Gene Healy, in his sarcasm-laden article Take Me Down to the Parasite City, notes that DC has the highest percentage of college grads and the lowest unemployment in the nation. And they don’t produce anything there…
D.C.'s "high-skill" economy boasts more college degrees than any other major metropolitan area in America. "If you wanted to imagine what the economy might look like if the country were much better educated," Leonhardt writes, "you can look at Washington."
Hey, you people out there in flyover country: We're eating your lunch because we're "smarter" than you! Hit the books, rubes: We built this!
Even so, I found it a bit unsettling last fall to read that "Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley," as the Bloomberg News headline put it. After all, Silicon Valley "creates" wealth, while we -- smart as we are -- mostly shuffle it around. (Gene Healy)Phillip K. Howard observes that the Federal Government is a deviant subculture:
A deviant subculture is defined by sociologist Anthony Giddens as one "whose members have values which differ substantially from those of the majority in a society."
American government is a deviant subculture. Its leaders stand on soapboxes and polarize the public by pointing fingers while secretly doing the bidding of special interests. Many public employees plod through life with their noses in rule books, indifferent to the actual needs of the public and unaccountable to anyone.He tells a sad story about trying to advance a solid, bipartisan idea, reaching to the highest levels of government, and getting nowhere. He concludes:
Right and wrong no longer matter in this deviant subculture. Sealed off from personal responsibility by accumulated bureaucracy and thick walls of special interest money, our government is covered by a putrid mold of cynical gamesmanship and everyday hypocrisy. People scurry around its baseboards seeking short-term advantage, but big change is so inconceivable as to be laughable. (Federal Government: A Deviant Subculture)Can Anyone Fix Too Big To Fail?
James Pethokoukis asks, "Would Mitt Romney Break Up The Big Banks?"
Pethokoukis is a very smart man, so he starts out by offering a direct quote from Romney saying he has no such intention, but that was back in March. Tea Partiers and rightwingers are no happier about Too Big To Fail than their leftwing fellow citizens, so the author engages in some wishful thinking.
Does adding Ryan to the Ticket Change Romney’s Stance?
Ryan understands the danger of crony capitalism to the U.S. political economy, and the Wall Street-Washington nexus — not Solyndra — is the number one example of this. I would guess he has an open mind on the issue. (Pethokoukis)It’s a nice fantasy, but I’m not holding my breath. Romney is a creature of Wall Street. If he did break up the DC-Wall Street orgy, it would be a Nixon to China moment.
In many ways, the Federal City is the equivalent of an ivory tower. Those dwelling in the ivory tower avoid the city's sections that would show them the reality on the ground. The ivory-tower dwellers never leave their cushy comfort zone.
ReplyDelete"I would guess he (Ryan) has an open mind on the issue?"
ReplyDeleteCan the very smart man give any supporting evidence for that asinine statement?
Typical leftist bombthrower tactic, Ducky.
ReplyDeleteThe article is speculative, and Pethokoukis says so.
I know you on the left hate him, since he regularly pisses on the "sunshine and lollipops Obamanomics parade."
You have to wonder what the parasites will do when the host is bled dry?
ReplyDeleteI remember my son’s first bike. I worried. So we had training wheels put on it. I still worried. The purpose of training wheels was to give him a “safe start.” In time, we would remove those safety devices, and then he’d have to learn about biking by falling down. I worried, but I realized that falling down was the only way for him to learn about bike riding. I worried because I realized that no matter how competent my son became on his bike, he was always “in danger” of hurting himself, or being injured in a myriad of other ways. I realized that no matter how good my son became at bike riding, he was always subject to epic fail.
ReplyDeleteOur banks are subject to epic fail … but we diminish them, and ourselves, by trying to shield them from their own incompetence, their own arrogance, their own corruption. A bank deserves to succeed if properly managed; it deserves to fail when it pursues irresponsible behavior. It is not appropriate for government to pick winners and losers … Romney understands this is true about PBS, and he knows it is true about the so-called Green Energy companies … I wish he would signal his understanding of this for the large banks, as well.
I have no illusion that we are getting anywhere near the perfect candidate to solve our ills. That said, Romney Ryan have to be at least a start in righting our ship. It took us decades to get us here, decades to get out if ever.
ReplyDeleteThe whole Libya film story was fabricated by this lying and treasonous President and his Lap Dogs Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice. They, used the “so called” anti-Muslim film for their own good so that they would be able to Cover Up the real reasons. Including refusing to supply more security for the Embassy and the Ambassador and his staff who were murdered.
ReplyDeleteOne has to wonder if he (Obama) is securing more security for Big Bird!
Mitt Romney needs to jump all over this, and not let the Media sweep it under the rung with the rest of Obama’s and Hillary’s LIES! . Let the Messiah talk about Big Bird, maybe that’s all he has left and that’s all he is capable of discussing. Because he can’t lie his way out of this one any longer. The trouble with lying is that you have to keep telling more lies to try to protect the original lie that was told in the first place..
After reading the latest polls that are flooding the internet all this week showing that Mitt Romney has made significant gains with independent voters across the country, I couldn’t help myself from taking the unpleasant trip down the sewer to see the Progressives response. Tis there where I saw the predictable spin about the news that is on fire about the new results in the swing-state polls showing Mitt Romney making big gains in all three critical battleground states.
ReplyDeleteSo to that news, may I say that the Real Freak Show Is how the Progressive Bloggers are trying to defend OBAMA LOUSY PERFORMANCE!
And it‘s worth mentioning that as of this very moment, Big Bird is still alive and Ambassador Stevens and his 3 staffers are Still Dead.
Looks like a slow day on SF's blog today.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it ironic that when Obama was up in the polls, all we saw was gloating and bragging from the progressive bunch, but when the tables have turned things have gotten to be very silent. . How's that crow tasting for you Libbies now?
After watching those Libyan hearing today , I'd say that it looks like Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are in deep doo doo.
No matter how much you liberals try and spin this one, the blame rests solely on the shoulders of the Messiah.
Obama is toast and Madam Hillary can forget about ever being elected the first woman president.
The best part about this, Silver, is that you will all still vote for the fools up there.
ReplyDeleteUnless you believe the farce that the Republicans are somehow more virtuous than the Democrats. Both parties are equally horrifying.
So you're a Big L Libertarian now Jack? What have you done to build your party at the local and state level?
ReplyDeleteDo you really think voting for a candidate who will get less that 5% of the vote will accomplish anything?
Politics is about power. If you ain't got it, you can't do anything.
I don't know who said it first, but "Politics," has been aptly defined as, "The Art of the Possible."
ReplyDeleteIt may be regrettable, but "What There Is" is ALL we have to deal with.
That doesn't mean we should stop dreaming, stop thinking, stop hoping, BUT at a certain point in the political process we must STOP DREAMING, get PRAGMATIC, and save the Lofty Idealism, the Creative Thinking and the Strategic Planning for the NEXT round, and GET BEHIND THE LESSER OF THE TWO EVILS.
I agree completely with Kurt. There IS no other logical course of action.
So, it's ROMNEY or BUST!
A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G- to get rid of OBAMA -- and creepy rottenness -- or is it the rotten creepiness? ;-) -- that supports and surround him.
~ FreeThinke
And Jack, I hate to be the one to tell you, but ALL of us are fools -- admittedly to a greater or lesser degree. That is why "Perfection is not attainable this side of heaven."
ReplyDeleteWhy should that be the case?
Because not ONE of us has the ability to see and understand what's happening from everyone ELSE'S perspective.
Only the God you think you don't want -- or, perhaps, need -- to believe in can do that, which is why we so desperately need Him.
[Remember, please, that when I say God, I am talking about the embodiment and perfect expression of Life, Truth, Love, Intelligence and Principle, all of which are inseparable from and synonymous with each other.]
~ FreeThinke
Politicians get into it too young. Doesn't matter how smart you are, you ought to have some other career first.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that, Jez, but here in the States, we evidently love our career politicians...
ReplyDeleteWell if nothing else he might just cut the big banks loose and let them make it on their own.
ReplyDeleteThere is also that thing about not turning your country into a useless socialist shithole which obama will do. You have a 100% guarantee of that.