Archive for November 18, 2008

PZ Myers Should Stick to Science

I love PZ. I really do. The American science community needs people like him to remind people that science (as a worldview) works, while religious fundamentalism doesn’t and, more importantly, science needs good watchdogs. But when it comes to politics, PZ’s a little too fire-and-brimstone to be practical, as his recent call for “victor’s justice” against Joe Lieberman demonstrates. From a pure ideological perspective, it would be best to wholly ignore the Republican Party, and run as far to the left as Bush did to the right. But remember what happened to Bush? Let’s not repeat that from our end. Thank God that Obama understands that (though Reid should’ve made as much clear a little earlier).

137 Newsprint Pages of Foreclosures

I found this video via How the World Works (one of my favorite economic blogs). The video shows a man going through the Detroit Free Press‘s special real estate section, listing foreclosures in Wayne County, Michigan. He reminds us that this mega listing is before the (imminent) failure of the Big Three.

On the West Coast, the L.A. Times reports that for the first time since the housing bubble burst, the majority of homes sold in Southern California in one month (October) were foreclosures.

The magnitude of the foreclosure epidemic is shocking, and it’s only going to get worse … more layoffs, more business failures … also, as people who might be in a position to buy continue to postpone purchases, waiting to see if prices drop futher, deflation is bound to set in …

We’re in a vicious cycle. Anyone dizzy yet?

Your Weekly Lieberman Update: Not the Environment and Public Works Committee!

So ol’ Joe gets to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, but (gasp!) he has lost his chair of the Environment and Public Works subcommittee. Typical of Democratic Senate activity under Harry Reid, this Lieberman affair took way too long to resolve, was way too circus-like, and made Senate leadership look, well, leaderless. Where, exactly, was Reid during all of this? Dodd, Bayh and other senators apparently were the main players in this drama. Call me bloodthirsty, but I still want a head to roll. Sorry, Harry, but that head needs to be yours.

Kristol to Republicans: I’m Certainly Not the Problem

Bill said what?!

It must be nice to be William Kristol, to be able to live in a world of delusion and denial without repercussion and to build a celebrity career on a fantastic self-perception of perfection. Get it people: Kristol is infallible.

His column in the New York Times yesterday, on first skim, seems reasonable enough. The Republican Party is in trouble. Its economic message in mired in historical failure (Hoover’s mismanagement of depression economics), and the very loud constituency that defends the sanctity of free-market and supply-side economics is not helping matters. If the Republicans are going to regain power, something must be done about the Party’s economic platform.

Fair enough, but note this little pearl:

A hawkish foreign policy, social conservatism and middle-American populism aren’t the problems. Those elements, as embodied on the Republican ticket by John McCain and Sarah Palin, produced a respectable 46 percent of the national vote …

Essentially, social conservatism and neocon foreign policy, the latter being Kristol’s birthright, are the only factors keeping the Republican Party afloat. It’s the supply siders who ruined everything! With the stroke of the keyboard, Kristol easily absolves himself of any responsibility, as a leading conservative intellectual, for the failure of his party. His pronouncement reflects an easy presumptuousness akin to Sarah Palin’s in declaring herself innocent before release of the Branchflower Report.

Reality check: The problem with the Republican Party is bigger than the sum of Kristol’s “big three” components: supply siders, neocons, and social conservatives. The bigger whole is a deep-seated rigidity and self-righteousness that prevent quick adaptation and reasoned, inclusive debate within the party. I have long marveled at the Republican Party’s ability to circle the wagons to great success in national elections, but the 2008 election showed some serious weaknesses in this favorite Republican strategy. The Party had failed to coalesce voices of dissent in framing its platform, but it remained ever-rigid and ever convinced of its own mandate to protect the “real America.” It was a hollow sell, and showed the Party’s inability to handle very real crises.

The denial and delusion borne out of such self-righteousness is front and center in Kristol’s column: It’s not me; it’s everyone else! But what does Kristol care? As he told John Stewart on October 30: “If you’re a liberal, you should be for Obama; if you are a conservative, you should be for McCain. It’s not a psychodrama. It’s just an election” (4:50).

Serious Site Problems

Good news everyone! The hosting servers we use seem to be ridiculously broken lately, and today is no exception. If you can’t get to the site a couple times today, please don’t give up; I’m yelling at Dreamhost to fix it at this very moment. Thanks for your patience.