Get Serious

Pushing their Young Guns book on The Newshour last night, the first two areas Rep. Cantor and his sidekick Kevin McCarthy mention to cut are Amtrak, and compensated time for union representation for federal employees.

Best and Worst of America

Side by side in today's Washington Post.  First its coverage of the Supreme Court hearing of the Rev. Phelps demonstration near the funeral of a soldier.  Second an article on the death of a food cart vendor in DC, who over 20 or so years developed an extensive network of friends among the people who bought from him.

Why the "best and worst"?  The activities of Rev. Phelps are disgusting and disgraceful.  They also, IMHO, should be legal if I understand the situation correctly, i.e., that while close to the funeral, the demonstrators weren't at the funeral.  Meanwhile, Carlos Guardado was making friends on K street, a site not known for its public-spirited and outgoing denizens.  Starting as an illegal immigrant, he became legal.  As a book by Harry Golden once said: "Only in America".  (Golden coined the "Vertical Negro Rule" and inspired Calvin Trillin to coin the Harry Golden rule:  "in present-day America it's very difficult, when commenting on events of the day, to invent something so bizarre that it might not actually come to pass while your piece is still on the presses." 

Damn Right I Do

Prefer to read negative stories about younger people, as this study says.  Of course, I prefer to read negative stories about evil people, Republicans, the rich... (but I repeat myself).

Court Strategies: Libs Are Hypocrites

Ezra Klein links to a Slate article on how the conservatives are manipulating things on the Supreme Court to get their preferred result.It sounds bad, but with my little nose I smell hypocrisy.  I recall reading in the past  articles, first on Thurgood Marshall and then on Justice Ginsburg, the theme of which was the craftsmanship and legal tactics involved in selecting the right cases, and making the right arguments, to lay the ground for overturning segregation and establishing women's rights.  So it seems to me what Chief Roberts and his fellow conservatives are doing is much the same, using sharp tactics to reach their strategic goal.  The difference is that liberals liked the goals of reversing Plessy v. Ferguson, but don't like the goal of reversing Miranda, or Roe v. Wade.

Waste: The Price You Pay for Choice

Waste, as in wasted food, is a subject reaching the news.  See this Treehugger post 

I have to believe that more waste occurs in the food distribution channels, including restaurants, than in the kitchens of America. 

In the spirit of Warren Buffett's education reform idea (fix the system by assigning pupils entirely at random, after banning all private schools and home schooling), my suggestion to avoid food waste:

When shopping for vegetables and fruit in the store, always choose the oldest and ugliest available. When ordering in the restaurant, always order the least popular entree.

Don't want to follow my choice rules? That's because they eliminate choice, eliminate freedom. Choice necessarily involves waste.

Cultural/Societal Differences Are Fascinating

China doesn't have a navy. Via Tom Ricks at Best Defense, a very interesting article on 10 myths about the (non-existent Chinese navy).  It reminds me, early in the Revolution the army or militia had some ships.  Matter of fact, the Army still has ships or boats, or something that floats.  (I think that's right--I remember being on guard duty at Ft. Belvoir and they had something nautical.)

Mankiw's Error of Perception

Greg Mankiw, Harvard economics prof, found The Social Network to be an enjoyable movie, but thought it unfairly portrayed Harvard undergrads as snobs, instead of the likable types he encounters. I hate  love to snark at Harvard, but there may not be a conflict. here: Harvard undergrads are so capable they can appear snobbish to the world outside and likable to those in authority over them, like a professor.

Black and Yglesias Are Wrong on McGovern

Matt Yglesias links to an a Jane Black piece from yesterday, implying George McGovern's chairing of a nutrition committee in 1977 which dissed red meat was a reason he lost his Senate seat in 1980.

This is a piece of wisdom from foodie movement literature--off hand I can't remember whether it was in Pollan or another writer.  Unfortunately, I believe it's wrong.

• I doubt the cattlemen ever were real strong supporters of McGovern's.  The wheat growers, maybe, because he supported farm programs, but not cattlemen.
• Searching the NY Times archive finds articles discussing the election outlook but none mentioning nutrition/red meat as an issue.  
• McGovern had won re-election in 1974 by 53 percent, so he wasn't exactly strongly entrenched.
• His opponent, James Abdnor, was a four-term congressman so had name recognition across South Dakota.
• NCPAC opposed McGovern, partially on abortion issues, partially because the conservatives loved to hate George.
• Finally, the head of the ticket in 1980 was Jimmy Carter, who was running against some aged ex-actor fellow.  As a result, 1980 was the worst year for a party in the US Senate since 1958, seeing McGovern, Frank Church, Warren Magnusson, Birch Bayh, John Culver, et. al. all go down to defeat.

See Wikipedia on the 1980 senate election in SD , the national senate election, and on McGovern.

This to me is an example of how easily whippersnappers who didn't live through events can adopt historical theories which suit their viewpoint, ignoring the complexity of reality while enjoying the ease of certitude.

[Updated: changed first sentence to be more fair to Black.]

Sentence of Oct 4

"the Tea Party activists on the right and the netroots activists on the left might be the political lobbies that do the most to preserve the integrity of the U.S. financial system."  Dan Drezner

Republican Senate Catch-22: Coburn Meet DeMint

Sen. Coburn of Oklahoma blocked the unanimous passage of five bills protecting various animals on the basis that ""The problems that are facing this country are so big and so massive that our attention ought to be focused on those large problems, not on five separate bills that have been proffered for special interest groups," Coburn said.

Meanwhile Sen. DeMint of South Carolina is blocking consideration of every bill with he doesn't agree.