We will return to your regularly scheduled programming…

but first: Lollapalooza!  Back soon.

Good Thing We Finally Closed that Barn Door

Ever since I read Jeffery Goldberg’s dismantling of the Transportation Security Administration, I have believed that the TSA was a complete waste of time.  However, it is no use to kick against the goads, of all the worthless crap in our system airport security has the most glaring cause and the least political gain from change.  It is the ultimate orphan of a cause: if you make airport security less of a pain then everyone benefits, but if anything ever happens it will be your fault.  You would literally have your face of the cover of every paper in the country under a headline blaming you for a terrorist attack.

Palestine, A Penny Saved…

I realized that I was a little light on actual policy suggestions in my post yesterday (what you didn’t create peace in the Middle East in 500 words?), so I thought I would follow up today with some constructive criticisms.

First, Obama needs to do a better job of selling this to Israelis and Arabs, because so far he has failed miserably at convincing anyone that progress is occurring. 

Pennywise Israel

Israel and Obama have had a troubled relationship since before he even took office, as Israel invaded Gaza two and half weeks before his inauguration and then withdrew all troops out just before he became President. It was a clear attempt to get in the last punch before the rules changed,

A Plan, not the Plan

After my histrionic post Wednesday about the importance of health care reform, I thought a more academic post was needed to balance the equation.  It is premature to discuss the plan coming out of Congress, because there are about fifteen of them, but I thought I could point some of the best ideas (many of which have no chance of happening).

The Rich get Richer

After Goldman Sachs announced its record setting profits (and bonuses), the reaction was mixed: some people thought Goldman was scum and others thought it was a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Probably the truth lies in the middle: Goldman is a money vampire, but they are also pretty scummy about it.

All Profits Go to the Devil Himself!

While watching this video for the Insane Clown Posse’s “Gathering of the Juggalos,” which is hilarious for a million reasons, it occurred to me how incongruous an infomercial for “the most controversial music festival in the world!” is.  This event, which is for people who are on the periphery of society, and probably pretty comfortably so, is a sort bacchanalian festival of low-brow fun.  Now, far be it from me to judge other people’s hobbies- every so often I sit in Barnes & Noble and read an entire graphic novel or two, but the juxtaposition of the all of these stridently offensive activities with the most banal of huckster mediums is just ridiculous.

Health Care Reform, D.O.A.

Matt Taibbi isn’t one to mince words, if you haven’t read his epic takedown of Goldman Sachs do so immediately, so when he gives his opinion on health care reform he takes no prisoners:

This whole business, it was a litmus test for whether or not we even have a functioning government. Here we had a political majority in congress and a popular president armed with oodles of political capital and backed by the overwhelming sentiment of perhaps 150 million Americans, and this government could not bring itself to offend ten thousand insurance men in order to pass a bill that addresses an urgent emergency. What’s left? Third-party politics?

It is hard to agree with that, because I am one of those 150 million Americans. I campaigned for Obama, I was swept up in the possibility of change and it was and is exciting to have adults running things again.

Is Marriage a Good Economic Strategy?

This idea entirely belongs to my Microeconomics professor, Dr. Siddiq Abdullah, but it’s so good I have to post it.

Elasticity is the responsiveness of one thing to another, with the most common example being the responsiveness of quantity of a good demanded to price.  From consumer’s stand point, and that means you, elasticity is a good thing because it keeps prices low.  So in general, it pays to avoid getting in a situation where you have to keep buying a good, even if the price goes up (think of being a taxi driver when gas prices are high).

Which brings us to the subject of marriage.

The Limits of Force

In thinking about Afghanistan for my last post, I began to wonder about the history of large land invasions since World War II. My first thought was: have any been successful? Nothing spung to mind, so I decided to explore the subject with an eye towards determining whether occupation is an effective strategy given universal nationalism and the proven effectiveness of asymmetrical warfare.

I would like preface this by saying that I am not interested in universal pacificism or the morality of war. While the nuclear peace theory has proven to be effective, I think that American super-abundance of conventional military strength has led to perhaps the most peaceful time in world history. To what degree America must maintain its military hegemony is debatable, but the benefits of the strength itself is not. Rather, I wonder if there is any merit to the perma-hawk attitude of Bill Kristol in the arena of furthering American interests. Did the first President Bush find the proper balance between strength and prudance, or is long term foreign projection of power beneficial to the U.S.?