Short Takes
- Lip Reading Babies: Utter nonsense!
January 17, 2012 | 8:54 pmSays psychologist David Lewkowicz of Florida Atlantic University, who led [a] study published yesterday…
’The baby in order to imitate you has to figure out how to shape their lips to make that particular sound they’re hearing,’’
Can you “figure out” why this is utter nonsense? I should as obvious as monkey see, monkey do. With this sort of thing passing for science, we are surely doomed.
- The Mark of Cain
November 9, 2011 | 3:13 amWatching Herman Cain duel with his female accusers is like watching the Jerry Springer Show. Not a pretty picture. If you partake, be sure an wash you hands afterwards.
- The Truth About Sovereign Debt
November 1, 2011 | 4:01 pmDuring the housing bubble people bet on rising home prices by taking out loans on to-good-to-be true terms and investment banking made bets on the rising home prices by lending on to-good-be-true terms. Everyone drank the Kool Aid. Prices went down. Having made bad bets, home owners should default on their loans and bankers should take their losses. This is the simple-minded logic of every-man-for-himself market economics.
The nations that joined the EU placed bets on rising economic prosperity that would come from joining the EU and adopting the Euro and borrowing from the EU banks on to-good-to-be-true terms. The EU investment bankers made speculative bets on EU member nations by lending them billions on to-good-to-be-true terms. The borrower economies went down not up. Everyone drank the Kool Aid and having made bad bets the borrowers should default on their loans and the bankers should take their losses. This too, is the simple-minded logic of every-man-for-himself market economics.
So how do the bankers hold the world hostage to their bad bets? They claim they are too big to fail. In other words, the only game they know is heads they win, tails we lose.
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Archive for Short Takes »
- Lip Reading Babies: Utter nonsense!
Category Archives: Politics
Egypt Goes Islamist
NYT, December 1, 2011: CAIRO — Islamists claimed a decisive victory on Wednesday as early election results put them on track to win a dominant majority in Egypt’s first Parliament since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak…But a big surprise was … Continue reading
Insurgency American Style
James Fallows at the Atlantic magazine is a bit outraged by the disproportionate aggression by police against non-violent UC Davis demonstrators. He suggests the we need to train our police to use more appropriate methods.
It seems to me that war is … Continue reading
The Mark of Cain
Watching Herman Cain duel with his female accusers is like watching the Jerry Springer Show. Not a pretty picture. If you partake, be sure an wash you hands afterwards.
Wagging the Dog
Dare I say it? Dare anyone say it?
Seriously now, do you really believe that the Right is about to choose Herman Cain to represent them in the 2012 election?
I can’t be the only one who is on to their game.
Clearly … Continue reading
Which Comes First, the Public or the Private Sector?
Okay, okay! Some of you who have read my previous blog entry are thinking to yourselves that my explanation of private v. public begs the question of the which comes first, public or private jobs?
Allow me to give you a … Continue reading
Job Creation: Which Kind are Best?
Western economies are reeling from massive unemployment, largely due to a breakdown in market demand triggered by losses incurred by to-big-to-fail financial cabals who made bad bets in hopes of realizing big profits. In the United States the official number of unemployed … Continue reading
Take a Walk in the Park
My sympathies lie with the OWS crowd—the 99 Percenters as they call themselves. But I also can see that there is a basic problem with their well intentioned efforts. The 99′ers are angry about their sense that as the rich … Continue reading
Prey Takes Stand Against Predators (At last!)
The 99 Percenters are trying.
In today’s American food chain, 99% of us are the prey and 1% are the predators. The predators have become masters of the science of breeding and managing their prey. They work hard to keep their … Continue reading
OWS Unites Against Cannibals
Is the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) “movement” a glimmering counterpoint to the rise of the brown-shirted, reactionary Tea Party? Are we witnessing at long last the drawing of battle lines between the dark cannibalistic forces of militant self-interest and beneficent … Continue reading
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean…
My “Master Control” toon-mix in yesterday’s post has got some people to thinking that I am becoming overly paranoid, but being paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you, whether that be today, tomorrow, or in some unanticipated future. … Continue reading
Sell-O-Bama Talking Points
Okay everyone, I want you to know that I am getting really, really scared now and you should be getting scared too!
It is looking more and more likely that the new breed of tea party-ish Republicans will take over the … Continue reading
National Suicide
By “leading from behind” Obama has squandered his mandate for “change we can believe in” with half measures that have left our nation teetering on the brink of chaos and opened the door to a one-term presidency. Into the breech … Continue reading
There Goes Another Ambassador
Last week I wrote that the winds of war were piping up. Button up your collar, today Turkey kicked the Israeli Ambassador out, saying that…
“All military agreements (aka “treaties”) have been suspended,”
The Arab Spring at Harvest Time
In his essay “If the Arab Spring Turns Ugly” (Sunday Review, NTY), Vali Nasr, professor at Tufts University and author of “The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future”, offers up an informed view of the so-called … Continue reading
Letter to an Old Friend and Colleague
Dear Old Friend,
I know what you mean about wanting to get involved in some sort relevant project. Just sitting on the sidelines watching the world go to hell is driving me crazy too.
I read something a few months back in … Continue reading
