Categories
Politics

Living in Tim Pawlenty’s Fantasyland

As we get ever closer to the 2012 primary season, I’m watching the GOP Presidential campaign with a growing sense of amusement. The announced candidates and the unofficial contenders are so profoundly unserious that I have a hard time believing they mean half of the things coming out of their mouths. Still, words have consequences, […]

Categories
Recommendations

Tab Sweep – August 2009 Edition

I’ve been reading of great articles on the web lately, and I thought I’d share some of the best with you, my dear readers. Enjoy. Totally Wasted – Mother Jones’ epic special report on the War on Drugs. Damning evidence that our country needs a major shift in drug policies. The Great American Bubble Machine […]

Categories
North Dakota

Is North Dakota the Recession’s Big Winner?

Last night, Marketplace had a great story about the strength of North Dakota’s economy in this recession. In short, our state is thriving right now: What is happening is a combination of planning and luck that’s left the state with something rare these days: a $700 million budget surplus and a big fat tax cut. […]

Categories
Economy

Cascading Failure

As I watch our country slip deeper and deeper into economic depression (yes – this is a depression, like it or not), I often wonder how bad it’s going to get, how things will look on the other side, what will finally get us to the other side, and what this all means in the […]

Categories
Insights

The Future Will be Decentralized

More and more, I’m beginning to think that our success as a nation – and as a species on this planet – depends on us looking back to our ancestors for wisdom and insight for survival. And, I think that will lead us to one overarching theme: Decentralization. As the human race became more modern […]

Categories
Politics

The Pragmatic President

You may have sworn off politics for awhile after the extremely long election cycle that just ended, and I wouldn’t blame you if you did. If you do have any interest left in the subject though, I highly recommend setting aside some time to read through Newsweek’s epic seven part series, titled Secrets of the […]

Categories
Economy

What To Do About Detroit?

Update on Nov 18 @ 9:30am: Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic makes a good case for an auto bailout with conditions. Without one, Chapter 7 (liquidation) might be Detroit’s only other option. I’m deeply torn about what our government should do about GM, Ford, and Chrysler – a fact that doesn’t sit well with […]

Categories
Economy

Feeding the Monster (or, The End)

The more time passes, and the more that I learn about America’s crumbling financial system, the more I think maybe we should just let it all burn. You know, start over from scratch.

Categories
Politics

The Republicans Are a Sad, Pathetic Political Party

I was in the process of writing a long-ish post about why I’m voting for Senator Obama next month, and who knows – maybe I’ll still finish and publish it. But if you want a good idea, just go visit The Corner on the National Review Online site. The amount of pettiness, paranoia, and hate […]

Categories
Economy

Staring Into The Economic Abyss

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been riveted to the news the last few weeks as we watch our economy self-destruct. If you’re going solely by anecdotal evidence, or by watching the stock market indexes, things might not seem all that bad. But, if you start digging into the subject in-depth, you begin to […]