Several voices in recent days have pointed out that despite the severity of our financial crisis, there is reason to hope that it could lead to better days. My favorite was the moderate Matt Millen, from the popular political talkshow Left, Right, and Center, who on Friday concluded with this: On what has been aContinue reading “From Inside the Bottle, a Ray of Hope”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
Advice for Tough Times (from Loudon Wainwright III)
At the delightful (and crowded!) Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival yesterday in San Francisco, the great wit Loudon Wainwright III concluded with a new song, as yet unrecorded, about the tough times we’re in. First he joked that this was part of "The New Optimism," which he is able to offer because he has been aContinue reading “Advice for Tough Times (from Loudon Wainwright III)”
A Great Speech for Tough Times
As some of us have been fearing, the Dow is down nearly 600 points today. If the bail-out fails to pass in Congress, chances are it will fall much further. We may be in for some truly hard times ahead. This is not a time for happy talk, but it is a time to thinkContinue reading “A Great Speech for Tough Times”
Meet the New Boss: Progressive Capitalism
I’m not a big fan of David Brooks, and think he’s far more of an ideologue and less of a free-thinker than he realizes, but when he’s right, he’s right. We as a nation have turned a corner. For better or worse, a new era awaits us: Progressive Capitalism Over the next few years, theContinue reading “Meet the New Boss: Progressive Capitalism”
Mold: Toxic Menace or Life on Earth?
While I was gone, I missed a great (and long) story in the LA Weekly (here) about the mom who turned mold "toxic," creating a storm of lucrative litigation out of fear, misunderstanding, and greed. Like those who would later join the cause, including Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon, [Sharon Kramer] saw a conspiracy fundedContinue reading “Mold: Toxic Menace or Life on Earth?”
A Black Swan in White Face (The Great Correction)
Wendell Berry, the conservative poet without a website, has a phrase for the slightly crazed exuberance of American culture in the last few decades. With a caustic shrug, he calls it the "cheap energy mind." Problem is, our time in this mindset — and its denial — seems to have run out with $4.00 gas.Continue reading “A Black Swan in White Face (The Great Correction)”
Quote of the Year (religious)
"The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a God or not. The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion [as Dostoyevsky said]….according to Renan, "The day after that on which the worldContinue reading “Quote of the Year (religious)”
Closed Minds — Libertarian and Religious — Think Alike
Often on the right hand side of the political dial I hear claims that environmentalism is "a religion." I guess by this it’s meant that some people, maybe including me, think the earth is sacred. Horrors! Instead of contesting this, I’m beginning to think enviros should agree, and point out that to many on theContinue reading “Closed Minds — Libertarian and Religious — Think Alike”
The Black Swan vs. Power Law
Much talk this year about Nicholas Taleb’s Black Swan. (For short and long — but remarkably lucid — discussions of the concept, from a completely non-mathematical perspective, take a look at this excellent introduction from Grumpy Old Bookman.) Most of the coverage of the concept has been laudatory, so it’s useful to hear a discouragingContinue reading “The Black Swan vs. Power Law”
The Politics of Fear: Right vs. Left
Last week Andrew Sullivan gave the mic to a National Review editor named Peter Suderman, among others, who has posted on the petty-minded Planet Gore. (That’s the right-wing website devoted to the proposition that global warming is Al Gore’s doing, and if we can just make enough fun of him personally, the whole problem willContinue reading “The Politics of Fear: Right vs. Left”
Kit Stolz 