I think Sarah Palin has hit a nerve

Check this out. Choice quote:

As a woman who does not believe what Palin believes, the thought of such an opportunistic anti-female in the White House -- in the Cheney chair, no less -- is akin to ideological brain rape. What this Republican blowup doll does with her own insides in accord with her own faith is her business.

The internets have seen some nasty things written on both sides in this election. This might be the nastiest.

We might actually win this thing after all, if this is the best our erstwhile opponents can do.

Uh, Josh

From TPM:

Why did Fred Thompson accuse Barack Obama of not opposing infanticide?

Think I'm exaggerating? Look at his words ...

And we need a President who doesn't think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade.

And McCain approved it.

Hey, Josh, the reason Fred Thompson accused Barack Obama of not opposing infanticide is that he doesn't.

Back to blogging

So, now that the spring semester is over, I definitely want to try this blogging thing again.

Meanwhile, I have a new link to the Visual Bookshelf app from Facebook down below on this page. Check it out; it's really cool.

I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords

If you look to the right you can now see my shared RSS items from Google Reader. I recently switched to Google Reader from Outlook for my RSS needs, and you can share the benefits.

Aren't you excited?

Late Kudos

This is way late, but whatever. Kudos to my man Nick for getting all 65 correct in the NCAA field last Sunday.

What Kind of Regulation?

Yesterday, Matthew Yglesias took on the deregulation of the financial markets with his usual combination of light substance and heavy snark.

What nobody has told me and I don't understand is this: how exactly would regulation of the financial markets have prevented the current situation. My understanding is that securitization of mortgages has never been prohibited, under Glass-Stegall or any other regulatory regime. I could be wrong about this; I am hoping my vast readership will fill me in if so.

Anyhow, now the Krugmans and Yglesiases of the world are calling for regulation. I don't have anything against regulation per se, but it would sure be nice to debate something concrete.

I think there is an opening for the Republicans here; while "stick it to those bastards!" is nice rhetoric, it's not good policy. If the McCain campaign can actually come up with something that might ameliorate the specific problems without strangling innovation, it could be helpful in the election.

Win Ben Stein's Vote

This is actually from a week ago or so, but I missed it when it happened. Apologies if you've already seen it.

We all know that the New York Times's idea of a ideal conservative is one that disagrees with conservative ideas. Fine, but not all ideas identified as conservative are good ones, and this Ben Stein column is making some points that need to be made:

In other words, tax cuts do not pay for themselves, at least not on any basis I can see. Certainly, they are not worthless. They make taxpayers feel good and they generate growth. But basically, they shift the tax burden from us to our progeny and add immense amounts of interest expense to the federal budget. At this point, taxpayers shell out about $1 billion a day just for that item.

I would say that tax cuts shift the burden to our progeny only if they aren't counterbalanced by spending cuts, but we all know that's not going to happen. Spending control is all we can hope for.

It is my belief that the government gets enough money to meet needed infrastructure priorities if it focused on the right things, but in time of war it may be necessary to raise taxes. As our Democratic friends constantly remind us, keeping our nation safe is expensive. While I cannot agree with their solution (failing to keep our nation safe), some accounting for the costs may need to be done. I'm all for circumspection in raising taxes, but John McCain (or any other politician), shouldn't take any cards off the table.