And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all.
--- Plato's Socrates (loosely translated)
Just in case someone I don't know is actually drawn to my blog, here's a little about me: I am a third year at the University of Virginia studying political theory and economics. I started this blog as a sort of next step from a previous venture of serving as a kinda daily political digest for my friends through a group on facebook. But then I got tired of that and stopped posting for a while, and now I'm doing this for a better reason: my girlfriend, so she can see everything I read ever and like. And for myself.
If you'd like to contact me, my email is ajowls333 at g mail dot com (obviously in a different format; figure it out(with Summer Sanders)).
Enjoy
Frequented Series of Tubes:
Greenwald
Daily Dish
Hullabaloo
Obsidian Wings
Talking Points Memo
Politifact
SCOTUSblog
Discovery News
New Scientist
Science Daily
Scientific American
Media Matters
Reason
Accumulating Peripherals
The Monkey Cage
Greg Mankiw
Paul Krugman
Salon
Politico
Jeff’s post made me remember this graphic, which apparently can’t get reblogged enough. Matthew Yglesias puts it together from David Leonhardt’s column in the New York Times.
Anyway:
I can’t tell if this is a joke or not. Obama was a Senator last year, right? And as both a Senator and Presidential candidate, he supported and voted for the massive bailouts that led to the $1.3 trillion dollar deficit, right? And he knows that these bailouts had nothing to do with tax cuts, right? And he didn’t vote to close down the Medicare drug program, right? And that drug program—while not properly funded—isn’t the reason we have a trillion dollar deficit, right? And none of these things require this, do they? So is he joking, or does he just think we’re fools?
The bailouts didn’t cause the deficit.
The Bush tax cuts, together with the economic downturn, for all intents and purposes, did.
I don’t think the point is that the Medicare drug bill caused the deficit, but that its passage reflected a lack of concern for controlling spending when it suited certain people’s interests.
Oops.
There’s one problem with Freeman’s analysis: Massachusetts doesn’t have a public plan. As former MA governor Mitt Romney, who implemented the plan, told CNSNews last month, “Our plan did not include a government insurance plan.” “Instead, we relied entirely on private market-based insurance plans to help people get insurance,” said Romney.
![soupsoup:
southpol:
Kind of surprised I haven’t already seen this float across my dashboard a couple times already.
[The Plank and Ezra Klein]](http://11.media.tumblr.com/gpdOMwhqTqgjhz1yWaPcX5vCo1_400.jpg)
Kind of surprised I haven’t already seen this float across my dashboard a couple times already.
[The Plank and Ezra Klein]
The distinctive American version of libertarianism focuses almost solely on the value of freedom, and makes freedom synonymous with non-interference at the hands of government. In more sophisticated…
Alright, Michelle sent me this article from CNN Money/Fortune on 5 potential freedoms to be lost with health care reform, at least in its pretty unclear form at this point. I thought I’d post the…
Charlie Rose comes to mind but he’s not confrontational enough. If Stewart would pander less to his left leaning guests, he would be more deserving of the title. He’s unapologetically partisan. The right doesn’t have anyone like Stewart, and could use one, P.J. O’Rouke is as close as they get but he doesn’t have nearly the same reach as Stewart.
It would be interesting for there to be someone more centrist who could fill Stewart’s role.
(via soupsoup)
He has my vote. He’s biased, but he always seems fair to me. And he’s always willing to criticize every side.
![kari-shma:
“walk away” Fine Art Print by miruna uzdris [3479033-2] - RedBubble](http://15.media.tumblr.com/AZN7wsuV4qfesuki3cfimHzXo1_400.jpg)
