Slouching Toward Bethlehem

This is Joni Mitchel musical interpretation of the poem I talked about yesterday. I do not think Bush is the beast, but I did find the graphics of him at the end amusing. Thanks to Eric Anderson for the link. 

Why Are Gas Prices High?

In this clip Reich gives a long convoluted explaination about why Obama is not responsible. Stockman in a few sentences tells us exactly why gas prces are so high. 

False Prophets and the War on Women

A current popular meme for those supporting the Obama ticket is the supposed "war" on women. 

This war was supposedly started by Rush Limbaugh when he called Sandra Fluke nasty names. Ms. Fluke was the Georgetown student who testified before congress that the religious college she attended, Catholic Georgetown, should be forced to purchase contraceptives for her. I am not a listener to Limbaugh, but it seems to me that he should have instead pointed out the dumbness of her testimony. First Fluke's estimate of $1000 a year for birth control was absurdly high. The correct figure is $9 a month at the Walgreens nearest the college. Even ignoring the religious rights issue of forcing religious institutions to pay for abortion pills for students, Georgetown is a private university. Whatever it costs the university will be ultimately charge back to the student. Fluke will pay the bill for the pill either way. 

In a very odd screed a blogger for The Hill, Brent Budowsky, had this to say:

The Ayn Rand-like reactionary budgeting of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan (R) is a dagger in the hearts of programs that serve women. The Austrian economics of Ron Paul is from the wrong century and the wrong continent, and profoundly hurts women.

To call Ryan Ayn Rand-like is laughable. Ryan is not even Rand Paul-like! His budget does not in fact cut anything. I blogged on this recently. 

Why then does the author lie? It fits his agenda. So rather than actually debate the fiscal train wreck that is coming, instead we talk about contraceptives. 

Here is what Bloomberg thinks:

Inaction isn’t inevitable: Deficit reduction is an unusual issue in that both parties fundamentally agree on the goal, even if they don’t agree on how to achieve it.

Actually both parties are in agreement, that no cuts are needed. No one but someone named Paul has actually suggested that the budget be balanced. 

Worse, too much deficit reduction too fast will hurt economic growth. You can see that happening in Europe, where an excess of austerity has tipped a number of nations into fiscal holes they can’t seem to climb out of. In a city as obsessed with deficits as Washington, yet unwilling to strike smart deals that pair long-term deficit reduction with short-term support for the economy, a bad turn in the economy or a set of policy misjudgments remain a real threat.

Doesn't Ezra Klein (author of the comments above) understand that the reason Greece used austerity was that it had no choice. No one would buy Greek bonds. Portugal and Spain are almost at this point—Ireland too. You cannot run a deficit if you do not have the money. Italy is not too far behind. Japan is talking about doubling their sales tax. Even that will not be enough. 

The US and Japan do control their own currency, unlike Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. I am not sure that this will be an advantage when the time comes that no one buys their bonds. Right now the Federal Reserve buys 61% of all new debt that the US issues. What happens when the Fed has to buy all debt issued—even the debt that would normally be rolled over? It will not be pretty. 

Maybe I am wrong and people like Klein and Budowsky are only deluded. I do not know where their head is—but that place is dark, warm and smells bad. 

How long before the US cannot sell bonds? I have been saying 3 to 7 years. Maybe if the Ryan budget passes this might be longer. Let’s say 4 to 8 years. This would mostly be psychological as the average person would not understand that the Ryan budget is a joke. 

I wrote about prophets last Friday. True prophets are not well received. This is why the false prophets of our congress and journalists are so well received. They say what is expected. I will close with what Noam Chomsky (Yes I know ...) said about true Bible prophets: 

The people who were honored in the Bible were the false prophets. It was the ones we call the prophets who were jailed and driven into the desert, and so on.

This is why Paul is so condemned. It is because he is right.  

I Pledge Allegiance

You Can't Sit In The Spirit

There has been some discussion on a forum I frequent about what Paul meant by "walking in the spirit" in Romans 8. This is my understanding of walking in the Spirit. As today is the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread where those who practice this custom take yeast/leavening out of thier lives phsically as a reminder that it needs to be done spiritually this message fits this idea. But just taking things out of your life is not enough, you must put Jesus in. Nature abnors a vaccum. 

Click on the link below to listen. 

You Can't Sit In The Spirit.