From an interview with Larry Summers by Walter Isaacson at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference: The biggest problem the country has right now is not the budget deficit. The biggest problem the country has right now is the jobs deficit. Yes, there’s a risk that we will misplay things and make the mistakes of the 1970s, and have inflation and have excessive borrowing. But far and away the larger risk is that we will make the mistakes of 1937, and that we... Read more
The following is making the rounds on Facebook as a smug, “just-folks like me are so much smarter than all those idiots in Washington” piece of myth-making: Salary of the US President. ..$400,000. Salary of retired US Presidents …$180,000. Salary of House/Senate…$174, 000. Salary of Speaker of the House…$223,500… Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders… $193,400… Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN IRAQ $38,000… I think we have found where the cuts should be made! If you agree… repost. OK, let’s give... Read more
At Respectful Insolence, Orac struggles to respond to “A disturbing post on an anti-vaccine blog.” The anti-vaccine movement rejects the medical science behind childhood vaccination, believing it to be linked somehow to autism. They used to be able to point to a single study — never replicated and often refuted — that claimed to support this belief, but that study has since been shown to have been based on fraudulent data. Like most followers of science-rejecting ideologies, anti-vaxxers have to... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 401-402 One possibility is that Jerry Jenkins had in mind a rough list of developments planned to take place in the second book and a general goal for that book of about 450 pages. After typing up the first 17 chapters, then, he found himself 400 pages along with most of those developments still unmentioned. So Jenkins thus skips ahead 18 months and spits out the final 50 pages in a hasty, jumbled rush, skipping from topic... Read more
. Job seekers: Let us know where you are and what you’re looking for. Everybody: Skim through and see if you know something, or know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who might help out one of our job seekers. I don’t know if we’ve hit the grand prize yet of someone actually landing a job via leads recommended here, but then we’ve only been doing this for two weeks, and I’ve been using Monster and Simply Hired and... Read more
I completely agree with Matt Yglesias that “Full Employment Is a Worker’s Best Friend.” He writes: The real issue here is that instead of workers threatening to leave this crappy job and get a better one, people are clamoring to work at this warehouse. This is one small glance at why I keep urging progressives to start caring about monetary policy more. Nobody considers themselves a monetary policy activist. But if you’re interested in labor and working conditions, you’ve got... Read more
Molly Worthen’s Slate piece — “Sign Here, and Here, and Here” — on the weirdly slavery-friendly “Marriage Vow” being promoted by the Iowa religious right group “FAMiLY LEADER,” includes a shrewd summary of why such declarations and manifestos have become so common, and thus so meaningless, in the evangelical subculture: These Declarations and Calls and Vows underscore the ongoing problem of authority that has defined evangelicals ever since they first thumbed their noses at the pope and—in many cases—fled the... Read more
Friend of mine sells houses. Her job involves a lot of conversation with customers, and doing her job well means conversing with them in a way that reassures them and makes them feel comfortable. Occasionally, those conversations take a turn that makes her uncomfortable, suddenly switching into a category we might describe as white people talking to white people when they’re sure there’s no one but white people around. She’s had clients blurt out some appalling things, hateful, ignorant, infuriating... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 1-401 I neglected to mention one other rather important thing the authors neglected to mention following their 18-month leap forward in time. After the unexplained, instantaneous disappearance of every child on earth the whole world would be desperate to know if it would ever again be possible for women to conceive and bear children. There was no word on this question before the time-skip, as only about six weeks or so had elapsed since the Event. But... Read more
. Job seekers: Let us know where you are and what you’re looking for. Everybody: Skim through and see if you know something, or know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who might help out one of our job seekers. Some links you probably already know about: Linkedin Simply Hired Opportunity Knocks Idealist Read more
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