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Total War

Nice editorial today in the WAPost on Lincoln and Grant's actions in the Civil War vs. our leadership. Lincoln and Grant had a willingness to do what was necessary to win, as well as were able to understand the moral consequences of their actions. This administration does not do that. "Above all, that means dealing with Iraqis as they are, not as we wish they were."



PS. Was moving into a new apartment this week, right by school. Just found out that I will be teaching four discussion groups this semester. Very very nice.

National Debt and Personal Debt

Very good article in this month's New Republic entitled "False Positive" by Jacob Hacker. It's a subscriber only article, but if you don't subscribe to TNR, you should sign up today. TNR was the first "big-kid" political magazine that I started reading. Anyway, here is the rambling disjointed email that I sent to Paul Krugman at 3 AM today:

"Dr. Krugman,

Have you read the article, "False Positive" by Jacob Hacker in the

latest New Republic? What are your thoughts on his universal insurance

proposal coupled with the government subsidized savings accounts? Also, do

you think there is a way to draw an analogy between individual Americans'

personal debt to the national debt? I don't think most politicians and

economists have ever had to live off of a credit card for any significant time,

but it could be a very potent analogy and a way to discredit Bush's claims of

economic stimulus from his large deficits. Regular people understand

credit cards and loans. Not GDP and deficits. Now,

economics and finance aren't my strengths, but if I understand correctly,

Keynesian economic theory basically allows for short term deficits to stimulate

the economy, not long term structural deficits, correct? It's like the

difference between buying a TV on the MasterCard versus paying the electricity

bill on your MasterCard, as well as using the Visa to pay the interest on the

MasterCard. When you buy the TV on credit you get something of use right

away, then you pay it back at your leisure. It's good for you, you get a

TV. It's good for Best Buy, they hire employees, make a profit: it's money

into the economy, etc. It's good for your bank; they make money from the

interest that you pay them on the loan. It's good for the stockmarket

because the bank invests the money that they are making on your money.

Good deal. Everybody is a winner.



But if something unexpected happens, like your car breaks down, or your

wife gets sick, (or your family gets dive bombed by Muslim terrorists, or you

find yourself embroiled in two middle-Eastern wars) , and you have to pay the

electricity bill on the credit card one month, you are starting the slide down

the hole to bankruptcy. You are paying for a necessity, not a

luxury, and you can't afford it with your current income. You have to

borrow money just to meet your basic needs, and you not only start off on

thewrong foot with your borrowing, you start accruing interest from day one.

This is bad if it happens once, but if it happens indefinitely, you

eventually reach the end of your credit. Also, your interest payments

eventually will be higher than the original cost of your electricity bill.

Also, if nothing horrible happens, and unless your income drastically

rises, you may be able to keep up with the interest payments, and stay on top of

the bills, but to reduce significant levels of debt is very

difficult.



Well, it looks like the US government is paying the electricity bill on

the credit card right now. Like I said, I'm not an economist. I know

this is a long convoluted analogy, but I think it has merit. "Regular"

people understand how bad having credit card debt is. They worry about

their mortgage payment, and their kid's student loans. If the Democrats

could exploit personal debt, instead of trying to predict how to react to job

numbers or the stock market numbers each month, they wouldn't look like ghouls

saying that things are really bad. The GDP growth numbers look good on

paper, right? However, isn't a lot of our growth in GDP because of the

money spent on defense and the war on terror? Average Americans know that

the stock market is good. They also know that they have debt, and it gnaws

at the back of their skull a little bit each night before they go to bed.

If that stock market starts to slide down, or if interest rates start

edging up, they know that they are in big trouble. So what do you think?

Could you clean up that analogy a bit?"

So what about it guys? Is that a workable analogy? Does anyone understand what my addled brain is trying to say? I'd be happy to get some input from anyone who knows anything about economics. I sure don't.



PS. I know that the formatting is goofy as hell whenever I do a block quote. Sorry, that's Blogger, not me. I wish I knew how to make this thing work better.

National Review on Kerry/Yucca Mountain

From Jonah Goldberg on NRO:

Now, I've been

to Yucca Mountain and interviewed the scientists there and read quite a few

of the studies. And, frankly, I have no idea what Kerry is talking about. Yucca

Mountain is indisputably the safest conceivable installation for nuclear waste

in America — and, quite probably, on the planet. If terrorists wanted to, say,

crash a 747 into Yucca Mountain, they'd pretty much have to get past the Nellis

Air Force base, where the Air Force practices blowing things up. It's also the

home of the Air Warfare Center and the Air Force Weapons School. It is where the

Thunderbirds practice and the site of the International combat-training exercise

known as "Red Flag." Yucca Mountain also abuts the highly secure Nevada Test

Site where we've blown up a kajillion atomic bombs.

and:

Besides, if the fear is that terrorists can get their hands on this material,

why is it preferable to keep the ingredients for dirty bombs at countless

unguarded, disparate sites around the country? Even if transport is risky, isn't

leaving this junk scattered across the country riskier? Kerry has criticized the

administration for not acting fast enough to collect and secure nuclear

materials in the former Soviet Union, why does he want to prolong the process

here at home?

check me out.

By the way, I like the idea of Yucca Mountain. I would rather have all of

this country's nuclear waste stashed in the most highly guarded and best

protected place in the entire United States, rather than spread out at hundreds

of under-protected facilities across the country. You gotta put this shit some

where. The only thing to worry about is the transportation of the nuclear

materials. Once it gets here, it doesn't matter. The spooge is going to be

buried in the middle of a mountain. If you are worried about terrorists getting

to it, you should also be worrying about terrorists going to Area-51, stealing

an alien spacecraft, and using it to attack Las Vegas. It's just not going to

happen. These areas are some of the highest security places in the world. It's

seriously a lot better to have a few thousand pounds of nuclear waste stashed

here, rather than a few hundred pounds in Bridgeport Connecticut, Dover

Delaware, Seattle, Kansas City, and wherever the hell else this goop might be.

Titles now.

Well, I decided to start putting titles on my blog posts. So, here we go.

Voter Registration in Nevada (My job).

Want to hear something really interesting? I heard about this earlier in the week, but wanted to see some written verification before I posted. Democrats have officially gained the edge in registered voters out here in the Silver State. The RJ reports 747 more Ds than Rs in Nevada. I had heard approximately 7000. We'll see how many of those registrations are valid. There still appears to be a shit ton of voter fraud going on out here, especially in Clark county. Freddy Kreuger and Elvis Presley were both registered to vote out here a few months ago.

ACLU, Nevada, Marijuana

Breaking news, the marijuana legalization initiative looks like it will be on the ballot here in Nevada November 2nd! If I could make sirens and flashing lights on my site like Drudge, I would. I'm very happy about this one. Federal court declared the Nevada 13th counties rule for the initiative process unconstitutional. Good job ACLU!