YouTube - Benoit Mandelbrot thinks we're all screwed

YouTube - Benoit Mandelbrot thinks we're all screwed

Among other interesting insights in this piece is the identification of efficiency as one of the causes of fragility in the system. In turn, this is a "Tragedy of the Commons" problem - it is in the interest of individual firms to be as efficient as possible but that may cause small problems to have large negative consequences on the rest of us. Is it a job for government to ensure that there is slack in the system?

YouTube - Atheist IQ - Faith vs Reason

YouTube - Atheist IQ - Faith vs Reason Is religious belief negatively correlated with intelligence? You decide.

The Investment Deficit in America | OurFuture.org

This is why Reaganomics destroyed America. (And why the middle class is shrinking.)

The Investment Deficit in America | OurFuture.org: "Previous generations of Americans built interstate highways and transcontinental railroads. Now we sit in traffic."

The GOP's McCarthy gene

The GOP's McCarthy gene - Los Angeles Times: "the real father of modern Republicanism is Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the line doesn't run from Goldwater to Reagan to George W. Bush; it runs from McCarthy to Nixon to Bush and possibly now to Sarah Palin."

Paul Samuelson: The Dynamic Moving Center - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Paul Samuelson: The Dynamic Moving Center - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International: "Libertarians are not just bad emotional cripples. They are also bad advice givers. I refer of course to the views of both Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. The “serfdom” they warn against is not that of Genghis Khan or Lenin-Stalin-Mao or Hitler-Mussolini. Rather, they warn against the centrist states of the modern world. Think only of Switzerland, Britain, the US, the Scandinavian countries, and the Pacific Rim. Why do citizenries there report high indexes of “happiness” and enjoy broad freedoms of speech and belief?"

The decline of the Republican Party | Ship of fools | The Economist

The decline of the Republican Party | Ship of fools | The Economist: "JOHN STUART MILL once dismissed the British Conservative Party as the stupid party. Today the Conservative Party is run by Oxford-educated high-fliers who have been busy reinventing conservatism for a new era. As Lexington sees it, the title of the “stupid party” now belongs to the Tories’ transatlantic cousins, the Republicans."

"Republicanism’s anti-intellectual turn is devastating for its future."

GOP Moderates 'will be cheerfully ignored'

As long as the Republican Party remains chained to the twin anchors of religious and (club for growth) economic extremists, it will continue to sink as a national political party.

What Toyota knows that GM doesn’t |

When you hear conservatives attributing the Big 3's problems to their unions and suggest that they should act more like the non-union Japanese automakers in the US, this is the bit they usually ignore.

"The lesson here: Unlike their counterparts GM and Ford, Toyota has always taken a long-term strategic view about their employees. Toyota understands that laying off thousands of employees for slowdowns or plant retooling is counter productive. They wisely utilize the time to redistribute their workforce to understaffed plants, provide additional training for the new products, and leverage their workforce to speed the transition for newer products. Their philosophy has avoided labor disputes and staffing shortages. It has kept the company as a leader in quality and profitability over its shortsighted competitors."

Officials: Israeli mob boss killed in car bombing - Yahoo! News

Officials: Israeli mob boss killed in car bombing - Yahoo! News: "The mob violence has underscored police's inability — and even unwillingness — to stop organized crime.

Policemen have been caught feeding information to the mob, and last year, the national police chief was forced to resign after a government commission found he ignored ties between senior officers and underworld figures."

11 Things I Learned While Trying to Figure Out the Financial Crisis - 2parse/blog

11 Things I Learned While Trying to Figure Out the Financial Crisis is a great piece on some of the misunderstood fundamentals of this crises.

Jewish "Modesty Patrols" Sow Fear In Israel

Judaism and Christianity have their extremists too. [Religious zealots] "hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet."

Clean Code

A programmer only needs to be able to do two things: solve problems and write clean code. The former is a product of talent and experience. The latter is a skill that can be learned by anyone.

God Save Us From The Republican Party

This is why Democrats have never trusted Republicans, because we have always believed they actually felt this way.

"According to one GOP lawmaker, some House Republicans are saying privately that they’d rather “let the markets crash” than sign on to a massive bailout."

How did America ever put these guys in charge?

CQ Politics | Political Insider - Obama vs. Palin

This says it all:

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

No, Actually, It's that the Economy is Falling Apart - Swampland - TIME

Joe Klein writes exactly how I feel about this election: "Maybe I'm getting old, maybe it's that I've seen this act so often before, maybe it's that the people I talk to when I go out on the road really are having a harder time paying for things like health care, gasoline and college tuition, but I'm finding the Republican attempts to derail the conversation from the actual state of the country really depressing and disgraceful this year. They practice Orwellian politics of the crudest sort. They are trying to sell a big lie--that the election is about the social issues of the 1960s, or Barack Obama's patriotism or his eloquence, or the 'angry left,' when it's really about turning toward a more moderate path after the ideological radicalism and malfeasance of the past eight years."

DEPENDENCY PARADOX - August 22, 2005

DEPENDENCY PARADOX - August 22, 2005

This is an op-ed in Fortune magazine by Austin Goolsbee - Obama's senior economist:

"In the world of oil, we're the proud sellers of some very high-priced soda. Most oil that was cheap to produce from the U.S. was used up long ago. Today the largest potential sources of oil in North America, be they the shale deposits in Utah and Wyoming, the oil sands of Alberta, or the deep-water offshore pools in the Gulf of Mexico, are all much more expensive than the cheap oil coming out of the Middle East. Our average production costs in some places are as high as $15 per barrel. Cost estimates for places like Iran and Saudi Arabia go as low as $1.50 per barrel.

If U.S. demand (which is the largest of any country in the world) falls substantially, it will drive down oil prices. When prices are low, many U.S. oilfields become too expensive to keep open. That is why our lowest share of foreign oil imports in the past three decades came in the early 1980s--when oil shocks drove prices to record highs and encouraged development of the higher-cost U.S. sources.

Without question, driving down oil prices by reducing our demand could reduce the total amount of money going to the Middle East. We should be aware, though, that this reduction will cause far greater damage to the world's high-cost producers of oil, such as those in the U.S. than it does to OPEC, and there is little chance it will reduce the share of our oil that comes from abroad. If we are to seriously contemplate lowering our dependence on foreign oil, we must find a way to reduce the cost of producing alternative energy sources. Hopefully, sources like wind, solar power, or hydrogen fuel cells will eventually get to a point where they become cheaper than fossil fuels. But the sad reality is that while we might be able to cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing our demand for oil, Bush's "foreign tax on the American dream" is not getting cut anytime soon."

Basic economics.

Op-Ed Columnist - Know-Nothing Politics - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Know-Nothing Politics - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”"

Is Barack Obama Muslim?

Is Barack Obama Muslim? No.

Life of one yeshiva boy worth more than 1,000 Arabs

"Rabbi Eliyahu: Life of one yeshiva boy worth more than 1,000 Arabs"

This is all you need to know to understand that the Religious Right in Israel does not want peace.

Are Conservatives Stupid or Evil? | Psychology Today Blogs

Are Conservatives Stupid or Evil? | Psychology Today Blogs: "psychologist Jonathan Haidt reports that conservatives are deeply concerned about factors that fall outside of liberal morality. For liberals, morality is pretty much about harm and justice. To decide whether a policy is wrong, they want to know whether any one will be hurt by it and whether it will be fair to all those affected. Conservative care about harm and justice too, but they also care about three things that liberals tend to ignore: purity, respect for authority, and loyalty to the ingroup."

VQR � The Christian with Four Aces

VQR � The Christian with Four Aces: "In order to prepare for the imminent Second Coming—which Robertson believes will occur on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem according to biblical prophecy—he acquired METV (Middle East Television), a station then based in southern Lebanon that could broadcast into Israel. Straub was given marching orders to be ready to televise Christ’s return. CBN executives drew up a detailed plan to broadcast the event to every nation and in all languages. Straub wrote: “We even discussed how Jesus’ radiance might be too bright for the cameras and how we would have to make adjustments for that problem. Can you imagine telling Jesus, ‘Hey, Lord, please tone down your luminosity; we’re having a problem with contrast. You’re causing the picture to flare.’”"

Is there anything more that needs to be said about the consequences of allowing the religious right to remain in charge of our government?

Sanhedrin demands expulsion of women from military - Israel Jewish Scene, Ynetnews

Sanhedrin demands expulsion of women from military - Israel Jewish Scene, Ynetnews: "rabbis and parents will not send their sons to an army that recruits women to mixed units. There is no place for any flexibility and compromise (in this matter)."

8 Atrocities Committed in the Name of Religion - The List Universe

8 Atrocities Committed in the Name of Religion - The List Universe

Religion is an equal opportunity murderer.

Dani Rodrik's weblog: American political economics in one picture

This is why I am a Democrat.

"Compared to Republicans, Democratic presidents generate higher income gains for all income groups (although the difference is statistically significant only for lower income groups)."

Clive Crook (March 28, 2008) - The dumbing of America

Clive Crook (March 28, 2008) - The dumbing of America

[T]he proportion of 25-34 year olds with at least a college degree has soared. (More than half of South Koreans, Japanese and Canadians in this age group have a college degree or better.) As a result, in that cohort, the US is ... 11th. At first sight, anyway, it is hard to see how US leadership in per capita incomes can be sustained in the face of this trend.

A college degree is the new high school diploma. Its now just an entry point into the working world, no longer a guarantee of a good job.

Colorado now ranks #49 among states in higher education funding. At this rate, our children will be looking for low paying jobs in other countries.

Parents didn't expect daughter to die during prayer

WKBT La Crosse: Parents didn't expect daughter to die during prayer

The mother of an 11-year-old rural Weston girl who died of untreated diabetes says she didn't know her daughter was terminally ill as she prayed for her to get better instead of taking her to the doctor.

California state appellate court says those who teach children in private must have a credential.

Ruling seen as a threat to many home-schooling families - Los Angeles Times

The removal of children from the public education system and the exposure to people of different races, creeds, and beliefs, is one of the scariest trends of modern society. Segregation, whether enforced by the government or self, will not be the answer to our growing intolerance as a society.

Stoking the Beast

It turns out that there is a direct correlation between taxes and the size of government. Cutting taxes without cutting spending actually INCREASES the size of government.

Stoking the Beast: "The conservative movement is in no position to accept or even acknowledge those implications, now that tax cutting has become the long pole in the Republican tent. Therein lies the element of tragedy. By turning a limited-government movement into an anti-tax movement, conservatism has effectively gone into business with the Big Government that it claims to oppose. It is not starving the beast. It is fueling the beast’s appetite. And the beast has a credit card.<"

Spitz Out

Spitz Out: "The integrity of our criminal justice system rests on the notion that we investigate crimes, not people. As Robert Jackson, probably the greatest attorney general of the last century, put it:

If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted. With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him."

Robert Reich's Blog: Are We Heading Toward Depression (Part 3)?

Robert Reich's Blog: Are We Heading Toward Depression (Part 3)?: "Marriner S. Eccles, who served as Franklin D. Roosevelt's Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1934 to 1948, noted this in his memoir 'Beckoning Frontiers':

'As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery. Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.'"

Burgeoning prison populations strain state budgets

Burgeoning prison populations strain state budgets: "Since 1987, spending on corrections outpaced that for higher education in every state except Alabama and Virginia."

There is something fundamentally wrong with our priorities when we are willing to spend more money on prisons than schools.

Jews Are The Genetic Brothers Of Palestinians, Syrians, And Lebanese

"Jewish men shared a common set of genetic signatures with non-Jews from the Middle East, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese, and these signatures diverged significantly from non-Jewish men outside of this region. Consequently, Jews and Arabs share a common ancestor and are more closely related to one another than to non-Jews from other areas of the world."

Quote

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
- Blaise Pascal

Warren Buffet at Emory's Goizueta Business School

I had nothing to do with my own success. My father was a securities broker and after the Great Crash, he had no one to call. Consequently, I was born in 1930 in the United States during the time of one of the greatest capital markets. I was born with the wiring for capital asset allocation. I had the right wiring at the right time. Temperament is a large part of my wiring. I was naturally good at it, and I used some feedback to develop it better. There is nothing to be arrogant about. Gates says if I had been born earlier, I would’ve been some animal’s lunch. I can’t run, I can’t climb. I’d be talking about allocating capital and the animal would think, “Those are the kind that taste the best.” You have all won the ovarian lottery. There is no reason to feel guilty about it.

I have never given away a dime that has any meaning on how I live. There are people that go to church and they put money in the offering plate that truly makes a difference in how they will live their lives, what they will eat, what presents they will buy for their children. There’s no reason to get puffed up over things you didn’t control.

Positive Atheism

Join the Struggle Against Anti-Atheist Bigotry!: "It is difficult, none the less, for the ordinary man to cast off orthodox beliefs, for he is seldom allowed to hear the other side.... Whereas the Christian view is pressed on him day in and day out."

ColoradoPols.com:: Friday Open Thread

"'Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.'

--Oscar Ameringer"

The Raw Story | Huckabee: Amend Constitution to be in 'God's standards'

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

The Real Mike Huckabee

"Huckabee has connected with voters--specifically, evangelical voters--not simply because he is a charismatic speaker, but also because he shares their apocalyptic world view. As Cole told me, 'To date there's well over 139 prophecies that have come to pass exactly as the Lord says. Mike believes those things. Anyone with any Bible knowledge would have to say that this looks like the time. We're so close to the Lord's return.'"

Angry White Man

"A different picture of Paul emerges--that of someone who is either himself deeply embittered or, for a long time, allowed others to write bitterly on his behalf."