Educated Chicks Vote Count: It's a Tie!

And yes, this angry, tired, pessimistic little libertarian citizen-taxpayer will go vote after class today! It won't make much numerical difference -- my state is full of leftists and I'm vastly outnumbered -- but I'll vote anyway because, well, it's my right, dang it, and it's my one little ballot saying "NO" to the tide of high-taxing neo-statism. I don't care how pretty its newest face is.

vs.

without expounding upon policy likes and dislikes, and the merits of Obama vs. McCain, let me just say this: i never thought i'd vote for a democrat, but here i am, taking the gamble!

Hmmm...both of you seem to follow the W.C. Fields line:

I never voted for anybody. I always voted against.

And now excuse me while I'm crying in my beer. I have been diagnosed with post-election campaign depression. (But hey, there's hope. I just saw the first "Romney/Jindal 2012" ad!)

On Krugman Nobel Unhappiness

So, Paul Krugman was awarded the Sveriges Riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne aka Nobel Prize in economics - and Jess is "not happy". And she is not the only one. Then again, Megan McArdle:

One of the most interesting things that I've read in multiple commenters is that his most important insights seemed obvious. I think perhaps the deepest economics insights do--after someone has pointed them out. Everything from comparative advantage to the Coase Theorem makes you slap your head with the inescapable logic of it, and wonder how it can have escaped the human race for so long. And still, it takes a genius to reveal these obvious truths to the rest of us poor slobs. Krugman's math is far too impenetrable for this English major, but the conclusions are as clear and lovely as a bell.

And yesterday, I came across this:

(I also liked the "lukewarm sorta kinda dammit I hate to say this" presidential endorsement at the end of the session. Which did not exactly came as a surprise. I'd endorse a Drezner/Cowen ticket any time, btw.)

"Arranged" Marriage? Oh, my.

Mad Minerva points to an article/book review about a new trend for westerners as the easy way out of the big fat post modern matching mess:

One group of women she spoke to, who had had arranged marriages, were alpha-type New Yorkers in their late thirties and she noticed too that they didn't look to their partners so much for their happiness. “In Western culture there's an obligation for your partner to provide all your social and emotional needs,” she says. “In the landscape of arranged marriage there is an extended group that takes the pressure off this one man being able to provide everything.”

First of all, there is no such thing as "Western culture". And second of all, this whole article made me cringe. What a  "Sex and the city" BS. But a good example for multicultural cherry picking.

A marriage arranged and supervised by an ethnic auntie brigade? Good idea, especially in terms of "be fertile and multiply".

A marriage arranged by a MoDo columns loving East Coast psychiatrist turned matchmaker supervised by a bunch of friends who know all seasons of "Friends" and "Seinfeld" by heart? C'mon on, now!

A marriage arranged by your Chinese boss? A mind-blowing, suicidal tendencies triggering experience. You betcha. (Fortunately, she didn't succeed. And I'm still alive.)

A Decent Proposal

From the VP debate aftermath conversation with Kevin over at love in spades:

K: What I really wish could happen is for candidates to sign legally binding agreements whenever they say that they won't raise my taxes so that, if they end up in office, they are legally obligated not to raise my taxes. That'd be pretty cool.

M: And if they don't stick to those agreements - what punishment option would you root for? Something boring like "conviction of fraud or burglary, followed by a term in prison" - or the more medieval approach like, say, primetime townhall castigations, weekend market place stoning or superbowl tar-and-feathering?The medieval option would be more fun for the (tax-paying) audience, coming with a higher possiblity of deterrence (debatable).One should also consider preemptive OPM addiction treatment in facilities like the Betty Ford clinic for every politician who wants to run for office.

K: I was thinking defenestration at first, but your idea of tar and feathering on pay-per-view is too good to ignore. All proceeds from the event would go to pay down the national debt...

M: Okayyy...Feasel-Wirth Act 2030?

K: I shall write my Senators forthwith in order to get our bill introduced. Unfortunately, given that one of my Senators enjoys raising taxes and the other one spends too much time crying about John Bolton, I might have to move to South Carolina...

M: Hence, the timeline. But I thought of us becoming senators and {campaign trail mode} get the job done {/campaign trail mode}.

K: you might have to be the one running for office. The first time I talk about not imminentizing the eschaton and how the one person who's responsible for dealing with your problems looks suspiciously like that fellow on your driver's license, my campaign manager will commit ritual seppuku...

As for the bailout and OPM addiction, see US Congress in Rehab for OPM Addiction.

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