myself, "good job not buying an over priced, poorly built condo in 2001."
So, as I ride public transit to and from my rented apartment, I get pretty self-righteous. I look out the window and think about how the money must just be rolling into my bank account. But unfortunately, economics is not a zero sum game. Since our economy relies so much on oil, such as needing trucks to deliver everything, the rising gas prices are raising all other prices along with it. And there is in fact no money rolling into my bank account.
POHS
likewise, the suffering in Myanmar is somehow failing to bring me happiness.
One of the central tenets of Nation Indivisible is that no journalism is truly objective. The pretense of being unbiased is one of the most frustrating tenets of American media. So it's tremendously refreshing to see the MSM (and not Fox News), saying something real and opinionated:
Good man.
JEK
Biased. Subjective. Proud.
Let's make a compilation of campaign season phrases that we don't like.
First, to recap previous pecadillos:
- "At the (gas) pump"
- "on Day One"
- Democrat as an adjective (vs. Democratic)
- "on the ground"
Now, some more (please add yours to the comment section):
- Anything-gate
- Obamamania
- Race card
- moral hazard
JEK
Revisionist lexicographer
MoveOn.org announced the winners of their "obama in 30 seconds" ad contest. All four winning videos are worth watching and you must do so now. I hope they all make it on the air.
www.obamain30seconds.org
POHS
which one's your favorite? Mine is playground politics.
Why write a post on Mondays when I can just link to Saturday Night Live? Hey, Mondays just got easy...
POHS
and after this video is done, it shows you other SNL clips. You can watch the whole episode from nation indivisible.
This looks interesting... A film from 2004 called "The End of Suburbia." Maybe it'll be a summer sleeper...
POHS
have never lived in the suburbs, so maybe I just don't get it.
Look out, stupid people are reproducing faster than smart people! How's this one going to play out? I often wonder about this. Well, for one thing we're going to have to do some re-districting.
So, just how DO you afford 13 children? That's a good question and one we can all relate to, am I right? (audience nods) Well, don't worry cause God thought of this one too. And that's why he built women to have babies ONE AT A TIME instead of all at once. (pause for applause) Sometimes He has a sense of humor and doubly blesses you with twins, but not that often. (wait for laughter) Also, he designed babies to have small mouths and stomachs so they'd be easy on the budget. (collective audience ooooh) But what about education? I've heard kids need one of those. (audience looks concerned) Legally, yes, the government requires all children be educated, but that's why we have homeschool. It's God's loophole. And there's wonderful new conservative schools where you only have to pay for the first three children, any over that go FREE! :) So, there's no need to sell your soul. (laughter) Throw a roof over their heads and some thrift store clothes on their back and you're on your way creating many well adjusted, god abiding, little folks.
I can only hope these children grow up to dissapoint their parents in ghastly ways.
POHS
So, on the matter of the gas tax holiday. There have been a lot of arguments advanced against it. The Clinton camp has advanced a series of imaginative panderings for it. And I sorta got all caught up in it for a while. I think I have a pretty good handle on all the ways in which a gas tax holiday will not save anyone any money, but will lose lots of money for the government in favor of the oil companies. I think I have HRC's quote about how she doesn't put any stock in these new-fangled "economists" down pat.
What amazes me is that in the midst of all of this chatter, I allowed myself to be completely taken in. I never once, until this moment, realized the most important fact in all of this:
None of these people are going to be President this summer. This whole arguement is moot.
-JEK
Is pretty sure he hates the phrase "at the pump" even more than he hates the phrase "on Day One," which is a lot.
A special Nation Indivisible welcome to TWW, the newest member of our tribe. It may be a little while before you hear from him -- we're going to have to get him up to speed on a few things first, like language, for instance, and finger movement. And, even at nine pounds, he'll probably want a dinner or two first. But we're completely ecstatic to have him along for the ride. Special thanks to DMW and SLBPW, who did the heavy lifting on this particular recruitment.
JEK
Much Pleased
I'm really looking forward to only reading about neo-conservatives and religious fundamentalists in history books. How long do you think that'll take? I wonder about this often.
I'll admit I was getting pretty angry at Hillary Clinton over her negative campaigning. And I still believe her campaign is unwinnable; the sooner she drops out the better. But watching this interview between her and Bill O'Reilly made me love her again!
She does a better job than anyone I've seen handling Bill O'Reilly's agressive style and making her points coherently. Suddenly, I'm glad we have Hillary around again. I still prefer Obama's message of hope and moving beyond partisan bickering, but maybe, just maybe, that's just because I thought democrats were bad at dirty political fights. Now here comes Hillary; she was naive and idealistic, but now she's tough. And I can only imagine if I were a woman how inspired I would be.
So much so, that it makes me wonder if O'Reilly isnt trying to help her prolong the democratic race. Oh, such insidiousness! (That would look great on a T-Shirt.) Moveon.org said the interview "does nothing more than legitimize a network that will then use that credibility to smear Democrats and progressive ideas in 2008." This is getting tricky. Damn, I can't even enjoy a good Hillary/O'Reilly interview without wondering about the politics. I'm tired of this junk.
I'm going to stick with plan A and support Obama. I like to believe it's possible to elevate the national discourse. If I'm wrong and Obama loses to the right wing attack machine, which is the only thing that really can defeat him, well, then next election cycle people will be even more eager, right?
Here's the video that inspired these thoughts, for better or worse.
POHS
Going to work everyday and home every night makes me feel like a goldfish circling a bowl.
I got an email from Howard Dean this morning, (yeah, we exchange emails regularly) asking to raise money for an attack ad against McCain. I'm going to quote almost the entire email here, because I don't want anyone to think I'm over reacting to a sound byte.
Dear Peter,John McCain wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years. He's said it, and it's on tape.
But his campaign hates that he was caught. They've viciously attacked anyone who reminded the American people that he said it, including me. They've said that those who reference the 100 years comments are "deliberately misleading voters."
So we've taken John McCain's own words -- video of him saying that 100 years would be "fine with me" -- and made a TV ad. There's no confusion, no distortion, no misleading -- it's John McCain, on tape, for voters to judge on their own.
It's one of the most powerful political ads I've ever seen. It's devastating -- and the McCain campaign will spend the rest of the election trying to fight it.
I agree completely with McCain that this is “deliberately misleading” ad. It takes one sound byte and plays it repeatedly without context.
Here’s the ad along with a longer clip. I don’t think anyone can claim the ad is not misleading. The New York Times has a little bit of the back and forth over this ad.
This isn’t as stupid a distraction as the flag lapel issue, which I still can’t believe they actually used time in a debate to ask obama about. At least this is literally about the Iraq war, which is a real issue, but it’s such an over simplification that it prevents real debate.
POHS
While I'm at it, check out this fanfic speech by Obama. Good stuff.
-JEK
Not getting a lot of work done at the moment.
You know how the Republicans are always talking about the Democrat primary, Democrat candidate, DemocRAT party?
This is a great example of that effect...Richard Mellon-Scaife's personal newspaper endorsing Clinton in the Democrat primary, as the best way to keep the strife going. Richard Mellon-Scaife, you may remember, is the de facto leader of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, and bankrolled much of the Whitewater and impeachment fun. So having his paper endorse perpetual bloodletting by HRC is not surprising.
But, friends, will you join me in a pledge? From here on out, from this day forward, from coast to coast and nation to nation, let's all adopt a new personal style guide:
Republican = RepubliCAN'T.
JEK
Trendsetter
We've addressed this before, and now we're going to link to Talking Points Memo addressing it again: trying to correlate primary results with general election results makes no sense. People who vote in primaries are almost always going to vote for their party's candidate in the general election.
Yes, they get all hot headed and claim that they won't -- I myself used to say that I would vote for McCain if it came down to him vs. Clinton (I've now retreated to thinking I would abstain rather than make that Solominic choice, and come November would probably, if morosely, vote for Clinton. Though I would almost certainly leave the Democratic party, of which I have been a member only since the primary).
But really, Democratic candidated will get the vast majority of the committed, primary-voting Democrats. What matters is who draws the rest of the voters better. And I think the answer to that is pretty clear.
JEK
Really can't believe how much people go in for spin.
Further proof that the Obama campaign is taking their lead from Nation Indivisible.
And here's Maureen Dowd, saying something I agree with.
And here's the Editorial Board of the NYT, saying it better.
That is all.
JEK
On a power trip.
For example, he has the power to read the New York Times for you.
Obama: JEK! My friend and confidant! What ever shall I do? I battled and battled for Pennsylvania, and did not win it.
Me: You were always going to lose Pennsylvania. The old democrats don't go down easy.
Obama: But since the some of the democratic primary voters didn't vote for me, and instead voted for the other democrat, some in such numbers that the state effectively turned blue for the first time since Reconstruction, my chances of victory are surely diminished and my prospects imperilled!
Me: Don't you listen to anything I tell you, chump?
Obama: Well, I suppose I'll continue fighting tooth and nail against Hillary Clinton. Pity I can't get around to the general election yet, but as long as she has one shot in a million I guess I have to pay her mind.
Me: Well, you could do that...or you could just start working against McCain, ignore Clinton, and let her flame out of her own accord (while not seeming to totally ignore the people of NC and Indy.)
Obama: But...um, no, wait, actually that sounds like a really good idea.
Me: I'll be in the plane.
-JEK
Maxed out for the primary last month. You should try it...your wallet feels lighter, but so does your step.
MoveOn ran this contest, which it would have been cool to enter if I could only have gotten myself organized. But if there is one message we as a society have learned from film critics, it's that the best thing is not to do, but to judge what others have done while filled with the knowledge that you would have done it better...if you'd only got around to it.
In that spirit, let's all join in the favoritism: [click the video below to go to the MoveOn site, where you can watch more videos and vote on them in a pretty addiction-forming way]
You can see why Clinton's not the biggest MoveOn fan...
-JEK
Knows deep down he's really just a surgeon, and a funny looking one at that...
A few weeks back I went to Louisville, KY, about the most unlikely place that you'd expect to find the crossroads of American theatre. But there it is, showcased annually as the Humana Festival for New American Plays. Louisville is actually full of surprises: beyond being the scene of the most dynamic weekend in theatre, and, of course, the Kentucky derby, it is also a place where you can see Mary Kay cadillacs lined up down the street, and of an outfit called "Simplified Urgent Care," which will the subject of a later post, with bells on. What's more, it's the home of the freshest seafood in America, by its own boast, for having the national UPS shipping hub at its airport. And the fish there really is amazing. But back to the stage: read about it here, and if you want my personal beliefs, reverse the reviews of "Neighborhood" and "Hurricaine Gordo."
JEK
Seriously thinking about moving to Louisville at some point.
This is an interesting piece from the Huffington Post. It's a reminder of how the tables turn, but not just in showing the familiar, expected gradations of hypocrisy that attend modern political races. What's more interesting is the reminder, towards the bottom of the article, of another example of how the Obama campaign of 2008 mirrors, in many ways, the Clinton campaign of 1992. A young, charismatic leader, all about Hope, with no military experience and a dream of JFK steps out of obscurity to take it all...how can you expect the Clintons to counter that with anything other than hypocrisy. They're fighting their own past.
JEK
Believes in cycles of history and a deterministic universe with a good sense of narrative.
Here at Nation Indivisible, we strive to inform you, noble reader. And we don't just want to tell you who to vote for, or that the world may come to a cataclysmic end at the hands of a band of overly confident physicists in Switzerland. No, we provide full service. So if, between voting Obama and being reduced to a cold hunk of anti-muons, you find yourself very reasonably craving nice fish tacos, but don't know where to get them: this is where you should get them.
JEK
Fish tacos have become kind of a big deal for him
Look forward to the thoughts of our contributing physicists on this. I'm glad the judicial system of Hawaii has got my back, I can tell you that. Pay particular note to the end -- if we can be consumed by quantum dragons, why not some horsemen leaping eagerly into our dimension?
JEK
Really doesn't want all his scoffing at the End Times to be something he regrets.
I think this sums up the Obama/Clinton race as well as anything.
Except for this:
Compared to this:
r
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
That, my friends, is a grammatically correct sentence. And though I don't understand quite why, the fact that it is gives me real faith in humanity. Maybe it's because that we could come up with a language so peculiar, and still put men in space and bring them down again, shows that we have a lot of built in redundancy, which will see us through the rising of the seas and the coming apocalypse.
Happy belated Easter to those of you who go in for such things!
JEK
Thinks he should buy some land in a higher state.
I am lazy. Lazy, and suffering a stomach ailment. Both prevent me addressing the election with anything more than vague qualitative methods. And certainly I am in no shape to do what I would otherwise do, with less laziness and more gastrointestinal reliability: go to the Clinton camp and challenge their senior advisors with delegate math. But the people at Politico have done the math, and have stronger stomachs, and have come out with this article, which says, in short: not gonna happen for Clinton, and they kinda know it. And the press is crazed for pretending otherwise. All of which, qualitatively, I agree with. The painting of this campaign as anything other than a very, very long shot for the Clinton camp is both irresponsible and commonplace. As the boys (and yes, they do all seem to be boys) at TPM acknowledge, theira culpa.
JEK
When a reporter, used to chafe at being told to create storylines that didn't fit the facts, but usually did as he was told. Does not believe a long Democrat nom process helps anyone except Rush Limbaugh + friends.
Hey Al Franken is running for Senate in Minnesota. You might not know that, because it hasn't gotten much national coverage, but it's not a joke. In fact, he's doing quite well. He's running away with the Democratic nomination and a month ago was virtually tied in polls with Norm Coleman, the republican incumbent. But Franken doesn't say he's running for Coleman's seat. Rather he says he's running to kick the one term senator out of Paul Wellstone's seat.
You may recall, Wellstone was a democratic senator for Minnesota from 1991 until he died in a plane crash along with his wife and daughter in 2002, only 11 days before Minnesota voters had to decide whether to re-elect him for a third term. Despite Walter Mondale stepping in to replace Wellstone, his opponent Norm Coleman narrowly won in an emotional election. Since then, Wellstone has been idealized (perhaps overly so) as an advocate for peace, the environment and all sorts of dis-advantaged people from illegal immigrants to abused housewives. Tales about Wellstone take on a mythical feeling, such as voting against authorizing the war in Iraq even though he was convinced it would cause him to lose his re-election campaign against Coleman. Minnesotans proved otherwise and the next day, he surged ahead of Coleman in the polls and seemed on the road to re-election. 13 days later he was dead. In that emotional context, Franken, who was a friend of Wellstone, is running to reclaim his seat.
There's an old adage in entertainment that says "If you wanna make 'em laugh, first make 'em cry. And if you wanna make 'em cry, first make 'em laugh." Too often, politics is an interesting subject communicated by very very boring people, and because of that the emotion is lost. On the other hand, sincerity and humor shine, make people think and make people care.
Check out this clip of Franken on Letterman shortly after announcing he would run for Senate. He uses humor, but he's well informed. And at the end, (starting around minute 12) he makes 'em cry.
Your home for Al Franken coverage:
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/
POHS
midwesterner
Just wanted to be sure that the video of Obama's speech today was easily accessible. It's here.
And to point out the views of the New York Times Editorial Board about it, which were positive. I think the context of this speech is something I can't really get. I wasn't around for JFK's catholicism speech, or MLK, or, obviously, the Second Inaugural. But I do finally feel like I can imagine what it might have felt like to see those moments in the making.
JEK
Imperfect, but always perfectable
The full text of Obama's speech today on race and US race relations is worth reading in its entirety. Yet again, he's put a voice better than my own to thoughts I've had for a long time. Reading it gave me chills. Imagining those words coming from a sitting President made me want to cheer out loud, and imperil the pipetting of my colleagues.
I suppose it should come as no surprise that the soundbite of choice is the most mundane moment of all -- the part where he addresses his personal relationship to Wright, rather than the part where he puts the country front and center, and offers a prescription for faith and perseverance. But even that moment is pretty great, particularly if you watch it on the New York Times video website, and then let it fade into the next segment, which is GWB talking about the economic crisis and thanking his economic advisors for WORKING ON THE WEEKEND as the economy rains down around our heads.
JEK
Obaman(a)ut, believer in better things, under-invested in the Euro
My landlady, as wise and even-headed a landlady as has ever been a stalwart member of the Clinton camp, forwarded me this excellent article about the Samantha Power incident. Which incident, Ian Williams says and I agree, should never once have happened.
Isn't it great how, as in the case of Power v. Peev, allegory can exist even in real life?
And, of course, the epigraph is priceless:
You cannot hope to bribe or twist
Thank God, the British Journalist,
But seeing what the man will do
Unbribed, there's no occasion to.
JEK
Used to read his quotes back to his interview subjects when he was a reporter, until he got better at writing both quickly and legibly (which latter skill he's since abandoned in the tradition of physicians.)
Here's what I know about investment banking:
- It's where all the jocks, insufferably congenial posers, and too-smart-by-half people from high school went to work.
- Putting jocks and insufferably congenial people in charge of large sectors of unregulated Economy has never seemed like a good idea to me.
- The poor ideation of the above has nothing on the not-a-good-ideaness of giving over the reins of modern capitalism to the same people who, when last we saw them, were explaining how they were just days away from convincing the federal government to send them the 40 acres + mule to which they were statutorily entitled. You know who you are, Hank.
What would happen if you did this? Well, I'm no economist. But I definitely did go to high school, and it seems like you'd get a lot of alpha males competing with each other to bring about the biggest deal involving the greatest number of other alpha males met at cocaine fueled parties, and you'd make that deal involve complex, unproved derivative instruments that are dependent on every American buying three homes and paying them off at 11% interest.
And then you'd get this.
The part of the story I love best is that the deal, which discounts BS's stock price from $30 to $2, includes the skyscraper that Bear Stearns is housed in. Which is certainly worth more than the purchase price. So Bear, the Great Bull's hit bottom.
-JEK
Ran his college newspaper and kept it very much in the black; sometimes thinks he should have been a management consultant, but less so now; triple varsity PE, favorite moment of any party is discovery of an uninhabited corner, raised to believe he owes the government at least 1/3 of any mule he ever owns.
So David Brooks is the acknowledged queen of iffy social generalizations. However, there may be something in what he says here. Politics (like any job that entails being surrounded by people who tell you how great you are all day) does seem to have a corrosive effect on the psyche, and that may have something to do with les affaires Spitzer, Craig, etc.
