Category: Uncategorized

It’s practically the definition of a win-win situation:

My understanding of reproduction is that it is the basis of the institutions of marriage and family, and those two provide the moorings to the structure of gender and sexual oppression. Family is the social institution that ensures unpaid reproductive and domestic labour, and is concerned with initiating a new generation into the gendered (as I analyzed here) and classed social set-up. Not only that, families prevent money the flow of money from the rich to the poor: wealth accumulates in a few hands to be squandered on and bequeathed to the next generation, and that makes families as economic units selfishly pursue their own interests and become especially prone to consumerism.

So it makes sense to say that if the world has to change, reproduction has to go. Of course there is an ecological responsibility to reduce the human population, or even end it , and a lot was said about that on the blogosphere recently (here, and here), but an ecological consciousness is not how I came to my decision to remain child-free.

Anyone still wonder why I call them evolutionary dead-ends? Now, since they’re quite determined to extinguish themselves, do you think they’d have any objection if we helped them move the process along a little more quickly?

I’m thinking radical lobotomies and Bene Tleilaxu tanks.

There’s not much question which space this blog inhabits:

In the sphere of deviance we find “political actors and views which journalists and the political mainstream of society reject as unworthy of being heard.” As in the sphere of consensus, neutrality isn’t the watchword here; journalists maintain order by either keeping the deviant out of the news entirely or identifying it within the news frame as unacceptable, radical, or just plain impossible. The press “plays the role of exposing, condemning, or excluding from the public agenda” the deviant view, says Hallin. It “marks out and defends the limits of acceptable political conduct.”

Anyone whose views lie within the sphere of deviance—as defined by journalists—will experience the press as an opponent in the struggle for recognition. If you don’t think separation of church and state is such a good idea; if you do think a single payer system is the way to go; if you dissent from the “lockstep behavior of both major American political parties when it comes to Israel” (Glenn Greenwald) chances are you will never find your views reflected in the news. It’s not that there’s a one-sided debate; there’s no debate.

One could quite reasonably add about 80 percent of the views I hold to the deviant sphere, starting with the recognition that Keynesian economics are utter hogwash. Look at how almost every single so-called conservative at National Review supported the Paulson Plan. Did it work? No. Did that harm their credibility with Republican readers in the slightest? Apparently not.

Bruce Bartlett wanted to know who saw the housing bubble coming. Out of curiosity, I checked my blog archives and saw that I wrote this in September 2002:

[T]here can be little doubt that the implosion of the equity markets will soon be followed by the pricking of the credit and real estate bubbles. As great financial houses such as Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase teeter on the edge of bankruptcy, it is well within the realm of possibility that the triple whammy of the equity, credit and real estate implosions will lead to the collapse of the entire global financial system.

Okay, the global financial system hasn’t collapsed yet, but two for three isn’t bad so far. And it’s not as if the triple whammy has finished crashing yet; Obama is still on deck.

Global Warming isn’t actually about the environment anyhow:

Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for “global governance” and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.

There’s an easy way to detect when an activist group has an underlying motive at odds with its purported raison d’etre. If it favors the same solution to every potential problem, it’s seeing the solution enacted that interests the group, not solving the problem.

An ominous sighting in Lincolnshire:

Witnesses near the wind farm described seeing a “massive ball of light with tentacles going right down to the ground” shortly before the 290ft turbine’s propeller was mysteriously damaged. Eyewitness John Harrison said: “It was huge. With the tentacles it looked just like an octopus.”

The Black Goat stalks the night! The Sleeper stirs beneath the antipodean ice as the cold twilight of the Elder Gods descends! “Iä! Iä! Iä! Shub-Niggurath!”

The column today:

After eight years, it is eminently clear to conservatives and liberals alike that George W. Bush is one of the worst presidents that the United States has ever suffered. His incompetent handling of what were completely predictable economic crises is historically rivaled only by his fellow Keynesian in laissez faire clothing, Herbert Hoover. Like Bush, Hoover inherited an economy just reaching its inflationary peak. And like Bush, Hoover refused to accept the laws of economic gravity, thus turning what should have been a normal recession into what is now known as the Great Depression.

But there is no problem so great that the credentialed experts of the nation cannot exacerbate it.

Minor upset and major upset yesterday. The Ravens knocking off the Titans wasn’t shocking, the Cardinals blowing away the Panthers was. I’m 0-2, but I still like New York and Pittsburgh. I mean, home teams have never gone 0-4, have they?

George W. Bush on his presidency:

“I’m better than fine — I am proud of the accomplishments of this administration,” he said. “I know I gave it my all for eight years, and I did not sell my soul for the sake of popularity. And so when I get back home and look in the mirror, I will be proud of what I see.”

George W. Bush is, in my estimation, one of the four worst presidents in U.S. history, exceeded only by Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt. He may, however, be the most delusional about his place in history; the full extent of his ineptitude should become apparent once Afghanistan and Pakistan heat up and the temporary gains in Iraq vanish again.

It’s interesting to note that he was aware of how terrible the political price of the Iraqi Occupation was. Perhaps the many Occupation apologists at National Review, Pajamas Media, and other nominally conservative places can begin to admit that this was, in fact, the case despite their staunch denials at the time.

The game of the round is definitely Titans-Ravens. The combination of nasty defenses, good special teams and mediocre, but passable offenses is a classic championship recipe. I tend to lean towards the Titans here just because I expect their defense to give the Baltimore offense more trouble than the Dolphins defense could. As long as Fisher doesn’t lose his patience and decide that Kerry Collins has to beat the Ravens secondary with his arm, they should be able to slug it out and walk away winners in a low-scoring game.

Everyone loves the Panthers over the Cardinals, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t. But you can never entirely count out an explosive offense or be entirely sure that a quarterback like Kurt Warner won’t suddenly get hot. More likely, they’ll hit him a lot, cause three fumbles, and win by 14 or more. The Giants shouldn’t have too much trouble with the Eagles given that they actually have a quarterback to go with their running game, while I’m one of the few people who isn’t getting on the Chargers bus.

The synchronicities are now coming fast and furious; one could almost think to pass this week’s quiz by paying attention to the financial headlines. Chapter 11: The Hoover New Deal of 1932, for next week.

Perhaps Brad Childress will sign an excellent quarterback and the Vikings will take it up another level to be able to compete with the NFL elite. But it appears very, very unlikely based on this unhappy news of stability in the Vikings staff:

Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress plans to retain his entire staff. Special-teams coach Ferraro to stay on…. Ferraro came under perhaps the most scrutiny during the 2008 season. The Vikings’ special teams allowed seven touchdowns, an NFL record in the modern era.

It wasn’t just the touchdowns allowed. It was the fact that a team set up to play field position football was giving away every hard earned net yard on the majority of exchanges. It would be unbelievable if we hadn’t seen so many of these common sense-defying decisions already during the Childress Reign of Confusion.