January, 2009 archive

I just heard John “Boner” Boehner gassing about tax cuts on Marconi’s Magic Box in a story about the economy.

Among other things, he said that “government cannot fix this problem.”

Why the hell not?

Government–most specifically Republican government–created it.

Addendum:

Krugman dissects the lies. A nugget:

. . . (W)rite off anyone who asserts that it’s always better to cut taxes than to increase government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their money.

Here’s how to think about this argument: it implies that we should shut down the air traffic control system. After all, that system is paid for with fees on air tickets — and surely it would be better to let the flying public keep its money rather than hand it over to government bureaucrats. If that would mean lots of midair collisions, hey, stuff happens.

I know that politics (with a small “p”) are part of running any large organization.

The way I look at it, it’s “politics” when your position loses and it’s a “process of negotiation and compromise” when your position wins.

Compromise may not be a pretty thing.

Nevertheless, it is often a necessary thing. If you cannot take two steps forward because the current is too strong, one step forward is good. (Some of my fellow lefties haven’t figured that out yet, but that’s another blog post.)

But sanctioning the denial of truth is beyond the pale of civilized conduct and beyond the pale of the Gospel of Love.

Wonder how well that odious telly vision show Flip This House will do in the ratings this year when the real estate market seems to be flying on a bling and a prayer?

In this dismal real estate market, lots of people think so, provided that the plastic is a figurine of St. Joseph.

Local shops that sell religious paraphernalia are reporting phenomenal sales of tiny statuettes of St. Joseph – the earthly father of Jesus and the patron saint of the home and house sellers – to real estate agents and homeowners.

As long as I can remember–and I am older by the minute–the Governors of many states have had the right to fill a U. S. Senate vacancy pending the next regularly scheduled commercial interruption election.

It’s worked just fine–not great, but okay.

Despite the fulminations of the Washington Post–which has over the past eight years demonstrated in its editorials a disturbing tendency to miss the point–the kerfuffle over New York’s Caroline Kennedy and Illinois Governor Blagomumble’s (insert mandatory “alleged” here) flea market does not impeach that method of filling out a Senatorial term.

All it does it impeach Caroline Kennedy’s pretensions and Governor Blagomumble’s conduct.

The Washington Post looks at why Chapter 11 Bankruptcy isn’t working any more. Companies are giving up reorganizing and, instead, giving up the ghost.

Virtually every large company that filed for Chapter 11 in the past year intended to reorganize. But Sharper Image, which went bankrupt in February, couldn’t come up with a viable plan for its gadget stores and began to liquidate them in June. (The brand still lives on the Web.) Linens ‘n Things, which filed for bankruptcy in May, planned at first to close 100 stores. But when it couldn’t find a buyer, it decided in October to throw in the towel. Whitehall Jewelers, which filed for Chapter 11 in June, began selling off the family jewels in August. Clothing store Steve & Barry’s filed for bankruptcy last summer and tried to reorganize before giving up and going for liquidation. Mervyn’s, the California department store chain, filed for Chapter 11 in July and in October said it would start liquidating its 149 stores. And so on.

Now, I’m not familiar with Mervyn’s, Steve and Barry’s, or Whitehall Jewelers.

I am familiar with Circuit City and have mentioned them here probably more times than I ever went into one of their stores (which was twice). At least in my little Circuit City store, they had a lousy selection unattractively arranged.

I am familiar with Linens ‘n Things and Sharper Image. Their selection ranged from the over-priced to the useless to the over-priced useless. Heck, Sharper Image made Brookstone look like a five and dime (Brookstone, for all it’s expensive, does sometimes have useful stuff that you just can’t easily find anywhere else).

In bad times, customers don’t buy over-priced unnecessary junk. Heck, they don’t even buy over-priced necessary junk.

I am not an economist (though I do have some economic training), and I’m guessing Bed Bath and Beyond is probably shaking in its bed bath and beyond slippers.

These are not times when persons are going to buy $120.00 coffee makers.

These are times when persons buy house brands, not brand hype.

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”

Via (with miswording and misattribution) Gene Weingarten, who was doing it off the top of his head, and got the wording a little wrong, while capturing the essence, and attributed it to FDR Benjamin Franklin.

While you’re at it, read Weingarten’s column from Sunday.