I haven't solved it yet

On a recent edition of NBC's "Today" show, President Obama struck a high-minded tone when interviewer Matt Lauer asked him about the bitter tone of American politics:

We now have a pattern of polarization . . . where the political culture gets so wound up. Frankly, Matt, it gets spun up partly because of the way the media covers politics these days, and the 24/7 news cycle and the cable chatter and the talk radio and the Internet and the blogs--all of which tend to try to feed the most extreme sides of any issue instead of trying to narrow differences and solve problems. There's something about the political culture here in Washington that is a chronic problem. I haven't solved it yet.

Obama Zombies

I have not read the book, but I Iike the title.
Not feeling really free as the left has taken will take more of the free market.


Where is Vald, the Impaler, when he is really needed.

New Health Care Symbol

For new healthcare, the White House felt it necessary to develop a new medical symbol that truly depicts the HealthCare Plan you will be getting. Please bend over.



Thanks, Doug

Barry Knows Best

Barry spoke in Ohio Monday, his 50-something speech on taking over the health system:
The American people want to know if it's still possible for Washington to look out for their interests and their future. They are waiting for us to act. They are waiting for us to lead. And as long as I hold this office, I intend to provide that leadership. I don't know about the politics. But I know what's right.


He knows what's right. And he cares so much about the American people that he is determined to do what is right, whether we want it done to us or not. Yet he keeps coming up against delays and obstructions. Where's the fairness in that? If he's omniscient and benevolent, doesn't he deserve to be omnipotent too?

Chicago on the Potomac

It's evident to me that this is how Barry sees his mission. The America I grew up in must be saved from those like me.
He's right. I'm wrong.

I try not to be angry at him. He is doing what he any fool should have known he would do before the election took place.
I try reserve my anger for the fools who elected him.

The Toad, Krugman

Krugman has a Nobel. He is just as deserving of it as Barry is of his. He makes lying look easy. Try to follow this.

Textbook economics is "a bizarre point of view"--according to the textbook's author!
By JAMES TARANTO

Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman takes note in his New York Times column of what the calls "the incredible gap that has opened up between the parties":

Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.
"What Democrats believe," he says "is what textbook economics says":

But that's not how Republicans see it. Here's what Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, had to say when defending Mr. Bunning's position (although not joining his blockade): unemployment relief "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."
Krugman scoffs: "To me, that's a bizarre point of view--but then, I don't live in Mr. Kyl's universe."

What does textbook economics have to say about this question? Here is a passage from a textbook called "Macroeconomics":

Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of "Eurosclerosis," the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

So it turns out that what Krugman calls Sen. Kyl's "bizarre point of view" is, in fact, textbook economics. The authors of that textbook are Paul Krugman and Robin Wells. Miss Wells is also known as Mrs. Paul Krugman.

It seems Krugman himself lives in two different universes--the universe of the academic economist and the universe of the bitter partisan columnist. Or maybe this is like that episode of "Star Trek" in which crewmen from the Enterprise switched places with their counterparts from a universe in which everyone was the same, only evil.

Like Spock, the evil Krugman is the one with the beard.