lewis's blog

The inscription on the Statue of Liberty reads:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/330-from-pickin-cotton-to-pi...

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions, but this was to good not to post.

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12...

I could not have said it better myself. This very eloquently sums up
all my issues with the current incarnation of the GOP. Furthermore, if
they continue to believe that the solution to their declining
popularity is to move further to the right, especially on social
issues, the party is doomed. Sadly (for them) I think this is the
direction they're headed (if Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh et al are any
indication). They seem to think that their problem is that they

The mainstream media won't report this kind of thing, and you have to get
your news somewhere. Anyway, I found this today:

http://benbittrolff.blogspot.com/2008/10/really-scary-fed-charts-oct-now...

Honestly, this is so bad, I thought it had to be a hoax. You know,
like the kind of scare tactics so often employed by short sellers to
get the market action they want? Sadly, it is not. Here are the same
charts again:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DISCBORR

Courtesy of the St. Louis Fed. Honestly there are no words to

Greetings Comrade Reader! No, but seriously, it looks like we are well on our way to a Communist America, with this latest round of financial bailouts by the Government. It’s not the bailouts that are so problematic, per se, but the fact that the U.S. Government now owns (or has warrants to own) significant portions of the financial and credit system in this country (Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG are new; the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the FDIC are old news).

OK. Deep breaths. Let's start at the beginning. I was reading dear ol' Reddit, and happened across this video post from TED:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

Being a Sociology major (among other things) I found this pretty fascinating. It also has the ring of truth to it, which makes me like it even more.

Disclaimer: I know this two party view of the world is somewhat oversimplifying things, but I don't think it invalidates the ideas put forward.

Well, as we so easily forget history in this country, we are now likely doomed to repeat it. Lehman Brothers is bankrupt, and by this time Wednesday, AIG probably will be as well. And how did this whole subprime mess come to be in the first place?

BEGIN RANT

You can really point to one main issue: how freaking STUPID our government is.

I found this today on Reddit:

http://www.sundayherald.com/misc/print.php?artid=2446103

The author talks a lot about broader issues that also confound me, but here are my favorite parts:

I've got some changes to the site underway. First, I'm moving away (somewhat) from the politics theme. I originally started the site with the intention to blog about the election, my gripes with Congress and so on. And while I still reserve the right to post on those topics, I'm moving in a more eclectic direction.

It'll be more like two guys talking over beers and waxing philosophical. With some random interesting bits (or funny bits?) thrown in for good measure.

"Presidential candidates, instead of disputing how much more tax to impose on whom, would be better advised to come up with plans for increasing GDP while ridding the tax system of its wearying complexity. That would be a formula for success."

I couldn't agree more with this this opinion column by David Ranson in the WSJ today. I'll let you read the article, but I have to pile on (as always).