“Krystal Violet Norby, a 25-year-old Minnesota woman was jailed after she allegedly photographed herself having sex with two children and a dog. . . .”
$14,000,000,000
Fourteen trillion dollars — that’s the national debt, the 800-pound gorilla to keep in mind as you listen to Obama’s State of the Union speech:
From Citizens United.
Paul Krugman, Mystifield
“Something really strange has happened to the debate over economic policy in the face of the Great Recession and its aftermath . . .
“Now, however, we’re seeing a much more widespread attack on demand-side economics. More than that, it’s becoming clear that many people don’t so much disagree with the idea that demand matters as find it abhorrent, incomprehensible, or both. . . .
“I fairly often get comments to the effect that I can’t possibly believe what I’m saying about monetary or fiscal policy, that no sensible person could believe that printing money or engaging in deficit spending will increase output and employment — never mind that all I’m saying is what Econ 101 textbooks have been saying for the last 62 years.”
— Paul Krugman, “The War on Demand,” New York Times
He’s got a Nobel Prize in economics and yet Krugman can’t see that the essential problem of our economy is a capital shortage. Defiict spending can’t remedy that problem, because before the government can spend money it doesn’t have, it must first borrow that money. And where does government borrow money? From the capital markets. Money that might be invested in businesses is instead siphoned away to fund deficits.
The wipeout of the housing bubble destroyed a vast reserve of asset value. Deficit spending cannot restore the loss, but actually aggravates the problem. The private sector is starved by the resulting shortage of capital. The fact that unemployment has remained stubbornly high for 18 months, that the real-estate market is stagnant and that commercial banking perilously shaky — all of these are symptoms of the same disease. Yet Krugman would rather cling to his Keynesian theory like a toddler hugging his teddy bear than to confront the sober reality.
Wal-Mart Becomes Obama-Mart
Orit Sklar at the Daily Caller:
Michelle Obama and nutrition czar Sam Kass have taken the Food Police nationwide. Last week Wal-Mart announced that it is joining the first lady’s anti-obesity campaign by reducing the salt and sugar content of the food it sells.
As perfectly staged as Thursday’s White House-Wal-Mart press conference was, it is clear that this is not Wal-Mart’s doing. Wal-Mart has been coerced into complying. I kept looking for the Wal-Mart spokesman to flash a silent “distress” signal during the press conference.
Now, one of the largest companies in the world is the vehicle through which all American food and health policy will flow. As Wal-Mart begins to institute the five-year plan, aimed at reducing products that do not meet the first lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign’s “healthy” standards, the rest of the food industry will be forced to follow. Wal-Mart’s standards — read: the first lady’s standards — will now be the law of the land. Skip over that pesky Congress and the FDA and go for a new model: coerced corporate control. . . .
Glenn Beck Wants You to Threaten Violence Against Harmless Academics
That’s what liberals have been claiming. The Nation published several nasty e-mails professor Frances Fox Piven received because she has become “the target of a relentless campaign to demonize her.” This accusation got repeated in a New York Times story with a scary headline:
Spotlight From Glenn Beck Brings
a CUNY Professor Threats
And that leads to Beck getting write-ups by Stanley Kurtz and James Taranto and links, links, links from Instapundit.
But why should Beck get all the blame? Blame me, please. In 2006, on page 149 of Donkey Cons, I wrote:
The welfare explosion of the 1960s was the brainchild of a group of Columbia University professors, including Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward and crusading New York anti-poverty lawyer Edward Sparer. They saw welfare as a means to shatter “patterns of servile conformity” among the poor, transforming them into a force for revolution.
See? I was demonizing Professor Piven before Glenn Beck ever heard of her. But do I get any credit when she gets hateful e-mail? No. Why? Because I don’t have a Fox News show and Beck does.
Henceforth, whenever somebody sends France Fox Piven an e-mail calling her “big doody-head,” I’m claiming credit. I need the publicity.
LIVE AT FIVE – 1.25.11
TOP NEWS
Deadly Blast At Domededovo Airport “Well-Planned Terrorist Attack”: Medvedev
Obama Under Scrutiny for Clues To Deficit In SOTU Speech
Illinois Appellate Court Tosses Rahm Emanuel Off Ballot
POLITICS
Loughner Pleads Not Guilty To Arizona Shootings
Cantor Nixes Bankruptcy For States
Obama Climate Advisor Latest To Depart Staff
Texas Sanctuary City Bills Vague On Policing
It’s Official: George Allen To Run Against James Webb In 2012
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
McDonald’s Profit Up 2.1%, Price Increases Expected
American Express Profit Increases As Cardmember Spending Approaches Record
Browser Makers Developing New Privacy Tools
Twitter Ad Revenue May Triple To $150 Million
SPORTS
Blues Continue Run Of Futility Against Avs
Spurs Easily Beat Warriors For 11th Straight Time
#15 Notre Dame Upsets #2 Pitt
Chandler Regains Touch, Knicks End Skid, Wizards Lose 21st Straight Road Game
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
“Golden Voice” Ted Williams Bails On Rehab
Sundance: Watching Kevin Smith Implode
Why Jamie Pressly’s Splitting Up With Hubby Simran Singh
Subway Fourth Advertiser To Pull Ads From MTV’s “Skins”
FOREIGNERS
Hariri’s Backers Protest, Accuse Hezbollah Of Trying To Seize Control In Lebanon
U.S. Backs Call For Ivorian Cocoa Export Ban
Indonesian People Smugglers In Australian Custody; Face Charges For Christmas Island Deaths
Pope Warns Of Alienation Risk In Social Networks
BLOGS & STUFF
Allahpundit: Obama Abandons Plan To Bring Up Social Security Reform In SOTU
Gateway Pundit: Chinese Netizens Praise Pianist For Playing Anti-American Song At White House State Dinner
American Power: On Kermit Gosnell And Roe v. Wade (Video)
Weasel Zippers: Good News – Taxpayers On Hook For $160 Million In Legal Bills For Former Fannie Mae Execs
— compiled by Wombat-socho
Blogger Reaches 1 Million Hits; Celebrates by Linking Entire Freaking Blogosphere
Sam Foster at Left Coast Rebel did a crapload of linking here, and points out that it was Keith Olbermann’s split with MSNBC that put them across the million-hit threshold.
So when Keith Olbermann gets elected to the Senate, he should remember to thank Left Coast Rebel.
I was talking to my buddy Chris Cassone today and when he mentioned the “Draft Olbermann” campaign, I said, “Yeah. That’ll never happen.”
Chris said, “That’s what they said about Al Franken.”
Oops.
Nebraska Nullification?
Our friends at the Red State Eclectic blog get quoted in a story in The Hill about an educational effort:
Last fall, the Nebraska Campaign for Liberty distributed copies of Tom Woods’s book Nullification to 44 of the 49 members of the Legislature. They followed up with discussion with some other senators about the kind of things they’d like to see done and provided some “model legislation” — courtesy of the Tenth Amendment Center.
“We didn’t have great expectations,” said Laura Ebke of Red State Eclectic. “We thought that perhaps we’d get a little bit of notice, establish ourselves as some sort of states’-rights/limited-government presence, and maybe scope out which senators we might be able to work with on some issues.”
Thomas Woods is also author of Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse (2009) and the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History (2004).