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Their is a debate going on as to who is dumber, Ross Douthat or the man he replaces at the New York Times Bill Krystol. Both of them are pretty much clueless, Krystol is a Neo-con who never met a war he didn’t like. But Douthat seems to be from a different world altogether, where society and women exist to produce more babies, although he and his wife are childless. Kind of makes you wonder if he really believes the nonsense he spews or if he just does it for the pay check.

BTW I will concede both Krystol and Douthat are better spellers than me.

UPDATE: looks like a lot of people that I generally agree with think Douthat is a good choice as a columnist. I think even if they don’t realize it, they may like Douthat because he is a useful idiot, he articulates positions that make no sense, clearly and honestly, in doing so shows how the religous right is full of hypocrisy and contradiction.

McCain seems to think anything that might make the world a safer healthier place is government waste. As near as I can tell the only government expenditures McCain likes involve using money to bomb brown people.

And, Atlas Shrugged sounds like a really stupid book.

This seems like a bad idea.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday rolled out a much-awaited $200 billion program to spur lending for cars, credit cards, education and small businesses.

The problem with easy credit is that it makes people spend more when they still have the same income. I am pretty sure part of the reason tuition costs are so high is that it is very easy to get student loans, and it is very easy to forget you have to re-pay those loans at some time. This program is very likely to lead to another round of financial problems down the road, both for people who take out a loan but never graduate from school and people who buy a car they really cannot afford, plus anyone who goes a little crazy with credit cards. It is time to put an end to the debt based economy, yeah it will be painful but at least it will be over once and for all.

Noam Chompski worries about the future of humans in the world., but I thinink he misses the point.”

The survival of the human species is by no means an obvious thing. There are very severe threats to survival. We learn about them all the time. The threat of environmental destruction is much too real to put to the side. The threat of destruction by weapons of mass destruction — that has come very close many times. We just learned at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, a terminal nuclear war was averted by one word by one submarine commander who countermanded the order to send off nuclear missiles.

I think he is missing the point, at the heart of the enviromental problem is that we have too many people trying to occupy the world. Every person no matter how hard they try not to, leaves a carbon foot print and causes some enviromental harm. Same with possible wars. At the heart of most wars it is a competition for resources that eventually escalates into violence. Religions by trying to out reproduce eachother add to the problem.

Just like it was obvious to anyone paying attention that the sub-prime real estate loans were going to be a problem, it should be obvious that the earth is running out of resources and space to support and over growing population; and the methods used to feed and house this large population carry with them many unacceptable consequences. If we could slow down or even reverse population growth many of the problems we are facing would be much less dire.

TPM uncovers the truth about Jindahl’s Katrina story

Bobby Jindal’s office was apparently thrown into full crisis mode today after a spokeswoman admitted that a key story of Katrina heroism the governor told in in his GOP response speech Tuesday was false. But, with some help from Politico, they only succeeded in digging themselves deeper

If the internet had been around in Reagan’s time I doubt he would have even been elected for a second term as the man was a compulsive lier, almost all of his stories and anecdotes were made up and they would have been exposed if their had been quick access to information in his day. Conservatives today still seem to think they can lie like Reagan did, they can’t.

UPDATE: someone much funnier than me takes looks at the Katrina story.

I watched a little bit of the the republican response to the presidents speech and came away amazed. I didn’t think anyone could make Sarah Palin seem smart but in comparison to Bobby Jindahl Palin is a rocket scientist.

Maybe this wouldn’t be such a problem if we didn’t have so many people trying to use a scarce resource.

Federal water managers said they may have to cut off all water to some of California’s largest farms as a result of the deepening drought affecting the state.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said Friday that parched reservoirs and patchy snow and rainfall this year would likely force them to cut surface water deliveries completely. It would be the first time in more than 15 years such a move was taken

If this area had less people perhaps water for home consumption could be diverted to help produce these crops, but too many people are relying on the system for home needs. Too many people leads to bad situations.

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Every time I start to think Hillary Clinton has good judgment something like this comes out of her mouth.

Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.

Paying her first visit to Asia as the top US diplomat, Clinton said the United States would continue to press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet.

“But our pressing on those issues can’t interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis,” Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing.

While we need to work with China many issues it sounds like Clinton is taking human rights off the table. Hopefully at some point Clinton will be replaced by someone like Samantha Power who understands and cares about human rights, the sooner the better.

If this guy is right, can’t say I am going to miss it.

There’s no question the American consumer is hurting in the face of a burst housing bubble, financial market meltdown and rising unemployment.
But “the worst is yet to come,” according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, who believes American’s standard of living is undergoing a “permanent change” – and not for the better as a result of:

An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.
A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.
A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid “exploding unemployment”, leading to “exploding bankruptcies.”
“The average American used to be able to borrow to buy a home, send their kids to a good school [and] buy a car,” Davidowitz says. “A lot of that is gone.”

Going forward, the veteran retail industry consultant foresees higher savings rate and people trading down in both the goods and services they buy – as well as their aspirations.

The end of rampant consumerism is ultimately a good thing, he says, but the unraveling of an economy built on debt-fueled spending will be painful for years to come.

I may have to take back some of the bad things I have said about Bristol Palin. Looks like after one or possibly two children she gets it.

The more I hear about the stimulus bill the better it sounds:

The $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress will, for the first time, provide substantial amounts of money for the federal government to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness.

It is about time.

Doctors are supposed to do no harm. In the case of Octamom it looks like they have done plenty of emotional harm to her and financial harm to the rest of us.

…the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.

It is safe to say the medical costs will probably be in the millions. I hope the state of California goes after the fertility clinic that created Octamom for reimbursement.

One of the ongoing debates in the comments section is the value to society of children. I generally argue kids are expensive and a burden on society, Mr Bettor argues that kids pay for themselves when they become tax producers. With that in mind I give you Octamom:

“In Nadya’s view, the money that she gets from the food stamp program … and the resources disabilities payments she gets for her three children are not welfare,” he said. “They are part of programs designed to help people with need, and she does not see that as welfare.”

In my view that is definitely welfare.

NBC chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman has estimated the cost of delivering the infants and caring for them until they are healthy enough to leave the hospital at $1.5 million to $3 million.

No wonder hospitals are so crowded, the staff is busy taking care of Octamoms litter.

The bigger point from this, Octamom is not a productive member of society either, so not only is she not working but she is producing children that are draining medical resources from other people. When her children enter their teens they will probably start having kids and become a drain on society as well. At no time does this kind of person produce more than they use.
At a minimum the doctor who allowed this to happen should lose is medical license and hopefully it will make people re-think fertility treatment in general. The world has a enough people we don’t need to artificially create more.

I am starting to think Bill Clinton has lost it.

And, looks like other people are starting to think Howard Dean is the right choice for HHS.. If their is one thing too important to let “bi-partisanship” ruin it, it is health care. Why not let a doctor with genuine medical knowledge get health care done right.

Mostly just wanted to link to this. During the primary and the general election Obama would be down in the polls but he would stick to his ideas and it seemed to work out fine. Looks like the next four years are going to be the same thing.

Looks like the stimulus package is not doing to well in the Senate. I don’t get why tax cuts are even being considered, the last eight years have been one big tax cut and it didn’t work out too well.

Daschle out as HHS, why not Howard Dean? Dean has done more for progressives than any other single person out there and has been right about almost everything over last eight years. He deserves a cabinet position. Plus, he might be able to get something done to make health care better for everyone.

I have always wondered about people who keep having kids when they don’t seem to enjoy or even be able to care for the ones they have.  Looks like other people may be starting to wonder about it as well.

Looks like Micheal Phelps might be a stoner. Instead of pretending the Marijuana ruins lives, maybe it is time to legalize it and use all the extra jail space for health clinics or schools or just museums to show how stupid the war on drugs really is.

My prop bet for the super-bowl is that Kurt Warner says something freaky weird at the end of the game win or lose.

This probably goes in the people are so scared they are starting to save category. Ben Stien

NOT long ago, a woman in California called me for advice. She is divorced, with two children, and has a series of interlocking financial problems.
She lives in a lovely home in a stylish inland enclave. It has an interest-only mortgage of about $2.2 million that requires a payment of $12,000 a month, very roughly. It was last appraised at $2.7 million, but who knows if it’s now worth anything remotely close to that price.

The woman, whom I’ve known since she was a teenager, has no job or other remunerative employment. She has a former husband, an entrepreneur whose business has suffered recently. He pays her $20,000 a month, of which roughly half is alimony and half child support. The alimony is scheduled to stop this summer.

She has a wealthy beau who pays her credit card bills and other incidentals, but she is thinking of telling him she is through with him. She has no savings and has refinanced her home repeatedly, always adding to indebtedness and then putting the money into a shop she owns that has never come close to earning a dime. Now she is up all night worrying about money. “Terrified,” as she put it. She wanted me to tell her what to do.

She might have to live within her means, what a tragedy.

hat tip washingtonmonthly

I think we might see some good come from the current economic crisis but it will be painful:

Expect closings and bankruptcies to rattle the likes of Lane Bryant, Gap, and Starbucks. It’s the inevitable counterpunch to the days of retailers fighting hand over fist for market share during an era of loose credit and minuscule interest rates.

Those days are over, probably for a long time. While accelerating unemployment will only last so long, consumers’ debt loads and credit access don’t figure to recover to pre-party levels for quite awhile.

“I don’t think we will live the same way for 10 years,” says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of New York-based retail consultant and investment bank Davidowitz & Associates. “People are so scared they’re starting to save.”

I guess some people even see a down side to savings and while it might slow down the economy it also might give a better inication of what things are really worth. If you know you are going to have to work for a certain amount of time the burnt coffee at Starbucks suddenly doesn’t seem worth it.

We are probably going to have some very painful contractions in the economy but in the end we might find that we are better off for it. I guess I should thank Bush.

The “cool mom” strikes again:

She slammed reports that 18-year-old Bristol Palin and the teen’s fiance are high school dropouts. The governor insists the two are not dropouts because they enrolled in correspondence courses.

The couple last month had a son — the governor’s first grandchild.

The governor said she is speaking out to set the record straight, not because of any political aspirations.

“It’s all about the family,” she said. “I’m wired in a way that I can take the criticism. I can take the shots. But any mother would want to protect their children from lies and scandalous reporting.”

Someone needs to explain to granny Palin that if you are going to hold yourself and your family up as an example of “christian values” people are going to ask you what those values lead too. In the case of the Palin clan it has led to teenage pregnancy and dropping out of high school. Levi Johnson is lucky in that his babys mommas momma is the governor so even as a high school drop-out he can still find a job thanks to her connections. Most teenage dads who drop out of high school are not so lucky.
I hope that Sarah Palin stays the frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2012, as long as she is out there as an example of “conservative success” I think most people will understand why conservatism is a complete failure.