The American People Are Idiots

I know a good way to ensure we experience a double dip recession...BALANCE THE BUDGET!!!! According to CNN this is what the American people believe the priority of the government should be. Atrios is right, apparently we are a nation of little Herbert Hoovers scurrying about.

Seriously though, we have a relatively recent historical example to show us why this is not a good idea. By the mid 1930s the New Deal had become quite effective and substantially lowered unemployment, and then in 1937 FDR decided it was time to balance the budget. Then, surprise, the economy began to shrink again and the nation was given the gift of another recession.

Don't get me wrong. Perennial deficits are not in the long term interests of the country, but there is a time and a place. Maybe if we hadn't followed GWB's brilliant policy of cutting revenue and dramatically increasing spending during relatively good times we would be in much better financial shape now, but then I remember it's Barack Obama's job to pay for all of Bush's mistakes. Part of me hopes a horde of Republicans get elected next year and the country gets what it wants, but then I remember that they will be too stupid to see the relationship between lame attempts to balance the budget and their lack of a job and unemployment check.

UPDATE: For a fun read, Matt Yglesias goes through what balancing the budget this year would entail.

Insight: Why Conservatives Like Palin

If you really want to know why we conservatives [heart] Palin so much, here's a good article on the subject by Victor Davis Hanson. In the end, it has a lot to do with not having a silver spoon sticking out of your backside and willing to use a little elbow grease.

An excerpt:

"We know now that you can do nothing and still finish as the head of Harvard Law Review, or win a Nobel Prize, but if you miss an antlered moose, or run out of gas in the tundra, or fall overboard on a salmon boat, there is no Norwegian committee or Harvard Law Dean to bail you out.

Such is not an argument for anti-intellectualism or a dismissal of in-depth scholarship and research, but rather a reminder that Palin has led a full life than can be enhanced by more formal investigation. A chatty, rarified Obama misses dearly a concrete past, where he had to succeed or fail on his own merits, in a competitive unkind environment, where the muscular world often conspires against the intellectual."

In short, hard work and personal responsibility [which are strictly conservative values, apparently, thus to say, they are traits not making up the liberal cloth. I suppose that may be a true statement].

Regarding the book tour. I could really care less, which I think is the sentiment for all at the Daily Ire, yet we can't help but throw in our two cents.

Everyone has a right to air their dirty laundry if they want, especially after being shut up for a year, and I'm sure it may come off as whining. I can't say one way or the other as I didn't watch the Oprah or hear any other interviews, but Palin could be telling liberals exactly what they want to hear and they'd still get all uppity so I find it hard to imagine any liberal giving her a fair shake. Which is incredibly awesome imo.

From what I have heard/read, the "whining" everyone is going on about - how the McCain camp handled her, the media etc. - makes up a small fraction of the book's 432 pages. But, that's what people want to talk about, c'est la vie.

Here's another thing I agree with Obama on, I doubt I'll read Palin's book. Frankly I've read a few autobiographies/biographies and most are not well written, especially those about current political figures. Maybe if I'm bored.

Anyway, I always enjoy Hanson's work. Check out his wiki page, it's fairly impressive.

ACORN Facts

FACT! ACORN greenlit The Cleveland Show.

If you have a twitter account you can find out more here.

Lists Are Stupid

When I was a wee baron, I used to love lists that attempted to rank music and films, like the "AFI's (the American Film Institute, not Mark's beloved band) top 100 Films" or "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Albums of All Time." Now I hate these things with a passion, along with award shows. Here's why.

Obligatory Palin Post

I've been avoiding most political blogs and political shows on the teevee this week because they're all talking about the same thing, Sarah Palin's book.

I will confess I watched the Oprah interview. I tried to watch with an open mind but nothing she said made me like her or agree with her or feel sorry for her. Aside from the fact that we don't agree on any of the pressing issues of the day, she strikes me as remarkably unaware of her own shortcomings, but whatev. She can do her thing and sell eleventy-million books and be on the cover of every magazine. I feel about her much in the same why I feel about Paris Hilton, except I'd probably rather have Paris Hilton be President of the United States.

Alas! Maybe I'm just not meant to get Sarah Palin. She seems to be popular solely based on the belief that she is a victim and that every misfortune that has befallen her is everybody's fault but her own. How is she a strong voice for conservative values of hard work and personal responsibility when all she does is whine, whine, whine...and quit her job halfway through her first term?

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Grand Old Pity Party
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Going Mainstream

A certain word is a finalist for the Oxford American Dictionary's "Word of the Year."

He probably had nothing to do with this...

Thank GOD that we have elected a president who has finally moved our nation past judging people by the color of their skin and has surrounded himself by people who support his efforts.

Oh, wait hold on...we need to shore up votes on heathcare, go get 'em Jesse

“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill. You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

Thanks Jesse.

Pardon Me Whilst I Call You Out.

This is something I actually agree with Obama on: if our government's debt continues to grow like it is now, we are headed for a possible double-dip recession. But, look who he's talking to - Fox News. So forgive me if I think he's just trying to quell the masses with his talk about tax incentives to hire, telling people what they want to hear, and whatnot. Unfortunately, it's all double speak when he's still pushing to spend trillions on healthcare and Cap & Tax and he's more like GW than anyone would care to admit when he's unwilling to veto stupid spending bills.

And if this is any indication of what's to come with Obamacare, then awesome: $98 Billion dollars misappropriated of our tax dollars in 2009, $55 Billion of that misspent on Medicare and Medicaid. The good part - they're going to "fix" the problem with this new bill! I'll believe it when I see it.

Vague Musings On The State Of Film

As the first decade of the 21st century winds down, I find myself feeling that this really has been a lackluster decade for motion pictures. Perhaps superior to the dreaded 80s (how can a decade produce such brilliant music and such terrible films), but overall not up to par. Ultimately I think this decade will be seen as a transition decade, much like how the 60s were a transition between the studio system of the 40s and 50s and the "give-the-new-film-school-graduate-everything-he-wants" mentality of the 70s. I see this decade as providing a link between the self-aware, irony-laden cinema of the 90s and an emerging realist style that just seems to take the world and it's problems more seriously. I welcome that development, as irony gets really old, really quickly. However, it's hard for me to have much confidence in such a generalization since one needs some perspective to evaluate an entire decade of film. Time will tell which ones remain with us and which don't.

Nonetheless, I find reason to be hopeful because this year there it seems like some of the more interesting filmmakers of the last decade are getting back to work. This weekend I will view Lars Von Trier's new offering, Antichrist, and I will get back to you all with my reaction.

Another film I'm looking forward to is Enter The Void (Soudain Le Vide) by Gaspar Noé, of Irreversible fame. I have more mixed feelings about Noé's films. I enjoy his extreme use of sound and light but am not a fan of his nauseating camera work. Still, I will have to see his new one because it has the greatest teaser trailer I've ever seen:

It's a little irritating because this actually steals my idea for a teaser trailer (which I stole from a much older film). Oh well.

End Of An Era

The gay print media, like all print media, is not safe from the awesome destructive power of the series of tubes we know has the internet.

R.I.P. Houston Voice. I'll miss browsing through your pages while waiting for my to-go order at Mai's.